The Doctors of Early Paso Robles

By Camille DeVaul and the El Paso de Robles Historical Society

Before becoming known as the next Napa Valley, Paso Robles began as a health and wellness destination with its healing hot springs. In the 1860s, San Miguel was a booming center of the North County, with homesteaders planting their roots in the prosperous area. And with them came many doctors ready to settle. Here are just a few of the doctors who called Paso Robles home.

In January 1864, Dr. F.D. Johnson of San Jose purchased one league of land from Daniel and James Blackburn, founders of the City of Paso Robles. Dr. Johnson built a health spa at the site of one of Paso Robles’ hot springs, and so began the health and wellness foundation in Paso Robles.

One of the earliest doctors was Dr. Cain, who lived with his family in a wing of the San Miguel Mission until a home was ready on his homesteader claim in lower Indian Valley. Dr. Neal came in the 1880s, homesteaded, and lived in a canyon east of San Miguel. He had an adobe home and planted an olive orchard.

Dr. James H. Glass, a graduate of Boston Medical School, arrived in Paso Robles. His first office was in the Adams Building (12th and Spring St.), and he often worked from his home on Spring St. He maintained a sanatorium in the old Blackburn home.

In 1886, Dr. Lorenzo Dow Murphy arrived in San Miguel from Tulare and registered at the Jeffrey Hotel. As soon as the San Miguel town site was surveyed, he purchased lots on Mission Street and began constructing his offices. His offices contained a combination drugstore and doctor’s office, the San Miguel post office, and the Wells Fargo Express office.

Dr. Alvin Wilmar came to San Miguel at the age of one year in 1889. His father was the manager of the S.P. Milling Company warehouse. He rode an Indian motorcycle to Paso Robles High School and then went on to graduate from UC Berkeley and UCSC Medical School. He established his first office in Paso Robles in 1915 and died at the age of 95 in 1983.

Dr. Henry C. Murphy lived with his family in San Miguel in the 1890s. The drought of 1898 forced Dr. Murphy to move to Salinas, where he built a small hospital and incidentally delivered John Steinbeck. In 1910, Dr. Murphy bought a 300-acre property south of Carmel, and with its hot springs, he hoped to establish a European-style spa. His grandson, Michael, and a Stanford classmate, Dick Price, developed a learning center at the site in 1961 called ESALEN.

In 1899, Dr. E.M. Dodson, a traveling dentist, arrived at the Royce Hotel to do necessary dental work. In the same year, a newspaper article reported that two doctors had left the San Miguel area after one year of practice. In nine months, they had only one patient each.

Dr. Leo Stanley, son of Dr. Hartwell B. Stanley, grew up in San Miguel and went to San Miguel Grammar School and Paso Robles High School. He worked his way through Stanford University and Medical School on harvester crews and later as a “peanut butcher” on Southern Pacific railroad trains.

Dr. Frank Alexander Lowe was born in Lowe’s Canyon and raised and schooled in San Miguel. His mother was a schoolteacher, and his father was a farmer. He worked his way through school as a dishwasher, and candy maker and took care of horses. He graduated from the University of Southern California Medical School as a classmate of Doctor Alvin H. Wilmar.

Dr. Samuel Johnson Call earned the title of “Resident Spring Physician” for the Hotel El Paso de Robles. Dr. David L. Deal was another “Resident Physician” with the Hotel. His office was located in the Adams Building at 12th & Springs Street over The Eagle Pharmacy, operated by Alfred Booth.

Polly Alice Sutton lived at 1520 Oak Street and operated a Maternity Home there by 1914. Over 5,000 children were born at Sutton’s Maternity Home from 1917 to 1941. Dr. Sobey and Dr. Kennedy delivered babies there.

Dr. William Rufus Hedgpeth came to Paso Robles from Santa Cruz and built the Hedgpeth Sanatorium at 1535 Park Street in 1916 as a facility to house his patients. It had seven patient rooms, a nursery, and an operating room. His daughter, Dr. Myrtle Hedgpeth, was an early optometrist.

Dr. G.L. Sobey, a graduate of Sanford University and then UC Medical School of San Francisco, came to Paso Robles in 1915 accompanied by his wife, a nurse from St. Luke’s Hospital in San Francisco.

Dr. Charles R. Kennedy came to Paso Robles in 1931. He served in the 20th Infantry during World War I, and during World War II, he served with the US Army as a Major and did a tour of duty in the Pacific. In 1946, he returned to his medical practice in Paso Robles. His roster of patients topped out at 15,663, which was 50 percent more than the population of Paso Robles when he retired in 1973.

In 1939 Mallory’s Hospital opened at 626 16th St. and was called the Community Hospital. By 1941, Glen Mallory, a nurse, used the same building from 16th Street after it was moved to the 300 block of 12th Street. In 1945, Mallory’s Hospital became a nursing home, and again, Paso Robles had no hospital.

On November 13, 1946, Dr. Alvin Wilmar made a proposal to SLO County Supervisor Chris Jesperson for a Hospital Bond issue. This was the first case under new hospital legislation authorizing a hospital district in the State of California. By 1948 a local election established the Paso Robles Hospital District with a bond of $200,000. The War Memorial Hospital was located on Terrace Hill (near west 15th Street) on 11 acres of land that had been donated by Mrs. Ken Pierce to the city for a park. War Memorial Hospital originally had 28 beds, 12 bassinets, five incubators, and a nursing and hospital staff of 50, and it could be expanded to a limit of 50 beds.

On January 2, 1950, 10 minutes after opening, the first patient at War Memorial Hospital, Robert Burke, whose back was broken when a cow fell out of a truck at Rossi Dairy and landed on him. His doctor was Dr. Frederick Ragsdale.

In 1958, The War Memorial Hospital was increased in size to 32 beds, and by 1969 a wing was added, which contained more modern equipment and 14 private rooms. By the 1970s, the hospital faced new medical requirements and fire safety standards which it could not afford and was eventually closed in 1977 when Twin Cities Community Hospital opened, and the Paso Robles District and Atascadero General Hospital merged.

The care of the ill is always a challenge, and with the scourges of diphtheria, scarlet fever, whooping cough, and pneumonia in the early years, survival was dependent upon local doctors and nurses. Sometimes the treatments were as bad as the diseases. Mercury was administered to syphilis victims before penicillin’s introduction in 1943. Surgery was primitive as it was often performed without the benefit of any diagnostic tools. Childbirth occurred at home until several “maternity homes” opened. Doctors worked without the assistance of X-ray machines, laboratories, blood tests, or antibiotics. Dr.Wilmar was the first to have an X-ray machine, and he performed the first blood transfusion in San Luis Obispo County in 1927.