Building at Seventh and Cherry streets , where he doctored for the next six decades . Incredibly , Wiedemann saw patients seven days a week until 1953 , and never missed a single day of work unless he was traveling .
And travel he did . No typical tourist , Wiedemann often mixed business with pleasure and visited most of the world ’ s countries , circumnavigated South America via the Panama Canal and the Straits of Magellan , and circled the globe twice . Yet , he also spent extended periods both abroad and in the United States studying and lecturing and earning post-graduate medical expertise . Wiedemann sailed to Europe three times before World War I began , and only limited his journeys to the United States after World War II ended and he was past 70 years of age .
Also intensely interested in archeology , Dr . Wiedemann filled notebooks with personal and professional observations alike , using them as a basis for the dozens of papers he presented to groups like the Terre Haute Literary Club and the Vigo County Historical Society . Among his topics : “ Women of Many Lands ;” “ As I Saw Russia ;” “ Glaciers of North America ;” and “ A Mexican Bullfight .” It isn ’ t hard to imagine his steamer trunk covered with labels from , among many other places , Java , Sierra Leone , Ceylon , Japan , Palestine , and even the island of St . Helena where Napoleon was exiled and died .
A list Wiedemann compiled on office stationery in or about his 60th year of medicine , included observations about his journeys . In an entry from 1927 , he wrote , “ Circumnavigated Africa , sailing from NY City to Madeira and
Canary Islands … I disembarked at Port Sudan , in order to visit Khartoum located at the bifurcation of the White and Blue Nile , in the Upper Sudan . From here I studied the ruins of the Nile beginning at Abu-Simbel to the Pyramids of Cairo , where I met Mrs . W . ( his second wife , Leah ) at the Sheppard ’ s Hotel , awaiting my arrival .”
In another entry , he wrote , “ In 1931 , I visited Russia and the Scandinavian countries — Denmark-Norway-Sweden-Finland . I was interested in Socialist Medicine and Russian Communism . Returning home , I visited Danzig [ Poland ]. Here my grandmother graduated from the University — she too being a physician .”
Originally , a specialist in gastro-intestinal maladies , Wiedemann , along with three other
Above , from left to right : Rose Dispensary , 1963 : The Rose Dispensary Building , which sat at the corner of Seventh and Cherry streets in Terre Haute , is shown two years after Frank Wiedemann died ; he maintained an office there for 63 years . ( Courtesy of Vigo County Historical Museum ) Temple of Heaven : Frank and Leah Wiedemann pose at the Temple of Heaven in Peking , China in 1937 . ( Courtesy of Vigo County Public Library ) World traveler : A granite globe marks the gravesite of Dr . Frank Wiedemann , who traveled to nearly every country in the world . ( Photo by Mike Lunsford )
88 Terre Haute Living • January / February 2022