An illustrated history of Los Angeles County, California. Containing a history of Los Angeles County from the earliest period of its occupancy to the present time, together with glimpses of its prospective future and biographical mention of many of its pioneers and also of prominent citizens of to-day, Part 33

Author: Lewis Publishing Company. cn
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Chicago, Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1092

USA > California > Los Angeles County > An illustrated history of Los Angeles County, California. Containing a history of Los Angeles County from the earliest period of its occupancy to the present time, together with glimpses of its prospective future and biographical mention of many of its pioneers and also of prominent citizens of to-day > Part 33

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Dr. Shorb, who is a frank and ontspoken man, is nevertheless very genial and popular, and has had flattering success in his profession. The Doctor has rendered very efficient service in the establishment and building up of the Unitarian church in Los Angeles.

DR. WALTER LINDLEY was born in Indiana, January 13, 1852. In 1866 he removed with his parents to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he received a fair general education in the grammar and high school, working in vacations successively in a flour mill, a woolen mill and a book-store. He commenced teaching in the public schools in 1869 and thus accumulated enough money to begin his medical education. He graduated at the Philadelphia School of Anatomy in 1873, and then spent one vacation traveling for a wholesale cutlery house, selling goods to jobbers in all the principal cities of the United States. Following this busy voca- tion he attended two years at the Long Island College Hospital, Brooklyn, New York, from which he graduated in 1875. During his last year at this medical college he was ambulance surgeon of the city of Brooklyn, which assisted him in gaining practical knowledge in surgery and was also of great value to him financially, as he received for this work $30 per month and his board.

In October, 1875, he came to Los Angeles to begin his professional career. He had no money, but he possessed an abundance of en- thusiasm and energy. Soon after his arrival there was a terrible drouth, a very fatal epi-

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demic of small-pox and some serious bank failures, but he remained sanguine in regard to the ultimate prosperity of Southern California. In 1878 he was elected health officer of the city of Los Angeles, and in 1880 was elected a member of the city Board of Education, In 1880 he assisted in founding the Los Angeles Orphans' Home, in which he has since served continuously, either as president, attending physician or consulting physician. He was for several years secretary of the Los Angeles County Medical Society, and in 1881 was elected president. In 1882 he spent four months in the hospitals in New York. The Doctor is Republican in politics, and in 1877 was president of the first young men's Repub- lican club ever organized in Los Angeles. In 1884 he was elected county physician, which position he held for eighteen months when he resigned on account of overwork. In 1886 lie again went to New York and spent three months in the hospitals. While on this visit lie read, by invitation, before the Kings County Medical Society, Brooklyn, New York, a paper entitled "Southern California: a Climatic Sketch." This paper was well received and has since been published in twenty-eight different journals in the United States, and translated and published in German. In 1884 he, in com- pany with Drs. Kurtz and Widney, established the Southern California Practitioner, a monthly medical journal, which has taken a prominent position among medical periodicals, and of which he is managing editor. In 1885 he was one of the founders of the Medical College of the University of Southern Califor- nia, in which he has ever since been Professor of Obstetrics. In 1887 Dr. Lindley and Dr. Widney wrote "California of the Sonth," a handsome volume of 400 pages, descriptive of Southern California. This work was published by D. Appleton & Co., New York, and has mnet with a great sale. In 1888 he assisted in found- ing the Southern California District Medical Society. In 1889 he was unanimously elected president of the State Medical Society, of Cali-

fornia, which position he now holds. During all these years in Los Angeles Dr. Lindley has been actively engaged in what has for a long time been an extensive private practice.

Dr. Lindley was married August 18, 1875, to Miss Loue C. Puett, daughter of Rev. W. W. Puett. She died May 6, 1881, after a lin- gering illness, leaving two little girls. He was again united in marriage, November 22, 1882, to Miss Lilla L. Leighton, and his family now consists of his wife and three children. Dur- ing his residence in Los Angeles the Doctor has done a great deal of writing, his chief rec- reation being his pen and his books, yet he is no recluse, and greatly enjoys social gatherings, especially social meetings with his fellow prac- tiionters.

