Thomas Hamel Pinkerton, M.D., was long and actively engaged in the practice of his profession at Oakland and was known and honored as one of the representative pioneer physicians and surgeons of the San Francisco Bay region. 

Doctor Pinkerton was born at Amesbury, Massachusetts, June 20, 1817, a son of Archibald and Fanny (Walker) Pinkerton, natives of Ireland, and both residents of Massachusetts at the time of their death. The early education of Doctor Pinkerton was obtained in the schools of his native state, and in 1859 he was graduated in the medical school of Harvard University. In 1860 he made the voyage around Cape Horn to San Francisco, where he arrived January 5, 1861. He was the first surgeon to make permanent location at Virginia City, Nevada, and he became city and county physician, and assisted in the building of the local hospital, of which he had charge five years. He was employed as a government contract surgeon during the greater part of the Civil war, and in 1866 he returned to California and became a pioneer physician and surgeon at Oakland, he having here been the honored dean of his profession at the time of his death. He served as city health officer and as president of the Board of Health of Oakland. He was one of the organizers of the Alameda County Medical Society, served as president of the California State Medical Society, and was a member of the American Medical Association. The Doctor was a Knight Templar Mason. In Massachusetts Doctor Pinkerton married Mrs. Mary (Trull) Winslow, and her death occurred in the City of Boston, she having been survived by one son and two daughters. In 1866, at Virginia City, Nevada, Doctor Pinkerton married Mary Josephine Atwell, who was born in the State of New York, and she survived him by several years. 

Transcribed by Donna L. Becker