San Francisco County
Biographies
DR.
AURELIUS HOMER AGARD
DR. AURELIUS HOMER
AGARD.—The medical fraternity of San Francisco and
Oakland contains among its numbers no more creditable representative than this
gentleman. Having devoted the many years of his connection with the
profession to keeping up with and assisting in the progress that this grand
calling has made, a more than passing notice of his life becomes valuable, and
indeed essential in this connection.
He is a native of
Wadsworth, Medina County, Ohio, born October, 1822, his parents being Alvin and
Lucina (Warner) Agard. The
Agards are an old New England family, and it is
understood that the original place of settlement on this continent was at
Windsor, Connecticut. Grandfather, Benjamin Agard,
born and reared in Torrington, Connecticut, and there married to Rhoda Loomis,
removed with his family to Ohio, in 1818, and settled at Wadsworth, two
years after the first settlement of that locality. Benjamin and Rhoda
(Loomis) Agard were the parents of four children, the
oldest of whom was Alvin, the father of our subject. He was born at
Torrington, and when young removed with his parents to Ohio. He was
afterward married to Lucina Warner, a native of
Swanton, Franklin County (then Huntsburg),
Vermont. She was a daughter of Salmon Warner, who removed from Vermont
with a party whose destination was Marietta, Ohio. On the journey, which
consumed three months, they were much afflicted by sickness. (This, 1815, was long known in Ohio as a year of great sickness and
mortality.) They stopped to recuperate at Canfield, Ohio, which was
the home of General Wadsworth. There they learned, on recovering, that
there was much sickness and disease at Marietta, and they were advised by
General Wadsworth to settle on land of his in Medina County, offering them their
choice in one-half of the township as an inducement. The party accepted
the proposition and located at Wadsworth, of which place they were the
founders, in 1816. One of their number, by name
Benjamin Dean, cut down the first tree felled in the township, the timer being
used in the construction of a dwelling. Not many years previous to this
writing Mr. Agard attended an old settlers’ meeting
in Medina County, the sixtieth anniversary of the settlement of the township,
and there heard the same Benjamin Dean recounting experiences of early days to
the assemblage.
Alvin Agard died in Ohio, in 1837, and was followed by his widow
in 1843. They were the parents of three children, of whom Dr. A. H. is the
eldest; Eulatia, the second in order of birth, was
the wife of Frank S. Palmer and died at Roca,
Nebraska, near Lincoln, January, 1891; the youngest, Benjamin Euler, died in
Dubuque, Iowa, June, 1891. He was Captain in a regiment under Sully in the
late war, engaged in Indian fighting.
A. H. Agard, our present subject, was reared at Wadsworth, and
resided there until his mother’s death. His father, at his death, left a
large farm, but little else in the way of assets, and Mr. Agard,
who was, though only fifteen years of age, the oldest of the children, had more
or less responsibility thrown upon his shoulders at this early age. He,
however, received a very good education, going regularly as a boy to the
district schools of his immediate neighborhood, after which he attended an
academy at Cuyahoga Falls, and later John McGregor’s academy, during which time
he did the chores at home and walked three miles to school. After his mother’s
death he left home and began attendance at the Western Star Seminary, which was
near the line between Summit and Medina counties, and which was conducted by
Messrs. Mateson & Williams. (Mr. Williams
was afterward professor of mathematics at Allegheny College, at Erie.) To
these gentlemen Mr. Agard recited in Greek and Latin,
and at the same time taught classes, in the Western Star Seminary, and also
spent much of his spare time in the office of Drs. Fisher and Warner, his
uncle, with whom he made his home.
