San
Joaquin County
Biographies
ASA CLARK, M. D.
The experience gained through active
professional work, first in the mining section around Placerville, and later in
Stockton, gave Dr. Asa Clark a broad and humanitarian outlook upon the science
of medicine and also brought him a high rank among physicians in central
California and Nevada. During the years
of his earlier professional work Dr. Clark was greatly impressed with the fact
that special care and special needs would be required to properly control and
handle the large and increasing number of insane cases that came to his
attention. This observation led him to
make a thorough research into the treatment of mental diseases and was followed
by his election as assistant physician of the State Insane Asylum at Stockton
where his further observations and experience brought him to rank among the
foremost in this important branch of the medical profession. As proprietor for many years of the Clark Sanitorium in Stockton, he devoted his entire attention to
the care of insane patients, his years of continuous practice making him
competent to cope with mental diseases of all stages.
The life which this narrative
depicts began in the home of Curtis and Electa
(Meacham) Clark, both natives of Vermont, but at the time of the birth of their
son June 29, 1824, residents of Essex County, New York. Subsequently they removed to Oswego County,
same state, later settled on a farm near Park Ridge, Cook County, Illinois,
from there finally removing to Minnesota, where the mother died in 1862 at the
age of seventy years, and the father in 1883, at the advanced age of
ninety-three years. Asa Clark first
attended the district schools in Park Ridge, and his academic education was
received in Wilson’s Seminary, Chicago.
In the meantime, he had decided to follow the medical profession, and
his studies thereafter were conducted under Dr. Brainerd, of Rush Medical
College, Chicago. Receiving his diploma
in 1849, he set out that same year for California, crossing the plains, going
directly to Placerville, where he opened an office for the practice of his
profession. Necessarily his practice was
small at first, and in order to enlarge his income he became interested with
others in the establishment of a general store in the town, and also was
interested in mining to some extent. The
year of 1850 found him in Santa Clara, and the year following he was in Santa
Barbara. Two years later, however, in
1853, he returned to Placerville and resumed his practice, remaining there for
eight years.
It was in 1861 that Dr. Clark came
to Stockton to assume the duties as assistant physician for the State Insane
Asylum, and since that time until his demise, his entire thought and study was given
to those mentally afflicted. By
arrangements with the authorities of Nevada, Drs. Langdon and Clark were
entrusted with the care of the insane in the territory, then
numbering about thirty and all such other patients as should be committed to
their care. They were first located in
Woodbridge, and four years later opened their office in Stockton, having in the
meantime also formed a contract with Arizona for the care of their insane. At times the institution cared for from 800
to 1000 patients. Both contracts
remained in force until each territory had built its own asylum, Nevada in
1882, and Arizona in 1888, although after 1880 Dr. Clark carried out the
contracts alone, owing to a dissolution of partnership with Dr. Langdon in that
year. In 1871 Dr. Clark had established
his private sanitarium in Stockton, then known as the Pacific Hospital and now
known as Clark’s Sanatorium.
In Placerville, California, May 7,
1856, Dr. Clark was united in marriage with Miss Mary Elizabeth Mountjoy. Her
parents were natives of Virginia, but at the time of the birth of their
daughter, in 1838, were residents of Ohio.
Subsequently in 1852, they brought their family to California and here
they passed the remainder of their lives.
Dr. Clark and his wife became the parents of the following children: Harriette Electa Clark of San
Francisco; George Curtis, deceased; and Dr. Fred Pope Clark, the present owner
of Clark’s Sanitorium in Stockton.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
486-489. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County Biographies
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County Genealogy
Databases