My Genealogy Hound

HENRY J. SOMMER, M. D., for several years one of the medical staff of the Norristown Hospital for the Insane, but now engaged in private practice in Norristown, having formed a co-partnership with Dr. J. K. Weaver, with his office at No. 617 DeKalb street, is, as the name indicates, of German descent. He was born near Quakertown, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, March 17, 1870.

Henry J. Sommer (father) was born in Baden, Germany, January 6, 1837, his parents being Henry and Eve (Ohl) Sommer. He came to this country to take charge of a factory for L. Bamberger & Company, at the age of twenty-two years. He enlisted May 15, 1861, in the Twenty- ninth Regiment, New York Volunteers, from which he was honorably discharged. He then served in the United States navy in the marine corps until the end of the war. He started the manufacture of cigars in Bucks county for L. Bamberger & Company, and later bought their entire stock and fixtures, giving work to about 450 employees.

He married Mary, daughter of J. A. and Anna C. Rhuel, of Philadelphia, May 16, 1866. The couple had five children, three sons and two daughters. Ferdinand and Edward are in charge of the business named above; Martha married E. C. Jones, of Conshohocken; and Mary, unmarried, resides with her parents.

Dr. Henry J. Sommer, Jr., bears the family name of Henry, which has been handed down for centuries, there having been a “Henry” in generation of the family. He received an education in the common schools of the vicinity, and at the age of nineteen years entered Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, from which he was graduated with first honors, taking the gold medal surgery, May 2, 1893. Two days later he was appointed assistant quarantine physician at the port of Philadelphia, but, the legislature having passed a new quarantine bill requiring the assistant physician to be of five years standing, he left, on appointment of a new assistant physician on June 29, 1893, and went direct to the Municipal Hospital for Contagious Diseases of Philadelphia, having received an appointment to the position of resident physician over the telephone. There Dr. Sommer had charge of the small-pox camp during the epidemic of the summer of 1893, and later of the scarlet fever and diphtheria wards. On November 4, 1893, he was appointed United States Consul to Bombay, India, which position he sought the purpose of making a special study of cholera and leprosy. Owing to loss of health, Dr. Sommer was compelled to see all his culture of germs, the work of over a year, die helplessly.

On his return to the United States, Dr. Sommer engaged in private practice at Tremont, in Schuylkill county, this state, in November, 1895, where he remained until January 17, 1897, at which time he received the appointment of assistant physician at the State Hospital for the Insane at Norristown, which position he filled very successfully until September 1, 1903, when he resigned his position at the institution and removed to Norristown, to take up private practice in partnership with Dr. J. K. Weaver. Dr. Sommer is an able physician, whose skill and learning and industry are certain to make him one of the most successful physicians of his day.

Dr. Sommer was married June 27, 1901, to Emily E., daughter of Samuel K. and Elizabeth Hergesheimer, of Germantown, Pennsylvania, whose ancestors on the father’s side built and owned Strawberry Mansion , and what is now known as Laurel Hill Cemetery. Her mother is a descendant of Lord Burdett. They reside at No. 617 DeKalb street, Norristown.