Nevada
County
Biographies
CHARLES WOODMANSEE, M. D.
For nearly forty years Dr.
Woodmansee has engaged in the practice of medicine and surgery, and his marked
skill and ability have gained him prestige in the ranks of his chosen
profession. It is a calling in which
success must depend upon individual merit, upon a comprehensive and accurate
knowledge of the medical science, upon deep interest in the work and upon
fidelity to the responsibilities that are imposed by the calling. When one has reached a position of
distinctive preferment it is an indication that he merits the advancement
accorded him, and this is certainly the case with Dr. Woodmansee.
Born in Clinton County, Ohio, on the
3rd of June, 1836, he is a son of James Woodmansee, who was a native
of Pennsylvania. His paternal ancestors
resided in New Jersey, and their advent upon American soil antedates the
Revolutionary War, in which the family was worthily represented by many eminent
heroes loyal to the cause of independence.
The Doctor’s mother bore the maiden name of Joanna Cook, who was born in
Virginia, being descended from one of the old and influential families of the
south. In 1852 James Woodmansee removed
with his wife and children from Ohio to Knox County, Illinois, where the Doctor
acquired his education, including a course in Knox College, at Galesburg, that
county. He was a student in that
institution for one year, and was graduated in 1860. Subsequently he attended Abingdon College, in
Abingdon, Illinois, where he pursued a three-year course and was graduated with
the degree of Bachelor of Science. His
excellent literary learning served as a foundation upon which to rear the
superstructure of professional knowledge, and during the four years succeeding
his graduation in Abingdon his entire attention was given to the study of
medicine. In 1864 he won his medical
diploma from the College of Physicians & Surgeons, in Keokuk, Iowa, and
soon afterward he entered the army as a surgeon, being attached to the One
Hundred and Twentieth Regiment of Illinois Volunteers. He was on detached duty as post surgeon at
Fort Pickering, in Memphis, Tennessee, and continued at the front until 1865,
rendering effective service to the ill and wounded.
When the war was over Dr. Woodmansee
located in Aberdeen, Mississippi, where he continued in active practice for
twenty-five years. In 1890 he located in
Grass Valley, where he has since secured a large and lucrative practice. Although a general practitioner and well versed
in every department of the medical science, he makes a specialty of office
practice in the treatment of the eye, ear and throat diseases, in which he is
very proficient. From the faithful
performance of each day’s duty he gains inspiration and encouragement for the
work of the next, and his labors have been followed by such excellent results
that he is accorded a foremost place among the medical practitioners in
northern California.
In 1866 the Doctor was united in
marriage to Miss Sarah M. Harrington, a native of Mississippi, whose ancestors
were among the old families of South Carolina.
The Doctor is prominent in Grand Army circles, being a member of
Chattanooga Post, No. 115, G. A. R., of Nevada City, and is also a member of
the Masonic fraternity, of which he has taken the Royal Arch and Knight Templar
degrees. He is a man of many excellences
of character, of determined purpose, of strong mentality and of broad, human
sympathy. These have not only gained him
professional eminence but have won him the regard of his fellow men in the
various communities where he has lived and wherever he is known.
Transcribed by
Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
“A Volume of Memoirs and Genealogy of Representative Citizens of Northern
California”, Pages 488-489. Chicago Standard Genealogical Publishing Co. 1901.
© 2010
Gerald Iaquinta.
Golden Nugget Library's Nevada County Biographies