San Francisco County
Biographies
LUCY M. F. WANZER, M. D.
LUCY M. F. WANZER,
M. D., whose office is at No. 205 Taylor street,
San Francisco, has been a resident of California
since 1858, and has been engaged in the practice of medicine since 1876. She was born in Milwaukee,
Wisconsin, in 1841, and received her early
education in Milwaukee and Madison,
Wisconsin, and later was sent to Hartford,
Connecticut, where she attended the high
school nearly three years. Being called
home to Wisconsin on account of
her mother’s illness, she underwent a course of training in nursing and medical
experience for months by the bedside of her sick mother, which determined her
to make the practice of medicine her profession. Her mother’s physician stating that nothing
but a removal to the genial climate of California
would restore her to health, the family went to New York
and from there by way of Panama
to California. Here the mother’s health was completely
restored, and she is to-day, at the age of sixty-eight years, in Santa
Cruz, in perfect health. Dr. Wanzer’s parents
are S. W. and Lucy A. (Jones) Field; the former, now living, was for many years
a prominent merchant of Santa Cruz,
and has held many positions of public trust in the town. Dr. Wanzer engaged in teaching soon after coming to this State, and
also continued her medical studies, and after saving sufficient means she went
to New York and there attended a
course of lectures and clinics at a medical college, receiving the diploma of
that college. Returning to California
she again engaged in teaching, and in 1874 entered the medical department of
the University of California,
graduating at that institution in 1876, and receiving her degree as Doctor of
Medicine, being the first lady graduate in medicine west of the Rocky
Mountains. She immediately
engaged in the practice of her profession, in which she has since continued,
engaged in general practice, but paying special attention to the treatment of
diseases of women and children.
Dr. Wanzer is a member of the State Medical Society of California
and of the County Medical Society of San Francisco. She has been connected ever since her
graduation with the Pacific Free Dispensary, from which has since grown the
children’s Hospital and Training School for Nurses, which now occupies a very
extensive hospital structure of seventy rooms, at 3700
California street. Dr. Wanzer is now one
of the attending physicians. About two
years ago she was obliged to give up her connection with the dispensary at 1016
Mission street, with which she had been connected since 1876, her work at the
hospital with her private practice fully absorbing her time.
The Doctor’s family are of English descent, the first of the family in America
having come to New England among the early Puritan
settlers. Her great-grandfather Woodward
was a soldier in the Revolution, and was wounded and drew a pension up to the
time of his death.
Transcribed
by Cathi Skyles.
Source: "The Bay of San Francisco," Vol. 2,
page 314-315, Lewis Publishing Co, 1892.
© 2005 Cathi Skyles.
California Biography Project
San Francisco County
California Statewide
Golden Nugget Library