Los Angeles County
Biographies
MARTIN G.
CARTER, M.D.
Dr. Martin G. Carter, a prominent representative of the medical profession in Los Angeles for about a quarter of a century, has well merited distinction as a specialist in psychiatry. He was born in Irvington, Alameda county, California, April 23, 1886, his parents being Martin and Mary Jane (Larkin) Carter, the former born in County Galway, Ireland, April 6, 1840, while the latter was a native of the state of New York, born June 12, 1854. The grandparents of Dr. Carter in the paternal line were Thomas and Margaret (Martin) Carter, of County Clare, Ireland, while his maternal grandparents were John and Mary (Sullivan) Larkin, of County Galway, Ireland. The parents of Dr. Carter, his uncle, Thomas Carter, and also his maternal grandfather, John Larkin, were honored pioneers whose efforts contributed materially to the upbuilding and development of the west. Martin and Thomas Carter constituted the firm of “Carter Brothers, Car Builders,” manufacturing in their plants at Folsom, Sausalito and Newark, California, practically all the railroad car equipment used in the west in the early days. They specialized in the making of cable and electric passenger, box and flat cars for the steam, electric and cable railways and shipped cars to all the coast cities, including Los Angeles, as well as to Hawaii and to South and Central America. The firm of Carter Brothers built the palace car for King Kilakau, then King of the Hawaiian Islands. Aside from his important manufacturing interests Martin Carter became widely known as a breeder and raiser of fine trotting horses, being the owner of Nutwood Stock Farms, his country place of five hundred acres near Irvington, where he bred such record-breaking trotters as Nutwood Wilkes, 2:12 record for mile; John A. McKerron, 2:04 ½ to wagon—four-wheeled rubber tired (record holder of that day) (champion); and others equally famous in that day. His wife, Mary Jane (Larkin) Carter, received excellent musical training in, and graduated from a convent, became a noted soprano and was both choir soloist and organist at the Folsom Church, and at other cities or places where she resided.
Martin G. Carter acquired his early education in the public schools of Alameda county and continued his studies at the University of Santa Clara, from which he was graduated with the Bachelor of Arts degree in 1906. His professional training was received at the Stanford University Medical School of San Francisco, which in 1910 conferred upon him the degree of M.D. Subsequently he augmented his medical knowledge as a student in the postgraduate department of Harvard University at Boston and also took courses at the Boston Psychopathic Hospital, the Massachusetts General Hospital and Carney Hospital. He made a year’s tour of the principal cities of the United States and Europe in the study of medical and hospital methods, and again in 1924 he toured the principal American and European cities, studying hospital and medical methods in England and France. Dr. Carter had remained at the place of his nativity until fourteen years of age and then in 1900 removed from Irvington to Santa Clara, where he resided for six years. He next lived in San Francisco from 1906 until 1910, then spent a year in San Leandro and since 1912 had made his home in Los Angeles. It was in 1910, the year of his graduation from Stanford University Medical School, that he took up the work of his chosen profession, which has claimed his attention continuously throughout the intervening period of a quarter century, and, as previously stated, he has largely specialized in psychiatry. He received two years’ training in surgery as surgical assistant to one of the surgical directors of the California Hospital and was also assistant surgeon at Graves Dispensary of the University of California, at Los Angeles. Dr. Carter’s professional career covers service as interne at the Alameda County Hospital in 1910-11; director of the psychopathic department of the Los Angeles County Hospital from 1919 until 1935; associate professor of clinical medicine (psychiatry) at the University of Southern California; state medical examiner in psychiatry; medical examiner in phychiatry (sic) to the superior court of Los Angeles in the psychopathic division; and chief of staff of the psychopathic hospital and clinic division of the Los Angeles County General Hospital. He served as assistant physician on the staff of the Norwalk State Hospital in 1922, was a member of the medical advisory board of the Los Angeles County General Hospital from 1924 until 1931 and in 1934-35 acted as attending physician at Resthaven Sanitarium, a home for mental convalescent patients. He has been honored with the presidency of the Psychopathic Society of California; also belongs to the Los Angeles Society for Neurology and Psychiatry, of which he served as secretary and treasurer from 1922 until 1926 and as president from 1926 until 1928; has membership in the Los Angeles County Medical Society, the California Medical Association, the American Medical Association and the Academy of Criminology in Los Angeles; and is a fellow of the American College of Physicians and the American Psychiatric Society; founder and life member, the Pacific Geographic Society. Dr. Carter is assistant medical director of the Los Angeles County General Hospital, one of the largest and finest hospitals in the world, which was completed at a cost of thirteen million dollars and has a capacity of three thousand patients. He is the owner of a handsome residence at 3930 Ingraham street in Los Angeles, has an attractive country home at Laguna Beach, California, and is also interested in six hundred acres of oil land in Kern county as well as one hundred and twenty acres of mining land in San Bernardino county.
