Buhler, David Bernhard, M. D.

The following data is extracted from A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans.

David Bernhard Buhler, M. D. The work of Doctor Buhler as a physician and surgeon had been done in the county and locality where he was born and reared, Reno County, and the people living in and around the village of Pretty Prairie have for many years appreciated his abilities and excellent services.

Doctor Buhler was born at Buhler, in Reno County, April 12, 1879. He represents a pioneer family of Mennonites who settled there in early days, and the village of Buhler was named in honor of his older brother, one of its most enterprising citizens.

His father, Bernhard Buhler, was born in Germany in 1833, but grew up in Southern Russia, where he was in the milling business. In 1878 he brought his family to the United States and on the 4th of July arrived in Reno County, Kansas. He established a home where the Village of Buhler now is, that village taking its name from his son, the late A. B. Buhler. After coming to Kansas Bernhard Buhler identified himself with agricultural pursuits, but is now living retired at Newton, Kansas, with his daughter, Mrs. P. W. Enns. As a voter he is a republican, and is both a member and minister of the Mennonite Church. In Southern Russia he married Anna Penner, who was born in that country in 1837. Their oldest child, the late A. B. Buhler, who died in a hospital at Wichita, January 21, 1917, was a pioneer merchant and banker at Buhler, establishing the first banking institution and in many ways building up the town, which he always claimed as his home. The second son, Bernhard B., is living on the old homestead farm two and a half miles east of Buhler. Mary married J. J. Wall, miller at McPherson, Kansas. Lizzie, with whom her parents reside, married P. W. Enns, of Newton, a prominent stockman known all over the Middle West. John J. lives at Buhler and is in the milling business. The next in order of birth is Doctor Buhler. Anna married J. C. Regier, who is associated with J. J. Buhler in the mill at Buhler.

Doctor Buhler was educated in the public schools of his native town and in 1898 graduated from Bethel College at Newton. He then spent two years in Kansas University and in 1904 received his M. D. degree from the medical department of Kansas University at Rosedale. Returning to his native county he began practice at Pretty Prairie in 1904 and his work had been steadily growing in extent and appreciation as a physician and surgeon. He is a Fellow of the American Medical Association and a member of both the State and Reno County Medical societies.

Doctor Buhler is a stockholder in the State Bank of Pretty Prairie and had acquired considerable property, including a farm of 160 acres two miles west of Pretty Prairie, his office building on East Main Street, and also his modern home, which he erected on East Main Street in 1905. Doctor Buhler is a member of the Mennonite Church and is affiliated with Kingman Lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Helping Camp of the Modern Woodmen of America at Pretty Prairie, and is past noble grand of Pretty Prairie Lodge No. 447, Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

In 1905, at Murdock, Kansas, Doctor Buhler married Miss Helen Hansman, daughter of A. and Julia (Baumberger) Hansman. Her father was a pioneer merchant at Murdock, but spent his last days in Pretty Prairie, where he died in 1917. The mother still lives at Pretty Prairie. Doctor and Mrs. Buhler have four children: Esther Gertrude, born July 25, 1906; Victor Bernhard, born December 31, 1908; Ella Irene, born May 23, 1914; and Helen Naomi, born October 26, 1916.

Source: A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans

  Go Back