Pioneer Doctors

A few doctors accompanied the settlers, but many did not actually dig for gold. Medical care was poorly paid and muchofithadtobecharity: thefees andcostofdrugs(usually in short supply) were high, but collections were very poor because many settlers didnot"strike itrich.” To supplement their medical incomes, some doctors established real estate andbanking offices, which they advertised in the local press alongwith theirmedical set-ups. Interms oftheneeds, there were few trained physicians and too many pretenders and quacks.

Dr. Berryman Bryantseems to havebeen an exception, telling how he opened a canvas-walled hospital on June 18 and closed it on November 21, 1849, having "made my pile.” Bryant was 33 years of age, from South Carolina, and had previouslybeen abricklayer, teamster, auctioneer and horse trader. But he had also, assertedly, graduated from the Botanica Medical CollegeinMemphis,Tennessee. Writingin his Reminiscences of California, 1849-52, Dr. Bryant later explained:

"I had no idea ofmining and have never worked a day in the mines for when I left Alabama for California I had taken it for granted that people wouldgetsick in this beautiful land, and I was not mistaken. "When I arrived in Sacramento there was not a place that I could find in which I could store away my medicines, so I went outside ofthe city limits

and dugfive holes andputmy trunks in themand filled them up and put a stake at each end to represent graves and left them there until I was ready to use them. In a few days I bought some town lots and asitwasimpossible tobuylumberto build houses I resorted to willow poles to make studdingandrafters. Ithenboughtheavysailduck for siding and roof, had the canvas well sewed up and then I putup bunks all around thehouse and had some bed ticks made and filled them with dry grass. I unearthed my trunks of medicine and opened my hospital (this being, to the best ofmy knowledge, thefirstprivatehospital in California) and put up a sign “Home for the Sick.” Very soon I had every bed or cot full ofthe sick. They would bring the poor fellows from the mines, frequently beingfour or five days on the road in thehot sun, andwhentheygotthemtothehospital,iftheylived to get there, I would find them very sick.

“Ourlivingwas very simple as we hadto do our own cooking, we could not get a variety, consequently we had for breakfast fried potatoes, or bacon and strong coffee. We could not have anything else as it was most impossible to get. So a greatmany cases ofscurvy ofthe worstkind were the result.

“Imademoneyveryfast, and on thetwenty-first ofNovember I soldoutmyhospital andmedicineto adoctorbythenameofHungerford,andonthefirst day ofDecemberstartedfrom San Francisco tothe States.6