Elsner, John (John Leopold), Dr., 1844-1922

Biography

John Elsner was born in Vienna on May 4, 1844. His father, Joseph David Elsner, was a leader in the Hungarian Revolution and the family had to flee from Slovakia after the revolution failed in 1948. Elsner graduated from the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary and in 1866, he graduated from the Bellevue Hospital Medical College in New York. That same year, he joined a wagon train crossing the plains to Colorado. Dr. John Elsner was one of the early doctors and was Denver’s first Jewish physician. John Elsner married Lena Zalinger in Denver in 1867 and their daughter Rosalinde was born in 1870. Fifteen years later, John and Lena Elsner adopted Edward, the youngest member of a troupe of actors who passed through Denver. John Elsner was appointed Denver County physician and was a prime mover in the establishment of Denver's first general hospital (now Denver Health). He also helped set up Denver’s Gross College of Medicine. He had a busy private practice, which included treating gunshot wounds. His patients included Blacks, Chinese, and Native Americans. Dr. Elsner traveled the Rocky Mountain region as a mohel to perform the traditional Jewish rite of circumcision. In 1871, he and ten other early Denver doctors organized the Denver Medical Society. Dr. Elsner with other Jewish leaders founded the Hebrew Benevolent Association of Denver. Highly active in the Jewish and general community, he served as the president of Denver's B'nai B'rith chapter in 1874. Elsner was an incorporator of National Jewish Hospital for Consumptives in 1890 and served on the hospital's first medical advisory board. John Elsner was a founding member of Congregation Emanuel. John Elsner died in Denver in 1922 and Lena Elsner died in 1929.

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