Amador
County
Biographies
ELISHA B. ROBERTSON
For many years the name of Elisha
Bryant Robertson has been closely interwoven with the professional interests of
Amador County. He won distinction as an
eminent physician and surgeon, and he gained the respect, confidence and love
of those with whom he came in contact by reason of his broad sympathy,
kindliness and generosity. Through the
storms of winter or under the midsummer sun he daily passed to his duties and
hastened as quickly to the bedside of the poor and lowly as to those of more
exalted station and of better financial condition. He never stopped to inquire whether
compensation would be awarded him for his service, but administered freely to
all in need of a physician’s aid. His
life was consecrated to tthat most humane calling,
and his great loving interest in humanity was manifest in the manner in which
he discharged his professional duties.
In his death the community lost one of its most valued citizens, and the
record of his life well deserves a place on the pages of California’s history.
The Doctor was born at the
head-waters of Goose Creek, in Tennessee, on the 22nd of October,
1826, and was of Scotch ancestry. His
grandfather, Jesse Robertson, was born in Scotland, and in 1740 immigrated to
Virginia, locating in Prince Edward County.
He was one of the early settlers there.
He and two of his brothers participated in the war of the Revolution,
serving under the direct command of General Washington. He wedded Miss Mary Hunter, and after the
independence of the nation was assured they removed to Sumner County,
Tennessee, where both died in the year 1832.
They reared three sons, one of whom was David Robertson, the father of
the Doctor. He was born in Virginia,
participated in the battle of New Orleans in the War of 1812, and was near
General Peckingham when he fell from his horse
mortally wounded. He had removed with
his father and the family to Tennessee, where he was married to Miss Mary Bryan. In 1839 they took up their abode in Missouri
and became the parents of nine children, of whom four died in infancy. The eldest son, John Robertson, became a
minister of the gospel. The father died
on the 28th of January, 1847, and his wife passed away in Polk
County, Missouri, in 1863, at the age of eighty-seven years.
Dr. Robertson, their youngest child,
acquired his early education in Missouri, but his advantages in that direction
were rather meager. He was truly a
self-made man, who owned his advancement along educational and material lines
entirely to his own efforts. In 1850 he
crossed the plains to California, read medicine under the direction of Dr. Hoerchner, and was graduated at the Cooper Medical College
of San Francisco in March, 1864. He also
pursued two courses of lectures in the medical department of the Pacific and
began the practice of his profession in Mokelumne Hill, in Calaveras County,
where he met with excellent success. In
1882 he removed with his family to Jackson and soon secured a liberal
patronage, which was accorded him until his life’s labors were ended, on the 13th
of August, 1899. He served as the county
physician of Calaveras County from 1869 until 1880. He was a man of strong mentality, a deep
thinker and carried his investigations far and wide along original lines in the
medical profession. His many ably
written articles on subjects relative to the practice of medicine and surgery
commanded wide-spread attention and interest.
He was an active, useful and efficient member of the Northern California
Association, attended its meetings and delivered many able addresses before
that body. He also contributed
interesting articles to medical journals, and his writings received favorable
comment throughout the west. He made a
specialty of surgery and was very successful on account of his accurate
knowledge of anatomy, his careful diagnosis and his great skill in the
manipulation of the delicate instruments used in such work. He performed many very intricate and
difficult operations, which were attended with splendid success, and thus he
won eminence in that department of the medical science. He also held membership in the State Medical
Society, the American Medical Society, the Medical Society of Northern
California and the Alumni Association of Cooper Medical College.
Dr. Robertson was married in
Copperopolis, Calaveras County, on the 1st of January, 1866, to Mrs.
Lucy Coates, nee Sherman, a lady of English lineage and a daughter of Lewis
Sherman, a native of the Empire state, descended from good old Revolutionary
stock. Her father attained the very
advanced age of one hundred years. Unto
the Doctor and his wife were born three daughters. The eldest, Lucy Amelia, a lady of education
and refinement, became the wife of T. T. Crittenden, of San Francisco, and died
in her twenty-fourth year, leaving a little son, Elisha Frederick, who was adopted
by his grandparents when a child and is now living with his grandmother, at the
age of fifteen years. Lillie Virginia is
now the wife of Dr. C. A. Herrick, a prominent dentist, of Jackson. The youngest daughter is Elsie Blanche, the
wife of Dr. A. M. Gall, a well known medical practitioner of Jackson.
Dr. Robertson became a member of the
Masonic fraternity in 1866, and for several years was
the master of the local lodge and a member of the grand lodge. He attained the age of seventy-two years and became
one of the most valued and respected citizens of Jackson, a kind and loving
husband and father, a faithful friend and a most devoted representative of his
profession. His wife still survives him
and is living at the pleasant home in Stockton which was left to her by her
husband. She enjoys the highest esteem
of friends and neighbors, and her circle of acquaintance is very
extensive. The veil was lifted to gain
the new glory of a true and beautiful life when death set the seal upon the
mortal lips of Dr. Robertson. Any
monument erected to his memory and to commemorate his virtues will have become
dim and tarnished by time ere the remembrance of his noble example shall cease
to exercise an influence upon the community in which he lived and labored to
such goodly end.
Transcribed by
Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
“A Volume of Memoirs and Genealogy of Representative Citizens of Northern
California”, Pages 696-698. Chicago Standard Genealogical Publishing Co. 1901.
© 2011
Gerald Iaquinta.
Golden Nugget Library's Amador County Biographies