Encyclopedia Dubuque
"Encyclopedia Dubuque is the online authority for all things Dubuque, written by the people who know the city best.”
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Affiliated with the Local History Network of the State Historical Society of Iowa, and the Iowa Museum Association.
BROWNSON, Orestes A.
BROWNSON, Orestes A. (Dubuque, IA, October 22, 1884--Los Angeles, CA, Apr. 6, 1942). Physician. The son of Dr. John J. and Mary G. Brownson, Brownson, studied at St. Raphael's Academy in Dubuque, and the Jesuit College at Prairie du Chien. Wisconsin. He entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons at St. Louis, Missouri, and was graduated in 1906 with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. He served a one year's internship in the Jefferson Hospital, St. Louis, and was also an associate-intern for a time in St. John's Hospital there.
Brownson returned to Dubuque and for some time remained in his father's office. He then opened an office of his own at the corner of Windsor and Eagle Point avenues. Dr. Brownson made a specialty of the study of surgery and took a post-graduate course in that branch of the profession at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Chicago. He was a member of the Dubuque County Medical Society, the Iowa State and American Medical associations, and was examining physician for the Foresters, Modern Woodmen of America, and the Bankers' Life Insurance Company. He was also physician for St. Francis' Orphanage at Dubuque.
Brownson later moved to California where his "bloodless" surgery in the removal of tonsils gained a great deal of attention in the early 1920s.