JOHN STROTHER GRIFFIN, M. D., was born at Fincastle, Virginia, in 1816. His father, John Caswell Griffin, was a native of Virginia, as was his father before him. He died in 1823, when the Doctor was about seven years of age. His mother, nee Mary Hancock, was a daughter of George and Margaret (Strother) Hancock, both of prominent Virginia families. She died when the Doctor was quite young, probably in 1825. Thus deprived of both his parents in early boyhood, he went to Louisville, Kentucky, where he lived with his maternal uncle, George Hancock, until maturity, and was given a classi- eal education. In 1837 he graduated as M. D. from the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia. He then practiced at Louisville until 1840, when he entered the United States army as assistant surgeon, and served as such under General Worth in Florida and on the southwest frontier at Fort Gibson. At the commencement of the Mexican war, in 1846, he was attached to the Army of the West, commanded by General Kearny, as surgeon of the First Dragoons, with rank of Captain, he being with that army when it entered Santa Fé, in August, 1846. In the following September, General Kearny, with his command, started on a march to California, arriving at the Colorado River in November,

John S griffins

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HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY.

and on the 3d of December reached Warner's Ranch, in what is now San Diego County, Cali- fornia. December 6 the battle of San Pasqual was fought with the Mexican forces, and on the 10th the command arrived at San Diego with its wounded, Commodore Stockton having a short time previously arrived there with the United States squadron. January 1, 1847, the commands of General Kearny and Commodore Stockton were united, the Doctor being the ranking medical officer. A march was then made toward Los Angeles. On the 8th of Janu- ary, meeting the Mexican forces at San Gabriel River, an engagement took place, and driving them back, they crossed the river some ten miles southeast of Los Angeles. On the 9th of Jannary another engagement with the Mexi- cans took place at La Mesa, and on the 10th they took possession of Los Angeles, then con- taining some 3,000 or 4,000 inhabitants. On the 12th or 13th of January, forces under Gen- eral J. C. Frémont arriving at Los Angeles from the North, General Kearny's command was transferred to San Diego, where the Doctor was placed in charge of the general hospital. In May, 1847, he was ordered to report for duty at Los Angeles, under Colonel J. D. Stevenson, where he was on duty until May, 1849, when he was transferred to the staff of General Per- sifer Smith, as medical officer. In 1850 he was stationed at Benicia, where he remained until 1852, when he was ordered to San Diego to accompany Major Heintzelman on an expedition against the Yuna Indians on the Colorado River. He then returned to duty at Benicia. In 1853 he was ordered by the War Department to report for duty at Washington, D. C. He remained there until 1854, when, resigning his commission, he returned to California and per- manently located at Los Angeles, where he has since been engaged in the practice of medicine.

Dr. Griffin, after Dr. R. S. Den, is believed to be the oldest physician and surgeon in Los Angeles, in which capacities he has enjoyed the confidence of some of the best families in Los Angeles for something like forty years, for his

skill became known to them whilst he was yet an army surgeon.

Having in early times acquired a large tract of land east of the river, he may in a sense be called the father of that beautiful suburb, East Los Angeles. He was one of the original in- corporators, and a stockholder and director of both the Los Angeles City Water Company and the Farmers' and Merchants' Bank. For many years Dr. Griffin has been prominent as an in- fluential and public-spirited citizen, as well as in his profession. He is likewise one of the most genial of gentlemen.

The Doctor was married in 1856, in Los An- geles, to Miss Louisa Hays, a native of Mary- land. She died in this city, May 2, 1888, at the age of sixty-seven years.

GRANVILLE MACGOWAN, M. D., a representa- tive of the most advanced school of thought and scientific research in the medical profession, is the son of the late Colonel Granville MacGowan, of the United States Army, and was born in Iowa during the temporary sojourn of his par- ents in the Hawkeye State, in 1857. His father spent most of his life in the military service as an officer in the regular army. His mother's home was in Philadelphia, and in that city the Doctor was educated for his profession, graduating from the University of Pennsylva- nia in 1879. After officiating as resident physician of Blockly Hospital one year, Dr. MacGowan went to Europe for the purpose of further extending his professional studies, and spent four years abroad in study and travel, taking special courses in the universities of Berlin, Paris and Vienna. Returning to New York in 1884, he practiced a year in the Amer- ican metropolis before coming to Los Angeles. Since locating here abont four years ago he has enjoyed a prosperous and Incrative practice, very soon taking rank among the leading phy- sicians of this portion of the State.

