Meet Louise Koester, village's first woman doctor

Mount Prospect was one of the first Chicago area suburbs to obtain - and accept - the services of a woman physician.

That intrepid woman was Dr. Louise Koester, a native of Hanover, Germany, who immigrated to the United States in 1909 at the age of 8.

When she came of age, Koester, a devout Baptist, attended Wheaton College in order to become a missionary in Africa and, while studying, decided to also attend medical school so that she could become a medical missionary.

Koester completed medical school at Wheaton and then set about looking for a hospital to complete her residency.

Unfortunately, Koester faced gender discrimination. It was hard for any woman in the mid-1920s to find a hospital that would allow her to train as a physician since the majority only allowed women to train as nurses.

Koester eventually learned about Mary Thompson Hospital, which was the first all-woman-staffed hospital in Chicago. Mary Thompson Hospital (later known as Women's and Children's Hospital) accepted Koester and she completed her training there.

Dreams of Africa seemed to have diminished during her residency, however.

So Dr. Koester ended up in Mount Prospect instead of Africa, thanks to her friend and colleague Dr. John Renner of Palatine, who told her that the diminutive village of only 450 residents needed a doctor.

She weighed her choices and, in 1926, decided that it was her calling to go to Mount Prospect and help the small community in need of a doctor (especially since most of its residents - like her - were German).

A 1927 newspaper notice indicates that she originally practiced her brand of "homeopathic medicine" in an office over a drugstore in Mount Prospect several days a week and also in an office at 25 E. Washington St. in Chicago one day a week, advertising herself as both a physician and a surgeon.

"There were no paved streets, few houses, one church, one school. When I moved into my first office over Van Driel's drugstore, I wondered if people would come to me, a woman doctor," she said in the 1973 interview with the Northwest Suburban Topics newspaper.

And male doctors mocked her intentions. In fact, one was reported to have said, "She won't stay there very long, she'll last only two weeks, or maybe a few months. Who wants to go to a woman doctor anyway?"

But she proved him wrong and had scores of patients lining up to see her. In addition, soon after Dr. Koester opened shop, an open-minded male doctor, Dr. Alfred Wolfarth, also moved to Mount Prospect.

Before long, the two physicians jointly opened up the first hospital - along Prospect Avenue south of the tracks - to treat the rising number of automobile accident victims they were seeing as that mode of transportation became increasingly popular.

During those early years Dr. Koester roomed with Edward and Emma Busse at 103 Emerson St. She even took a lengthy trip to Europe in 1929 to attend medical lectures and clinics in order to further her knowledge.

In 1932, Dr. Koester moved to the old Pohlman farmhouse at 221 S. Owen St. and opened an extensive office on the first floor of that home - waiting room, examining room, and doctor's office.

Patient rooms for the terminally ill and those recovering from surgery were in the basement; and Dr. Koester's private living quarters were on the second floor. She reportedly charged $2 for office calls and $3 for house calls. And she was very busy - seeing and treating up to 65 patients per day in her home office.

When asked what it was like being a doctor at the time, Dr. Koester said, "It was very hard to be a doctor then for there were no antibiotics and the training included making all of the medicines we gave to patients. Many times it was hard to decide what to do for a patient, so I did my best and prayed."

During the 1990s, Mount Prospect resident Budd Wilder recalled being nursed back to health from double pneumonia by Dr. Koester when he was only 6. He had ultraviolet treatments in the basement of her home, which was the only short-term treatment center in the area back then.

And Harold Busse told of being the first baby that Dr. Koester - a no-nonsense, efficient practitioner - delivered.

Another former patient, Meta Bittner, summed Dr. Koester up very well when she was quoted in a 1973 newspaper article as saying, Dr. Koester "loved the people here, treating them with religion and psychology, always giving many times with sacrifice of her own sleep and means in an effort to do what she could."

After 26 years of dedicated service, the village of Mount Prospect acknowledged Dr. Koester's work in a special proclamation in 1965, and she was named the 1965 Woman of Achievement by the Mount Prospect Business and Professional Women's Club. She also received honors from Wheaton College for her professional endeavors.

Dr. Koester continued to live in Mount Prospect at least through 1973 when she spoke to the Mount Prospect Historical Society, but no records beyond that have been found, so we cannot report when she passed away.

It seems worth noting that Dr. Koester never gave up on her commitment to Africa. She took a six-month leave of absence from her Mount Prospect practice during 1954 (and Dr. Renner covered her patients) so she could travel to Cameroon to visit relatives who were missionaries.

She also contributed to African missionary efforts, and even donated enough money to build a hospital on the continent.