Los Angeles County
Biographies
FREDERICK THOMPSON BICKNELL
BICKNELL,
FREDERICK THOMPSON, Physician and Surgeon, Los Angeles, California,
was born at Jericho, Chittenden
County, Vermont, on April 20,
1842, his parents being Nathaniel and Fanny Thompson Bicknell. In the family blood is that of Hannah Dustin
and R. H. Dana. Dr. Bicknell was twice
married, his first wife being Etta Cooper of Lake Mills, Wisconsin,
and to them a daughter, now Mrs. Etta Florence Bicknell Zombro,
was born at Neosho, Missouri. On December 6, 1882, he married Carrie E.
Fargo at San Francisco.
Dr. Bicknell
resided in Vermont until 1852, when he moved with his
parents to Lake Mills,
Jefferson County, Wisconsin,
where he worked on his father’s farm and attended district school until he was
seventeen years old. Then he attended Albion
Academy, at Albion,
Wisconsin, where he studied during the fall
terms and taught school in the winter terms.
On August 15, 1862, he enlisted in the army in Company A, Twenty-third Wisconsin Regiment, and remained in active
service until mustered out at the end of the war, July 4, 1865.
While in the army
his service was in the Department of the Mississippi,
first under General Grant, from the beginning to the end of the Vicksburg
campaign. Then through the Red
River campaign under General Banks and General A. J. Smith. Then came the Mobile,
Alabama, campaign under General Canby.
Throughout the
entire war Dr. Bicknell was a soldier in the ranks, and while his discharge
records thirteen pitched battles, it does not tell of the unnumbered skirmishes
and scouting expeditions where danger and death were no less in evidence than
in the most active battles. A blistered
scalp from the sharpshooter’s bullet, knocked down by the concussion of a
nearby exploding shell, and a gun shattered in his hands, were but a few of the
close calls experienced by him.
Upon receiving
his discharge in 1865 he returned to Madison, Wisconsin,
and entered the State University,
studying there and working in summer on the farm until 1867, when he began
studying medicine in the office of Dr. John Faville
of Madison; he then attended Rush Medical
College in Chicago,
graduating in 1870.
In the fall of
that same year Dr. Bicknell settled in the City of Neosho, Missouri, in partnership
with Dr. Lewis Wills. In the spring of 1872 Dr. Bicknell returned to Lake
Mills, Wisconsin, and married Etta Cooper,
and returned at once to Neosho. A daughter was born to them, but Mrs.
Bicknell survived the event but a little more than a month.
In the fall of 1873 Dr. Bicknell went with
his old preceptor, Dr. John Faville, to New
York and took a postgraduate course at Bellevue
College and Hospital.
After a short
return to Wisconsin, he went to California
in April, 1874. Finding the Panamint
mining excitement on, he went as physician and surgeon to that region for the
Panamint Mining and Milling Company, at that time owned by United
States Senators Jones and Stewart of
Nevada. On the close of the camp he
served in the same capacity at the Caso Mine of Darwin,
and then practiced at Independence, in Inyo
County, where he had charge of the County
Hospital. He later went to Bishop Creek, a larger town
of the valley.
In the summer of
1881 Dr. Bicknell returned to Lake Mills, Wisconsin,
to get his little daughter, Miss Etta, whom his mother-in-law had been
fostering; he there became engaged to his present wife, who was Miss Carrie
Fargo, and returned to Los Angeles. Miss Fargo came to San
Francisco, at which place Dr. Bicknell met her, and the
marriage took place December 6, 1882.
After his
marriage Dr. Bicknell returned at once to Los Angeles
and since that time his only business has been the practice of medicine and
surgery.
Among the leading
professional organizations with which Dr. Bicknell is associated are the
following: He is a member of the American Medical Association and of his State
and County societies. He is ex-President
Southern California Medical Society; ex-President Los Angeles County Medical
Society; ex-President of the California Hospital, and ex-Professor Gyocology (sic)of the Medical College of Southern
California.
He is a member of
the University Club, of the Chamber of Commerce, and of the Masonic Order,
Southern California Lodge, No. 278, F. and A. M. He is a member of the Grand Army of the
Republic, Stanton Post.
Transcribed 7-28-08
Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: Press
Reference Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page 118,
International News Service, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles,
Boston, Atlanta. 1913.
© 2008 Marilyn R. Pankey.
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