Sacramento County
Biographies
Successful identification with the medical
profession individualizes the personal history of Dr. Silva and gives the
prestige of progressive prominence to his citizenship in Sacramento, where he
is recognized as a physician of talent and as a gentleman possessing the highest
culture and attainments. Not alone may it be said concerning him that
almost the whole of his professional career has been passed in the capital
city, but it may be added further that much of his life in childhood and youth
was passed here, this place having been the environment of early
memories. The culture of institutions at other points was added to his
mental equipment, for he was afforded exceptional educational advantages in the
Santa Clara valley and in San Francisco. The period of infancy and indeed
up to the age of fourteen years was passed by him under the care of his parents
in the kingdom of Portugal, where he completed the local high school
course. Indeed, practically all of the later scenes painted on memory's
walls are associated with Northern California, and his devotion to this region
presents another example of that high type of loyalty characteristic of those
who proudly claim themselves to be lifelong residents of the commonwealth
beside the sunset sea.
Born June 19, 1868, in Pico, Azores
Islands, where his parents, Manuel L. and Rosa Silva, had temporarily
established a home, Dr. Silva descends from a long line of Portuguese
ancestors. The family was founded in the new world by his father, a man
of great enterprise and indomitable courage, who, originally attracted to
California during the '50s by reason of the discovery of gold, remained to
embark in farm pursuits in Yolo county, where ranching was yet in a primitive
condition of development and the possibilities of agriculture entirely
unknown. The locality presented a remarkable contrast to that of his
early years, which had been spent on the Azores Islands off the coast of
Portugal, in his native town of Pico. With characteristic adaptability of
temperament he entered into harmonious relations with the people around his new
home, studied the soil until he had acquired a thorough knowledge of its needs
in cultivation and prospered to a degree fully merited by toil and enterprise.
From 1868 until 1882 he engaged in business in Portugal, where he purchased
ocean ships adapted to the carrying of general merchandise and with such
cargoes he traveled to the Azores Islands, disposing of the goods and then
returning to the mainland for new purchases. When he returned to
California in 1882 he retained his interest in the Portuguese vessels, but gave
personal attention to the development of a ranch near Freeport, Sacramento county, remaining on the California farm until 1886, when he
returned to Portugal for the purpose of giving undivided attention to the
management of his ships and merchandise. Since then he has been active
and successful in the same business.
The return of the family to Portugal made
no change to the educational program outlined for the son, who continued a
student in local schools and the Christian Brothers college until 1885 and then
spent a year in St. Mary's college, Oakland, after which he became a student in
the Santa Clara college near San Jose, where his classical education was
finished, graduating with the degree of A. B. Later he took up the study
of medicine in the California Medical college at San
Francisco, from which institution he was graduated in 1897 with the degree of
M. D. and an excellent standing. While apparently well qualified for
professional work, he felt his limitations to such an extent that he took a
post-graduate course in the College of Physicians and Surgeons in San
Francisco. His degree came from that institution in 1901, and since then,
with the exception of three years in San Jose, he has engaged in practice at
Sacramento, where he ranks among the most distinguished and efficient
physicians of the city.
The marriage of Dr. Silva and Miss Mary
Vieira was solemnized in Santa Clara, this state, in October of 1892, and has
been blessed with three children. Manuel, the eldest, now a bright youth
of fifteen years, is a student in the Sacramento high school. The younger
children, Joe and Agnes, are pupils in the Sisters convent on Third and O
streets. The family are earnest supporters of
the work maintained by the Roman Catholic church and Dr. Silva has been a
leader locally among the Knights of Columbus. In addition he has
associated himself with the Druids, Eagles and Fraternal Brotherhood.
Staunch in allegiance to the Republican party, his
devotion, although intense, is less conspicuous than his sturdy loyalty to the
nation and his deep affection for the commonwealth.
Transcribed by Sally Kaleta.
Source: Willis,
William L., History of Sacramento County,
California, Pages 709-711. Historic
Record Company,
© 2006 Sally Kaleta.