Dave Oehlke said he was intrigued when he read the old book written by Doc. Sihler about his experience as a pioneering doctor in the Lake Region area. He shared many excerps from that book at an event held at Black Paws Brewing Co. in downtown Devils Lake on the evening of Thursday, March 27, 2025.
The event was a fundraiser for the Lake Region Heritage Center and the Lake Region Public Library, a joint venture to purchase equipment to digitize old and out of print books like Doc Sihler’s and older newspaper or periodical articles making them available for the public to enjoy.
William F. Sihler was born in Simcoe, Ontario, Canada June 13, 1876. He graduated cum laude in 1894 from Trinity College, Toronto, attended McGill University at Montreal and interned there for general practice and later for post graduate work in surgery.
Seeking a place to practice he arrived at Grand Harbor, North Dakota in 1899. It was cold, snowy and he only had $30 in his pocket but he settled in and began his life’s work serving the people of the high plains. Two years later he moved to Devils Lake, a larger community. The next year he returned to Canada where he married Anna, a girl he’d met during his senior year at college.
They lived in Devils Lake to the end of their lives founding a hospital and a nurse’s training school in “The Way Home” on 6th street by 1908. That house still stands in Devils Lake across the street from the Leever’s Foods parking lot on 6th Street NE.
By the fall of 1912 the “new” General Hospital was begun on the corner of 7th Avenue and 3rd Street.
Doc Sihler died Oct. 17, 1964 survived by daughter Kathlee, grandson Glenn Toomey and two great grand children, Monica and Glenn Toomey III.
The facts listed above come from Book 1 of the three book History of the Lake Region, Devils Lake and Ramsey County published by local writers and contributors for the Centennial.