Dr. Agard gave much attention to medical works, and liked the
reading, though he had no idea of ever becoming a practitioner. He had in
view a college course, but eventually he began to consider that he was getting
along somewhat in life and revolved in his mind a number of plans for the
future. At length he determined that he would go to Kentucky or some other
place in the South, and teach school or do something of the kind. Upon
mentioning his thoughts to an intimate friend he found that the latter felt as
he did, and they prepared for a start. On the day
previous to that set for their departure, a knowledge
of the state of affairs came to his uncle, who was also his guardian. The
latter came to Mr. Agard, and after asking him about
his intentions told him he thought his idea a foolish one, and advised him to
take up the study of medicine. There stood in the way of this, however,
the facts that his friend was ready for the trip South with him, and that he
himself had not the means with which to attend lectures; but these objections
were quickly disposed of, —the first by his friend’s advising him to accept his
uncle’s offer, and the second by the latter agreeing to secure the necessary
money for him to attend lectures.
Accordingly the next
day he started for Cleveland to attend medical lectures, and thus steps were
directed toward the medical profession. After attending two courses he was
offered the opportunity of graduating though the regulations would have
forbidden it, as he had not been in attendance a sufficient length of time,
although he was sufficiently advanced. He refused a suspension of the
rules in his case, and went to Philadelphia, intending to attend the medical
department of the University of Pennsylvania; but, during two months spent in
dissecting before commencing the term, he became acquainted with the professors
of both that and the other college there (the Jefferson), and came to the
conclusion that the latter was at that time more progressive. With it were
connected such eminent professors as Dr. Pancoast, Robley Dunglison, Charles D. Meigs, J. K. Mitchell, etc. At this institution Dr. Agard graduated in the spring of 1849, and then returned to
Western Star, where he formed a partnership with Dr. Fisher, contracting with
the latter to buy from him within a year most of his possessions at that
place. He was married there, October 10, 1849, to Harriet F. Cole, a
native of Akron, Ohio, and daughter of Dr. Joseph Cole, of that place.. She died November 14, 1854, leaving one daughter, Helen
Louisa, now the wife of H. J. Epler, at Saratoga
Springs, New York.
After practicing
seven years in the neighborhood where he was born and brought up, Dr. Agard moved in 1856 to Sandusky, Ohio. In June, that
year, before his removed, he married Miss May R. More, a
native of Sharon, Ohio, and daughter of Peter A. More. He practiced
at Sandusky City until 1875, and then removed to California, locating in
Oakland. His change to this State was probably the result of his
impressions formed in 1868, when he spent eight months in this State to
recuperate his health. In 1877 he came to San Francisco to attend the
meeting of the American Medical Association, of which body he is a
member. In Ohio he belonged to the Summit County Medical Society and the
Erie County Medical Society, of which he was vice-president and acting
president when he left Sandusky; he was also one of the vice-presidents of the
Ohio State Medical Society, a member of the Northwestern Medical Society of
Ohio; has been president of the Alameda County Medical Association;
vice-president of the California State Medical Society, still being an active
member of both the latter; he is also a member of the Rocky Mountain Medical
Association, formed from those who made the trip across the mountain to attend
the meeting of the American Medical Society in San Francisco in 1871. He
was one of the first to take an active interest in microscopy, in which fertile
field of investigation he has taken a deep interest.
He has always been a
student in his profession. In 1856 he reported a case of traumatic
aneurism of the femoral artery, operated on by Dr. Fisher, previously
mentioned, as able surgeon. The report was published in the American
Journal of the Medical Sciences for April of that year. Dr. Agard has also written a few articles on professional
subjects for the current medical journals. Transactions of State medical
societies where he has been a member have also received contributions from his
pen. A recent article in the Pacific Medical Journal on “Vaccine
Lymph, Jennerian or Bovine,” is pronounced by
competent authority a most excellent review of the subject. The Doctor has
given his best efforts to the science of medicine and surgery, has always been
a thoroughly conscientious worker in his chosen field of labor, and for these
reasons, not less than for his undoubted ability, he is recognized as an
ornament to the profession.
