Frederick Rectanus, M. D.

    Frederick Rectanus, M. D., physician and surgeon, Aurora, is a native of Germany, born in Bavaria, May 29, 1836, where he completed his collegiate course in 1853. His parents, Frederick and Christena (Peters) Rectanus, were born in Germany, the father in 1813, and the mother in 1819; the father died in Germany in 1867, and the mother resides at present in Louisville, Kentucky.

    The Doctor came to America in 1856, and located in St. Louis, Missouri, where he clerked in a wholesale grocery. In the spring of 1858 he moved to Louisville, Kentucky ,where he read medicine with R.J. Breckenridge, Jr., surgeon of the Marine Hospital, and attended lectures at the Louisville University, graduating in March, 1861. Immediately thereafter he entered the army as assistant surgeon of the Second Kentucky Regiment, serving in that capacity for four years and one month. In the spring of 1866 he located in Aurora, and has been very successful in all his undertakings, and built up a very satisfactory and lucrative practice.

    Dr. Rectanus was married, December 19, 1864, to Miss Charlotte L. Langley, a native of this city, and who was born upon the premises where they now reside in September, 1840. By the marriage they have raised one child,  Franklin. The Doctor was elected mayor of the city of Aurora in the spring of 1870, and re-elected in 1872. He discharged the duties of the office faithfully and honestly, and to the entire satisfaction of his constituents. In 1880 he was elected township trustee and served four years, after which he retired from the political field. He is a member of the Druids and Druid Chapter, I. O. O. F., Aurora Lodge No. 51, F. & A. M., and the G. A. R.

Source: History of Dearborn and Ohio Counties, Indiana by F.E. Weakley & Co., 1885.