Delve into the storied career of Harry W. Wertz, M.D., whose profound impact as a physician and surgeon in Williams County, Ohio, underscores a life dedicated to medical excellence and compassion. Born in Superior Township, Dr. Wertz’s journey from a farm boy to the founder of Wertz Hospital in Montpelier highlights his commitment to healthcare and community service. A graduate of the Kentucky School of Medicine in 1890, his specialization in surgery and establishment of a much-needed hospital in 1910 mark him as a pivotal figure in local medical history. Beyond his professional achievements, Dr. Wertz’s service as a captain in the medical department during World War I and affiliations with prestigious medical societies speak to his broader contributions to medicine and society.
Harry W. Wertz, M. D. — It is not always easy to discover and define the hidden forces that move a life of ceaseless activity and large professional success; little more can be done than to note their manifestation in the career of the individual under consideration. Doctor Wertz has long held distinctive prestige in a calling which requires for its basis sound mentality and rigid professional training and thorough mastery of technical knowledge with the skill to apply the same, without which one cannot hope to rise above the mediocre in administering to human ills.
Harry W. Wertz, a successful physician and surgeon and the founder and owner of the Wertz Hospital at Montpelier, is a native son of Williams County, having been born in Superior Township on June 6. 1869, the son of Henry and Alice (Lambertson) Wertz. His parents are both natives of Ohio. After their marriage they first engaged in farming and later engaged in the grocery business. Doctor Wertz was reared on the home farm and attended the public schools, being a student in both the Bryan and Montpelier high schools. Having determined to devote his life to the practice of medicine, he then matriculated in the Kentucky School of Medicine, at Louisville, where he was graduated, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine, in 1890, at the age of twenty-one. Immediately thereafter he located in the practice at Montpelier, success attending him from the start. Doctor Wertz made a specialty of surgery and enjoyed a large practice in that line. In 1910 he opened a hospital, which filled a long-left want in this community, and in 1916 he made still further improvement in his hospital facilities by establishing himself in his present location, at No. 315 Empire Street, where he is prepared to care for any case that may be brought to him. In analyzing the career of the successful practitioner of the healing art, it will invariably be found to be true that a broad-minded sympathy with the sick and suffering and an honest, earnest desire to aid his afflicted fellow men, have gone hand in hand with skill and able judgment. Doctor Wertz embodies these necessary qualifications in a marked degree and by energy and application to his professional duties has built up an enviable reputation and drawn to himself a large and representative patronage.
Doctor Wertz has one son, Selwyn, who is connected with the Foundation Company, which has done a great deal of big construction work in various parts of the country. During the World war Doctor Wertz offered his services to the Government and was attached to the medical department, with the rank of captain, being assigned to duty at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia. He is at the present time surgeon for the Wabash Railroad Company, and is a member of the Williams County Medical Society, the Ohio State Medical Society and the American Medical Association, as well as the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States.
Fraternally, he is a member of the Masonic Order, in which he has taken all the degrees up to and including those of the commandery of Knights Templar, and he is also a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the American Legion. Politically, he is a democrat. In addition to his long and creditable career in one of the most useful and exacting of professions, Doctor Wertz has also proved an honorable member of the body politic, rising in the confidence and esteem of the public and commanding respect by innate force as well as by superior ability. Genial in disposition, Doctor Wertz is popular in the circles in which he moves and enjoys the sincere respect of the entire community.
Source: Bowersox, Charles A. ed. A standard history of Williams County, Ohio: an authentic narrative of the past, with particular attention to the modern era in the commercial, industrial, educational, civic and social development , 2 vols. Publisher Chicago: Lewis Pub. Co. 1920.