San Francisco County
Biographies
GEORGE WILLIAM DAVIS, M.D.
GEORGE WILLIAM
DAVIS, M.D., whose office is at No. 431 Geary street,
San Francisco, has been a resident of California
for the past twenty-one years, practicing his profession. Born near St. Joseph,
Missouri, in Buchanan county,
his early education was had in the public and private schools of his
neighborhood. At the age of eighteen, in
1862, he enlisted in the confederate service during the late war, and served
until the close of the struggle. He was
wounded April 9, 1864, in
the battle at Pleasant Hill, Louisiana,
while under the command of General Richard Taylor, operating against General
Banks’ expedition.
After the close
of the war he
attended school at the Union Academy
near Springville, Louisiana. Subsequently he taught school almost a
year. Returning to his home in Missouri,
he began the study of medicine under the preceptorship
of his father, Dr. S. Davis, and after a year thus spent he went to St.
Louis, Missouri, attended
lectures at the Missouri Medical
College and graduated in March,
1870. Removing immediately to California,
he located at Chico, Butte
county, and practiced there until 1881. Then he spent the larger part of a year in New
York city, reviewing his
medical studies at the Bellevue Hospital
Medical College,
devoting himself more especially to surgery.
On his return to California
he located at Sacramento where he
remained a year; and in the spring of 1883 he removed to San
Francisco. In
May, 1888, he went to Europe and studied in the
hospitals of London, Paris,
Berlin and Vienna
for fourteen months, with special reference to gynecology. He is a member of the American Medical
Association, of the California State Medical Society, and of the San Francisco
Medical Society, and of the Geographical Society of the Pacific.
On his father’s
side he is of early New England stock, his
great-grandfather, Captain Daniel Davis, having been a prominent man in Boston,
and later a Captain in the Revolutionary war; afterward he joined the company
of Ohio Associates, under General Rufus Putnam, who commenced the settlement of
Ohio in 1788. On his mother’s side he is of Irish stock;
her ancestry early settled in New York city,
and subsequently at Winchester, Virginia,
where his mother was born.
His grandfather,
Colonel Jesse Davis, born July 23,
1778, at Killingly, Ohio,
was in many respects a remarkable man.
He had not only a stalwart frame, a noble and commanding presence, but
strong intellectual endowments joined with a decisive character, a moral
courage and persistence in maintaining the right which made his influence for
good great in the community in which he lived.
He was active in public affairs; for many years
Town Clerk, Justice of the Peace,
Colonel of Militia – a very efficient officer, and when mounted on his horse in
military dress presented a fine appearance.
He died in the fullness of a ripe and vigorous manhood. His father, Doctor Simon Davis, born August 21, 1808, in Washington
county, Ohio,
had a good common-school education, and at seventeen years of age received a
certificate of qualification to teach.
At an early age he removed to Audrain county, Missouri,
where he continued teaching till 1841, when he was married to Eliza M. Gray;
and at about the same time began the study of medicine in the Kemper
Medical School
in St. Louis, graduating in
1844. Shortly after he located in
Buchanan county, Missouri,
where he resided till removing to California
in 1869. He died in San
Francisco, July
21, 1889. He was an
honorable and successful physician. His
life was an active one. He was an
untiring student, a painstaking investigator of every subject and question that
required consideration. He wrote
extensively. He abounded in the
amenities of life. Though of a genial,
kindly and to a degree of a timid disposition, he yet possessed great boldness
in defence of the right; and entered with the
heartiest sympathy in the protection of the weak and needy. He was a most exemplary Christian gentleman;
preeminently conscientious and true; and no man occupied a higher position in
the genuine respect and esteem of all who knew him. His wife, who was a noble
and true companion, and a loving and devoted mother, is living, and resides at Alameda,
California.
Transcribed 7-31-05 Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: "The Bay of San Francisco," Vol. 2, Page 256-7, Lewis
Publishing Co, 1892.
©
2005 Marilyn R. Pankey.
California Biography Project
San Francisco County
California Statewide
Golden Nugget Library