On the 12th of May, 1909, in San Francisco, Dr. Carter was united in marriage to Miss Ella May Redmond, who was born December 24, 1888, her parents being Isaac and Christina (Gunn) Redmond, of Halifax, Nova Scotia, both now deceased. The paternal grandparents of Mrs. Carter were Haveloch and Mary Jane (Campbell) Redmond, of Inverness, Scotland, while her grandparents in the maternal line were Alexander and Ellen (McGregor) Gunn, also of Inverness, Scotland. Mary Jane Redmond, sister of Mrs. Carter, became the wife of Paul J. McCormick, federal judge at Los Angeles. Dr. and Mrs. Carter are the parents of a daughter, Ruth Martina, aged twenty-one years, who was graduated from the Marlborough School for Girls in Los Angeles in 1932 and is now a senior student at the Santa Barbara State College of Santa Barbara, California. Prominent in club and social circles, Mrs. Carter served as first vice president of the Friday Morning Club of Los Angeles in 1930-31 and has been a member of its board of directors for four years. She was a member and secretary of the Los Angeles County Grand Jury in 1921-22; was chosen chairman of the board of directors of “Resthaven” of Los Angeles, a home for mental patients; served on the board of directors of the McKinley Home for Boys at Van Nuys, California, in 1930; and was secretary of the Parent-Teacher Association at the John Burroughs Jr. high school in 1930.
In his political views Dr. Carter is a progressive and liberal republican, while his religious faith is that of the Catholic Church, in which he was reared. At the time of the World war he had registered for service in the second draft when the armistice was signed. He was formerly affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and while a student at Stanford University Medical School in San Francisco became a member of Upsilon Chapter of Nu Sigma Nu, a medical fraternity. He is also a poplar member of the Casa Del Mar Beach Club of Santa Monica, California. The Doctor was accorded a liberal musical education in his youth, is a talented violinist and has studied drawing and sketching at the Otis Art Institute of Los Angeles and Metropolitan high school, Los Angeles, and Santa Clara University. The arduous demands of his profession leave him few leisure hours, but these he enjoys to the full in such diversions as motoring, walking, swimming, ocean travel, hunting and sketching.
Other relations; Daughter, Grace Helen Carter (deceased), born April 16, 1916; and three brothers: Thomas Newton Carter (deceased), educated Washington College and Stanford University, who was in the machinery business; Francis Newton Carter (druggist), Oakland, Cal., educated Stanford University, Washington College and Irvington College, and graduate in pharmacy, University of California, San Francisco; and Dr. Leland Edward Carter (dentist), San Francisco, educated Santa Clara College, University of California (College of Dentistry, San Francisco), specialist in orthodontia.
Transcribed 3-9-13
Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: California
of the South Vol. V, by John Steven McGroarty, Pages
666-670, Clarke Publ., Chicago, Los Angeles, Indianapolis. 1933.
© 2013 Marilyn R. Pankey.
GOLDEN NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES
BIOGRAPHIES