Thiesen, Elizabeth L. Isaac (1869-1952)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1952 Feb 28 p. 6

Birth date: 1869 Jul 31

text of obituary:

. . .

— Dr. Elizabeth Isaac Thiessen [sic Thiesen], widely known practicing physician of the Moundridge community, passed away there Friday, Feb. 22, at the home of her brother, Jacob Isaac. She was 82 years of age. Memorial services were conducted Monday afternoon at the West Zion Mennonite church, Dr. P. R. Lange and Rev. E. Adrian officiating. Dr. Isaac began the practice of medicine at Pretty Prairie in 1901, and the following year moved to Moundridge and became associated with her sister, Dr. Susan Isaac. Her husband, P. W. Thiesen, preceded her in death only two weeks ago. Besides the brother at Moundridge, she is survived by a brother, Dr. John P. Isaac, of Glendale, Calif. Two nieces, Mrs. J. F. Moyer and Mrs. A. F. Tieszen, and a nephew, Dr. A. G. Isaac, reside here.

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Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1952 Mar 6 p. 9

text of obituary:

DR. ELIZABETH L. ISAAC THIESEN

Elizabeth L. Isaac, daughter of Gerhard and Agatha Hiebert Isaac, was born on July 31, 1861 at Pastwa, South Russia, and died on February 22, 1952, having reached the age of 82 years, six months and 23 days.

With the rest of the Isaac family, she emigrated to Mountain Lake, Minnesota in 1876, when she first attended school. In 1884 the Isaac family moved to Lehigh Kansas and in 1897 to Moundridge, which remained her home until her death.

In her late twenties she was baptized by Rev. David Dyck and joined the Mennonite Brethren church of which she remained a loyal member.

Through the influence of her older sister, Dr. Susan Isaac, she decided to become a physician and took the necessary pre-medical course at Salina Normal college, She was granted the M. D. degree by Kansas City Medical college, in 1900. Determined to begin her medical practice with even more thorough training, she finished a post-graduate course at Herring Medical college, Chicago, in 1901.

After practicing for one year at Pretty Prairie, Kansas, she decided to return to her mother's home in Moundridge. Here the sisters, Dr. Susan and Dr. Elizabeth, became associated in a practice of medicine which was carried on jointly until Dr. Susan passed away in 1938. Dr. Elizabeth continued the practice by herself but greatly missed the professional and spiritual companionship of her sister. In later years she restricted herself to an office practice.

In November 1945 she married a family friend of long standing, P. W. Thiesen of Dinuba, California, whose death preceded hers by just two weeks.

Dr. Isaac loved people and it was her greatest joy to help others. With her, charity began at home as shown by her many acts of generosity toward her nieces and nephews, but charity did not end there, for schools, hospitals, missions, the American Bible Society and other institutions benefited by her gifts.

Her final illness began in the summer of 1951 and as her strength waned her last month were made comfortable by the loving attention of her brother Jacob and wife Maria who share her home, and by the tender care of Miss Elizabeth Friesen R. N of Buhler, Kansas.

She is survived by two brothers Jacob of Moundridge, and Dr. John P. of Glendale, California and a number of nieces and nephews. She will long be remembered by those whose lives she touched “Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord. . . and their works do follow them.” Rev. 14:13.

Funeral services were held Feb 25 at the West Zion Mennonite Church of Moundridge, with Dr. P. R. Lange and Rev. E. Adrian in charge.

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In Memory of Dr. Elizabeth Isaac Thiesen

It is best to give bouquets when people are still with us; yet to speak a word in remembrance is also in place. When the obituary of Doctor Thiesen was read in West Zion church, Moundridge, on February 25, 1952, this sentence was a part — “She touched many lives.” She touched mine when I was a young boy.

My father died when I was nine years old. My mother had asthma and weak lungs. Every year she had an attack of pneumonia, which was very serious in the first decades of this century and before. How I feared and trembled that mother would die too, and then what? Dr. Elizabeth Isaac came to see my mother with horse and buggy, no matter how severe the weather. Her sympathetic way with mother was a special reassurance for me as a young boy. Year after year she pulled my mother through the siege of pneumonia, until I was a young man.

Yes, Dr. Elizabeth Isaac touched my life, and her skill in helping mother has indirectly had very much to do with putting me or the path of life on which, by the grace of God, I now am.—John Thiessen.