Biography - GUSTAVE A. FLORETH

Gustave A. Floreth, M. D., a prominent medical practitioner of Mount Olive, Macoupin County, and a member of a family which has been held in the highest esteem here for many years, was born in Randolph County, Illinois, October 19, 1877. He is a son of the late Rev. Charles W. and Elizabeth (Zuercher) Floreth.

The parents of Dr. Floreth were born in Germany. In 1849 they came to Illinois, and in 1889 Rev. Mr. Floreth, who was a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, located at Mount Olive. His death took place in 1900 at Truxton, Missouri, while he was minister there. He was a man who was honored and esteemed by all who knew him, and is survived by ID of his 13 children.

Dr. Floreth finished the public school course at Mount Olive, Illinois, and graduated from the Canton (Missouri) High School. His education from youth was directed in medical channels, a love for the science developing in boyhood, and in consequence he is more thoroughly in touch with every branch of the profession, and has sought more experience, than have many whose study has been merely that of books. In 1903 he graduated and received his medical degree from the Marion Sims-Beaumont Medical College — the medical department of the St. Louis University at St. Louis, Missouri. His time during vacations was spent in the St. Louis City Hospital, where he held a position as nurse for three consecutive summers and one summer was night nurse at City Quarantine Station. Dr. Floreth is a graduate nurse of the Mount Pleasant Training School for Nurses (1896), and served the three following years at the Mount Pleasant (Iowa) State Insane Asylum. In 1902 he took a post-graduate course on diseases of the eye, nose and throat, giving careful study to these organs. Immediately after getting his degree in medicine, a competitive examination was held for physicians on the City Hospital staff, in which he was successful and thereafter served as interne at the said institution until he resigned the position to open his office at Mount Olive. In the fall of 1903 he settled at Mount Olive, fitting up a complete office at the corner of Main and Walnut streets. Here the ailing may find not only a physician of trained faculties and tried skill, but also a pleasant gentleman whom it is a pleasure to meet.

Dr. Floreth and the other members of his family belong to the Methodist Church.

N. B. — Just as this goes to print, we hear that Dr. Floreth has moved to Colona, Illinois, where he has taken charge of the practice of Dr. F. G. Johnson, who has been unwell and unable to tend to his practice. Dr. Floreth has taken charge of this practice temporarily and will most probably return to Mount Olive.

Extracted 2018 May 08 by Norma Hass from Biographical Sketches of Leading Citizens of Macoupin County, Illinois, published in 1904, pages 547-548.