Sofie Herzog

Biography Herzog was born in Vienna, Austria, and her father was a doctor. Her father was one of many other doctors in the family. When she was fourteen, she married August (or Moritz) Herzog who was also a physician. Together, they would have fifteen children, though eight died in infancy. In New York, she started studying to become a doctor and finished her training in Austria. In 1894, Herzog's youngest child, Elfriede, married a man from Brazoria. She also built her own home, where she also treated patients of all races and began to ride horses astride, wearing split skirts. Herzog developed her own method, using gravity, for extracting bullets from gunshot wounds. This method of removing bullets caught the attention of the South Texas Medical Society (STMS), who invited her to speak at their conference. She later had a necklace made out of twenty-four bullets she successfully extracted and wore it often. She would eventually be buried with the necklace. In 1897, Herzog became the first woman to become a member of STMS. She also was known for attending every semi-annual meeting of the group.

Herzog bought The Jefferson Hotel, which was located across from her office. She remained with the railroad until her retirement a few months before she died.

Herzog died a few months after having a stroke, in a Houston hospital on July 21, 1925.