Sacramento
County
Biographies
GREGORY J. PHELAN, M.D.
(1822-1902)
At the organization of the Sacramento Medico-Chirurgical Association, May 2, 1850, Gregory J. Phelan, M.D. was an original member and an ardent participant until the Association disbanded in 1854. He shared in promoting the Sacramento Medical Society on April 30, 1855 and was a charter member of the Sacramento Society for Medical Improvement, March 17, 1868. When the call came to organize the State Medical Society, March 12, 1856, Dr. Phelan was a supporting member. When it was reorganized in 1870, he sustained the progressiveness of his local Society. Thus Gregory J. Phelan became one of the few Sacramento physicians passing through each transient phase of the local medical society.
Sacramento's earliest practitioners of medicine were his associates. He shared with these doctors the bitter and the sweet throughout a period wherein versatility was a compulsion, tolerance a necessity and benevolence spiritual.
He was physician to the Cholera Hospital in 1850; and a County Physician and Superintendent of the County Hospital, then located on L street between Tenth and Eleventh, from 1863 to 1870. He was a member of the City Board of Education in 1858. Not a prolific writer, as were some contemporaries, nevertheless he shared in reporting his knowledge and experiences to the Sacramento Society for Medical Improvement. Surgery was not Dr. Phelan's forte. Most of his essays pertained to medical subjects. Diseases of the eye interested him and he ran a card in the paper: “Physician and Oculist.”
The “Society of California Pioneers” was Dr. Phelan's out-of-practice interest. He belonged to the Sacramento Chapter and was ardently attentive at meetings and solicitous of organization progress. He was a Director almost continuously from 1857 to 1868; President in 1863-4, and Corresponding Secretary from 1868 to 1871. His three sons, Gregory, Henry and Louis, by rights of descendancy, were junior members of the California Pioneers.
Dr. Gregory J. Phelan was born in New York in 1822, and graduated from the University Medical College, New York, March 10, 1847. After arriving in California in July, 1849 he decided to practice medicine in Sacramento City. It was in Sacramento that Dr. and Cecile Phelan reared a family of six, three sons and three daughters. Gregory J. Phelan, Jr., the elder son, received a classical education in France and then returned to San Francisco and graduated from the Medical College of the Pacific (Cooper Medical College) in 1880. After a post-graduate course in New York he returned to France and received appointment as medical officer of the United States for the port of Bordeaux, France. 'The duties are to examine all ships and vessels sailing from Bordeaux, in accordance with a provision of an Act of Congress, approved June 2, 1879, entitled “An Act to prevent the introduction of infectious or contagious diseases into the United States.” In 1889 he was transferred to Brussels where he resided until his death, July 7, 1911.
Henry du R. Phelan likewise chose medicine as a profession and after graduating made the United States Army his career. In 1902 he was Captain in foreign service, in Manila, Philippine Islands. Louis Phelan became a mining engineer, and in 1902 was located at Chihuahua, Mexico. One sister, Miss Anais Phelan, was living in California in 1911.
Dr. Phelan, Sr. lived on Tenth street, between G and H, and took much interest in the flowers and trees around his home. In February, 1867, a wind storm blew down his large Australian acacia. The tree was forty feet in height, with a trunk four feet nine inches in circumference, and 'was the largest of the variety in the city, and perhaps, in the States.'
On September 20, 1870 Doctor Phelan informed the Sacramento Society for Medical Improvement he was soon to leave the State, did not know for how long, and wished to tender his resignation. The resignation was not accepted. He and his family left for the East on September 29th, visited in New York and then sailed for Europe, where, no doubt, they made their headquarters with the son, Dr. Phelan, Jr., at Brussels. Dr. Phelan was away for nearly six years, returning to Sacramento June 27, 1876. He remained in Sacramento about two months and then moved to San Francisco where he resided up to the time of his death. 'He was connected for a long time with St. Mary's Hospital as physician and surgeon.'
About 1899 Dr. Phelan was stricken with paralysis, gradually his condition grew worse, until, on November 5, 1902, at the age of seventy-nine years, 10 months and 12 days, his earthly cares were cast aside. A Requiem Mass was celebrated for the repose of his soul at St. Ignatius' Church on November 8th. He was interred at Santa Clara.
Transcribed
2-18-17 Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: “Memories,
Men and Medicine A History of Medicine In Sacramento,
California by J. Roy Jones, M.D., Pages 341-343. Publ.
Sacramento Society for Medical Improvement, 1950.
Golden Nugget
Library's Sacramento County