Martin Stamm, M. D.
pages 128-131

IN the medical profession, as in all scientific research, it is an established fact that the men at the top of their profession, the men who have dared to do pioneer work in the field of surgery, are, almost without exception, those who have received their training and research work abroad. Many of our young doctors take up post-graduate work abroad to supplement their course of study here, realizing that in this way alone can they gain the benefit of these master minds who have devoted their lives to the furtherance of medical science. Dr. Martin Stamm, the subject of this sketch, is an eminent example of this foreign training, he having received his entire medical education in Germany and Switzerland. He has an international reputation as a surgeon and his name is known to the entire medical fraternity.
Martin Stamm, M. D., was born November 16, 1847, in Thayngen, Canton Schaffhausen, Switzerland, the son of Martin and Verona (Bernath) Stamm. He was one of six children, only one other besides himself now living. His early education was received in Switzerland, this being supplemented by a year in Paris, to study languages. This part of his education later became very valuable to Doctor Stamm in his travels, which has covered practically the entire globe.
At the age of twenty-one years, Martin Stamm decided to come to this country, doing so October 10, 1868. He entered the University of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia where for two years he studied medicine. At the end of this period he returned to Switzerland, to complete his medical education. After the completion of his course Doctor Martin Stamm was married to Anna Margaret (Scheurer) Walker, the widowed daughter of A. Scheurer, of Berne Switzerland, who was a prominent attorney in that city. Mrs. Martin Stamm had a son by her first husband, Rudolph C. Walker, who later achieved note by being chief electrician on the Olympia at Manila, with Admiral Dewey, during the Spanish-American War. This son now resides in California.
Two children were born to Doctor Martin Stamm and his wife, namely, Till Eugenia and Hans Eugen. The daughter till Eugenia married George W. Haynes, a member of one of Fremont's most prominent families. He is the cashier of the Fremont Savings Bank. Two children have been born of this union, Marion Stamm Haynes and William Martin Haynes. Hans Eugen, the son of Doctor Martin Stamm, married Clara Goldsmith, of Detroit. They have no children.
Following his marriage in Switzerland, Doctor Martin Stamm returned to this country, accompanied by his wife, establishing a residence in Archbold, Fulton County, Ohio, in 1872. After less than a year he decided to remove to Wyandotte, Michigan, where he opened up a practice. This location did not meet with his expectation and in 1875, he came to Fremont, where he has resided ever since, except for those periods when he has been traveling or taking up research work abroad.
Doctor Martin Stamm is one of the most thorough cosmopolites of this country. He may be truly called a citizen of the world. He has traveled most extensively and yet has at the same time kept abreast of the discoveries in medical science and himself is responsible for several important surgical discoveries which have revolutionized the modern practice. Wherever his travels have taken him, he has been ever on the alert for new data, and on more tan one occasion a jaunt which as strictly a pleasure trip has resulted in the addition of an important item of information on some hitherto baffling subject. In 1898, Doctor Martin Stamm, spent six months traveling through Europe, Turkey, and Greece, the object being to combine a pleasure trip with an opportunity to study at first-hand conditions in those countries. In 1906, following the death of his wife, Doctor Stamm again went abroad, at this time encircling the globe. This trip comprised a tour of new Zealand, Australia, Japan, China, India, Africa, Egypt, then the European countries, taking in London, England, Paris, France, and also a trip to his fatherland, Switzerland. An entire year was devoted to this trip which, like its predecessor, was rich in research material.
In 1909, Doctor Martin Stamm made an extensive trip through Spain, Switzerland, Italy, Norway, Germany, France, and Russia, familiarizing himself with the medical practice and requirements of these several countries.
After his return to America following this tour, Doctor Martin Stamm made an extensive survey of the United States, traveling through all portions of this country, and becoming familiarly acquainted with the members of the medical profession in all parts of the country who have been instrumental in bringing surgery and medical practice up to the present high standard of efficiency and surety.
