JAMES HAMILTON TODD

 

JAMES HAMILTON TODD, a physician and surgeon of Oakland, son of James and Mary Todd, was born May 19, 1846, in Ohio county, West Virginia, near West Alexander, Washington county, Pennsylvania.

James Todd (father of J.H. Todd) was born in Washington county, Pennsylvania, near Claysville, February 14, 1810.  James Todd married Mary Renick Ryers, who was born in Washington county, Pennsylvania, near West Alexander, December 22, 1819.  Their family consisted of seven boys and six girls, named in order:  William Neely, Thomas Milton, Mary Elizabeth, John Smith, Mary Caroline, James Hamilton, Joseph Stephenson, Margaret Byers, Hettie Jane, Alexander Renick, Laura Virginia, Frank Lester and Emma Bell.  James Todd’s father was William Todd, born at Mill Town, county Straban, Ireland, about 1775.  He married Elizabeth Neely, of the same town and county, who was born about 1782.  Their family consisted of six boys and four girls, named in order:  John, William, Mary, James, Jane, Dorcas, Wallace, Thomas, Martha and Joseph.  William Todd’s father was John Todd, born in Scotland from whence he fled to Ireland during the persecution of early Christians.  He married Mary Gillespie, also of Scotch parentage.  John Todd had two brothers, George and William.  George Todd came to the United States several years after his brother John and settled in Kentucky, from whom sprang the family of Mrs. President Lincoln.   

J. Hamilton Todd, the subject of this sketch, received his early education in a local public school, then in the Academy of West Alexander, from which he attempted to enlist in the Union army, but was surrendered to his father.  In the spring of 1863 he was more successful, enlisting as a bugler in Battery H., First West Virginia Light Artillery, and served until dicharged after the general muster in Washington in 1865.  Among his other experiences was his confinement in Libby Prison, being captured at New creek November 28, 1864, and paroled February 14, 1865.  Being exchanged he returned to service and was afterward transferred to the Department Headquarters Band, of which he became master.  Two brothers also served to the end of the war:  John S., in the Fourteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry, and Thomas Milton, in Young’s Pittsburg Battery.  The latter is now a physician of Auburn, California.

After his discharge J.H. Todd resumed his studies, and in 1866 attended Muskingum College at Concord, Ohio, and then the State Normal School of West Virginia at Fairmont.  He taught two terms in local schools, and in 1868 came to this State by the Panama route, arriving in San Francisco August 13.  Passing a successful examination in San Joaquin county, he took charge of the school of the Mount Carmel district and afterward of the school at Lathrop.  Next he served as deputy to H.T.  Dorrance, County Clerk of that county.  After the examination by the school board of Stockton, he was chosen principal of one of the city schools, and there taught from 1871 to 1873.  He then went to New York and attended a course of lectures in the Bellevue Hospital Medical College and returning to Oakland in 1874 was chosen teacher of music in the public schools, remaining two years.  In 1876 he came to this city and was elected principal of the musical department of the public schools, and in 1879 Superintendent of the schools of Oakland.  In 1880 he formally resumed his medical studies by attending lectures in the Cooper Medical College, having kept up his reading in that line under Dr. Asa Clark in Stockton, and also after coming to Oakland.  In the spring of 1883 he was graduated at Cooper Medical College and was appointed house surgeon to the California Women’s Hospital, serving one year.  He was then appointed surgeon of the Pacific Mail Company’s steamer, the City of New York, making two trips to Hong Kong by way of Yokohama, when he quit the service of the company, married and settled down to general practice in this city.  He is a member of the Alameda County Medical Society, and a visiting surgeon of the Fabiola Hospital.  He is a Knight Templar and Royal Arch Mason.

Dr. Todd was married in Oakland May 9, 1885, to Miss Maud Howard, a native of Pennsylvania, who father, Benjamin F. Howard, is still living, in Calaveras county, California, her mother having died in 1883.  Dr. and Mrs. Todd have one child, Madeline, born in Oakland, June 17, 1886.