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from Past and Present of Mahaska County, Iowa by Manoah Hedge The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co. 1906
Dr. Herman C. Homer, physician and surgeon, of Oskaloosa, is one of Iowa's native sons and the spirit of enterprise and progress which have been the dominant factors in the development of the middle west as exemplified in the lives of the people, is also manifest in the professional career of Dr. Homer, who, in a calling where advancement depends upon individual merit, has made steady progress. He was born in Black Hawk county, Iowa, July 27, 1869, a son of Harlan P. Homer, a native of Cortland. county, New York, who, in 1856, came to Iowa and has since been a resident of Black Hawk county. He occupies a position of distinctive prominence and influence there. His attention in business affairs has been given to general agricultural pursuits, while politically he is a earnest and influential republican, representing his district in the state legislature in 1875-6. He has also served in a number of local offices, but has never, been a politician in the sense of office seeking, his preferment coming to him unsolicited. Dr. Homer after attending the common schools became a student in the State Normal at Cedar Falls and later in Harvey Business College at Waterloo. His medical education was acquired in the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Chicago, from which he was graduated in the class of 1898. He began practice in Horton, Bremer county, Iowa, where he remained for two years, after which he did work in the Post Graduate College in Chicago and also in the Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat College in 1901. He afterward practiced in Whatcheer, Iowa, for nine months coming thence to Oskaloosa, since which time he has been a member of the medical fraternity here. He belongs to the Mahaska County Medical Society, the Iowa State Medical Association and the Des Moines Valley Medical Association, and thus keeps in touch with the onward progress of the profession as investigation, research and experiment are continually broadening knowledge and promoting skill and efficiency. He is examiner for the Phoenix Life Insurance Company, of Hartford, Connecticut, the New York Life Insurance Company, the Central Life of Des Moines, Iowa, the Royal Union of Des Moines and the Mutual Pioneer Life Insurance Company of Davenport, Iowa. In addition he has a large private practice in medicine and surgery and his patronage is extensive for the treatment of the diseases of the eye, ear, nose and throat, of which he has made a specialty. On the 3d of August, 1898, Dr. Homer was married to Miss E. Lillian Wilson, a daughter of W. A. Wilson, of Waterloo, Iowa. He is prominent fraternally, holding membership relations with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias, the Fraternal Order of Eagles, the Modern Brotherhood of America, the Modern Woodmen of America, the Tribe of Ben-Hur, the Woodmen of the World and the Woadmen's Circle. He is in thorough sympathy with the beneficent and also the insurance principles of these orders and he is popular both socially and professionally. His practice has increased along lines of substantial growth and he draws his business largely from the best class of Oskaloosa's citizens. He is conscientious in the performance of every professional duty and his strict adherence to a high standard of professional ethics has won him the regard of his brethren of the medical fraternity.
Past and Present of Mahaska County, Iowa
Mahaska County, Iowa Genealogy