Dr.
Joseph C. Placak
On
February 22, 1882 a child named Joseph Charles Placak was born in
Cleveland to parents Anthony and Jennie Goldstein Placak of Austria.
He would grow up to marry Eunice S. Emde. He would become an educated
man, and a doctor, graduating from The College of Physicians and
Surgeons, Western
Reserve University in
1903 and receiving his post-graduate degree from the University of
Prague, Austria. Joseph completed his residency as both a pathologist
and a physician at Cleveland City Hospital by 1905.
MARRIAGE
On
September 25, 1888 a child named Eunice Sabina Emde was born in Ohio
to Fred Christian Emde and his wife Jesse Williams Emde. Eunice would
grow up to marry the renowned tuberculosis expert Dr. Joseph C.
Placak and they would have four children, Joseph Jr. (1907),
Frederick (1910), Robert (1913) and daughter Jean (1917).
When he was 25 and Eunice 19 they wed on March 20, 1907 in Cleveland. His mother on the marriage record was listed as Grace B. Dushanek. By the time of the 1930 Census for Cuyahoga County, Cleveland Heights, Ohio, Joseph was 48 and Eunice was 41. Their 4 single children ages 12 to 22 still lived at the family home valued at $50,000 '" a remarkable amount for that period of time, in a wealthy Cleveland neighborhood at 2228 Woodmere Road.
When he was 25 and Eunice 19 they wed on March 20, 1907 in Cleveland. His mother on the marriage record was listed as Grace B. Dushanek. By the time of the 1930 Census for Cuyahoga County, Cleveland Heights, Ohio, Joseph was 48 and Eunice was 41. Their 4 single children ages 12 to 22 still lived at the family home valued at $50,000 '" a remarkable amount for that period of time, in a wealthy Cleveland neighborhood at 2228 Woodmere Road.
COOLEY
FARMS
As
a young married man, he was the Medical Superintendent at the 2000
acre Cooley Farms in Warrensville, which housed the municipal
tuberculosis sanatorium for Cleveland '" the first person named
to this position. Those infirmed here had access to the outdoors that
aided their comfort while confined to the sanatorium. He worked with
the disease of tuberculosis and lectured on internal medicine at the
Cleveland College of Physicians and Surgeons until 1911. In 1915 he
was the head of the Division of Tuberculosis for Cleveland City
Hospital.
WWI AND THE HAYMARKET DISTRICT
During
WWI, he was a Major in the Medical Corps of the Army and Chief of
Medical Services for Evacuation Hospital #5 at Coblenz, Germany.
Tuberculosis
was to always be the focus of Joseph's medical career. He became the
physician in charge of the Tuberculosis Dispensary in the Haymarket
District, visiting pathologist for Eddy Road Hospital, and a member
of the American Medical Association regarding the study and
prevention of this dreadful disease.
DR.
HARRY PLACAK, PHARMACEUTICAL CHEMIST
In
1940, Joseph's relative, Dr. Harry Placak, a prominent pharmaceutical
chemist from Cleveland, Ohio, with a "masked value"
selective service classification, moved to Skyuka Road in Tryon, NC.
His property included his home and his laboratory where he conducted
research on animal feeds, including being an advocate for the
soybean. He lived there until his death at St. Luke's Hospital in
1967, following breaking his hip in a fall at the elderly age of 96.
Dr. Joseph C. Placak was the informant for the death certificate.
More information on catorfamilies.com
In
1941 Joseph Placak held memberships with the American Board of
Internal Medicine and the American College of Physicians. He was on
the board of directors for the National Tuberculosis Association and
on the Board of Regents for the American College of Chest Physicians.
He was elected President of the Anti-Tuberculosis League of Cleveland
and Cuyahoga County and named Chief of Staff at Mount Royal
Sanatorium for Tuberculosis plus he consulted at Lake County Memorial
Hospital and wrote many papers on chest illnesses and public health.
Joseph Placak was known by many as the physician who did the most to
prevent and cure tuberculosis.
WWII
came and in 1942 at the age of 60 Joseph completed his Draft
Registration Card listing his home as 2228 Woodmere Road, Cleveland,
his wife as Eunice, and his career as physician with his place of
business being the Carnegie Medical Building in Cleveland.
RETIREMENT
RETIREMENT
Six
years later the Spartanburg Herald-Journal Sunday morning paper
announced that noted Dr. Joseph C. Placak, head of the tuberculosis
division of City Hospital in Cleveland and president-elect for the
American College of Chest Physicians and Surgeons, would retire to
his long-owned mountain home on Tryon Mountain on Skyuka Road, NC '"
in the vicinity where Dr. Harry Placak also resided.
Under
the directorship of Joseph, the Polk
County Museum was
started in the Tryon Depot to house records, books, photographs and
artifacts. It is still open today. It is likely that Dr. Joseph
Placak is the Joseph Placak that wrote an article on Polk
County.
Interestingly,
in March of 1970, Eunice died at the age of 88, but, if her death
certificate is correct, she was no longer Joseph's wife '" they
had divorced at some point. Her son, Dr. Joseph Charles Placak Jr.,
was the family member who handled the notification; he lived in the
area and was at some point, the coroner for Columbus, NC. Eunice was
cremated in Atlanta Georgia following her passing at Saluda Nursing
Center in Columbus, NC. Dr. Joseph Placak, Jr., son of Joseph and
Eunice, died on the 2 nd of
July in 1988 in Columbus NC at the age of 80. Their son Fred Emde
Placak died there at the age of 81 in 1992.
Per
the Social Security Death Index, Dr. Joseph C. Placak (Sr.) died in
Abington, Washington County, VA in November of 1970 at 88 years of
age.
