Register of the Lodi Hospitals Collection, 1894-1965

Processed by Don Walker; machine-readable finding aid created by Don Walker
San Joaquin County Historical Society and Museum
11793 North Micke Grove Road
Lodi, CA 95241
Phone: (209) 463-4119
Fax: (209) 369-2178
Email: dwalker@uop.edu
URL: http://www.sanjoaquinhistory.org/
© 2000
San Joaquin County Historical Society & Museum. All rights reserved.

Register of the Lodi Hospitals Collection, 1894-1965

Collection number: Ms46

San Joaquin County Historical Society and Museum



Lodi, California

Contact Information

  • San Joaquin County Historical Society and Museum
  • 11793 North Micke Grove Road
  • Lodi, CA 95241
  • Phone: (209) 463-4119
  • Fax: (209) 369-2178
  • Email: dwalker@uop.edu
  • URL: http://www.sanjoaquinhistory.org/
Processed by:
Don Walker
Date Completed:
March 1999
Encoded by:
Don Walker
© 2000 San Joaquin County Historical Society & Museum. All rights reserved.

Descriptive Summary

Title: Lodi Hospitals Collection,
Date (inclusive): 1894-1965
Collection number: Ms46
Creator:
Extent: 0.5 linear ft.
Repository: San Joaquin County Museum.
Lodi, CA 95241
Language: English.

Administrative Information

Access

Collection is open for research by appointment only.

Publication Rights

The library can only claim physical ownership of the collection. Users are responsible for satisfying any claimants of literary property.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], Lodi Hospitals Collection, Ms46, San Joaquin County Historical Society and Museum.

Access Points

personal name

Mason, Wilton M. (1864-1914)
Cole, Thirza
Slauson, Scott
Slauson, Margaret
Rivinius, Elsie
Schenkenberger, Signe
Yates, Nellie

corporate name

Mason Hospital (Lodi, Calif.)
Lodi (Calif.) Memorial Hospital

subject

Hospitals - California - Lodi
Physicians - California - Lodi

geographic name

Lodi (Calif.) - History - Sources

Biography

Dr. Wilton M. Mason (1864-1914) was a native of New York state. Coming with his family from Nebraska to California (1889), Mason graduated from the State Normal School, San Jose and the Eclectic College Medical School, San Francisco. He located in Lodi shortly after being licensed to practice medicine (1894). With two of his brothers, Herschel and Lewis, he started the Mason Fruit Co., which manufactured ice and packed and shipped grapes and other fruit to eastern markets. Dr. Mason acquired the first automobile in San Joaquin County (1900). Although not the first physician in town, Mason was a particularly popular and successful doctor and was much mourned when he died of an aneurism at age forty-nine.
It is believed that Dr. Mason had planned to open a hospital in his substantial home. A year after the doctor's death, Scott and Margaret Slauson, purchased the home and converted it into Mason Hospital, Lodi's first (1915). The Slausons operated Mason Hospital until 1921 when they sold it to Thirza Cole and Nellie Yates. These two sisters enlarged the facility to twenty-five beds (1928) and later remodelled the aging structure (1941). They sold Mason Hospital to Elsie Rivinius and Signe Schenkenberger (1949), who operated it until it closed (1966). It is said that more than 20,000 residents of the Lodi area were born in Mason Hospital.

Scope and Content

The Mason (Wilton M.) Lodi Memorial Hospital Collection contains clippings pertaining to the activities of Lodi (Calif.) physician, Dr. Mason (1894-1914). It also contains narrative information about Lodi's first hospital, Mason Memorial, as well as correspondence, minutes, budgets, reports and a narrative history pertaining to the establishment of Lodi Memorial Hospital, successor to Mason Memorial.

 

BOX 1: LODI HOSPITALS COLLECTION

 

1.1: Biographical information on Dr. Wilton M. Mason; background on Mason Memorial Hospital

 

1.2: Establishment of Lodi Memorial Hospital, 1946-1950 [18 items]

 

a-By-laws

 

b-Minutes of Memorial Hospital Assn.

 

c-Correspondence of officers of Memorial Hospital Assn.

 

d-Budgets

 

e-Miscellany

 

1.3: Lodi Memorial Hospital Assn. Report & Prospectus, 1948

 

1.4: Lodi Memorial Hospital Women's Auxiliary

 

a-By-Laws

 

b-Statements of purpose

 

c-Report, 1949

 

1.5: Lodi Hospital News 1:1 (11-1-48)

 

1.6: Lodi Memorial Hospital Assn. The History of Lodi Memorial Hospital, 1952-1977