San Bernardino County
Biographies
REGINALD E. McDONALD, M. D.,
has been in the active practice of medicine in San Bernardino since 1884. He is a native of the city of Toronto, Canada, born in 1856, and obtained his literary education in Victoria University and Upper Canada College. He spent one year studying for his profession in the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Toronto, and three years in the California Medical College at San Francisco, and was graduated at the latter in 1883. Before coming to California, Dr. McDonald spent a year and a half, 1881–'82, on North Georgian Bay, as surgeon for a large lumbering company, where he had the opportunities to experience the rigors of an arctic
winter, the thermometer registering 42° below zero on several occasions. All traveling in winter was with dogs and sledges.. While up there he made the circuit of the upper lakes in a tug boat. After leaving college he practiced six months in Oakland, then came to San Bernardino. He likes this city and valley much, but he thinks it is not a profitable country for physicians on account of the superior healthfulness of the climate. He says the recent construction of the city's sewer system has materially diminished sickness in San Bernardino, making it one of the healthiest cities on the continent. The Doctor enjoys a liberal share of the practice of the city and valley. He has some valuable investments in real estate, among which is a tract of farming land in Cajon Pass.
The Doctor is an earnest devotee to his profession, and with his thorough educational training therefore has a future of bright promise before him.
SOURCE: An Illustrated History of Southern California: Embracing the Counties of San Diego, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Orange, and the Peninsula of Lower California… Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1890. p.- 491-492
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
LYMAN NELSON BEDFORD, D. D. S.,
a leading dentist of Southern California, is a native of Pennsylvania, born in 1851. He began the study of dentistry with his eldest brother, Dr. E. Bedford, in Sioux City, Iowa, in 1876, was graduated at the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery in 1885. He practiced in Sioux City until 1886, when at the request of his brother, Dr. A. D. Bedford, he came to California and located in San Bernardino, since which time he has carried on an active and lucrative professional business. Dr. Bedford's specialty is in fine operative dentistry, and the scientific treatment and preservation of the natural teeth. He occupies a high rank in his profession, both for his theoretical knowledge and practical skill in all branches of dentistry. While residing in the Hawkeye State, he was a member of the Iowa State Dental Society.
In 1888 Dr. Bedford was joined in marriage, in Sioux City, with Miss Etta a Smith, a native of Massachusetts, an accomplished lady, who after graduating from Oberlin College, Ohio, spent two years in Europe perfecting her studies in music; and after returning taught several years in the Conservatory of Music in the Ohio Wesleyan University. Dr. Bedford owns several pieces of property in the city of San Bernardino, and with his prosperous and growing dental practice has a bright future before him.
SOURCE: An Illustrated History of Southern California: Embracing the Counties of San Diego, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Orange, and the Peninsula of Lower California… Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1890. p.- 492
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
ALMA WHITLOCK,
the pioneer dentist of Southern California, first commenced the practice of his profession in San Bernardino in 1857, and has been continuously in practice in the city ever since 1859. He was born in Missouri in 1831. His parents, who were both natives of New England, were brought up from childhood in Ohio. His mother, formerly Miss Abbot, was a relative of the Garfield family. They started for California across the plains from Tipton, Iowa, in the spring of 1850, and spent the winter of 1850–'51 in Utah, and resumed the journey on the following spring, reaching Hangtown, now Placerville, on July 16, 1851. Though a physician by profession, his father kept a boarding-house in the new mining town for a few months after their arrival. Removing from there to Santa Clara County they continued to keep a house of entertainment during the year of their residence there; then removed to Watsonville, where the subject of this memoir began the study of dentistry with Dr. Irwin in 1855. He practiced in Santa Clara, San Jose and Santa Cruz, before coming to Southern California. Being a natural mechanic and possessed of considerable inventive genius, Dr. Whitlock has invented several instruments for use in his profession which are considered valuable improvements over those formerly used. His practice embraces all branches of the profession. As an evidence of his skill in operative dentistry, it may he stated that patients of his are wearing gold filling, in a good state of preservation, put in by him a quarter of a century ago.
Many years since the Doctor purchased 108 acres of land one mile east of the city of San Bernardino, for $700, including an ample water right. He subsequently sold thirty-six acres of that tract for $2,300 and still owns seventy-two acres, with fifty inches of water, which constitutes his homestead, and which he cultivates in fruits and alfalfa.
In 1858 Dr. Whitlock went to Camp Floyd, Utah, and at Springville, Utah Territory, he married Miss Mackenzie, of Scotch parentage. Doctor and Mrs. Whitlock have four sons and three daughters. Their oldest son, W. A., is a graduate of a college of law, standing among the first of his class, and has been admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court.
SOURCE: An Illustrated History of Southern California: Embracing the Counties of San Diego, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Orange, and the Peninsula of Lower California… Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1890. p.- 492-493
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler