A.F. (August Frederick) Jonas Papers

August Frederick Jonas was born in Wisconsin in 1858, and at the age of 14, he was employed as a bookkeeper in Iowa, where he also studied medicine with Dr. A. T. Koch. At age 17, he entered Bennett Medical College in Chicago, receiving his MD degree in 1877. He first practiced in Sauk City, Wisconsin, and in 1882 he went abroad for four years, studying at Ludwig Maximillian University in Munich, from which he graduated in 1884. He then did post-graduate work in Vienna, Berlin, and Paris.

Jonas came to Omaha from Madison, Wisconsin, in 1887, taking up the practice of surgery at the new Methodist Hospital at 20th and Harney Streets. He organized the surgical department at Methodist and was named its first chief surgeon. In 1898 he became chief surgeon of the Union Pacific Railroad at the personal request of the railroad’s president, E. H. Harriman, and remained in this post for twenty-seven years. Dr. Jonas also served as the American Academy of Railway Surgeons president during the early 1900s.

He served as a professor of clinical surgery at the Omaha Medical College and the University of Nebraska College of Medicine for thirty-five years. He was Dean of the Omaha Medical College from 1899-1902. He was one of the leading proponents for affiliation between the Omaha Medical College and the University of Nebraska in 1902 and the eventual location of all medical college programs and courses at the present campus site in Omaha in 1913. He received the rank of professor emeritus; and an honorary Doctor of Law from the University of Nebraska in 1928.

Jonas served as president of the following medical organizations: Omaha-Douglas County Medical Society, Omaha Surgical Club, Nebraska State Medical Association, 1905, Western Surgical Association, 1899, Missouri Valley Medical Society, 1894, Pan-American Medical Society, 1897, and the American Railroad Surgeons, 1901. He was vice-president of the American Medical Association, 1902, and vice-president of the American Surgical Association. He was a charter member of the American College of Surgeons, a member of the Societe Internationale de Chirurgie (International Society of Surgery), and a frequent contributor to surgical literature.

During World War I, Jonas served as a special medical aid to the Governor of Nebraska, with the rank of Captain. He helped to organize Nebraska Base Hospital No. 49 for war service in France and the Omaha Ambulance Company.

In 1889, Jonas married Metha Helfritz, who had just graduated from the Women’s Medical College of Chicago. She was born in 1857, attended the University of Iowa, and taught school before beginning the study of medicine. Metha Helfritz Jonas served as secretary of the Omaha Medical Society in 1894. She died on October 28, 1895, in Baltimore. Jonas later married Jessica Stebbins, and they had three children, Dr. August F. Jonas, Jr, novelist Carl Jonas, and Mary Elizabeth (“ME”) Jonas (Mrs. Harold (“Hal”) Gifford, Jr.). Dr. Jonas died on November 12, 1934, aged 76.