Sacramento Valley Biographies

DAVID POWELL MD.

Transcribed by Sally Kaleta, April 2009.

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

        To no one is Marysville more indebted for the maintenance of high
medical ethics than to Dr. David Powell, a practitioner in California since
1871, and one of the most resourceful of the city's residents. Dr. Powell
comes from Breconshire, South Wales, and was born near the capitol city of
Brecon, August 27, 1848. The farm had been in the possession of the family
for several generations, the grandfather, William Powell, having spent his
entire life there, and his son, also named William, the father of David,
having been born there in 1797. The last named was educated for the clergy,
but finding land cultivation more to his taste, followed it for the greater
part of his active life. In his native land he married Jeannette Owen, a
native also of Brecon, and daughter of Richard Owen, a well known farmer of
the vicinity. In 1855 William Powell brought his family to America, David at
that time being seven years old, and from New York took ship for Aspinwall,
crossed the Isthmus to Panama, and from there sailed to San Francisco. For a
few years he mined with moderate success in Nevada county, and then located
in a farm near Pennington, Sutter county, where his death occurred in April,
1883, at the advanced age of eighty-six years. In this country he developed
Republican sympathies, and was an active worker in the Congregational
Church. His simple, moderate and indus-trious life was shared by his wife,
whose death occurred in Sutter county at the age of eighty-one years. She
was the mother of four sons and one daughter, of whom the daughter is
deceased. William, the oldest son, is a resident of Oakland, Cal.; Richard
is a farmer on the old home near Pennington; H. A. is an attorney of San
Francisco and David, of this review, completes the family.

        Dr. Powell received his preliminary education in the public schools
of Sutter county, and graduated from the State Normal of San Francisco in
1868. The professional training which has placed him among the foremost
exponents of medical science in Yuba county was acquired in the medical
department of the University of the Pacific, from which he graduated in
1871, his principle preceptor being Dr. L. C. Lane. A creditable examination
secured him additional training as an intern of the City and County Hospital
for a year, after which he located in Cherokee, Butte county, and practiced
medicine about four years. His location in Marysville in 1877 was well
advised, and soon he was firmly established in the good will and
appreciation of a growing practice. At all times determined, thorough and
progressive, he has left no stone unturned to increase his professional and
general knowledge, and with the idea of better serving the interests of
humanity he went to Europe in 1884, taking special courses in medicine at
the Middlesex Hospital in London, in the hospitals in Paris, and devoting
himself to surgery in Berlin, Vienna, Prague and other places. Prior to
this, in 1882, he graduated from Cooper Medical College. Dr. Powell has
developed special liking for the mechanical and scientific side of his
profession, and is perhaps best known as a surgeon of skill and daring and
has met with unusual success. Returning to Marysville after his European
experiences, he continued to practice, and at the same time occupied
positions of trust and responsibility of a public nature. For several years
he was surgeon for the Southern Pacific Railroad Company of this district,
and has taken a keen interest in the organization of medical societies for
the benefit of practitioners. He was the second president and one of the
organizers of the California Northern District Medical Society, one of the
organizers and president of the Pacific States Association of Railway
Surgeons. He is a member of the State Medical Association, of the American
Medical Association and the international Association of Railway Surgeons.
For two years, from 1901 until 1903, he was a member and for one year
president of the state board of medical examiners. The doctor's exhaustive
knowledge of everything pertaining to the duties and obligations of a
practitioner, his constant effort at advancement and his independence in
breaking away from the routine which has hedged in the profession for
centuries, together with his conservative and painstaking methods, render
him an important factor in all of the societies with which he is connected,
giving to his advice and opinion the weight of influence and authority. 

         In Marysville in 1885, Dr. Powell married Margaret Q. Greely, a
native of Maine, and daughter of Justus Greely, a pioneer of California.
Mrs. Powell is a graduate of Wellesley College, Massachusetts, and is the
mother of two children, Jeannette and Margaret. She is a member of the
Methodist Episcopal Church. Dr. Powell finds relaxation from professional
cares in various fraternal organizations, including Yuba Lodge No. 39, F. &
A. M., in which he served as master, demitting from the lodge at Cherokee,
Butte county; Franklin Chapter No. 20, R. A. M., of Oroville; Marysville
Commandery No 7, K. T., transferring from the commandery at Oroville; and
the Islam Temple A. A. O. N. M. S. An excellent business man as well as
practitioner, the doctor has not hesitated to evidence his faith in the
future of the state by investing in town and country property, his most
ambitious departure in land ownership being the Geyser Springs, in the
northeastern part of Sonoma county, three hours by rail from San Francisco.
The property comprises twelve hundred acres, and is owned by Dr. Powell and
his brother, H. A. Powell, and by them leased to R. H. Curry, who operates
the place as a summer and winter resort. A new and modern hotel offers
special inducements to pleasure seekers, new bath houses have been added,
the ice and cold storage plants have been enlarged and renovated, the
electric plant improved. Fresh poultry, vegetables, fish, milk, and cream
are among the luxuries of which the guests may be sure, and no expense is
spared to make the resort one of the finest, as well as most picture-sque,
on the Pacific coast. Resources innumerable aid the passing of a delightful
summer or winter, one of the chief charms of the place being an enormous
swimming pool, recruited from mountain streams of all degrees of curative
power, and with sufficient inlet from hot springs to temper the ex-cessive
chill. Dr. Powell is justly proud of his connection with so life-giving and
delightful a resort, and it is not surprising that many of his patients
regain health and strength among its surroundings.

"History of the State of California and Biographical Record of the
Sacramento Valley, Cal.," J. M. Guinn, The Chapman Publishing Company,
Chicago, 1906, Pages 410-411.