San Luis Obispo County Biographies

JOHN RANSOM, M. D

Submitted by Peggy Hooper

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


JOHN RANSOM, M. D., San Luis Obispo, was born in Olean, Allegany County, New York, in 
1825, the youngest of the five children of Rodolphus Ransom, who was a farmer and a 
leading citizen of that place, a native of Vermont, and is now deceased. He moved with 
his family from Allegany County to Madison County, same State, and here Dr. Ransom 
began the study of medicine, under the supervision of a relative, Dr. David Ransom. He 
graduated at Geneva College, in the class of 1849, and commenced .the practice of his 
profession at the age of twenty-four, in the city of Rochester, remaining there about six 
years. While there he married Miss. C. S. Brennan, daughter of Dennis Brennan, a dry-goods 
merchant. He next went to San Antonio, Texas, where he engaged in stock-raising with 
good success. Upon the breaking out of the War of the Rebellion he was shadowed as a 
Union man. Indeed, he did not hesitate to avow his political preference. This caused 
him at length to rent his plantation and remove with his family to New York. He 
entered the Union army in 1862, as Surgeon of the Fourteenth New York Cavalry and 
the Nineteenth United States Colored Infantry, and he served in this capacity until 1867, 
since which time he has been a citizen of San Luis Obispo, quietly practicing his profession. 
He is a gentleman of retired manner, and highly respected as a physician. 

He has three children living: Cornelia N., wife of Mr. Hugh K. McJunkin, a lawyer of 
San Francisco; Florence, now Mrs. R. Manderscheid, of San Luis Obispo, and Rudolphus, 
of San Francisco. 

History of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura Counties, California  - by 
C.M. Gidney, Benjamin Brooks, Edwin M. Sheridan, Vol I, II.  -Lewis Publ. Co., 
Chicago, 1917.