He belongs
distinctively to a class of men who, often under difficulties, are artificers
of their acquirements and of their fortunes, and as such furnishes an example
worthy of emulation. Honorable in all his dealings, earnest in purpose,
retiring in his manner, he has ever labored indefatigably, by much reading and
study and by careful observation, to discharge his professional obligations
intelligently and conscientiously. In how great measure
he has succeeded in his life-plan and endeavor, the encomiums that come to him
in his declining years from a large clientage attest.
Having said this much
of his labors in the science and literature of his profession, it will be
interesting to turn to another feature and notice a by-path of his career in
which his mental ability has found congenial occupation. He is in the
habit of relating to some of his young friends who ask his advice as to what
they had best do in life, how near he came to making life a failure, by
mistaking his calling. From his earliest years he has always been
passionately fond of literature, and has indulged this fondness more or less
throughout life. Although his productions along this line make no
dress-parade display in the serried ranks found on our book-shelves, yet, if
what had been written and published in the ephemeral columns of the daily press
had been thrown into book form, it would have made a creditable showing, both
in amount and character of the matter; and, if as well enjoyed by the general
reader as by his personal friends, it would secure a large and appreciative
hearing. He has often been urged by his readers to put into a more durable
form some of his most admired productions; but his reply that “failure must
always follow the effort to serve two masters; that he has chosen medicine as
his calling, and medicine and literature could never be wedded in him; and to
give up the former for the latter would be but to drop the bone in an effort to
seize the shadow, leaving only chagrin and an empty stomach,” generally quiets
the controversy. His literary productions were a sort of by-product,
thrown off to amuse a leisure hour while resting from more important labor.
His first
considerable effort in his line was a series of letters published in the
Sandusky Daily Register, Ohio, entitled “Leaves from my Play-ground,”
written during one of his summer outings. These were so well received that
they were followed by some twenty numbers in the same chatty, playful spirit,
entitled “Leaves from the Back Office.” These were all floated over a nom
de plume, and the Doctor relates even yet, with much gusto, that he was often
asked whether he had any idea who wrote the “Leaves;” and while his
acquaintances praised and defended them, he would criticise
and ridicule them, and would reply that whoever the writer might be he had
mistaken his calling and had better be doing something else.
The son of pioneers,
his own days reaching back into the primeval forests of northern Ohio, and from
childhood familiar with the hardships, the fears, the hopes and the joys of
pioneer life, the Doctor was never more delighted than when listening to the
recitals of the old first settlers. In 1856, when he left his birth-place
on the Connecticut Western Reserve and located at Sandusky City, he found
himself a citizen within the bounds of the “Connecticut Fire Lands” and at once
became interested in local history and commenced the study of the local botany
and geology of the region, finding the field rich in facts and specimens new to
him. The flora of the region was peculiarly varied and somewhat
unique. In his professional jauntings from point
to point, gleaning as he went along, he soon so far mastered the field that he
contemplated publishing a monograph of the botany of Sandusky bay and vicinity,
when a fire, that destroyed the Register printing establishment, in
which he owned a large interest, consumed also his offices and their entire
contents, and, as he said, placed him back on financial bedrock. All his
botanical specimens and manuscript were destroyed forever.
An hour’s chat now
and then with the old settlers revealed to him that there was a fund of local
history of the early times which was fast lapsing into oblivion, and should be
saved while within reach. Acting upon this conviction, he spent many hours
visiting the pioneers who had not already made a record of their experiences
and observations, and made extensive notes of such points of early history as
he deemed important. These notes he afterward arranged and expanded into
some twenty-four lengthy articles in the Sandusky Register, under the
caption, “Evenings with the Pioneers.” Important parts of these articles
were afterward arranged and published in the Fire Lands Pioneer, a
publication which contained the transactions of the Fire Lands Pioneer
Association, of which body he was an active member.
