Descriptive Summary
Administrative Information
Biography
Scope and Content
Controlled Access
Descriptive Summary
Title: Obed Harvey Papers,
Date (inclusive): 1845-1894
Collection number: MSS 47-5
Creator: Harvey, Obed, 1825-1894
Extent: 1 box (3 folders, scrapbook)
Repository:
University of California, San Francisco. Library. Archives and Special Collections.
San Francisco, California 94143-0840
Shelf location: For current information on the location of these
materials, please consult the Library's online catalog.
Language:
English.
Administrative Information
Access
Collection is open for research.
Received
Received 1947 from his daughter, Genevieve Harvey.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Obed Harvey Papers, MSS 47-5, Archives & Special
Collections, UCSF Library & CKM
Biography
Obed Harvey was born September 7, 1825, in Sodus, Wayne County, New York. As was
customary at the time, he began his medical studies in apprenticeship with Dr. George W.
Richards in St. Charles, Illinois. He attended lectures in La Porte [Indiana?] and at
Rush Medical College in Chicago. He took his degree in 1849 from Rock Island Medical
College, and practiced medicine for a short time in Genoa and Elgin, Illinois. In August
of 1850 he came to Placerville, California, having begun the overland journey in late
1849. In Placerville, he formed a partnership with Dr. Asa Clark and with him conducted
the County Hospital; the two were the leading physicians of El Dorado County.
During a later partnership with Dr. Benjamin F. Keene, Dr. Harvey became interested in
political life. He was the delegate from El Dorado County at the state medical society's
first convention in 1856, and helped elect Dr. Keene the first president of the society.
In 1857 Dr. Harvey was made vice-president of this organization. Dr. Harvey represented
California at the May, 1858 convention of the American Medical Association. He left for
the East in August of 1857, sailing by steamer from San Francisco to Panama, crossing the
Isthmus, and boarding another steamer, the Central America , for the trip to the eastern
seaboard. The ship's surgeon having been taken ill on the first day out of Havana, Dr.
Harvey was acting surgeon when theCentral America was wrecked in a gale off Cape Hatteras
on September 12, 1857. Dr. Harvey was rescued after floating on a piece of the wreck for
nine hours. His celebrated letter from New York, which appeared in the Sacramento Union
in October of 1857, described the wreck and the medical and surgical aid given to the
passengers. This adventure, plus his able representation in Washington at the AMA
convention (the first time California was represented), ensured Dr. Harvey's increased
prominence upon his return to California in 1858.
Over the next few years, he continued to serve on various committees for the state
medical society, as well as on committees of the AMA and as a delegate from El Dorado
county at the state's first railroad convention. During the Civil War years, Dr. Harvey
--a staunch Union Democrat --was elected state senator from El Dorado county, and also as
acting surgeon for the 4th Regiment, California Volunteers. In 1864 he went to Washington
"in the interest of the co-tenants of the Chabolla Grant," the large parcel of land he'd
obtained in 1852 that was part of the old Rancho San Juan de los Moquelumnes tract
(patents for same giving him clear title were obtained in May of 1865). During this same
trip Dr. Harvey also visited some of the Army hospitals in Virginia; the current
collection includes some of the official documents allowing him to pass into the war zone
where these hospitals were located. In 1869 he laid out the town of Galt on the land he'd
acquired in 1852 and on which he'd made school land surveys in 1853. He was largely
instrumental in carrying through the South Fork Canal, described as "the life of El
Dorado county," and also assisted in constructing the Pacific Quartz mill, just east of
Placerville. In 1871-1872 he was a member of the State Assembly, after which he became
director of the State Hospital (state asylum for the insane) in Stockton; he held this
position until his death on January 17, 1894.
Scope and Content
Includes: scrapbook with life of Dr. Harvey written by his wife, Susan Mitchell Hall
Harvey; correspondence, visiting cards, news clippings, reprints, photographs of Dr.
Harvey and other doctors; a copy of the Handbook of Washington, printed for the AMA
meeting 1858, and the Directory of the California Board of Medical Examiners (1877).
Controlled Access
Harvey, Susan Mitchell Hall
Physicians, California
Medicine--Practice
Newton, L Q
Woodworth, J
Hard, N
Clark, Asa
Logan, Thomas M
Lewis, A J
Stout, Arthur B
Rowell
Bowditch, Henry I
Cole, Robert Beverly
Low
Briggs
Tyrell