Transcribed by Pamela Wagler from: Biographical Review of Des Moines County, Iowa: Containing Biographical and Genealogical Sketches of Many of the Prominent Citizens of To-day and Also of the Past, Hobart Publishing Company, Chicago, 1905.

ANNA J. LANG, M. D.

Anna J. Lang, M. D., who has been identified with the medical profession as one of its most successful members in Burlington for a continuous period of almost thirty years, was born at Belleville, Ill., Jan. 14, 1846, a daughter of Christopher Ender, a native of Bavaria, and Barbara (Beckwith) Ender, who was born at Frankfort-on-the-Main. The mother died Oct. 1, 1896, aged seventy-seven years, and her demise was preceded by that of her husband, he dying in 1867 at the age of forty-five. He lived for about thirty years at Belleville and for a time at St. Louis, and was a tailor by trade, besides owning the farm on which he died – a valuable tract of two thousand acres at Evansville, thirty-two miles from Belleville. Mr. and Mrs. Ender were the parents of eight children: Cicero, Anna J., Kate, Charles, Christina, Maggie, William, and Cecilia. They were people of most estimable character, and were faithful members of the Catholic church, of which our subject is a consistent member.

Before taking up the study of medicine the subject of this review was united in marriage to J. C. Campbell, and to them were born four children, who survived: J. C.; Christina, who married Joseph Krause; Clara, wife of Morris Over; and Laura, wife of Mahlon Kauffman; also two died in youth. The father of this family died in 1872, and his widow, desiring to achieve an independent and useful career, and appreciating the immense possibilities offered by the field of medical practice for those of her sex who possessed the necessary talent and enthusiasm, entered Richardson's Medical College at St. Louis, where she pursued a thorough and rigorous course of study, and was graduated in 1877. She shortly after began practice in Burlington, where she has remained continuously since. In May, 1880, she again married, her second husband being Andrew J. Lang, who was born in Bavaria, and came in 1866 to Burlington, where he has followed the trade of stone-mason. They have two children, Louis and Louisa, and two died in infancy.

Following that tendency of the age by which the work of the learned professions has become divided into well-defined specialties, Dr. Lang has devoted her attention principally to the treatment of tumor, cancer, and all skin diseases, in which she has been signally successful. By the skill and fidelity with which she has followed her supreme object of ameliorating human suffering, she has earned the lasting gratitude of innumerable unfortunates who have been benefited by her ministrations, and has built up a large and profitable practice. She is a woman of unusual talents and great strength of purpose and character, and is regarded with the general and true esteem which is one of the best rewards of unselfish efforts.

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