Alameda County Biographies

HENRY B. ORWIG

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

 

	Henry B. Orwig is widely known as the president and general manager of the North 
American Hospital Association at No. 577 Fourteenth street in Oakland. His birth occurred in 
Bangor, Michigan, in August, 1864, his parents being Henry G. and Mary A. (Gardiner) Orwig. In 
the acquirement of an education he attended the graded and high schools of Garnett, Kansas, 
until 1884 and then went to Chicago, where for one year he was employed as clerk by I. O. Harsh, 
a member of the Board of Trade. Returning to Garnett, Kansas, he there worked on his father's 
stock farm until twenty-two years of age and subsequently made his way to Clatskanie, Oregon, 
where he was engaged in the butchering business in association with his brother for two years. 
On the expiration of that period he sold out and again returned to Kansas, working on his 
father's farm for two years. He next went to Girard, Kansas, and there conducted a mercantile 
establishment until 1898, when he sold out and organized Company D of the Twentieth Kansas 
United States Volunteers, acting as its captain until his regiment was mustered out in July, 
1899. In that month he was promoted major of the Thirty-seventh United States Volunteers and 
thus served until the regiment was discharged in June, 1901, when he accepted a commission as 
major of native troops around Manila.
	In 1908 Mr. Orwig resigned and came to Oakland, California, here acting as a salesman 
with the M. T. Minney Real Estate Company for one year. Subsequently he spent a year as manager 
of the Pacific Coast Hospital Association and then consolidated a number of hospital 
associations under the name of the North American Hospital Association, of which he was elected 
president and general manager. The purpose of the organization is to afford surgical, medical 
and hospital service to men, women and children at a nominal cost of one dollar per month. Mr. 
Orwig is well qualified for his important duties as head of this splendid organization�an 
institution of great value and inestimable benefit to the general public.
	On the 24th of December, 1889, in Garnett, Kansas, Mr. Orwig was united in marriage to 
Miss Minnie Rupp, by whom he has three children, namely: Raymond L., who acts as agent for the 
North American Hospital Association; Ethel, at home with her parents; and Robert, a resident of 
Stockton, California. In politics Mr. Orwig is a progressive republican and at all times a loyal 
and public-spirited citizen. He belongs to the Chamber of Commerce and enjoys an extensive 
acquaintance in Oakland and Alameda county.

Past & Present of Alameda County, California � Vol II, S. J. Clarke Publ. Co., 1914, p. 157