Bio: Koch, Albert Theodore, M. D. (1839 - 19??)

Contact: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Koch, Morehouse, Kickbush, Paff, Eastman

----Source: History of Marathon County Wisconsin and Representative Citizens, by Louis Marchetti, 1913.

Koch, Albert Theodore, M. D. (9 May 1839 - 19??)

Albert Theodore Koch, M. D., physician and surgeon, who has been continuously engaged in the practice of his profession at Wausau for the past thirty-seven years, scarcely needs any introduction to the residents of Marathon County. He is also a veteran of the great Civil War, to which he dedicated two eventful years of his life, serving for the preservation of his adopted country, for Dr. Koch was born in Germany, May 9, 1839. His parents were Gotlieb and Regina Koch.

In 1856 the parents of Dr. Koch came to the United States and the father purchased a farm near Watertown, Wis. The youth was then sixteen years of age and his first duty was to assist his father in clearing and cultivating the homestead, in the meanwhile attending the local schools when possible. He was twenty years old when he went to Minnesota and there did some land speculating and also attended school in Field County and was a resident there when he enlisted for service in the Civil War, entering Co. C, 2nd Minn. Vol. Cav., contracting for three years. During the greater part of his time his regiment was made use of in fighting against the Indians in the Northwest, once getting as far south as Little Rock, Ark., but being recalled to suppress another uprising of the Indians and he received a wound in the leg on one occasion, at Wood Lake. He was honorably discharged on November 19, 1865, at Fort Ridgeley.

After the termination of his military service, the young soldier spent almost one year with his parents at Watertown and then returned to Minnesota where he engaged in farming for a few years and then began the study of medicine and for two years had as his preceptor. Dr. E. Morehouse, of Owatonna, Minn. subsequently entering the Bennett Eclectic Medical School, where he was graduated in the spring of 1873, having also been a student at Rush Medical College, Chicago. Dr. Koch located for practice at St. Ansgar, Ia., where he continued for four years, when, through the efforts of August Kickbush and Jacob Paff, he was induced to come to Wausau and this city has been his home ever since. Dr. Koch is a member of the county and state medical organizations and belongs to Custer Post No. 55, G. A. R. at Wausau. In his political life he has been in accord with the Republican Party.

In 1860 Dr. Koch was married to Miss Martha A. Eastman, of Owatonna, Minn., a daughter of Hiram Eastman, a farmer in Steele County, and three children were born to them but early bereavement entered into the family circle. Helen, the eldest, lived only eleven years; and two sons both died from the effects of black measles, Eddie, at the age of eight years, and the other when but two and one-half years old. Dr. and Mrs. Koch are members of St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church. He enjoys the distinction of being the oldest practicing physician at Wausau.