Yolo County
Biographies
M. WYLIE WARD, M. D.
Prominent among the successful
physicians in Woodland, Yolo county, is M. Wylie Ward,
who has been a resident of this vicinity for nearly twenty-five years. He is a
native of Eureka, Woodford county, Ill., and was born
September 21, 1856.
His
father, W. B. Ward, was born in Moundsville, W. Va., a
son of William Ward, who removed from Virginia and became a farmer in that
locality, where his death occurred. W. B. Ward was reared in his native state
and in young manhood was united in marriage with Sarah E. Hedges. In 1854 he
brought his family as far west as Illinois, locating in the vicinity of Eureka,
where he improved a farm. Thirty-three years later he settled in Overton,
Dawson county, Neb., where he now makes his home,
retired from the active cares of life. He has always taken a prominent part in
public affairs in whatever locality he has made his home, in Woodford county, Ill., serving as county commissioner. Politically he
is a stanch Republican and in his religious affiliations belongs to the Methodist
Church. The only attorney that Mr. Ward has ever required in the management of
his affairs was Abraham Lincoln, whom he employed to draw the deed for his farm
in Illinois. Mr. Ward’s wife is a native of Bethany, W. Va., and the daughter
of Moses Hedges, the representative of an old Virginia family of English
descent.
The oldest of four children and the
only one on the Pacific coast, M. Wylie Ward was reared on the home farm in the
vicinity of Eureka, receiving his preliminary education in the district school.
He then entered Wesleyan University of Illinois, where he remained for several
years, after which he became a student in the Northern Indiana Normal, at
Valparaiso, graduating in 1880 with the degree of B. S. Following his
graduation he taught in Indiana for one year as principal of the LaGro high school, in Wabash county.
In 1881 he came to California and for one year taught in Yolo county, after which he established the Sierra Normal
College, at Auburn, Cal., of which he was president for eight years. This
institution marked the birth of higher education in that section of California.
He employed a corps of seven teachers in the instruction of collegiate,
commercial and normal courses, having a very complete faculty. In 1892 he
leased the college and later sold it to Placer county
for a high school, which was at once accredited by the university. Upon his
withdrawal from this work Mr. Ward took up the study of medicine, in which he
had become interested during his college work, and had spent some time in
study. In 1890 he entered the Cooper Medical College of San Francisco, from
which institution he was graduated in 1893 with the degree of M. D. He
immediately located in Woodland, where he has since made his home, beginning
the practice of medicine and surgery, which, with the passing years, has grown
to lucrative proportions. In his study he made a specialty of eye, ear, nose
and throat diseases and has combined this with his general practice, meeting
with an unusual degree of success in this line. Desiring to benefit by
observation and instruction in the medical institutions and hospitals of the
Old World he went to Europe in 1900 and spent some time in Germany, France and
London, taking a course in the Royal London Ophthalmic Hospital, and in the
Central London Throat & Ear Hospital. Returning to California the following
year he took up his practice and has since brought to bear in his work the
knowledge and experience gained while abroad. In addition to the respect and
esteem won by his ability in the practice of his profession Dr. Ward stands
high as a citizen of broad mind and public spirit and for the sterling traits
of character which have distinguished his life in this section.
The home of Dr. Ward on Elm street is presided over by his wife, formerly Nannie B. Hamilton, whom he married in Auburn, Cal. She is
the daughter of Gen. Jo Hamilton, ex-attorney-general of California, a pioneer
of this state and one of her first lawyers. Mrs. Ward is a native of Kentucky,
but was reared in California, receiving her education in Mills College, from
which institution she was graduated. Fraternally Dr. Ward was made a Mason in
Woodland Lodge No. 156, F. & A. M., and politically he is a stanch adherent
of the principles advocated in the platform of the Republican party. He is a member of the Yolo County Medical Society,
the Medical Society of the State of California, and the American Medical
Association, and is an ex-vice-president of the California Northern District
Medical Society.
Transcribed By: Cecelia M. Setty.
Source: "History of the State of
California and Biographical Record of the Sacramento
Valley, Cal.," J. M. Guinn, Pages
359-360.
The Chapman Publishing Company, Chicago, 1906.
© 2017 Cecelia M. Setty.
Golden Nugget Library's Yolo
County Biographies