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Register of the Lodi Hospitals Collection, 1894-1965
Ms46
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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.
Collection is open for research by appointment only.
The library can only claim physical ownership of the collection. Users are responsible for satisfying any claimants of literary
property.
[Identification of item], Lodi Hospitals Collection, Ms46, San Joaquin County Historical Society and Museum.
Mason, Wilton M. (1864-1914)
Cole, Thirza
Slauson, Scott
Slauson, Margaret
Rivinius, Elsie
Schenkenberger, Signe
Yates, Nellie
Mason Hospital (Lodi, Calif.)
Lodi (Calif.) Memorial Hospital
Hospitals - California - Lodi
Physicians - California - Lodi
Lodi (Calif.) - History - Sources
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.
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.