Los Angeles County
Biographies
CHARLES ERNEST HOLGATE
HOLGATE, CHARLES ERNEST,
Physician, Los Angeles, California, is of English birth, having come into the
world at Bramley, Yorkshire, England, on
September 25, 1876. His father was Alfred Holgate and his mother
before her marriage was Miss Eliza Crabtree. He was married in 1904
to Miss Annie Brown, in Los Angeles, and has a son,
Charles Gordon Holgate.
His early education was had at the Bramley
National Schools up to the age of twelve, when he studied by himself until he
was able to enter the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Los Angeles, now of
the University of Southern California, where he studied from 1904 to 1906,
taking his degree of M. D.
Dr. Holgate is a self-made man and has reason to be proud
of the fact.
He had a strenuous youth; when but twelve years old he
entered one of Yorkshire’s big woolen factories, where he was employed for two
years, and then he secured employment in a steel mill under his father, where he
worked four years. This life at his age caused him to become restless, and, in
a spirit of adventure, he enlisted in the Seventeenth West Yorkshire Infantry
Regiment, in 1895, and served until 1896, when he found barrack existence not
at all to his liking and he came to the United States in March of 1896. Here he
lived for several years on the farm of his uncle, David Crabtree, working
on his uncle’s farm and for neighbors, and was fortunate enough to later enter
the employ of Dr. E. C. Austin of Elkhorn, Wisconsin, who gave
the young man the best of advice, in that he should obtain a profession;
Dr. Austin opened to Dr. Holgate his own library, and to this
kindness and interest Dr. Holgate frankly attributes his chance to engage
in the study of medicine.
While delving into the medical books continuously
Dr. Holgate worked in Chicago as a carpenter and painter and was employed
on the Chicago and Northwestern Railway, and in the summer of 1891 he made his
way to Denver and worked at ranching and did some prospecting. But during all
the time from the era when at twelve he was obliged to leave his school and
struggle for existence, Dr. Holgate never for a moment forsook his
ambition to secure a college education, and he managed to win out; he secured employment
on the Frater ranch, at Charter Oak, and meanwhile
entered the Pacific Hospital in September, 1902, and left for college in
September, 1904.
Securing his degree in 1908, and carrying away the class
honors, he was not satisfied with that success, but plunged into the
intricacies of law, and was admitted to practice August, 1910.
Since that time he found his medical practice grew too
rapidly to admit of his giving any attention to his legal acquirements. But he
accomplished his fixed purpose in not only acquiring
proficiency in one profession but in two.
His work at college was so conscientious and purposeful
that in 1906 he was awarded the first gold medal ever given at the College of
Physicians and Surgeons, and in 1908 he gained the senior class medal.
Dr. Holgate is an enthusiast in all out-of-door sports.
He has also an almost religious belief in the future of
the Pacific Coast, a belief he has evidenced by his works; this prompted him to
become an active member of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce. He takes an
equally active part in the affairs of the Y. M. C. A. Besides
his membership in the organization named he belongs to the Los Angeles Camp,
Woodmen of the World, and to the Loyal Order of Moose and the Sons of St.
George.
Transcribed by Marie Hassard
30 August 2011.
Source: Press Reference
Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page 724, International News Service,
New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Atlanta. 1913.
© 2011 Marie Hassard.
GOLDEN NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES BIOGRAPIES