JOHN F. FOULKES, M.D.

John F. Foulkes, M.D., of San Francisco, has been a resident of this city for the past sixteen years, and has been engaged in the practice of medicine since 1882. He was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina, in 1855, and his primary education was received in the common schools of his native town, and later from private tutors and in the academy of Fayetteville. His father, Dr. James F. Foulkes, removed to California soon after the civil war, where he engaged in the practice of medicine in Oakland, and continued until his death in May, 1889. The family soon followed him to California, and at an early age the subject of this sketch commenced the study of medicine under the preceptorship of his father. In 1877 he entered the medical department of the University of California, graduating at that institution in 1880. In that year Mr. Foulkes went East and entered the Jefferson Medical College at Philadelphia, under the tutorship of Professor S. D. Gross, the celebrated surgeon, probably the greatest that America ever produced. He studied there for two years, graduating in 1882, and receiving first honorable mention for the best essay in surgery, in a graduating class of 247 men from all parts of the world. After his graduation he was elected house surgeon of the Jefferson College Hospital, after a competition of sixty members of the class. This position he held for one year, and then returned to California. He immediately entered into practice in partnership with his father in Oakland, remaining until 1886, when he removed to San Francisco, where he has since been actively engaged in the practice of his profession. Dr. Foulkes received the appointment of Surgeon to the city Receiving Hospital, which he held for six months, but which he had to resign, owing to an excess of work in those duties and those of his private practice. In addition to this he had undergone severe privations in the snow blockade in the Sierras in the winter of 1889-’90, which told severely on his health. Mr. Foulkes is a member of the Medical Society of the State of California, and also of the Alumni Association of the Jefferson Medical College. 

The family of Dr. Foulkes have been eminently a medical one, his grandparents for four generations back having been prominent in that profession. His grandfather, John A. Foulkes, was a well-known practitioner, whose practice extended over the States of North Carolina and Virginia. His matriculation tickets at the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania in 1825 can now be seen at Dr. Foulkes’ office at No. 217 Gray street. His great grandfather was a surgeon in the American army during the Revolutionary war. The battle of Guildford Court-House was fought on his plantation at the head of the old mill-pond, during that war. Dr. Foulkes’ father was brigade surgeon of Petegrew’s brigade of Heath’s division, under General A. P. Hill, in the Confederate army of the civil war. 

Transcribed by Donna L. Becker 

Source: "The Bay of San Francisco," Vol. 1, pages 511-512, Lewis Publishing Co., 1892.