The H600 Project Genealogy DB

Dr. Asa Horr

Male 1817 - 1896  (78 years)


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  • Name Asa Horr 
    Prefix Dr. 
    Born 2 Sep 1817  Worthington, Franklin Co, Ohio, USA Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Gender Male 
    Census 1850 1860 1870 1880 
    Died 2 Jun 1896  Dubuque, Dubuque Co, Iowa, USA Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Buried Dubuque, Dubuque Co, Iowa, USA (Linwood Cemetery) Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Person ID I5912  A00 Hoar and Horr Families North America
    Last Modified 12 Jun 2015 

    Father Capt. Isaac Horr,   b. 6 Mar 1786, Freetown, Bristol Co, Massachusetts, USA Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 25 Jan 1838, , Jefferson Co, New York, USA Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 51 years) 
    Mother Nancy Smith,   b. Abt 1783, Salem, Essex Co, Massachusetts, USA Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 1 May 1851, , Jefferson Co, New York, USA Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 68 years) 
    Married 24 Jan 1806  Carthage, Jefferson Co, New York, USA Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Family ID F4656  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family 1 Elizabeth Sherman,   b. 22 Jun 1822, Ohio, USA Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 4 May 1866, Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 43 years) 
    Married 1841  Baltimore, Fairfield Co, Ohio, USA Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Children 
     1. Edward Horr,   b. 3 Oct 1841, Baltimore, Fairfield Co, Ohio, USA Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 15 May 1928, , Mccracken Co, Kentucky, USA Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 86 years)
     2. Augusta Horr,   b. 9 Jun 1845, Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 17 Feb 1894, Chicago, Cook Co, Illinois, USA Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 48 years)
     3. May Horr,   b. 24 May 1856, , Dubuque Co, Iowa, USA Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 6 Nov 1941, , Los Angeles Co, California, USA Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 85 years)
    Last Modified 22 Mar 2009 
    Family ID F2634  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family 2 Emma (Unknown),   b. 22 May 1829, New Hampshire, USA Or Vermont, USA Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 11 Apr 1879, Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 49 years) 
    Married 1 Jun 1868  Dubuque, Dubuque Co, Iowa, USA Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Last Modified 14 Sep 2011 
    Family ID F2635  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family 3 Ellen (Unknown),   b. 17 Mar 1847, Galena, Jo Daviess Co, Illinois, USA Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 19 Nov 1920  (Age 73 years) 
    Married 30 May 1881  , Dubuque Co, Iowa, USA Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Last Modified 4 Jun 2010 
    Family ID F2636  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  • Notes 
    • If you have corrections and/or updated information on this person please contact Roz Edson at MrsEdson@gmail.com

      Groom's Name: Asa Horr
      Groom's Birth Date: 1818
      Groom's Birthplace:
      Groom's Age: 50
      Bride's Name: Emiline F. Weber
      Bride's Birth Date: 1829
      Bride's Birthplace:
      Bride's Age: 39
      Marriage Date: 01 Jun 1868
      Marriage Place: Dubuque, Dubuque, Iowa
      Groom's Father's Name:
      Groom's Mother's Name:
      Bride's Father's Name:
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      Groom's Race:
      Groom's Marital Status:
      Groom's Previous Wife's Name:
      Bride's Race:
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      Bride's Previous Husband's Name:
      Indexing Project (Batch) Number: M02570-9
      System Origin: Iowa-EASy
      Source Film Number: 1035387
      Reference Number: bk 3 p 215 cn 146
      Collection: Iowa Marriages, 1809-1992

      Groom's Name: Asa Horr
      Groom's Birth Date: 1821
      Groom's Birthplace:
      Groom's Age: 60
      Bride's Name: Ellen S. Booth
      Bride's Birth Date: 1849
      Bride's Birthplace:
      Bride's Age: 32
      Marriage Date: 30 May 1881
      Marriage Place: Dubuque, Iowa
      Groom's Father's Name:
      Groom's Mother's Name:
      Bride's Father's Name:
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      Groom's Previous Wife's Name:
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      Bride's Previous Husband's Name:
      Indexing Project (Batch) Number: M02572-6
      System Origin: Iowa-EASy
      Source Film Number: 1035402
      Reference Number: bk 4 p 478 cn 149
      Collection: Iowa Marriages, 1809-1992


      Photo: http://picasaweb.google.com/Ancestors101/DrAsaHorr/photo?authkey=DKIkegJIAXE#5020956307269932594

      [[The following census information was compiled and contributed by Joyce S.

