Santa
Clara County
Biographies
LOUIS V. SAPH, B. L., M. D.
San Jose knows of no native son more thoroughly
adapted to his profession, to his environment, and to the future growth of the
town, than Dr. Louis V. Saph, a young practitioner
who embodies the highest tenets and possibilities of medical science, and who
is constantly adding merit and achievement of a family of pioneer usefulness
and prominence. Dr. Saph was born in San Jose April
6, 1875, and after an uneventful youth which included among its chances
graduation at the high school in Berkeley in 1893, entered the University of
California, from which he took the degree of B. L. in 1897. He was a remarkably
bright and adaptive student, studying because of his love of knowledge, and his
realization of its bearing upon the ambitious career which he had mapped out
for himself. In the fall of 1897 he re-entered the University of California,
this time in the medical department, and in 1900 was given the degree of M. D.
A competitive examination entitled him to further experience in the City and
County Hospital of San Francisco, in which he served as interne during the
winter of 1900-1901, and in the spring of the latter year he located in San
Jose, and has since engaged in a general practice of medicine and surgery. He
has a well appointed office in the Ryland block, and from the comparatively
brief time required to establish his present practice, the future would seem to
hold out exceeding promise.
Augustus J. Saph,
the father of the doctor, was born in Port Huron, Mich., and in early life
learned the carpenter’s trade, following the same with apparent satisfaction
until the western fever seemed to limit his horizon, and render commonplace and
inadequate his surroundings. In the meantime he had married Naomi McPherson,
who was born in New York state, and who has borne him a son older than Louis
V., Augustus V., a resident of Reno, Nev. Mr. Saph
came to San Jose in the latter ‘50s, and after working at carpentering for a
time, branched out into contracting and building. At a later period he became
interested in milling, and was foreman of the Santa Clara Valley Mill &
Lumber Company, a position which he resigned to become half owner and
superintendent of the Gillespie Mill, since sold. Mr. Saph
further contributed to the milling interests of the town by establishing the
Mechanics Mill on the corner of Fourth and St. John streets, now known as the
Glenwood Mill, and relinquished only by him when overtaken by his final illness,
from which he died in 1888, at the age of fifty-eight years.
Dr. Saph
has inherited the zeal as well as practical ability of his father, and like him
is public spirited and variously interested in town affairs.
He is an energetic and active Republican, and is a member of the San Jose Lodge
No. 10, F. & A. M., and Palo Alto Parlor, N. S. G. W. He is a member also
of the County and State and American Medical societies, and takes an important
part in their deliberations. In Woodland, this state, he was united in marriage
with Nancy Wallace, a native of Nashville, Tenn., and daughter of J. F.
Wallace, a pioneer of California. Mr. Wallace was not as enamored of the state
as the majority, and after running a newspaper in San Francisco in the mining
days returned to Tennessee, but finally died in Winston, Ariz. His wife survives
him and still lives in Woodland. Dr. Saph has much to
recommend him besides good birth, having had excellent opportunities and a
profound knowledge of his profession. He is exceedingly sympathetic, has a
genial and reassuring manner, and brings good cheer and hope into places made
drear by the heavy hand of illness. He is a practical practitioner, taking himself and the world not too seriously, and looking always
on the bright side of human affairs.
Transcribed By: Cecelia M. Setty.
Source: History of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast
Counties, California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Pages 1100-1101. The
Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2016 Cecelia M. Setty.