Page:Portland, Oregon, its History and Builders volume 1.djvu/724



The first educated physician that came to Portland was Dr. Ralph Wilcox, who landed here in 1847; and finding no opportunity to practice his profession for want of any population, opened the first school for the city of Portland; a private school, taught in a little house at the foot of Taylor street.

Dr. Wilcox was born in Ontario County, New York, July 9, 1818. He graduated at Geneva Medical college in that state; moved to Missouri and practiced medicine in that state in 1845. In 1846 he joined the immigration to Oregon and landed here in 1847. The same year Governor Abernethy of the provisional government appointed him judge of Tualatin County (now Washington), and in the same year he was elected to the provisional legislature, and re-elected the next year. Besides being elected speaker of the provisional legislature, he was also lected speaker of the territorial legislature in 1850, and president of the council in 1853 and 4. During the years 1856 and 8 he was register of the U. S. land office at Oregon City, and in 1858 was elected county judge of Washington County (formerly Tualatin), and held that office until 1862 when he was again elected to the legislature. In 1865 he was appointed clerk of the U. S. district court for the district of Oregon, and held that office until his death on April 18, 1877. His widow and one son still resides in the city. Dr. Wilcox was a man of much more than ordinary talent, and ability; and while occupying public office throughout his whole career in the state, he lived a life of unimpeachable integrity.

Since Dr. Wilcox's day Portland has had many distinguished physicians and surgeons. The first man of distinguished ability in practice, and the first educated physician to settle in Portland and grow up with the city, and help build it was Robert Bruce Wilson, who was born in Portsmouth, Virginia, June 12, 1828, and received his collegiate and medical education at the University of Virginia. Dr. Wilson was attracted to the Pacific coast by the great gold discovery in California, coming around Cape Horn in a sailing vessel. On reaching San Francisco, he engaged in practice for six months and then took service as ship surgeon on the steamship Gold Hunter plying between San Francisco and the Columbia river, coming to Portland in December, 1850. Being firmly convinced that Portland was to be the great city, the officers of the ship so strongly advised Dr. Wilson to settle here, that he resigned his position on the steamer and cast anchor in Portland, Oregon. He got into a good practice immediately and stayed with the town to see it become a great city; and with the exception of a three years' visit to Europe in 1883, was never away from the city for thirty-seven years. He occupied the front rank in his profession, making an enviable record of a long