He has covered a large portion of Mexico, also Bermuda and Central America and intends touring Brazil and the Argentine Republic at the time of the Panama Exposition.
It seems almost an impossibility that a man who had devoted so much time to globe trotting should have been enabled to attain the eminence in his profession that Doctor Stamm has achieved. An ordinary practice would have been remarkable even in the face of such other activity, but nevertheless, Dr. Stamm has, by his indefatigable endeavor and indomitable spirit, succeeded, not once, but many times, in achieving success where there had never been aught but failure and in this manner has attained the enviable reputation of one of the foremost.
At the International Medical Congress, in 1887, at Washington, Dr. Senn of Chicago made a report of his remarkable work in intestinal surgery and he was closely followed by Dr. Stamm, as the two were the first ones to perform gastro-enterostomy in this country. In 1888, Dr. Stamm performed the first Hepaticotomy in the world. By this operation he removed three large gall-stones from the hepatic duct in a case where there was a congenital absence of the gall-bladder. In 1892, he was the first in this country to perform Kocher's hernia operation. In 1894, he devised a stomach operation which goes by the name of Stamm's gastrostomy. In this case an opening is made into the stomach through which a patient can be fed directly, instead of by mouth. Dr. W. J. Mayo, of Rochester, Minnesota says: "Your method is an exceedingly valuable one and, so far as we know, is used more than any other." About the same year he performed an operation for resection of the kidney which likewise was the first one in America. In 1901, he made the first Mickuliez operation for resection of the large bowel, removing a section eight inches long, and joining the segments. In 1903 the first Vaginal Caesarian Section in this country was made by Dr. Stamm. In 1908, he devised a method to less the danger in operations for Exophthalmic goitre or Grave's disease. It is now known by the name of "Stamm's pole ligation."
Dr. Martin Stamm is a fine example of the intrepid spirit which is never afraid to lead. It is such as he to whom we owe every foot of progression and advancement in the medical world.He has always taken the initiative when the gravity of the case demanded immediate action and his decisions have, in every instance, proven to have been the correct ones. While he has followed a general practice in Fremont, and has been eminently successful in this branch of his profession, it is his reputation as a surgeon which has place him among those whose names and reputations shall long survive after their mortal frames are laid to rest.
It is largely due to the personal endeavor of Doctor Martin Stamm that the organization of the Sandusky County Medical Association became effective. In this, as in every other undertaking, he brought his strong personality to bear upon the situation and a successful outcome was inevitable. Many other medical and surgical organizations all over the country owe their existence to the co-operation and assistance of this indomitable man. Doctor Stamm is a charter member of the American College of Surgeons, of which body there are but thirty-eight members from Ohio. There is a great deal of prestige conferred through a membership in this organization, which ranks with the Royal College of Surgeons of England.
Doctor Stamm has been honored by the citizens of Fremont and Sandusky County in having been selected as a member of the Fourth Constitutional Convention in 1912. He was also a member of the Board of Public Service and for eight years he was president of the Board of Education. He occupied the chair of Professor of Operative and Clinical Surgery in the Cleveland College of Physicians and surgeons, for ten years. This college is now a part of Western Reserve University. Doctor Stamm was twice chosen as vice president of the Ohio Stat Medical Association, and in 1909 was elected presiding officer, of the surgical section of the Ohio Stat Medical Association.
Doctor Stamm operates a hospital in Fremont, thus enableing him to give his surgical cases a closer personal attention that would be possible if the cases were only under his observation a part of the time. In this alone the city of Fremont is fortunate in having bee chosen as the field of endeavor of this wonderful man.
Doctor Martin Stamm is the author of many treatises and articles bearing on his surgical practice. These writing are used extensively as works of reference by physicians and surgeons throughout the land. While the work already accomplished by this man during his life is of such quantity and magnitude as to be almost unbelievable as having been accomplished by one man, he is still adding to the list daily and he will doubtless add still more data on hitherton unknown subjects before he himself is called to solve the great mystery of death.

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