Vittorio Emanuel von Brunow, M. D.

Duane's take

Here's how the marker on this site tells it, and I'm gonna give it to you straight. There's a man named Vittorio Emanuel von Brunow, M.D., and his story stretches from a Carolina birthplace to the Texas Panhandle, with a good chunk of Europe tucked in between. Born on October 27, 1862 in North Carolina, young Vittorio didn't stay put for long.

By 1864, his family had moved all the way to east Prussia. Now that's a journey in itself, but it wasn't the last one. As a young man he was educated in Vienna and Warsaw, which is to say he didn't cut corners on his learning.

Then in 1892, he turned the compass back toward the United States. Back to the country where he started, carrying everything those European institutions had given him. He arrived in Texas in 1900, and three years after that, he found his way to Pampa.

Right here. On this very site, von Brunow erected a frame house, and out of that single frame house he ran what you might call a one-man civilization. A drugstore.

A post office. A telephone office. And a medical practice, all operating together under one roof.

But the roof was just the start of it. As the area's first doctor, he traveled many miles over dirt roads to reach patients who had nowhere else to turn. Dirt roads, miles out, however far it took.

And when he wasn't on the road or behind the counter or on the telephone, von Brunow was active in community affairs and civic organizations, for many years. He died on May 7, 1941. One frame house on one piece of Panhandle ground, and the man inside it somehow filled the whole county.

That's Vittorio Emanuel von Brunow, M.D.

What the marker says

(October 27, 1862 - May 7, 1941) Born in North Carolina, Vittorio von Brunow moved to east Prussia with his family in 1864 and as a young man was educated in Vienna and Warsaw. He returned to the United States in 1892 to pursue his interests in research and technology, arriving in Texas in 1900 and in Pampa three years later. Von Brunow erected a frame house on this site from which he operated a drugstore and post and telephone offices in addition to his medical practice. As the area's first doctor, he often traveled many miles over dirt roads to care for his patients. Von Brunow also was active in community affairs and civic organizations for many years. (1998)