Dr. Henry Justus Herrick was born on January 20, 1833 in Aurora, Portage County, Ohio. He graduated from Williams College in 1858 and Rush Medical College in Chicago, Illinois, in 1861. After medical school he came to the Cleveland area to work at the U.S. Marine Hospital under Dr. Martin L. Brooks. Dr. Herrick was commissioned assistant surgeon and then promoted to surgeon with the 17th Ohio Volunteer Infantry during the Civil War. He was captured at the battle of Chickamauga and spent two months as a prisoner of war at Libby Prison. After the war ended, he became a professor and became chair of gynecology and hygiene in the medical department of Western Reserve University. He was a member of several medical societies and wrote articles for various medical journals. He died in 1901.