THOMAS McAWLEY
WOOD, a physician of Oakland, was born in New York city, April 9, 1830, a son of David and Mary Ann (Van Steenburgh)
Wood, both natives of New York and born in 1800 - Mrs. Wood in the city and Mr.
Wood in Genoa, near Wasco Lake, ten days later. His grandfather, John Van Steenburgh, was a ship-builder in that
city, and both himself and his wife were of Knickerbocker decent and lived to
be about ninety-six years of age. David
was at one time an importing merchant of New York city, moved to Ohio and
settled on a farm in Huron county about 1833.
Some time before his death he retired to Cleveland. He died in 1870, as the result of medical
mal-practice. The Woods are of the
early English immigration, of whom a portion spread into New York State and
another portion into the South. The
Doctor’s mother is still living.
At the age of fifteen years Dr. Wood returned
to New York State in order to have better school advantages. Going again to Ohio, he at the age of
seventeen undertook the study of law in Mount Gilead, Morrow county, under the
supervision of the law firm of Stinchcomb & Sanford, and remained there
three years. In 1851 he came to
California, by way of Panama, arriving in San Francisco in November; mined a
short time at Rattlesnake Bar in El Dorado county twelve miles from Auburn;
next, during the summer of 1852, he assisted in building the Stockton &
Sonora road in Calaveras county, from the Stanislaus river to Sonora, being in
charge of a company of men; then he located a ranch of 160 acres, retaining it
but a short time, near what is now Copperopolis; came to San Francisco in
1852-’53 and followed farming in Contra Costa county. He took a place eight miles from Martinez, rented 300 acres of
one party and 300 of another, and put in crops of wheat and barley and a
vegetable garden. A year afterward he
went to Rabbit Creek (La Porte) and Warren Hill, Sierra county, and followed
mining during the winter of 1853-’54, doing well. He discovered some good claims; paying $32 a day to each working
hand. He bought other claims which
afterward turned out well.
About 1855 he turned his attention to scientific
investigation, especially in chemistry and the art of daguerreotyping, then
prevailing and followed the art for some years, beginning at La Porte. From this on for several years he traveled
through this State, Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Nevada, practicing the art of
daguerreotyping, for a livelihood, and medicine as a work of benevolence. Becoming dissatisfied with allopathy, he
adopted a system of magnetic healing, partly his own discovery. In 1876 he visited the great Centennial
Exposition at Philadelphia, where he purchased an “artopticon”, with which he
illustrated lectures that he delivered, thereafter, on his way back to the
Pacific coast, his topics being derived from sundry features of the
exposition. Since 1879 he has been
lecturing and writing against the use of narcotic and alcoholic stimulants in
medication, and he also continues to practice the healing art, especially in
the treatment of delirium tremens, dipsomania and the opium habit.
In August, 1890, he located in
Oakland. His vitality is
remarkable. Although sixty years old,
he can walk sixty miles in a day and deliver a lecture in the evening. He received his degree of D. M. (Doctor of Magnetism) from the college
of that school in New York city. In
1886 he bought 240 acres of land in Lake county, this State, which tract he
named Wood Dale and where he designs to erect a sanitarium this year,
1891. It is situated on a plateau east
of Mt. St. Helena, in the healthiest part of the coast. His great principle in medicine is the
removal of obstacles to the upbuilding powers of nature, and he believes that
walking is one of the best universally acceptable remedies. In sixty years of life, and thirty or more
of the full possession of his powers, he has accumulated the experiences of a
much longer life.
Transcribed
by David
Rugeroni.
Source: "The Bay of San Francisco," Vol. 2, pages 19-20, Lewis Publishing Co., 1892.
© 2005 David Rugeroni.