Colusa County
Biographies
FRANK ELIJAH LUMAN, M. D.
As measured by years the life of
Dr. Luman was brief; but as measured by results, by
comprehensive professional study, broad scientific research, extended travel
and growing reputation in materia medica,
a lifetime of activity was crowded into a comparatively few years. By birth and
citizenship thoroughly identified with California, Dr. Luman
was born at Butte City November 22, 1867, and died at his home in Colusa
January 17 1904. His father, William, a native of Illinois, became a pioneer
farmer of the Sacramento valley and carried on agricultural pursuits in what is
now Glenn county near Butte City, where in 1881 his
death occurred. After coming to the Pacific coast he had married Miss Mary E.
McDaniel, who was born in Illinois and accompanied her father, Elijah, across
the plains in 1853. After the death of her husband she was again married,
becoming the wife of William H. Hodgson, who died in 1903, leaving one child.
Of her first marriage there were three children, of whom Dr. Luman was the eldest and is the only one deceased. Since
the death of Mr. Hodgson she has continued to reside on her old homestead near
Butte City.
After a course in the Colusa high
school, at the age of fourteen years Frank E. Luman
entered the Pacific Methodist College at Santa Rosa, from which he was
graduated in 1889 with the degree of A. B. Having decided to take up the
medical profession, pursuant upon that end he entered the Cooper Medical
College, where he was a student for two years. His final studies were taken in
the Bellevue Hospital Medical College, New York city from which he was
graduated March 28, 1892. On the expiration of his regular course he traveled
through South America, where he gained his first experience as a practitioner
and also enjoyed many interesting experiences incident to travel among a people
so different from those of North America. After a year in travel he returned to
San Francisco and engaged in the practice of medicine, but in November, 1900,
removed to Colusa, where he built up a large practice extending through Colusa,
Glenn, Lake, Sutter, Yolo and Butte counties. Besides being identified with
local and state medical societies, he acted as examining physician for the
Independent Order of Odd Fellows and Rebekahs
Foresters of America, Independent Order of Foresters, Benevolent Protective
Order of Elks, Ancient Order of United Workman and Fraternal Brotherhood.
The marriage of Dr. Luman occurred in San Francisco and united him with Mrs.
Ida M. (Hopper) Kennedy, who was born at Yountville, Napa county, and received
an excellent education in Napa Seminary. Her paternal grandfather, Charles S.
Hopper, a native of Missouri, crossed the plains alone to California in 1847,
making the trip on horseback. Many times he was in peril of his life. Once he
was captured by two Indians and was about to be tomahawked by them when he
handed them his plug of tobacco. They were so delighted with the present that
they let him go free. After his arrival in California he located land near the
present site of Yountville and then returned again over the plains. In 1849 he
brought his family to the coast, among the other members of their party being
A. (sic) G. Yount and Colonel Childs. (sic) Under his leadership they reached their destination in
safety. The house that he erected, then considered by far the finest in Napa
county, is still standing, the oldest structure in this part of the state. In
time he became very wealthy, having among his possessions thirty-five hundred
acres of land in Lake county, besides large holdings
in his home county. His death occurred in 1880, when he was eighty-one years of
age.
The father of Mrs. Luman was T. B. Hopper, a Missourian by birth and a pioneer
of California, where he had a farm and vineyard at Yountville, but now lives
retired at Quartz, Tuolumne county. Her mother Mary
E., was a daughter of Samuel Hill, and was born in Kentucky, crossed the plains
about 1852 with her father, settled in Sonoma county,
and at an advanced age died in Lake county. Of her nine children (all living)
Mrs. Luman was fourth in order of birth. In her young
girlhood she became the wife of Edward Theron
Kennedy, who was born in San Francisco of pioneer parentage and became a
pharmacist in that city but owing to failing health removed to a ranch in Lake
county. While still a young man he died in San Francisco in 1889, leaving his
wife his entire property, which was of considerable value. In 1902 Mrs. Luman opened a drug store on Fifth, between Main and Market
streets, Colusa, where since she has conducted a large pharmacy, and in
addition to the ownership of this business she has a stock and grain ranch at
Middletown, Lake county. With her daughter, Edna V., she occupies a comfortable
home in Colusa and has many friends among the people of the city, to whom she
is known as a capable business woman and the possessor of unusual executive
ability. In religion she is identified with the Methodist Episcopal Church of
Colusa, with which Dr. Luman also held membership and
to which he was a generous contributor.
Transcribed By: Cecelia M. Setty.
Source: "History of the State of
California and Biographical Record of the Sacramento
Valley, Cal.," J. M. Guinn, Pages
582-583.
The Chapman Publishing Company, Chicago, 1906.
© 2017 Cecelia M. Setty.
Golden Nugget Library's Colusa County Biographies