Detlef M. Ferdinand Krogh, M.D.

To his colleagues and friends he was known as Fred but to his parents he was Detlef Marius Ferdinand Krogh. They were from Denmark but he and an older brother were born in Germany.  Fred came to Philadelphia after stops in several other places, just as he came to medicine after a career in physical education.

The passenger list for his journey from Hamburg to New York in 1882 suggests he traveled alone, but perhaps there were relatives to meet him. He excelled in gymnastics and got a job six years later teaching at Turner’s Gymnasium in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. This is a photo of him at about 20 years old, probably when he was a gymnastics instructor there.

On May 31, 1889 a dam ruptured 14 miles upstream after days of heavy rainfall. The town was destroyed by a flood that took 2208 lives, the greatest single-day civilian loss of life in this country until September 11, 2001. Thanks to his athletic ability, Fred was able to rescue a little girl from drowning. That day was one he would never forget.

Another teaching job brought him south to West Virginia that fall. He was hired to teach gymnastics at Wheeling Female College. There he met Caroline Nunge, whose mother was from Germany and father was from France. Carrie, as she was called, was born in Wheeling and was just a few weeks older than Fred. They married on Christmas Eve, 1890. Their first child, Karl, was born the following October.

Exercise and good health are closely related, so Fred decided to pursue a degree at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. They made the move in 1892 and he was one of 226 graduates in the 1896 commencement ceremony. He worked his way through school and supported his family by teaching physical education in the public schools near their home in the Passyunk Square neighborhood.

Their daughter Violet was born in 1893, followed by fraternal twins Pearl and Alexander Ransley in 1899. Harold arrived in 1901, and their last child, Grayce, was born in 1908. 

A city directory listed Fred as a physician at 1443 South 13th St. in 1897, and a dozen years later at 6243 Elmwood, not far from Mount Moriah. It appears he didn’t devote his entire energy to medicine, however. The obituary written by his children says he also taught at the Philadelphia School of Pedagogy, a school for teacher education.

The family moved in 1913 to Newark, New Jersey where he taught physical education in the city schools, and then at Evander Childs High School in The Bronx. They returned to Philadelphia in 1919, and Fred set up his medical practice full-time in his home at 5923 Chester Ave. He also served for 20 years as associate editor of Mind and Body magazine.

Sometime in the 1920s this photo captured the entire family. In 1934 Carrie succumbed to a coronary embolism and Fred signed her death certificate. Since Pearl was the only child that never married, she lived with her father until he died in 1939. He had an operation on his prostate in September but died three months later from arteriosclerosis.

 

Pearl remained in the Chester Ave. home until she died in 1967 and her name was added to their gravestone. Karl and Violet were the other two children buried at Mount Moriah, he in 1942 and she in 1954.