Dr. Ferdinand Ludwig Von Herff

Herff came from an aristocratic Hessian family; his father was chief justice of the Hessian Supreme Court. At Bonn he lived with his uncle, the university's president. In Texas he helped organize the West Texas Medical Association and the Texas Medical and Surgical Record. He once performed a gastrostomy on a young person who had swallowed lye, and at eighty-four, on a ranch, he operated on his daughter-in-law for an ectopic pregnancy. The University of Giessen and the St. Louis College of Physicians and Surgeons honored him. He died in San Antonio on May 18, 1912.

What the plaque says

Dr. Ferdinand Ludwig Von Herff In the 1850s, a few courageous and well-trained European doctors responded to the health needs of the citizens of San Antonio. For more than fifty years, Dr. Ferdinand Ludwig von Herff worked tirelessly to provide leadership and medical knowledge and to improve medical practices in Texas. He was born Ferdinand Charles von Herff in Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany on November 29, 1820, but he never used the name Charles. When he later became a United States citizen, he dropped the von from his name and was called Dr. Herff. In 1847, with a group of idealistic young Germans, die vierziger (the forty), Dr. Herff failed in an attempt to establish the Bettina Socialistic Colony in Texas. He returned to Germany and married Mathilde Klingelhoffer (1823-1910) in 1849. The next year, they immigrated to New Braunfels and settled in San Antonio. Herffs second home here on a ranch in Boerne was a family retreat. Dr. Herff practiced medicine here and was instrumental in bringing to Boerne the railroad and Saint Marys Sanitarium. During the Civil War, he served briefly as a Brigade Surgeon for Gen. Robert E. Lee and the Confederacy. However, the Herff ranch was occupied by Confederate Rangers as Herff was known as a Union sympathizer. He treated all in need, including Native Americans. Dr. Herff achieved many medical breakthroughs in surgery, as well as introducing new procedures to the medical community. As one of the great pioneer doctors, he held many distinguished positions in local and state organizations, and received honors for his many contributions. His diligent efforts for the profession and patients whom he loved helped set standards for the medical profession, facilities and continuing advances. (2013)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Treue der Union Monument — 18 mi
  An 1866 German-language monument in Comfort over the graves of Hill Country Unionists killed at the Nueces in 1862, its flag of thirty-six stars kept at half-staff.
• Frontier Times Museum — 22 mi
  A museum built of fossils, petrified wood and cave formations in Bandera, holding a printer-historian's collection of frontier relics and oddities.
• Old Tunnel State Park — 23 mi
  A railroad tunnel abandoned in 1942 that now shelters up to three million Mexican free-tailed bats, who fly out each evening from May through October.
• Natural Bridge Caverns — 23 mi
  The largest known cavern in Texas, found in 1960 by four college cavers under a ranch family's land, entered beneath a 60-foot limestone bridge and still growing.

More markers nearby

• Adolph (Ad) Toepperwein — 1.0 mi
• Homesite of Albert Paul Kutzer — 1.1 mi
• Staffel Family and the Staffel Store — 1.2 mi
• Boerne Chapter No. 200, O.E.S. — 1.3 mi