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ABRAHAM L BLESH, M.D.
Vol. 3 p. 1113-1114
Book has photo

In those attributes character and those high technical attainments
that make for special precedence in the profession of medicine and
surgery Dr. Blesh is admirably endowed, and there can be no measure
of inconsistency in pronouncing him one of the foremost surgeons of
the Southwest. He has been engaged in the practice of his profession
in Oklahoma since 1893 and since 1902 has, with marked
circumspection, concentrated his efforts in a field of practice that
may well demand the undivided allegiance of skilled representative of
his profession, for he has given his special and practically
exclusive attention to the practice of surgery, his well equipped
offices being in Suite 606-10 State National Bank Building, Oklahoma
City, and his practice being of broad scope and importance--a just
reward for the careful attention he has given to fortify himself for
his humane vocation which has been signally dignified and honored by
his achievement. The doctor has carried his research into original
channels and has availed himself of the best of facilities and
advantages along scientific and specifically professional lines, as
shown by the fact that he completed, in 1910-11, and effective course
of post-graduate work in the medical department of the great
university of Vienna, Austria. In addition the exigent demands placed
upon him in connection with his private practice he has served since
1911 as chief surgeon of Wesley Hospital in his home city, and has
been active also in the educational work of his profession.

Doctor Blesh was born at Lock Haven, the picturesque and thriving
judicial center of Clinton County, Pennsylvania, and the date of his
nativity was January 6, 1866. His parents, Rudolph and Sarah Frances
(BARTHOLOMEW) Blesh, were natives respectively of Switzerland and
Holland and their marriage was solemnized in Pennsylvania, where they
continued to maintain their home until 1871, when they removed to
Kansas, where they became pioneer settlers and where they passed the
residue of their lives. Doctor Blesh was a lad of five years at the
time of the family removal to the Sunflower State, and after there
attending the public schools he completed a course in the Campbell
Normal School, at Holton. In preparation for his chosen profession he
entered the medical school of Northwestern University, in the City of
Chicago, and in this institution he was graduated in 1889, with the
degree of doctor of medicine. For about a year thereafter he was
engaged in practice at Rio, Columbia County, Wisconsin, and he then
returned to Kansas and established himself in practice at Hope,
Dickson County, when, in 1891, he removed to Lost Springs, Marion
County, that state, where he continued his successful practice until
1893, when he cast in his lot with the pioneers of the newly
organized Territory of Oklahoma, an action that he has never found
cause to regret, the while he has maintained the most loyal
appreciation of and interest in the vigorous young commonwealth
within whose borders he became a resident in the early pioneer epoch
of its history.

From the year of his arrival in Oklahoma Doctor Blesh was engaged in
the general practice of medicine and surgery at Guthrie, the
territorial capital, until 1908, the year following the admission of
the state to the union, when he removed to Oklahoma City, which has
since represented his home and been the stage of his earnest and
effective professional labors. When the medical department of the
University of Oklahoma was established Doctor Blesh was appointed
associate professor of general and clinical surgery in the same, and
with the exception of the year which he devoted to post-graduate
study in Europe, he has since continued the popular and valued
incumbent of this position. He was formerly a member of the board of
directory of the Post-Graduate Medial College of Oklahoma City, and
since 1911 he has been chief surgeon of Wesley Hospital, as
previously noted in this article.

Doctor Blesh is a fellow and now a governor also of the American
College of Surgeons, of which national association of surgeons he was
one of the organizers. He is actively identified also with the
American Medical Association; the Medical Association of the
Southwest, of which he was president in 1911-12; the Oklahoma State
Medical Society, of which he was president in 1903-4; and the
Oklahoma County Medical Society. The doctor has made many valuable
contributions to the standard and periodical literature of his
profession and practitioners and to advance the interests of medical
and surgical science in general. Among a few of his prolific and
admirable articles may be mentioned those designated by the following
titles: "Puerperal Fever: Etiology, Prophylaxis and Treatment,"
published in the American Practitioner, May, 1889. "Sprains:
Consequences, Treatment," published in the Medical Record, February
1893. "What of the Future, " President's address before the Oklahoma
Territorial Medical Association; published in Oklahoma News-Journal,
March, 1904. "Pertinent Facts About Appendicitis," published in the
Journal of Clinical Medicine, January, 1908. "Surgical Role of the
Pneumococcus," published in Oklahoma State Medical Journal, March,
1909. "Chorion-Epithelioma." published in the Texas State Journal of
Medicine, March, 1909. "Diffuse Suppurative Peritonitis." published
in the Oklahoma State Medical Journal, October, 1909. "Surgical
Colon," published in the Proctologist and Medical Journal, June,
1913. "Indications and Limitations of Local Anesthesia," published in
the Medical Journal of the Southwest, August, 1913. "Mechanics of
Perineal Repair," published in 1915, in the Journal of the Southwest.

In the Masonic fraternity Doctor Blesh has completed the circle of
each the York to Royal Arch and Scottish Rites, and his affiliations
are here briefly noted: Guthrie Lodge, No. 3, (now No. 47), Ancient
Free and Accepted Masons, of which he is a past master; Chapter No. 6
Royal Arch Masons, in Guthrie; the Consistory of the Ancient Accepted
Scottish Rite, in which he has received the thirty-second degree; and
India Temple, Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic
Shrine. The doctor is a knight commander of the Court of Honor, is
actively identified with the Oklahoma City Camber of Commerce, and in
his home city hold membership in the Men's Dinner Club, and the Golf
and Country Club. His residence in the capital city is at 1316 West
Seventeenth Street and in addition to this property he is the owner
of other valuable real estate in the city.

On the 6th of June, 1890, Doctor Blesh wedded Miss Theodora Belle
PICKETT, daughter of William Pickett, of Frankfort, Kansas, and they
have three children -- Theodora Belle, Rudolph P. and Howard K. The
only daughter is now the wife of J. Gerald MRAZ, of Oklahoma City.

Typed for OKGenWeb by: Earline Sparks Barger, November 3, 1998.