HARRIET M. GILLESPIE, O. D.

 

Harriet M. Gillespie, O. D. One of the honored members of the osteopathic profession in San Francisco, at 46 Kearny Street, is Miss Harriet M. Gillespie, who was brought to California during her infancy, and has achieved a notable and dignified place in her profession.

She was born in New Brunswick, Canada. Her father, John Gillespie, a descendant of one of the old Covenant families of Scotland, was engaged in business, also gave private instruction in navigation, and he enjoyed that esteem paid to men of solid character and personality. Doctor Gillespie also owes some of her forcefulness and moral principle to her mother, a woman of beautiful character. She was Sarah Jane (Johnston) Gillespie, and was also born in New Brunswick.

Another important influence on the career of Doctor Gillespie was that exercised by her maternal uncle, Samuel Johnston. The oldest brother of her mother, Samuel Johnston, came around Cape Horn in 1849 on the brig Amelia. He was six months in making this voyage. He and Tobias Mealey, the late senator from Minnesota, were partners in the lumber and shipping business when San Francisco was a tent city. They had their offices on the site of the old Masonic Temple. They also worked in the mines, became successful, and were still comparatively young when they retired.

Doctor Gillespie was educated in the public schools of San Francisco, and subsequently took up the study of osteopathy. She has been busily engaged in practice since 1906. She is a member of the Bay, the California State and National Osteopathic associations. She belongs to the Soroptomist Club of San Francisco and the Order of the Eastern Star. In religious conviction Doctor Gillespie belongs to the Bahai movement, the peace movement of the world, whose leader was the great Persian seer, Bahaollah. She has given much of her time to this movement, and has been identified with it for many years.