1909 - Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Ogle County, Munsell Publishing Co., Chicago, 1909 p. 944

JOSIAH T. KRETSINGER, M. D. -- Leaf River, III. The medical profession is well represented in Ogle County. There the physicians and surgeons are as well educated, as diversely experienced, as able and as successful as the same number of physicians anywhere the country. One of the most favorable known of them is Dr. Kretsinger, a brief account of whose active and useful career is here submitted.

Dr. Josiah T. Kretsinger was born in Leaf River Township, Ogle County, October 8, 1848, a son of Lewis and Caroline (Zigler) Kretsinger. His father, who came to Ogle County in 1844, was born in Washington County, Md. They married in Ogle County and settled in Leaf River Township where Mr. Kretsinger won success as a farmer. He spent the years after his retirement in Leaf River Village, where he died in 1889, aged sixty-six years. His widow has attained an advanced age. Of their ten children, Dr. Kretsinger was the second In order of birth.

It was on his father's death that Dr. Kretsinger took up the active duties of life. He was educated in local public schools, at the Rock River Seminary and at the Illinois State Normal School, Normal, Ill. Meanwhile he began teaching and was thus employed for several years in Minnesota and elsewhere. In his leisure, he took up the study of medicine, for two years was a student at the Minnesota Medical College, Minneapolis, and then entered the Bellevue Hospital Medical College, New York, where he graduated with the class of 1885. He entered upon the practice of his profession at Minneapolis, Minn., but about a year later settled at Leaf River, where he has met with noteworthy success. It is greatly creditable to him that he has been able, amid the scenes of his childhood, to firmly establish himself with old friends and neighbors as his patients. He is a member, and Secretary and Treasurer of Ogle County Medical Society, and also a member of the Illinois State Medical Society, and of the American Medical Association.

November 27, 1904, Dr. Kretsinger married Miss Carrie Icely, a native of Leaf River Township. He has been a member of the Leaf River Village Board, and for several years a member of the local School Board. He is identified with the Knights of Pythias and Knights of the Globe. Busy as he is with his profession, he has been led by a natural liking for business affairs to identify himself, from time to time, with nonprofessional interests. He is President of the Leaf River and Egan City Mutual Telephone Company.

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