Dr. MacGowan has filled a chair in the Col- lege of Medicine of the University of Southern California for three years, as professor of skin and venereal diseases. Upon the adoption of the

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HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY.

new city charter in March, 1889, which enlarges the powers and accountabilities of the health officer, Dr. MacGowan was appointed to that very important office over numerous competitors, prominent members of his profession. His position at the head of the health department of the rapidly growing city of Los Angeles is fraught with duties and responsibilities es- pecially vital to her 80,000 people. Dr. Mac- Gowan is a member of the Los Angeles County Medical Society and the Southern California District Medical Society. The Doctor has trav- eled extensively, visiting nearly every civilized conntry in the world.

HENRY WORTHINGTON, M. D., one of the most prominent and popular physicians in Southern California, was born near Chester, England, in 1853, of Welsh ancestry. Ilis parents immi- grated to America when he was a lad of six years, and he was reared and educated in New York City, graduating at the Columbia College in 1868. After finishing his literary course he spent two years in Europe pursuing medical studies, and was a student of Dr. Walsh, of London, the distinguished specialist in diseases of the throat, lungs and heart, and was at that time physician of Brompton Hospital. Return- ing to New York, Dr. Worthington attended the College of Physicians and Surgeons in that city, graduating there in 1874. He had com- pleted the course of study and passed the re- quired examination a year previous; but being only twenty years of age he had to wait a year for his diploma.

From close confinement and overwork while a student, Dr. Worthington found his health seriously impaired, having suffered from hem- orrhage of the lungs. He had bright prospects for a successful career in his profession, but physicians predicted that he could not live but a short time. He came to California and to Los Angeles in 1874, and soon after arriving formed a partnership with Dr. H. S. Orme, and commenced practice. Possessing a highly nerv- ous temperament, his activity and ambition impelled him to excessive labor, under which

he broke down after about four years of practice, and was obliged to flee to the mountains for rest and recuperation. Nature, the greatest physician, assisted by rest and the pure mount- ain air, did her work; and at the end of a num- ber of months the Doctor returned to the city. Entering into partnership with Dr. Joseph Kurtz, he resumned practice. The firm have all the business they and two assistants can do, and repatable physicians of the city have said to the writer that, in spite of his rather delicate phys- ical constitution, " Dr Worthington has the largest practice of any physician in Los Angeles." Their office, on Main street, between First and Second, is a very busy place during business hours. Dr. Worthington does a general prac- tice, the leading feature of which is gyne- cology. Ile has made a special study of diseases of the lungs and heart, and is one of the best authorities on those organs on this coast. Ile had charge of the Los Angeles Infirmary, now the Sisters' Hospital, for twelve years, the object being to practice in those diseases, the pressure of private business compelling him to resign over a year ago. He has been a member of the Cali- fornia State Medical Society since 1876, and is one of the supervising committee on graduating exercises of the Medical Department of the State University. In 1888 he prepared a paper which was read before the International College Asso - ciation, on the College of Medicine in Los Angeles. He has contributed a paper annually -a paper on the heart and Inngs-to the Trans- actions of the State Medical Society, and has also written numerous articles for the columns of the medical journals, principally for the New York Medicul Record.

Dr. Worthington was married in 1876, in Los Angeles, to Miss Kate L. Heaver, a native of Cincinnati, Ohio, who was reared in Nashville, Tennessee. Of the five children born of their marriage four are living, three sons and a daugh- ter, comprising an exceptionally bright and happy family. The Doctor's home on Victor Heights is one of the most sightly and beautiful in the city.

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HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY.

PAYSON T. HUCKINS, M. D., is one of the pro- gressive and rising members of the medical pro- fession on the Pacific Coast. Born in Calais, Maine, in May, 1849, he was educated in the University of the City of New York, where he gradnated in March, 1878. After practicing between four and five years in the city of Bangor, in the Pine-Tree State, Dr. ILuckins spent a year in Europe, extending his professional studies in London, Paris, Vienna and Edinburgh, taking, while there, a special course on the ear, eye and throat. In the summer of 1883 he crossed the continent, and opening an office in Los Angeles in July of that year, he has conducted a pros perous practice in the city ever since, his pro- fessional business being now one of the largest in this part of the State. He has given special attention to surgery, and is achieving more than a local distinction in this most difficult depart- ment of his profession. While abroad Dr. Huckins attended the seventh meeting of the International Medical Congress, held in London. He was also a member of the Ninth Inter- national Medical Congress, held in the city of Washington, in September, 1887, on which occasion he was invited to take part in the ophthalmic department of the tenth meeting of that most distinguished of all medical bodies, to be held in Berlin, in 1891, which he expects to attend. He, as one of the members, has in his medical library the five volumes of the pub- lislied transactions of the Washington meeting. Although not a member of the American Medi- cal Association, Dr. Huckins was officially re- quested by letter to prepare a paper on laryn- gology and otology to be read before that learned body at its annual meeting in June, 1889, with which request he complied. He was a member of the State Medical Society of Maine while practicing there.

