Los Angeles
County
Biographies
ERNEST ALBERT BRYANT, M. D.
During the forty odd years that Dr. Ernest Albert Bryant pursued the practice of medicine in Southern California, he was known not only for his skill as a physician, but also for his philanthropy, his genial manners, his literary taste and talent, and for his popularity as a member of the Los Angeles social and civic circles. As a nationally known figure he brought fame to the city of his adoption and was one of the pioneer physicians of Los Angeles, where he had settled in 1891.
Dr. Bryant was born of American parents in Woodstock, Ontario, Canada, April 8, 1869, the son of John Henry and Mary Louise (Dunn) Bryant. When he was but a few months old his parents removed to St. Paul, Minnesota, where he received his scholastic education, after which he attended the University of Pennsylvania, medical department, from which he received his degree in 1890. His first duty was as resident physician in St. Agnes Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1890-1891. The latter year he came to the Pacific Coast and settled in Los Angeles and in a very short time began to build up a large practice, drawing his patients to him because of a broad understanding of material medica and his humanitarian treatment of diseases. He was appointed police surgeon in 1891 and served in that capacity until 1896. In recognition of his successful work in that office he was appointed superintendent of Los Angeles County Hospital in 1900 and served for five years. Among the positions he held in the intervening years were those of chief surgeon for the Los Angeles Street Railway, the Pacific Electric Railway, and resident surgeon for the Southern Pacific Railway, the Southern California Gas Company, the Southern Counties Gas Company and the Southern California Edison Company. He was chief of staff of Good Hope Hospital Clinic; director of Good Hope Hospital and since 1913, of the Merchants’ National Bank. He was trustee of the M. J. Connell Sanatorium, and the Good Hope Hospital Association. As the years passed Dr. Bryant assumed a high place in medical circles of the United States, and was known internationally as a very successful physician and surgeon. In 1926 he retired from active practice to devote his time to philanthropy by establishing the Good Hope Hospital Association in 1926, and secured the financial aid of friends to create an endowment fund, the income of which is used to pay hospital charges for those unable to obtain help from other sources. He later established the Good Hope Clinic in connection with the hospital. These institutions have provided for the treatment of more than thirty thousand persons annually.
Dr. Bryant was a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, a member of the American Medical Association, the California, the Southern California, and the Los Angeles Medical Societies, in all of which he became a leading spirit. He was popular in club circles and held membership in the University Club, the Athletic Club and the Midwick Country Club, all of Los Angeles, and the Bohemian and the Pacific Union Clubs of San Francisco. In religious belief he was an Episcopalian.
On July 12, 1904, Dr. Ernest A. Bryant was united in marriage with Miss Susanna Patterson Bixby, of Los Angeles, and they had two children: Ernest Albert, Jr., of Long Beach, and Mrs. Susanna Bryant Dakin, of South Pasadena. The family home is at 3210 West Adams street, where the Doctor passed away in November, 1933, at the age of sixty-four years. We quote from the Los Angeles Times the following editorial at the time of his death:
“Dr. Ernest A. Bryant: There needs no monument of stone or graven tablet to keep alive the memory of the good physician who last Thursday closed his eyes in the sleep that knows no waking. Thousands who have been the beneficiaries of his services to humanity through his unselfish efforts to lighten the load of suffering, will cherish in their hearts, long after his mortal remains have been laid away, a grateful remembrance for that lover of his fellow-men, Dr. Ernest A. Bryant.
“Death may remove his familiar figure from the scene of the activities where he was welcomed by all who came under his ministrations. But it cannot take away the abundant fruits that have sprung from the devotion of a life to a noble purpose. On not many men has the spirit of self sacrifice been so abundantly bestowed as it was on this nationally known physician, who in the acme of a successful career surrendered a lucrative practice that he might give all his time to providing hospital and medical aid for the poor and needy.
“The Good Hope Hospital and the Good Hope Clinic, through which in the last six years more than thirty thousand patients annually have received help and treatment they would otherwise have had to go without, stand as a lasting memorial to the doctor whose zeal and energy supplied this long needed want.”
Transcribed
by K.V. Bunker.
Source: California
of the South Vol. V,
by John Steven McGroarty, Pages 488-490,
Clarke Publ., Chicago, Los Angeles,
Indianapolis. 1933.
© 2012 K.V. Bunker.
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BIOGRAPHIES