John Henry Rauch

John Henry Rauch (4 September 1828 in Lebanon, Pennsylvania – 24 March 1894 in Chicago) was an American sanitarian. He brought attention to public health problems posed by cemeteries in large cities and handled the public health emergencies posed by the Chicago fire of 1871. He was the founding president of the Illinois State Board of Health.

Rauch graduated in medicine from the University of Pennsylvania and settled in Burlington, Iowa. In 1850, on the organization of the Iowa State Medical Society, he was appointed to report on the “Medical and Economic Botany of Iowa,” and this report was afterward published (1851). He was an active member of the Iowa Historical and Geological Institute, and made a collection of material — especially ichthyologic — from the upper Mississippi and Missouri rivers for Prof. Louis Agassiz, a description of which was published in Silliman's Journal (1855).

In 1857, he was appointed professor of materia medica and medical botany in Rush Medical College, Chicago, which chair he filled for the next three years. In 1859, he was one of the organizers of the Chicago College of Pharmacy and filled its chair of materia medica and medical botany.

During the Civil War, he served as assistant medical director of the Army of Virginia, and then in Louisiana, until 1864. At the close of the war he was brevetted lieutenant-colonel.

On his return to Chicago, Dr. Rauch published a pamphlet on “Intramural Interments in Populous Cities, and Their Influence Upon Health and Epidemics” (Chicago, 1866). He aided in reorganizing the health service of the city, and in 1867 was appointed member of the newly created board of health and sanitary superintendent, which office he filled until 1873. During his incumbency the great fire of 1871 occurred, and the task of organizing and enforcing the sanitary measures for the welfare of 112,000 houseless men, women, and children was suddenly thrown upon his department.

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