Kings County
Biographies
GORDON, GEORGE (DR.)
The profession of veterinary medicine and surgery has within the last half-century taken a recognized place among the learned professions and in its membership are included many practitioners who have given to its study and research as much time and thought as the average physician. The veterinary colleges are well equipped and their courses of study are very thorough, enabling their students to become most efficient in their branch of treatment. One of the most proficient and popular veterinarians in the central California is Dr. George Gordon, whose establishment at the end of South Douty street, Hanford, is one of the places of interest of that town.
Dr. Gordon was born in Scotland, January 4, 1870, and was there reared to manhood. His earlier education was obtained in public schools in Banffshire and in Dundee, and later he took a course at the London Polytechnic, where he gave two years to the preparation for his professional education, which was finished in the Veterinary College of San Francisco, except for six months of experience at the Chicago stockyards, where he did post mortem work. His diploma, given him in San Francisco, bears date 1904. The first fifteen months of his professional experience were spent at Lemoore, whence he came to Hanford to establish his veterinary hospital, which has stalls for the accommodation of twenty horses. The hospital and grounds are located at the south end of South Douty street and occupy five acres. It is fully equipped with chemicals and microscopical laboratories. There is also a dental department in connection, with a complement of dental and surgical instruments, and he is thus enabled to give every branch in the veterinary profession the best possible service. In San Francisco, before he entered veterinary college, he conducted a dog hospital and became well known as a canine expert, and he also makes the treatment of diseases of the dog a feature of his practice here. In February, 1910 he was appointed livestock inspector for Kings county and in April following was made a state dairy inspector. He finds his time from his professional duties to affiliate with various fraternal bodies, including the Royal Order of the Scottish Clans, Lemoore lodge and Hanford chapter, No. 74, R. A. M., the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Woodmen of the World.
The able assistant of Dr. George Gordon is W. D. Gordon, who has been identified with this enterprise since 1906 and is now taking the course at San Francisco Veterinary College. He will graduate with the class of 1913, after which he will enter actively upon the practice of veterinary medicine and surgery.
Dr. George Gordon left Scotland in 1888, when he was eighteen years old, and has since returned to his native land four times. His travels in South America have been extensive and he has passed two years in the West Indies as a representative of the International Phosphate company, and was for a time located on Connitable island, off the northeast coast of French Guiana, near the city of Cayenne. While in South America he became assistant superintendent of the aforesaid International Phosphate company, and thus had a most valuable and interesting experience in a line only indirectly connected with his profession, but one of the great importance in furthering production and commerce.
SOURCE: History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California with Biographical Sketches - Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company, 1913 Pp 370, 373
Transcribed by: Craig A Hahn
WENDLING, G. X.
A native of New York, G. W. Wendling came to California in January, 1888, and was in the employ of the Valley Lumber Company of Fresno until November 3, 1889, when he located at Hanford. Probably no man did more than he to promote the establishment of Kings county in 1893. To that end he labored indefatigably and with great efficiency for months, appearing so often at Sacramento as sponsor for the proposed organization that he came to be known as the “Father of Kings County.” When he came to the town he engaged in the lumber business of his own account and he was one of Hanford’s foremost citizens until February 21, 1897, when he removed to San Francisco, where he has large and varied interests. He organized in that city the California Pine Box and Lumber Co., which turns out one hundred and sixty million feet of box material annually. He also organized the Weed Lumber Company, of Weed, Cal., the productiveness of which he has since increased from eight million feet of lumber in its first year to seventy-five million feet at the present time. An idea of the extent of his activities may be gleaned from the following list, showing his connection with various enterprises. He is a director in the Anglo & London-Paris National Bank of San Francisco and is president of the Napa Lumber Company, the Stanislaus Lumber Company, the Big Basin Lumber Company, vice-president of the Klamath Development Company of Klamath Falls, Ore., and president f the Wendling-Johnson Lumber Company, the California Pine Box Lumber Company, the Wendling Lumber Company, the Wendling-Nathan Lumber Company, the Weed Lumber Company and the First National Bank of Weed.
SOURCE: History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California with Biographical Sketches - Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company, 1913 Pp 375
Transcribed by: Craig A Hahn
BURKE, IVAN C. (D. D. S.)
The profession of dentistry approaches nearer and nearer to the realm of exact science with each passing decade and only those of its devotees who keep informed of the details of its progress win permanent success. One of the up-to-date doctors of dental surgery of central California is Ivan C. Burke, of Hanford, Kings county. Dr. Burke is a progressive son of a progressive state, having been born in Crawford county, Kans., September 21, 1885. When he was about five years old he was taken to Walla Walla, Wash., in the public schools of which city he received his practical English education. Desiring to follow a professional career, in 1904, when about nineteen years old, he entered the dental department of the College of Physician and Surgeons of San Francisco, from which he was duly graduated, with the D. D. S. degree in June, 1904, immediately after which Dr. Burke began the practice of his profession in Seattle, Wash. In 1908 he came to Hanford and opened an office in the First National Bank building where he has since devoted himself with much success to the general practice of his profession, keeping abreast of the times, employing the best facilities in the way of instruments and appliances, and his work is of a class well calculated to give permanent satisfaction.
As he has prospered in his profession Dr. Burke has from time to time made judicious investments in real estate. Besides some good town property, his holdings include one hundred and sixty acres near Walla Walla, Wash., which under the superintendency of a hired farmer is producing good alfalfa in paying quantities. At Hanford Dr. Burke is popular in all circles, political, professional, social and fraternal, and his public spirit has brought him high esteem as a citizen. He is a member of the Independence Order of Red Men and is devoted heart and soul to all the interests of that beneficent order. His marriage in 1909 united him with Miss Vera A. Donaldson, of Kansas, a charming woman of many accomplishments, who is bravely aiding him in his struggle for professional and social advancement.
SOURCE: History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California with Biographical Sketches - Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company, 1913 Pp 374, 375
Transcribed by: Craig A Hahn