​Gilpin Historical Society 

Since you can't come to the history right now, we'll bring some history to you...

In April of 1872, Dr. Gotlieb Wohlgesinger, who had been practicing in Central City since 1868, was put on trial for manslaughter.  Prior to coming to Colorado, Dr. Wohlgesinger had practiced at St. Golan’s Hospital in his native Zurich, Switzerland, and he came highly recommended.  His arrest on charges of manslaughter came from the death of Catherine Williams of Nevadaville on December 10, 1870.  According to the complaint, Dr. Wohlgesinger was assisting in the delivery of Mrs. Williams’s child when the forceps he was using caused a three-inch-deep wound that ultimately caused her death.  Prosecutors Gilbert Reed and Charles Post argued that the doctor demonstrated “gross carelessness and ignorance” in his use of the instrument.  Defense lawyers Henry and Willard Teller agued that the baby’s head was stuck and Wohlgesinger had no choice but to use the forceps or both the mother and baby were sure to die.  The Tellers were successful in their defense and the jury found Dr. Wohlgesinger not guilty.  He remained in Central City after the trial.  In 1875 he married Jennie Peerson in Central City and they had one daughter, Eda.  The Wohlgesingers moved to Denver in about 1881 and earned a reputation as a skilled surgeon.  When Colorado’s secretary of state and sometimes acting governor John Wesley Jenkins was injured in Leadville in 1882, his doctors called on Dr. Wohlgesinger to offer his opinion on the case.  Gotlieb Wohlgesinger committed suicide in his Denver office on February 26, 1885, shooting himself while, as the newspapers reported, “laboring under insanity.”  He and Jennie, who died in 1925, are buried at Riverside Cemetery in Denver.