Alameda County Biographies

Dr. John C. Stout

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

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

        For sixteen years Dr. John C. Stout has been located in Oakland, 
California, and is numbered among the city's foremost physicians, specializing 
in nervous diseases. He was born in Greene county, Illinois, January 27, 1846, 
and is a son of J. M. Stout, M. D., who never was a permanent resident of 
California, but once made a visit to this state extending over six months. John 
C. Stout, the son, was educated in the public schools of Greene county, at 
Illinois College, at Jacksonville, Illinois, and at Shurtleff College, at Upper 
Alton, Illinois. He had begun the study of medicine, but when the war broke out, 
although but sixteen years of age, he enlisted in the Ninety-first Illinois 
Volunteer Regiment and served over three years, being discharged on account of 
disability due to a severe wound in the hand. While in the service he 
distinguished himself by faithfulness to duty and bravery before the enemy.
        Upon his return to his Illinois home Dr. Stout became an employe in his 
father's drug store, again taking up the study of medicine at the same time. He 
came to California in 1874 and for one year was connected with the wholesale 
drug house of Langley & Michael, of San Francisco. He then went to Gilroy, where 
he practiced for two years and then returned east as far as St. Louis, Missouri, 
where he took a medical course in the American Medical College, graduating in 
1878. He next was engaged in practice in Edwardsville, Illinois, remaining there 
three years, and in 1881 again came to California, locating in San Jose, where 
he was successful, enjoying a large and profitable practice until July 1, 1895, 
when he went to Los Angeles. Two years he remained in that city, but on March 1, 
1898, came to Oakland, where he has been located ever since. It is now sixteen 
years since he began practice in Oakland, and he has made for himself a place 
among the foremost physicians of this city. He makes a specialty of nervous 
diseases and is very often called in consultation on account of his deep 
knowledge upon this particular subject. Dr. Stout has always remained a student 
of human nature and human ailments, and as the years have passed has gathered a 
vast amount of experience which entitles him to the consideration which he 
enjoys among his colleagues in the profession. While yet a resident of the east 
he served as the first vice president of the Illinois State Medical Society and 
also was president of the Madison County Medical Society. He served for two 
terms as president of the State Eclectic Medical Society of California and for 
one year held the same office in the Santa Clara County Medical Society. He is 
still a member of the California State Medical Society and the National Eclectic 
Medical Association. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic and is 
past medical director of the Department of California, also regimental surgeon 
of D. D. Porter Post.
        On October 31, 1876, at Upper Alton, Illinois, Dr. Stout married Miss 
Gertrude L. Smith, a native of that city, who died May 1, 1911, leaving three 
children: Pearl H.; Arthur G., of Ogden, Utah; and Olive G. Dr. Stout is a lover 
of nature and throughout life has been a student of botany, having a fine 
appreciation of the wonders of plant life. He also has interested himself in 
mineralogy, although he has not taken up that study so exhaustively as the first 
mentioned.
        Politically he is a republican, conversant with the principles of his 
party, ever eager to promote its success, but not an active politician. He 
served as commander in chief of the Army and Navy Republican League of 
California, in the days of its greatest influence. He has been offered that 
office on various occasions since but has always steadfastly refused. For the 
past forty years he has been a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows 
and in 1894 was one of the organizers of Observatory Lodge, I. O. O. F., at San 
Jose. He is a past grand, for many years has served as high priest of Golden 
Rule Encampment, and was made district deputy grand patriarch in 1913. He is 
also regimental major of the grand canton. He is surgeon and captain of the 
uniformed rank of the Knights of Pythias and also is a past chancellor in this 
organization, of which he has been a member for many years. He is also a past 
master of the Woodmen of the World and has been a member of the Baptist church 
since boyhood, being now connected with the Twenty-third Avenue church, at 
Oakland. Dr. Stout is a man of robust physique, his strength and reserve force 
being greater than that of many a younger man. He has a liberal mind and broad 
sympathies and is interested in all measures and movements which have the 
betterment of humanity for their purpose or which are intended to improve living 
conditions. In a quiet way he has contributed to the development of Oakland and 
has been a valued factor in the development of Alameda county.
 
Past & Present of Alameda County, California � Vol II, S. J. Clarke Publ. Co., 
1914, p. 376