      1850 census: District 7, Dubuque Co, Iowa
      Asa Horr, age 25, bp Ohio, Physician
      Eliza F. [T. ???] Horr, age 26, bp Ohio
      Edward W. Horr, age 8, bp Ohio
      Augustah S. Horr, age 4, bp Ohio
      Margaret Ann Collman, age 18, bp Ireland

      1860 Census: Dubuque, Dubuque Co, Iowa
      Asa Horr, 42, Ohio
      Eliza Horr, 38, Ohio
      Edward W. Horr, 17, Ohio
      Augusta S. Horr, 15, Ohio
      May Horr, 4, Iowa
      Lucinda Edwords, 21, Virginia
      Daniel Berlt, 75, Sachsen (Kgr. /Land in Bundes republik) / Saxony (Kingdom/State)

      1870 Census: Dubuque Ward 4, Dubuque Co, Iowa
      Asa Horr, age 52, bp OH, Physician
      Emma Horr, age 42, bp Vermont
      May Horr, age 13, bp Iowa
      Emma Webber, age 20, bp Maine
      Charles Webber, age 18, bp Maine
      Mary ???, age 19, bp IA, Dom Servant

      1880 Census Place: 4th Ward, Dubuque, Dubuque Co, Iowa
      Household:
      Name Relation Marital Status Gender Race Age Birthplace Occupation Father's Birthplace Mother's Birthplace
      Asa HORR Self W Male W 62 OH Physician NY NY
      May HORR Dau S Female W 24 IA Keeping House NY OH
      Hannah OHDE Other S Female W 20 PRU Servant PRU PRU
      Note his daughter May was born in Dubuque in 1856

      "His [Asa] most valuable contributions were to Meteorology and to him and Professor Lapham of Milwaukee is due the present method of forecasting the weather employed by the United States Government." undated "History of Medicine in Iowa", D.S. Fai rchild, M.D., F.A.C.S., reprinted from The Journal of the Iowa State Medical Society.

      ASA HORR, physician and surgeon, 872 Main street; is a native of Ohio, and was born Sept. 2, 1817; his parents were Isaac Horr and Nancy Smith Horr, both of New England stock. The father of Asa was an early settler in the Black River country, in New York, and opened a farm there prior to emigrating to Ohio; in the latter State he engaged in mercantile business, and afterward returned to New York in 1827, and died in Watertown, Jefferson Co., soon afterward. Up to the time his father died, Asa was kept at school most of the time, but now was put on a farm, and, for several years, attended schools only during the winter season; at the age of 20, he returned to his native town in Ohio and read medicine with a cousin; he attended lectures at two colleges in that State, and graduated from both; after leaving the Cleveland College, he practiced six years in Ohio and one in Illinois, and, in 1847, made a permanent settlement in Dubuque, Iowa; not content with a mastery of the science of medicine, in which he has given no inconsiderable attention to the investigation of sciences collateral to medicine, quite early in life, he studied botany with a good degree of success, and for more than twenty years was one of the leading observers for the Smithsonian Institution; he was influential in originating, and prominent in building up, the Iowa Institute of Science and Arts in Dubuque, and has been its President for the last eight or nine years; he is a man of decidedly scientific tastes and of high attainments. Dr. Horr is a member of the Iowa State Medical Society, of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, of the American Public Health Association, and of several scientific societies in the Upper Mississippi Valley; he is identified with many important interests in Dubuque. Its town clock was procured mainly through his exertions; the clock and the regulation of time have been since then entirely under supervision; and the true longitude of the city was established through him ten of twelve years ago, by the aid of his fine astronomical transit. Dr. Horr is one of the leading surgeons in Northern Iowa, and neither his practice nor his reputation in this line is limited to any one State. He was Post Surgeon at Dubuque in the early part of the late war and Examining Surgeon for recruits in the regular army. He has been a member of the Masonic Order since 1856. In politics, he was a Whig until the extinction of that party, since which time he has been a Republican; till middle life his religious views were orthodox; they are now liberal. He married Miss Eliza Sherman in 1841; she died in 1866. He married Mrs. EmmaF. Webber in 1868; she died in 1879; he has three children, all by his first wife. His eldest child, Augusta S., is the wife of Henry Hackbusch, a civil engineer and surveyor at Leavenworth, Kan.; Edward W. is a leading merchant in Blandville, Ky., and the youngest child, May, lives at home. pg.812

