Dr . Frank Wiedemann : ‘ The joy of healing ’
WORDS : MIKE LUNSFORD
EDITOR ’ S NOTE : This story is part of the series , “ Links to Terre Haute ’ s Past ,” by writer Mike Lunsford that highlights the lives of people who share Terre Haute ’ s historic Highland Lawn Cemetery as their burial ground . Look for another story that links us to Terre Haute ’ s past in the next issue of Terre Haute Living . To reach Lunsford email hickory913 @ gmail . com .
The remarkable gravestone of Dr . Frank Wiedemann sits on a shaded hillside not far from the imposing gate of Highland Lawn Cemetery . A short distance from the crypt of the ironically named H . C . Dies , the simple marker of socialist activist Eugene Debs , and the towering obelisk of entrepreneur Demas Deming , the huge gray globe of Barre , Vermont granite , “ became a symbol of Dr . Wiedemann ’ s quest for knowledge throughout the world .”
Although it was set in place a dozen years before Wiedemann died on Christmas Eve 1961 , the
Dr . Frank Wiedemann , world traveler and physician for 67 years . ( Courtesy of Vigo County Public Library )
monument says little about a man who practiced medicine in Terre Haute for 67 years and wholeheartedly believed , as he said himself , “… in the joy of healing .”
Born on June 29 , 1872 , in Harrisburg , Illinois , Wiedemann attended local schools and Southern Illinois Normal , then graduated from Rush Medical College in Chicago in 1894 . He soon established a medical practice in Terre Haute , and later moved into offices in the Rose Dispensary
January / February 2022 • Terre Haute Living 87