Alameda
County
Biographies
CALVIN
A. CASE, M.D.
CALVIN A. CASE, M.D. Professional ability is an inherited talent
of the Case family, as is evidenced by the fact that four brothers of the name
entered the practice of medicine and surgery and attained more than ordinary
success. One of the brothers, Dr. Case,
of Pleasanton, although comparatively a newcomer in Alameda county, has already
established a reputation for skill in diagnosis and accuracy in the treatment
of disease. Prior to his removal to this
locality he was identified with the medical profession of the San Joaquin
valley, where he built up a growing and profitable practice, but the heat of
summer there caused him to seek another location.
In Geauga county, Ohio, on a farm lying
near the Chagrin Falls, Cuyahoga county, Calvin A. Case was born
November 18, 1848, his parents being Albert and Mehitabel (Sprague) Case,
natives respectively of Connecticut and Vermont. The paternal grandfather, Asa Case, was born
in Connecticut, of one of the pioneer families of that state, and traced his
lineage to England. During the war of
1812 he served with courage and fidelity.
A wound received in battle troubled him for many years and finally
resulted in his death, at seventy years of age.
During the active period of his life he made his home in Ohio, where he
improved a farm from the virgin soil.
Little is known concerning the maternal grandfather, except that he was
born in Wales, immigrated to the United States at an early age, settled in
Vermont, and then removed to Ohio, where he died at the age of ninety-six
years. His daughter, Mrs. Case, was
thirty-six at the time of her death, which occurred in Michigan.
When a small child Albert Case
accompanied his parents to Ohio, where he was reared and received such advantages
as the district schools of that day afforded.
Until 1856 he engaged in farming in the same locality in Ohio, but
during that year he removed to the vicinity of Lansing, Mich., and acquired a
valuable farm near Okemos, Ingham county, where he continued to reside until
his death at seventy-six years. At the
time the family removed to Michigan, Calvin A. Case was a boy of eight
years, and two years later he was orphaned by his mother’s death. He was then taken into the home of an uncle
near Detroit, but two years later returned to his father’s home, and remained
there until he started out to earn his own way in the world. At sixteen years of age he secured employment
in a drug store in Saginaw, Mich., where he remained about four years, meantime
gaining a knowledge of the compounding of drugs that has been of inestimable
value to him in his professional career.
When twenty years of age he began to read medicine with two older
brothers who were physicians in Saginaw county.
In 1868 he matriculated in the medical department of the University of
Michigan, where he took the full course of lectures. After his graduation in 1870 he became a
student in the Detroit Medical College, where he carried on his studies for a
year. At the expiration of that time he
began to practice the medical profession, remaining one year in Chesaning,
Saginaw county, and eight years in Shepherd, Isabella county, Mich. From the latter town he removed to St. Louis
and engaged in practice. The year 1885
found him in California, but after a sojourn of two years he returned to
Michigan. In 1890 he again came to the
Pacific coast, where he has since made his home. For a considerable period he conducted a
large practice at Oakdale, Stanislaus county, and from there removed to Pleasanton
in July of 1903. Though his residence in
his new location has been comparatively brief, he has already established an
enviable reputation for professional skill.
While living in Michigan he was active in county medical society work,
but has not allied himself with similar organizations in California.
By this marriage to Adeline Bigelow, a
native of Michigan, Dr. Case has three children, namely: Garfield Sprague, who is a student in the
Oakland Polyclinic; Horace Arthur, now a student in the University of
California; and Winnifred, who resides with her parents in Pleasanton. In fraternal relations Dr. Case is
connected with the Blue Lodge of Masons and the Knights of Pythias. Politically he has been an active worker in
the Democratic party, and before leaving the east held a number of local
offices within the gift of his party, also acted as a delegate to county and
state conventions.
Transcribed
by Donna Toole.
Source: History
of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties,
California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Pages 879-880. The Chapman
Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2015 Donna
Toole.
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