San Diego County
Biographies
C. RANDALL KNOX, M. D.
Dr. C. Randall Knox is an active and
successful representative of the medical profession in San Diego County,
maintaining an office in the Lion Building at El Cajon. He was born in El Cajon, January 29, 1879,
the son of Amiziah L. and Illa
M. Knox. Writing of his father, an
earlier biographer said: “A. L. Knox was
born and reared in the state of Maine, and he gained pioneer distinction in
California. In 1859, when twenty-six years
of age, he came to this state, his voyage to the Pacific coast having been made
by way of Cape Horn and having required one hundred and sixty-five days to
complete. For ten years he was identified
with gold mining operations in Alpine County, and he then came with mule team
from northern California to San Diego, which beautiful and progressive city was
then a mere village, with only one store and but few inhabitants. Soon after his arrival he found employment on
the ranch owned by the Sublitt-Meredith Company in
the El Cajon Valley, this property having comprised twenty-seven thousand
acres, and his ability soon led to his promotion to the position of manager of
the great ranch. On the place he
harvested in 1874 nearly fifty thousand bushels of wheat, and he became one of
the most vigorous and resourceful representatives of agricultural industry in
this section of the state. He was an
honored pioneer of the El Cajon Valley and continued for many years as its most progressive and influential citizen. In 1879 he erected the large hotel which bore
his name and which did much to further the civic and material growth and
progress of the village of El Cajon. He
conducted the hotel a number of years and also developed a substantial livery
business at El Cajon. He was a leader in
community affairs, served at one time as deputy sheriff of San Diego County,
and he accumulated a valuable ranch property in the El Cajon Valley, where he
passed the closing years of his life. He
was one of the best known and most honored pioneer citizens of this beautiful
valley at the time of his death, which occurred in 1918. His political allegiance was given to the
Republican Party and he had been for many years prominently affiliated with the
Independent Order of Odd Fellows, being a charter member of San Diego
Lodge. His wife, whose maiden name was Illa M. Potter, was born and reared in the state of Ohio,
and died February 2, 1930, in El Cajon.”
Mr. and Mrs. A. L. Knox were the parents of two children: Charles Randall, of this review; and Mabel,
who is head nurse at the Edgemore Farm in San Diego County. By a former marriage, to Enoch Lane Birdseye,
Mrs. Knox likewise had two children:
Theodora, who is the wife of John Ballantyne and resides in El Cajon;
and Dr. Fred Birdseye, also a resident of El Cajon.
C. Randall Knox acquired his
preliminary education in the public schools of San Diego County, California,
and subsequently entered Oberlin College of Ohio, from which he was graduated
in 1898. During the succeeding three
years he attended college at Healdsburg, California. He received his professional training in the
medical department of Northwestern University at Chicago, Illinois, from which
he was graduated with the M. D. degree in 1903.
He gained valuable clinical experience through one year of service at
the great sanitarium in the city of Battle Creek, Michigan. He was then made assistant superintendent of
a branch sanitarium maintained under the same auspices at Boulder, Colorado and
later he was for two years medical superintendent of a sanitarium at Colorado
Springs. He next engaged in the practice
of his profession at Guaymas, in the state of Sonora,
Mexico, where he remained until the impaired health of his father led him to
return to California, the stage of his successful professional activities
having since been in the beautiful district in which he was born and reared and
in which his circle of friends is coincident with that of his
acquaintances. Dr. Knox is serving on
the staff of Mercy Hospital of San Diego and also the Scripps Memorial Hospital
at La Jolla, California. He holds
membership in the San Diego County Medical Society, the California State
Medical Society and the American Medical Association, besides which he is
actively affiliated with the American Association for the Advancement of
Science.
In 1904 Dr. Knox was united in
marriage to Miss Maude Ross, a native of Indiana and a graduate nurse whose
acquaintance he formed while attending college in Chicago. In Masonry the Doctor has attained the
thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite and is also
a member of the Mystic Shrine. He is
identified with the Rotary Club of El Cajon and with the Farm Bureau and has
long enjoyed high standing in civic as well as social and professional circles
of his native county.
Transcribed by
V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: California of the South
Vol. III, by John Steven McGroarty, Pages 231-233, Clarke Publ.,
Chicago, Los Angeles,
Indianapolis. 1933.
© 2012 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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NUGGET'S SAN DIEGO BIOGRAPIES