In the flush days of
Pit-hold city he visited the oil-fields of Ohio and Pennsylvania, published his
observations and something concerning the geology of petroleum. He also
made several journeys to the coal-fields of eastern Ohio, with a view of
determining the worth of the coal and its associated deposits of iron ores,
fire-clays, etc., and the practicability of bringing them by rail to the lake
at or near Sandusky. As chairman of a committee of investigation he reported
favorably and urged capital to aid the enterprise. Long ago the roads have
been built and the inland mineral wealth of the regions visited is being
developed, exceeding his sanguine expectations.
The great bulk of his
fugitive efforts with his pen is found in letters of
travels, in which he is peculiarly chatty and often humorous, giving always a
substratum of interesting information relative to the business habits and
customs of the people, natural history, etc. During a visit in California
in 1868-‘69, when he spent eight months journeying over some of the most
interesting portions of the State, he wrote some thirty letters, of
considerable length, to the Sandusky Register, in which he gave one of
the most truthful and life-like pen pictures of the country that had been
published. All was new and strange to him. The scenery, the topography,
the climate, the geology, the mineralogy, the flora, modes and conditions of
all business industries, cosmopolitan character and habits of the people were
all studied with great zest, and the pictures of all drawn to answer the then
wide-spread cry, “What of California?” From his observations he tried to divine
the future of the State; concluded that until important conditions were changed
it could not become successful in manufactures; that, given a market, it had
possibilities that would some day place it in the front rank for wines, fruits
and cereals. He advised his friends not to leave passably comfortable
situations in the East and come to this coast with all of its allurements of
scenery, climate and soil, unless they possessed means sufficient to afford to
pay for a luxury or a large amount of grit and wide-awake push.
His friends declared
to read his letters was like journeying with him, and urged their publication
in book form; but he would never consent.
Thus far his literary
efforts have been given as a pastime. The laborious part of his work in
this field came upon him between the years 1862 and 1866, when, as one of the
many derangements occasioned by the war, he was forced to assume, more or less
entire, the editorial management of the Sandusky Daily Register, a
morning paper, and the only daily then published in that Congressional
district. This he did while carrying on a large professional business, which
proved more than a full measure for his strength, and he fell into an enfeebled
condition from which he never recovered until his vacation on this coast in
1868. Visiting the sick through the day and “sitting up” with a morning
daily the greater part of the night would exhaust the strongest; and it was
peculiarly laborious during the excitements and the anxieties of the war.
His style, when
treating of graver subjects, is terse, pointed and convincing. In his
lighter moods he is breezy, life-like and entertaining. There is
interwoven into all he writes a thread of subtle, philosophic humor that
recalls the spirit of the old Knickerbocker
Magazine in the days of Willis Gaylord Clarke, or more distinctively the Noctes Ambrosianae of Kit North
and the Ettrick Shepherd. One enjoying his varied productions is led to
query whether literature has not lost quite as much as medicine has gained by
his choice of professions. In this connection he has said: “It takes the
tuition of one life to learn how to live, what to do and how to do it; and if
there is nothing beyond the school-boy experiences of this life, the best
aspirations of the soul are misleading, tantalizing and of abortive value.”
Dr. Agard has, in a few years preceding the date of this
writing, met with sore affliction. His wife died in this city, October 29,
1887, the mother of four children, viz.: Lawrence More Agard,
born at Sandusky, Ohio, August 1, 1859, educated in the University of
California, graduated at Cooper Medical College, San Francisco, practiced in
Oakland and at Auburn— a young physician of great promise—and died December 3,
1889; A. H. Born at Sandusky, Ohio, August 26, 1861, a graduate of the Oakland
high school, and entered upon a business career, and was secretary of the
Judson Iron Works when he died, January 18, 1887; Martha L., born also at
Sandusky, Ohio, February 19, 1865, was educated at Field’s Seminary, now living
in Oakland, the wife of W. M. Du Val; Augusta Eliza,
born in Sandusky, March 10, 1871, died in Oakland, June 18, 1888.
Transcribed
by 10-4-06 Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: "The Bay of San
Francisco," Vol. 1, Pages 415-420,
Lewis Publishing Co, 1892.
©
2006 Marilyn R. Pankey.