Alameda County Biographies

ILO RAFENEL AIKIN

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

 

Dr. Ilo Rafenel Aikin, a practicing physician of Oakland, was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, 
May 26, 1876, a son of N. J. and Edna J. (Gates) Aiken, the former a native of the state of 
New York and the latter of Canada. The father passed away many years ago, but the mother 
survives and now makes her home in Oakland.
	Dr. Aikin was a lad of twelve years when he arrived in the city where he now resides. 
He acquired his education in the public schools of Grand Rapids and of Oakland, pursuing the 
high-school course here. He entered upon the study of medicine in the Hahnemann Medical College 
at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and completed his course in the Hahnemann Medical College of the 
Pacific at San Francisco, winning the degree of M. D. in 1898. He then practiced for a few 
months and in February, 1899, at the opening of the Masonic home at Decoto, was appointed 
medical superintendent of that institution and continued in that capacity for five years. He 
next accepted the position of chief surgeon for the Miller Plantation Company at Cautotolapan, 
in the state of Vera Cruz, Mexico, where he continued for one year. Returning to California, he 
located at Niles, Alameda county, where he practiced for eight months and then went to New York 
city, where he pursued a post-graduate course for six months. On the expiration of that period 
he returned to Oakland, where he entered upon practice, continuing active in the profession in 
this city to the present time. He has built up an extensive practice and his increasing ability 
enables him to successfully cope with many of the difficult and intricate problems which 
continually confront the physician.
	In Oakland; in the fall of 1907, Dr. Aikin was married to Miss Annie Welling, of Troy, 
New York, and they have become parents of two sons, Ilo Rafenel and John Stewart. The parents 
attend the Episcopal church and Dr. Aikin holds membership in Oakland Lodge, No. 171, B. P. O. E. 
His political support is given to the republican party, although he is not an active worker in 
party ranks. Along strictly professional lines his membership is with the Alameda County, the 
California State and the American Medical Associations, and thus he keeps in touch with the 
advanced thought of the profession and with the latest scientific research and investigation. 
He makes his professional duties his first interest and is a most conscientious and capable 
practitioner of medicine.

Past & Present of Alameda County, California � Vol II, S. J. Clarke Publ. Co., 1914, p. 550