San Diego County Biographies
 
DR. JOHN RANKIN DOIG

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


of San Diego. About the middle of the last century, Mr. Robert Doig came from 
Scotland to America and settled in Washington County, New York. In 1810 there 
was born to him in Washington County a son, whom he named James R. He gave this 
boy a most liberal education, and for many years he held the professorship of 
languages in Mound College, Illinois.  In 1843, he was united in marriage with 
Miss Grace Rankin, who was also of Scotch descent. Their union was blessed with 
a family of nine children.  He died in 1883, at the age of 73. The eldest of their 
family was John Rankin Doig, born in Wayne County, Ohio, in 1846; he obtained his 
literary education at Washington College, Iowa.  
	In 1862, when only sixteen years of age, he enlisted in Company C, Nineteenth 
Iowa Regiment. At the end of his year's service, in 1863, he was discharged and 
immediately re-enlisted in the Second Iowa Cavalry, and was with the Army of the 
Tennessee, in General A. J. Smith's command. General Coon was in this department. 
The Doctor participated in the battle of Prairie Grove, Arkansas, at the siege
of Vicksburg, and at the battle of Nashville.  He was mustered out in October, 
1865, at Selma, Alabama. When he returned home he began the study of medicine 
and graduated in 1867, at Iowa University, and later graduated at the College of 
Physicians and Surgeons at Chicago.  He practiced for some time at Williamsburg,
Iowa, and at Des Moines. Then he practiced at Newton, and in 1879 removed to 
Ellsworth, Kansas, and practiced there until 1886, when he came to San Diego.   
He has invested here, has a nice home near Florence Heights, and a good office 
on the corner of Fourth and C streets. He is very nicely situated and has come 
to San Diego to stay. He is a member of the San Diego Medical Society, and 
belongs to the Masonic fraternity in both Temple and Shrine. In 1881 he was 
united in marriage with Miss Nellie Seaver, born in Canada in 1857. The Doctor 
is well versed in his profession, has a good practice and enjoys the confidence 
and respect of his fellow-citizens.
 
SOURCE:  An Illustrated History of Southern California:  Embracing the Counties 
of San Diego, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Orange, and the Peninsula of Lower 
California� Chicago:  The Lewis Publishing Company, 1890.  p.-  324