John D. Herman, M.D., was a respected physician and surgeon who practiced in Conde, Spink County. Born on February 27, 1859, in Freeborn County, Minnesota, he was the son of German immigrants Philip and Augusta Herman. Dr. Herman studied at Ohio Medical College, graduating in 1886, and furthered his education in Chicago and Philadelphia. Relocating to South Dakota in 1883, he became Conde’s first physician and opened its initial drug store. Married to Anna Cowan in 1888, they had four children. Dr. Herman was also known for his public service and extensive farming operations in the area.
John D. Herman, M.D.—Spink County is favored in having numbered among its coterie of able physicians and surgeons the subject of this sketch, who is successfully established in the practice of his noble profession in Conde, one of the thriving and attractive villages of this section of the state.
Dr. Herman was born in Freeborn County, Minnesota, on the 27th of February, 1859, and is a son of Philip Herman, who was born in Germany, whence he emigrated to America when a young man, first locating in the province of Ontario, Canada, where he remained until 1857, when he removed to Minnesota, becoming one of the pioneers of Freeborn County, where he took up government land and improved a valuable farm, upon which he still maintains his home, being one of the honored and substantial citizens of the locality. His wife, whose maiden name was Augusta Otwine, was born in Germany and is still living, as are also nine of their children. The Doctor was reared to the sturdy discipline of the pioneer farm and after completing the curriculum of the public schools he began the work of preparing himself for the profession in which he has attained so marked prestige. He took up the study of medicine under a private preceptor and had been actively engaged in professional work in his home county prior to his graduation. He was matriculated in the Ohio Medical College, in Cincinnati, in 1882, and there completed the prescribed course, being graduated as a member of the class of 1886 and receiving his degree of Doctor of Medicine from this old and prominent institution. He had attended this college prior to his removal to South Dakota, in 1883, and later returned to his alma mater to complete his technical studies. In the spring of 1883 he came to Spink County and located in the village of Rose, where he remained until the autumn of 1885, when he returned to the Ohio Medical College and finished his course, as noted. In the spring of 1886 he returned to Rose, where he remained until the following autumn, when the village of Conde was platted and its settlement instituted, and he forthwith took up his residence here, being the pioneer physician of the town, where he also opened the first drug store, and here he has since continued in the active practice of his profession and also to conduct his drug business, while he has the uniform confidence and high regard of the people of the community, in which he has ministered most successfully to those in affliction, while he is known as one of the loyal and public-spirited citizens of the town and county. He is medical examiner for the leading life insurance companies represented here, and is a representative of Spink County on the state board of health. He served six years as county coroner and has held other local offices of trust. In 1900 Dr. Herman completed a post-graduate course in the College of Physicians and Surgeons in the city of Chicago, while in 1898 he took a special optical course in Philadelphia, so that he is well equipped for the treatment of the diseases of the eye and for correcting the errors of refraction by means of proper lenses. He is a staunch Republican in politics and is identified with the Masonic fraternity, the Modern Woodmen of America, the Ancient Order of United Workmen, and the Degree of Honor of the last named. He is also a member of the South Dakota Medical Society. The Doctor has a well-improved and valuable farm of eleven hundred acres, adjoining the town site of Conde, and practically the entire tract is under effective cultivation.
In August, 1888, Dr. Herman was married to Miss Anna Cowan, who was born and reared in Illinois, and they have four children, Ruth, Lester, Pearl, and Neil.
Source: Robinson, Doane, History of South Dakota: together with mention of Citizens of South Dakota, [Logansport? IN] : B. F. Bowen, 1904.