Page:History of Goodhue County, Minnesota.djvu/399

 IliSToU'V OF GOODHUE COUNTY 331 cease to fill oui' hospitals and our cemeteries; architecture will no longer be the handmaiden of disease; systems of education arranged withoul the slightest reference to the laws of mental development will be discarded. Questions of health will have their weight in determining the relations of capital and labor; excessive hours of duty, exacted of those to whose vigilance the lives of the traveling public are intrusted, will no more result in appalling disasters. Unrestricted traffic in drink will not con- tinue to destroy life and health, and to prepare an inheritance of disease for offspring yet unborn. Public opinion will cease to applaud that abnormal activity in business and social life which has already gone far toward making us a nation of invalids." "A great duty," says a distinguished president of the American Medical Association, "rests on the practitioner today. He must not shirk it; he must rise to his new burden, accept, and bear it. The reward to the medical profession for taking this new burden will be a broader life for the practitioner, a greater consideration for his fellow man, better citizenship, and the recognition by the world that the medical profession is a great benefactor." "To labor for the alleviation of suffering and for the restora- tion of health." says Professor John Allan AVyeth, "is a noble vocation, but to teach our fellows how to avoid disaster is a prouder privilege and higher duty." —George C. Wellner, M. D. Dr. George Christian Wellner was born May 24, 1849, near the ancient city of Seheinfeld. Middle Franeonia, Bavaria, where the family settled prior to 1700. He came to the U. S. in 1857, settling in Manitowoc. AVis.. and moving to Chicago in 1862. He received his education in the parochial school of the old country, the common schools of the U. S., Prof. Geo. W. Quackenbos' Pri- vate Academy, and Rush Medical College. He came to Red AVing, Minn., in 1875 and located successively in Springfield, Minn., 1880; Red Wing, 1883; AVabasha, 1885, and Red AVing, 1893. In 1878 he married Miss Aiargaret S. Hickman. Their children are, Emilie M. (Airs. R. A. Haeussler), George C, Berthold B., Giralda M., and Aiargaret Al. The doctor has held the following offices : Physician to the North Star Dispensary, Chicago, 1875 ; county physician. Brown county, Minn., 1880-83 ; member common coun- cil and board of education. Springfield, Minn.. 1882; county physician, 5th district Goodhue county, Minn., 1884; county physician, AVabasha county, Minn., and health officer of AVabasha, 1890-93 ; secretary board U. S. examining surgeons, AVabasha, 1886-93 ; assistant surgeon 3rd regiment Al. N. G., 1887 ; president AVabasha County Medical society, 1890; secretary board U. S. examining surgeons, Red AVing, 1897 to present time; president Goodhue County Medical Society, 1906; president board of health, Red AVing, 1907 to present time; director 3rd district Alin-