Tuolumne
County
Biographies
DR. RICHARD W. KENT
The benefits which certain classes
of invalids derive from the healthful and invigorating climate of California
are known the world over, and California has become the field of labor of many
medical specialists who have gained a national reputation. Prominent among these is Dr. Richard W. Kent,
the proprietor of the new sanitarium at Carter’s, Tuolumne County, who is one
of the best known and most successful physicians and surgeons in his part of
the state.
Dr. Kent was born in New York City
January 16, 1861, and is descended from English ancestors who settled early in
the colonies. His great-grandfather in
the paternal line was a lieutenant-colonel in the Revolutionary Army and was
killed in one of the battles for American independence. His son, Thomas Kent, came with him from the
north of England and located in New York, where he became a chemist. Richard Kent, son of Thomas Kent and father
of Dr. Richard W. Kent, was born in New York City in 1820 and is living there
at this time, at the age of eighty years.
He married Elizabeth Martin, a native of Dublin, Ireland, who came to
New York when a little girl and died when Dr. Kent was a child, leaving four
children, of whom he is the only survivor.
Dr. Kent received a good English and
classical education in New York, and after a due course of reading and study,
was in March, 1886, graduated in medicine in the medical department of the
University of the City of New York. He
practiced his profession in New York City until 1890, when he came to California
and became a surgeon for the Sierra Butts Mining Company at Eureka Mills,
Plumas County, which position he retained for five years. He then located in Sonora, Tuolumne County,
where he was in private practice until 1900, when he built the Carter’s
Sanitarium, a sightly and commodious structure, the ground floor of which is
occupied largely by Dr. Kent’s drug store and offices, the rooms above being
fitted up for the accommodation of about twenty invalids, for the comfort and
treatment of whom every convenience and appliance is at hand. The location of this institution is a
favorable one, its altitude of two thousand six hundred feet above the sea
level being considered neither too high nor too low. While Dr. Kent’s practice is general, he
makes a specialty of pulmonary and nervous diseases, in the treatment of which
he has been markedly successful. He is
the physician to the West Side Flume and Lumber Company, which employs about
seven hundred men, and to the Sierra Railroad Company, which has its terminus
near his sanitarium. His professional
standard is high and he is in all ways a physician to be trusted. He holds membership in the California State
Medical Association, is a Mason and an Odd Fellow, and in politics is a
Republican. While a resident of New York
City he was a member of the board of health.
Dr. Kent was married October 24,
1899, the lady of his choice being Miss Josephine Walker, a
native daughter of California. She is a
daughter of D. J. Walker, a highly respected citizen of San Francisco.
Transcribed by
Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
“A Volume of Memoirs and Genealogy of Representative Citizens of Northern
California”, Pages 253-254. Chicago Standard Genealogical Publishing Co. 1901.
© 2010
Gerald Iaquinta.