Alameda County
Biographies
HARRY W. EMERSON, M. D.
In Dr. Harry W. Emerson, Centerville has a physician and surgeon who not only reflects credit upon the town of his adoption, but who, in a comparatively brief professional career, has established a need for his services in such municipal centers as San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose. Dr. Emerson was born in Dubuque, Iowa, September 9, 1863, and on both sides of his family is descended from forefathers who used their brains and hands to good effect and were never content with neutral positions in the community. His father, John H. Emerson, was born in Virginia, and was there known as a successful merchant for many years. At an early day he transferred his citizenship to the then small town of Dubuque, where he allied his fortunes with its commercial upbuilding, and where he died in 1875, at the age of sixty-nine years. He was outspoken in his views, inheriting his tread of thought from his father, who was of English descent, and a Southerner in every fibre of his being. The mother of Dr. Emerson was known as Katherine G. Burt in her girlhood, and at present is a member of the Emerson household in Centerville. She is a daughter of Judge James Burt of the Superior Court of Dubuque, Iowa, who for many years was connected with the jurisprudence of that state. The Burt family have established testimony to their public spirit and interest in education in the east through their donating the grounds for Union College.
Dr. Emerson owes his preliminary educational training to the public schools, to a preparatory seminary, and to Milton College, Wis., from which he was graduated with high honors. His professional knowledge was acquired in the medical department of Columbia College, N. Y., and after his graduation in 1892 he became, through competitive examination, an interne at Blackwell Island hospital, N. Y. In 1893 he located in Centerville, Cal., where he has engaged in a general practice of medicine, although making a specialty of surgery. In eleven years he has acquired a following not often vouchsafed a practitioner in a decade and has won the appreciation of his fellow-physicians and surgeons in the larger cities of the coast, often being called in consultation over complicated and important cases. He has a thorough knowledge of his calling, is imbued with a spirit of progress, and through the medium of periodicals and conventions, keeps pace with the advancement in well-known American and European professional centers. He takes his work seriously, high mindedly, and with full consciousness of the limitless avenues still unexplored.
Dr. Emerson married into one of the pioneer families of Centerville, Mrs. Emerson being a daughter of John Thomas Stevenson, a pioneer of 1852, and a man who worked his way from poverty and obscurity to a high place in the financial and agricultural world in the west. Carrie L. (Stevenson) Emerson was born in Centerville June 9, 1868, and is a popular, hospitable woman, inheriting many graces of mind and character, and taking her place with tact and discretion in the social life of her native county. Dr. Emerson is a Democrat in politics, and served as health officer for two or three years. He is now a member of the Democratic county central committee of this district, and is a conscientious, painstaking politician, entering the ranks because of his understanding of the rights and demands of citizenship. He is fraternally well known, and is a member of Alameda Lodge No. 167, F. & A. M., Doric Chapter No. 66, R.A.M., of San Leandro; San Jose Commandery No. 10, K. T.; Oakland Council No. 12, R. & S. M., and Oakland Consistory, A. A. O. N. M. S. He is also a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and Knights of Pythias. Personally Dr. Emerson is the personification of frankness, and is an earnest, conscientious, painstaking and competent practitioner. His mind moves along in a groove sanctioned by his reason, his research and his common sense. His is a strong and self-reliant personality, full of magnetism, optimism, and hope, inspiring confidence, and lifting those about him above the trammels of disease and unhappiness.
ญญญญSource: History
of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties,
California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Pages 724-727. The Chapman
Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
ฉ 2015 Joyce Rugeroni.
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