from The History of Hendricks County (Indianapolis: B.F. Bowen & Co., 1914)----pages 288-289
Professional success comes from merit. Frequently in commercial life one may come into possession of a lucrative business through inheritance or gift, but in what are known as the learned professions advancement is gained only through painstaking and long-continued effort. Prestige in the healing art is the outcome of a strong mentality, close application, thorough mastery of its great underlying principles and the ability to apply theory to practice in the treatment of diseases. Good intellectual training, thorough professional knowledge and the possession and utilization of the qualities and attributes essential to success have made the subject of this review eminent in his chosen calling and he stands today among the scholarly and enterprising physicians in a county noted for the high order of its medical talent.
Dr. Louis W. Armstrong, a man of exceptionally high intellectual and professional attainments, was born in New York City September 21, 1875. His parents were Robert W. and Eudocia E. (Muller) Armstrong, both of whom were natives of Baltimore, Maryland. His father was a dentist, but retired from this profession early in life and devoted his energies to literary work. He came west in 1849, but always retained his home at Baltimore, where his death occurred in 1902, his wife having died in 1898. Dr. Robert Armstrong and wife were the parents of seven children, sox of whom are still living: William R. and Harry J. live near Baltimore, where they have a country home; Gelston H. is an electrical engineer with the Carnegie Company, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Mrs. George F. Ludington lives at Baltimore, where her husband is in the packing business; Adelaide R. lives in Baltimore, but at present is traveling in Europe; Mrs. Wade H. Free, of Anderson, Indiana, whose husband is a prominent lawyer of that city, and was secretary of the Indiana Senate in 1913.
Doctor Armstrong was given an excellent education, all of his elementary and college training being received in the Baltimore schools. He received his degree of Doctor of Medicine from the University of Maryland, graduating in the class of 1900. He was a resident intern at the university hospital before his graduation, after which he became the first assistant resident intern and later resident physician at Bay View Hospital at Baltimore, after which, for a period of ten years, he was on the surgeons' staff at the Franciscan Hospital at Breckenridge, Minnesota, and part of this time was chief surgeon. During all this time he was division surgeon of the Great Northern Railway Company. He left the state of Minnesota and came to Danville, Indiana, in June, 1912, and bought out the office and practice of Doctor O'Brien. Since then he has built substantial additions and improved his hospital until he now has one of the finest private hospitals in the state. He specializes in surgery and has been remarkably successful along this long. Though comparatively a newcomer in Danville, he has rapidly forged to the front, and now occupies a distinct position both as a public-spirited citizen and as a physician of more than local repute.
Doctor Armstrong was married June 8, 1904, to Louise E. Hyser, daughter of Edward R. and Susan Hyser, of Breckenridge, Minnesota. Her father was a native of Boston, Massachusetts, and her mother of Germany. To this happy marriage there have been born two children, Robert W. and Margaret S., aged eight and seven respectively. Doctor Armstrong is a member of the Free and Accepted Masons, the Order of the Eastern Star, Knights of Pythias, Ancient Order of United Workmen and Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He is also a member of the county, state and American medical associations and takes a deep interest in the affairs of all associations which concern his chosen field of endeavor. As a surgeon he is a member of the Clinical Congress of Surgeons of America, the greatest organization of its kind in the world. He and his wife are loyal and consistent members of the Methodist Episcopal Church and contribute liberally of their substance to its support.