Louise Maertz

Louise Maertz was born in Quincy, Illinois, the daughter of Charles Augustus Maertz and Ottilia Obert Maertz. Both of her parents were German immigrants.[1] Louise was sent to Germany for medical treatment at age 18, and toured Europe during that time.[2]

As a young woman during the American Civil War, she volunteered as a nurse, at first locally in Illinois, and then in Helena, Arkansas, and St. Louis, Missouri, among other assignments. She caught malaria in 1863, at an Army hospital in Mississippi.[3] She helped set up the Soldiers' Home in New Orleans.[4] In 1895 she donated money to the Blessing Hospital in Quincy, in memory of her father, for a men's ward.[5]

Maertz wrote several books, including A New Method for the Study of English Literature (1884),[6] and a biography of her father (1903).[5] In 1895, during thirtieth anniversary commemorations of the end of the Civil War, she published a detailed memoir of her time as a nurse with the Union Army.[7]

In 1869, she was a founding member of the "Friends in Council," a women's study club in Quincy.[8] Late in life she served on the board of the Quincy Historical Society, and in that capacity saved the John Wood Mansion from demolition in 1907.[2] She was also active in the Quincy Humane Society.[9]

Louise Maertz died in 1918, aged 80 years. There is a plaque in Quincy, Illinois, placed by the Quincy Women's Club, honoring several "Pioneer Women" of the town, including Louise Maertz.[8] At her death, her estate funded the establishment of a "waif's home" for black children in Quincy.[10]

• Louise Maertz at Find a Grave