Dr. Oscar Bruegel — East Lansing’s “Only” Doctor

Oscar Henry Bruegel was born on September 10, 1877, at Manchester, a village in Washtenaw County. He earned his M.D. from the University at Ann Arbor in 1902.

In the fall of 1903, Dr. Bruegel arrived in the environs of the Michigan Agricultural College and moved into a house on Michigan Avenue at the apex of College Delta, formerly known as Backus Cottage. He established his medical practice in rooms at the rear of the first floor, facing Grand River Avenue.¹

Although At the Campus Gate refers to Dr. Bruegel as “the town’s first doctor,” Dr. Herbert Landon actually arrived first, renting a room at Mrs. Kedzie’s in April 1903. When Landon moved to the Delta in 1905, his office and Bruegel’s were effectively next door to each other. However, after Landon left for his Army commission around 1917, he was gradually forgotten, and Bruegel, who remained in East Lansing for many more years, inherited the “first doctor” title.²

Oscar Bruegel married Maude Estelle Swarthout of Pinckney in 1908. They had two children, Robert O. (1911) and Elizabeth “Betty” Marie (1915). As a boy, Robert took pride in answering the office door when patients arrived to see his father, relishing the small but important role it gave him.³

Described as crusty, brusque, and introverted by those who knew him—including his own family—Dr. Bruegel was nevertheless held in very high esteem and deep affection by the community. Without exaggeration, he delivered an entire generation of East Lansing babies. “A great diagnostician, he helped the little town through the infantile paralysis and great flu epidemic, unaided.” He embodied the archetype of a dedicated town doctor—medicine was his life, patient health was paramount, and payment for services was often an afterthought.⁴

As his practice grew, Dr. Bruegel relocated his office. In 1917, when the original East Lansing State Bank (ELSB) building was completed, he moved his office into the prime space at the east end of the second floor, above the bank. Then, when the second ELSB building (“The Abbott”) was completed in 1927, he moved again, maintaining an office on the second floor there until his retirement in 1949.⁵

Beyond his private practice, Oscar Bruegel took on several larger roles. He joined the medical staff of Sparrow Hospital upon its founding in 1912 and twice served as its chief of staff, in 1923 and from 1931 to 1938. He was instrumental in organizing the hospital’s nurse training program. Additionally, he served as East Lansing’s city health officer and as medical director of the Ingham County Tuberculosis Sanatorium. In 1927, he became a director of ELSB when the board expanded from seven to thirteen members. Later, he was also on the board of the East Lansing Building and Loan Association.⁶

Oscar and Maude Bruegel lived in the house on the Delta for over three decades. In 1936, they purchased a home at 606 Marshall Street and moved there. Their former residence was rented out and later demolished between 1948 and 1951, the first house on the Delta to be removed.⁷

After retiring in 1949, the Bruegels moved to Traverse City, where they had maintained a summer home since 1922 and converted it for year-round use. Oscar Bruegel died there in 1966 at the age of 88.⁸

1. Kestenbaum, pp. 11, 143–144. LCD (1916), p. 221. ↩︎
2. Kestenbaum, p. 115. MAC Record, 8(28), 7 Apr 1903, p. 3; 9(1), 21 Sep 1903, p. 4. LSJ, 10 Jan 1905, p. 8. ↩︎
3. Kestenbaum, p. 144. ↩︎
4. Kestenbaum, pp. 124, 144. ↩︎
5. LCD (1933), p. 687. Kestenbaum, p. 145. ↩︎
6. LSJ, 12 Jan 1927, p. 15; 3 Dec 1930, p. 1; 5 Mar 1932, p. 1; 14 May 1935, p. 3; 29 Apr 1966, p. 4. ↩︎
7. LSJ, 22 Nov 1936, p. 27. ↩︎
8. Kestenbaum, p. 145. LSJ, 29 Apr 1966, p. 4. ↩︎