Dr. Huckins has been married three times. IIis first wife died in Bangor, Maine, and the second in Los Angeles. His present consort was Mrs. E. M. Farrell, a native of Georgia, whom he wedded in April, 1886.

ALBERT C. ROGERS, M. D. This gentleman,

having been associated with and instructed by the best and greatest minds of our time during the formative period of his medical education, is a representative of the progressive school of his profession. Ile was born in New York . State, January 10, 1850, and is a direct descend- ant of John Rogers, the martyr, a fact which is established in the geneology of the family traced and written by his paternal grandfather, Ben- jamin Franklin Rogers. Clark Truman Rogers, the Doctor's father, was a speculator for many years, and is now living a retired life on his farın in Central New York.

After four years' preliminary study at Oxford Academy and Alfred University in Western New York, Dr. Rogers began reading medicine in 1869 with Dr. S. F. MeFarland, an eminent physi- cian, formerly of Oxford, now of Binghamton, New York. In 1873 he graduated at the Medi- cal Department of the University of the City of New York, and commenced a general practice of his profession in Madison County, in that State. Having during his reading developed a preference for the treatment of the eye, ear, nose and throat, he paid special attention to the diseases of those organs, and gained a reputa- tion for their successful treatment. Deterinin- ing to thoroughly qualify himself for this spe- cialty, he sold out his general practice in 1884, went to New York City and took a post-grad- nate course in his alma mater, also a course in the New York Polyclinic and Post-Graduate Medical School. In June, 1885, he received the appointment of assistant house surgeon in the Manhattan Eye and Ear Hospital, corner Park avenue and Forty-first street, and was associated with the distinguished physicians C. R. Agnew, D. B. St. John Roosa, David Webster, and O. D. Pomeroy. In April of the following year Dr. Rogers was promoted to house surgeon and filled that position one year, giving him an experience of about two years and a half as student and practitioner in that noted institution, which treats between 7,000 and 8,000 cases a year.

Upon the advice of, and with strong com- mendatory letters of introduction from, Dr.

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HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY.

Agnew and others, Dr. Rogers came to Los Angeles, arriving May 19, 1887, and at once opened an office and entered upon the practice of his specialties. Armed with such testimonials · from such high authorities, he soon obtained a fine professional business.

Dr. Rogers is a member of the California State Medical Society, the Los Angeles County Medical Society, and the Southern California Medical Society.

In 1872 he was united in marriage with a Miss Langworthy, a descendant of one of the old New England families.

L. S. THOMPSON, M. D., senior member of the firm of Thompson & Co., druggists, whose store is in the Downey Block, corner of Main and Temple streets, Los Angeles, is a member of a family of twelve children, six sons and six daughters, and was born in Augusta, Maine, in 1846. When a boy he left New England, and, going West, located in Minnesota, where he re- mained several years. IIaving studied for the incdical profession, he was employed as surgeon of the engineering corps which surveyed and located the Northern Pacific Railroad, which occupied about three years. After returning from that expedition he attended Starling Medi- cal College, Columbus, Ohio, and graduated at that institution with the degree of M. D., in 1874. He practiced a short time in Shakopee, Minnesota, also serving as United States Pen- sion Agent while there. Coming to the Pacific Coast in 1875, he pursued his profession in Sacramento some six months, atter which he went to the Sandwich Islands, where he was appointed Public Physician, holding that po- sition twelve years. He resigned in 1887 and returned to California, settling in Los Angeles. In July, 1888, the Doctor purchased the drug store previously mentioned, which is doing a prosperous retail business.

