Judd, Homer

Born: 1820-05-23 Berkshire County, Massachusetts

Died: 1890-05-20 Upper Alton, Illinois

Flourished: 1853 to 1861 Warsaw, Illinois

Homer Judd, dentist and surgeon, was born in West Otis, Massachusetts, and studied at local common schools and academies before attending Berkshire Medical College in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, from which he graduated in 1847. He then practiced medicine and dentistry in Ravenna, Ohio, between 1847 and 1849, then briefly in New Mexico Territory, ultimately settling in Illinois where he continued to work as a dentist. Judd practiced in Pittsfield and then in Warsaw, living in the latter city by 1853 when he was a member of the city council. He moved to St. Louis in 1861, and on the outbreak of the Civil War joined the Union cause as an assistant surgeon on a hospital steamer. Judd served as a surgeon to Union troops following the Battle of Shiloh, and afterwards was surgeon of the Fortieth Missouri Regiment. At the time he was discharged from service in August, 1865 he was stationed at Huntsville, Alabama. Upon his discharge he returned to St. Louis and resumed his career as a dentist. Judd married Emily F. Hodgen in 1853 and the pair had three children. In politics Judd opposed the Kansas-Nebraska Act and represented Hancock County at the 1858 Illinois Republican Convention. He was an Odd Fellow.

Portrait and Biographical Record of Hancock, McDonough and Henderson Counties Illinois (Chicago: Lake City, 1894), 123-24; Portage Sentinel (Ravenna, OH), 20 September 1847, 3:2; 21 March 1849, 3:1, 2; Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Pike County, 8 March 1853, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; Warsaw Weekly Express (IL), 2 June 1853, 3:4; Warsaw City Bulletin (IL), 10 April 1856, 1:1; 24 April 1856, 2:4; 15 May 1856, 2:4; Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 17 June 1858, 2:3; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Ward 3, Warsaw, Hancock County, IL, 939; The Alton Telegraph (IL), 22 May 1890, 4:6; Gravestone, Oakwood Cemetery, Pittsfield IL.