      Asa Horr, M. D.
      Extracted from Portrait and Biographical Record of Dubuque, Jones and Clayton Counties, Iowa, 1894 Reprinted by Higginson Book Co., Salem, Massachusetts, p. 135
      ASA HORR, M. D., who has had a long and a successful career as a medical practitioner in Dubuque, has been located here since August, 1847, being the oldest member of the profession in this locality. He is Chief of the Medical Staff of Mercy Hospital and belongs to the American Medical, the State and County and the Cedar Valley District Medical Societies. Several times he has been President of the County Association, of which he was one of the organizers. During the war he was Post Surgeon at Camp Franklin and also examined recruits for the regular army troops, being- later for ten years Pension Examiner ill this city. The Doctor is a noted scholar both in the languages and in many scientific departments.
      Dr. Horr was born in Worthington, Franklin County, Ohio, in September 2, 1817. His paternal grandfather was a farmer in Massachusetts and removed to Lewis County, N. Y., in the early days of its history, when it was known as the Black River Country, and there he continued in agricultural pursuits until his death. The Horr family is of English descent and the name was originally spelt Hoar, but our subject's grandfather had the name changed by the Albany Legislature to its present spelling. The father of the Doctor bore the name of Isaac, and his birth occurred in the Bay State, where he grew to manhood and was married. He took part in the War of 1812, and five years later became a resident of Worthington, Ohio, having removed there from Lewis County, N. Y. He engaged in merchandising, being successful for several years, but about 1826 returned to Lewis County, N. Y., where he died one year later, aged forty-one years. His wife, Nancy Smith, was born and married in Salem, Mass., and after her husband's death in the Empire State returned to Ohio, where she died when in her sixty-ninth year. Eight of her ten children grew to maturity, but only four are now living, our subject and his three sisters. Leonard was a Captain in tile Twenty first Iowa Infantry until, his health failing, he retired, His death occurred in this city, where he had been engaged in the real-estate business.
      Dr. Horr until ten years old lived in Ohio, where he attended Worthington College, of which Bishop Chase was Principal, and one of his classmates was Salmon P. Chase, late Chief Justice of the United States. In 1826 he returned to New York, and on his father's death the children were scattered, being taken by various relatives to bring up. From his earliest years he was a zealous student, and often worked by the light of hemlock and spruce knots. In working on the farm he hurried to complete his task in order that he might devote himself to his beloved books. His brother Leonard was a carpenter and it seemed best that he should be apprenticed to the same trade. He remained for six months working for one man, and during this time had become quite familiar with drafting. When he returned to the country he made a drawing and superintended the building of a frame house, this being when he was only fourteen years of age. His brother engaged with a contractor to build a large flouring mill in Canada, north of Kingston, and Asa went with him, working for about a year and receiving a man's wages. Later with his brother he engaged in contracting and building in Dundas, Canada, remaining there until 1836, and during this time the ambitious youth drew the principal plans of buildings which were put up by the firm.
      The first time that the Doctor had thought seriously of entering the medical profession was during the cholera epidemic of 1834 - 35, when several of his employees contracted the disease, and as there were no physicians in the locality and he had assisted his mother, who was a good nurse in former years, he determined to use his best efforts for the afflicted men. Using the old fashioned remedies of smart weed and pennyroyal, with good nursing he managed to bring the men through all right and was often afterward annoyed by the many people who carne to him for treatment of various disorders. In 1836 Mr. Horr went to Ohio and entered the Worthington Medical College, from which he was graduated two years later with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. For two years subsequently he practiced with Dr. Hyland, of Fairfield County, and then for six years practiced in Baltimore, Ohio. In 1846 he graduated from the medical department of the Western Reserve University of Cleveland, receiving a degree.
      With the intention of going to Galena, Ill., he visited a brother at Elizabeth, and was there prevailed upon to assist the doctors of the place during the epidemic which was prevalent. After a year's time he removed to Dubuque, arriving here in August, 1847, when this was a village of only two thousand inhabitants. Dr. Horr built an office at the corner of Fifth and Main Streets and has since conducted an extensive practice, his office being now at No. 1125 Main Street. For one year he was County Physician and is a member of the Public Health Association of the United States.
      In Baltimore, Ohio, Dr. Horr was married in 1841 to Eliza Sherman, a native of Worthington. She was reared as a member of the Vinal family in Springfield and died in Dubuque during the war. Her three children are, Edward W., a merchant of Blandville, Ky.; Augusta S., Mrs. Hackbusch, who died in February, 1894; and May H., wife of Charles G. Sternes, of Waterloo, Iowa. The present wife of Dr. Horr, Mrs. Ella S. Booth, was born in Galena, Ill., and presides with true hospitality over her pleasant home at the corner of Thirteenth and Main Streets.
      The Doctor is a fine botanist, geologist and astronomer. He has made large collections of Ohio and Iowa plants, has an interesting collection of geological specimens, and in 1864 erected a private astronomical observatory and was the first to determine accurately the longitude of Dubuque. A member of many learned societies, he has been President of the Iowa Institute of Science and Arts, and in company with J. M. Bigelow published a catalogue of the plants of Fairfield County, Ohio. For fifteen or twenty years Dr. Horr had charge of the city clock and took the time astronomically. He has the finest medical and chemical library in this portion of the state, and is an advocate of phonetic spelling. For some years he has been interested in real estate and owns a number of pieces of business property, as well as an interest in some coal mines. In politics he is independent, and fraternally is a Knight Templar Mason.

      Cemetery:
      http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=83472736