San Francisco County
Biographies
AARON
MEEK, M. D.
Aaron
Meek, M. D., was born in Culpeper county,
Virginia, July 29, 1814, the son of Rev. Jacob
and Rachel (Lanning) Meek; the former was a native of Virginia, and the latter of New Jersey. For many years the father was a traveling
preacher in the Pittsburg Conference, and about the year 1818 moved to what was
then the Territory of Ohio. Aaron Meek received his education at the
common schools, and subsequently graduated at the Medical College in Cincinnati, in 1840. He at once began the practice of medicine,
which he followed for a period of forty-seven years. In 1847 he moved from Ohio to Peoria, Illinois, where he was engaged
in practice until 1854, and in 1858 to Chicago, remaining until 1868;
then to Davenport, Iowa, remaining until 1875,
when he came to California. Eight years of the Doctor’s life were spent
in lecturing in different States on anthropology, physiology, anatomy,
etc. He has been a close student all his
life; has for many years kept a meteorological record, and has in manuscript
some very interesting theories concerning the cause of cyclones and other
scientific subjects, which if published in proper form would make a work that
would add materially to scientific works, and enroll his name among the great
men of the earth.
In
1849, at Mount Vernon, Ohio, Dr. Meek was married to Miss Rhoda Gardner,
daughter of James Gardner, and they have six children, viz.: Orendorff H., who died in infancy; Flora Nevada, the wife
of P. W. McManning, of Davenport, Iowa; Sierra Ella,
the wife of D. W. Ballou, now deceased; Channing F., manager of the Union Pacific and Denver &
Gulf railroads; Dr. R. W. Meek, a dentist in Oakland; Edward R.,
attorney-at-law in Denver. Dr. Meek is
and has been for many years a prominent member of the Masonic fraternity,
having taken the Royal Arch degree in 1849.
Politically he affiliates with the Prohibition party,
and is a “living epistle for temperance known and read of all men.”
Transcribed by Donna L. Becker
Source: "The Bay of San Francisco," Vol. 2,
page 118, Lewis Publishing Co, 1892.
© 2005 Donna L.
Becker.
California Biography Project
San Francisco
County
California
Statewide
Golden Nugget
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