II. W. WESTLAKE, B. A., M. D., C. M., is a Canadian, born June 28, 1858. His literary education was obtained in Queen's and Magill universities, where he graduated with the de- gree of B. A., in 1882. After graduation the

Dominion Government issued to him a diploma granting him authority to visit and inspect in- stitutes and colleges. He pursued the study of medicine in the meantime, and in 1886 grad- uated at the Toronto School of Medicine, the medical department of Victoria University, with the degree of M. D., C. M. He then went to Europe and took special courses of study in Edinborough Infirmary; in King's College and St. Thomas Hospital, London; in Paris and Vienna, and was awarded diplomas as a special- ist in the ear and eye, throat and lungs, gyne- cology and backteriology. Returning home, Dr. Westlake did some consultation practice in Toronto, and in May, 1888, he came to Los Ali- geles, arriving on the 15th of that month. He at once opened an office and began practice in the Hollenbeck Block, corner of Spring and Second streets. He devotes his attention to diseases of the ear and eye, throat and lungs, and gynecology, in which he has a large prac- tice. Dr. Westlake is a close student of and hard worker in his profession, with bright pros- pects for a future career in this favored portion of the Golden State.

WILLIAM D. GREENE, M. D. One of the brightest and most successful of the rising young physicians in Southern California is W. D. Greene, his father being William Greene, a wealthy rancher residing near Toronto, Canada, and his mother a sister of Rev. Dr. Ormiston, of New York City. W. D. Greene, the sub- ject of this sketch, was born near Toronto, Canada, and was educated in that city at the Toronto University, graduating in May, 1886, with the degree of M. D. C. M. a month or two before his twenty-first birthday. After spending several months in the New York Hospital, he came to California, arriving in Los Angeles in November following his graduation, and imme- diately entered upon the practice of his profes- sion. Dr. Greene occupies a beautiful suite of office rooms in the Longstreet Block, 108 North Main street, and his professional business is equaled in volume by few physicians in this part of the State. Possessing a fine nervo-

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mental temperament, and having grown up mid the environments of a refined home and associ- ations, Dr. Greene is cultured in mind and courteons in manner, drawing his associates and friends from the best element of society. Being ambitious and energetic in his profes- sional work, and one of the youngest practi- tioners on the Pacific Coast, a future of great promise awaits him. He is physician to the Caledonian Club, and a member of the Los Angeles Medical Society.

The Doctor's father died in Toronto four years ago, and his widowed mother resides with him in Los Angeles. They own a valuable es- tate in the Dominion.

MANUEL FERNANDEZ, M. D. This gentleman is of pure Castillian blood, born in the Spanish capital on May 7, 1837. He received his liter- ary education and studied medicine in the city of Madrid, graduating at the Medical Univer- sity in that city May 15, 1862. He soon after commenced practice, and has been an active member of the medical profession for twenty- seven years. Although graduated from an allopathic school he adopted the homeopathic system of practice after entering upon the active labors of his profession, being the pio- neer homeopathist of his nationality on the Western Continent, and the only Spaniard of this school now practicing in America, save one in Santiago, Chili. Before coming to Cali- fornia Dr. Fernandez spent a number of years in active professional labor in several of the countries of Spanish America-Chili, Peru and Habana. On arriving in San Francisco, Au- gust 30, 1870, he opened an office and remained in the occidental metropolis two years; then spent eighteen months in San Diego, after which he settled in Los Angeles, in June, 1874, and from that time to the present has en- joyed a large and prosperous professional busi- ness. In compliance with the statute just previously enacted, Dr. Fernandez appeared before the State Medical Board, in 1876, and passed the requisite examination as a homeo- pathic practitioner. While engaged in a gen-

eral practice, the Doctor has given special at- tention to the study of cancerous or scirrhus tumors, for which he has discovered a treatment that has resulted in a number of very remarka- ble cures of cases in advanced stages of the disease, so much so that they have been pro- nounced incurable by high medical authorities. By years of patient study of the causes and conditions of cancerous growths and the suc- cessful treatment of this hitherto fatal malady Dr. Fernandez gives promise of becoming, like Harvey and Jenner, a great benefactor to suf- fering humanity for all time, as he expects to give liis discovery to the world in the near future.

WILLIAM COLE HARRISON, M. D., is a Lonisi- anian by birth, a descendant from the old Har- rison family of Virginia, and a third cousin of General Benjamin Harrison, President of the United States. William Cole Harrison, the grandsire of the subject of this sketch, settled in Louisiana during the last century, and there James William Harrison, the Doctor's father, was born and spent his life.

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Author: Lewis Publishing Company. cn Publication date: 1889 Publisher: Chicago, Lewis Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1092

Author: Lewis Publishing Company. cn
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Chicago, Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1092