Tulare County Biographies

WALTER WALLACE TOURTILLOTT M. D.

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

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

 
        Dr. Walter Wallace Tourtillott, one of the veteran physicians of the 
valley and well established in practice in Porterville, is a native son of 
California and has been a resident of this state all his life, a resident of 
Tulare county for almost twenty years, and is thus widely known here�about. He 
was born on a ranch in Santa Clara county, May 16, 1872, a son of L. L. and Jane 
Augusta (Holbrook) Tourtillott, both members of pioneer families of California. 
L. L. Tourtillott was born in Maine and was but a lad when he came to California 
with his parents, the family settling in Santa Clara county. For some time L. L. 
Tourtillott was engaged in the lumber business in the Santa Cruz mountain 
country and after his marriage established his home on a ranch in Santa Clara 
county, where his last days were spent, his death occurring in 1876. His widow 
survived him for many years and lived to be eighty-four years of age, her last 
days being spent in Santa Clara county. She was born in Ohio and came to 
California early in life.
        Walter Wallace Tourtillott was but four years of age when his father 
died. His early education was acquired in the schools of Santa Clara county and 
he supplemented this by a course in the University of the Pacific. Becoming 
seriously interested in the study of medicine he turned his thoughts toward a 
professional career and after a course of preparation under local preceptorship 
entered Cooper Medical College in San Francisco, from which he was graduated in 
1904. Upon receiving his diploma Dr. Tourtillott was appointed to an internship 
in San Francisco and after a period of intensive and valuable practical 
experience in professional practice in that connection engaged in practice in 
Morgan Hill, Santa Clara county. Not long afterward he located for practice in 
Lindsay, Tulare county, and there practiced for fourteen years, or until 1922, 
when he took up his residence in Porterville and in this latter city has since 
been quite successful, with present offices in the Monoch building on Main 
street. Dr. Tourtillott is widely known throughout the county and has a well 
established practice. By continual study and by postgraduate work in New York 
city he has kept abreast of the notable advances made in medical research since 
his college days and is held in high esteem, in his profession.
        Dr. Tourtillott has been twice married. On August 28, 1907, he was 
married to Alice Somers of San Francisco, who died August 27, 1923. On February 
21, 1925, in Santa Paula, Dr. Tourtillott was united in marriage to Miss Mary L. 
Smith of Lindsay. Dr. and Mrs. Tourtillott have a pleasant home in Porterville 
and take a proper part in the general social and cultural activities of the 
community, helpful in promoting such measures as are designed to advance the 
common interest hereabout. The Doctor is a member of the Tulare County Medical 
Society, the California State Medical Association and the American Medical 
Association, and in the deliberations of these learned bodies has for years 
taken an earnest and helpful interest. He is a veteran member of the Independent 
Order of Odd Fellows and is also affiliated with the Benevolent Protective Order 
of Elks.
        In 1917 Dr. Tourtillott enlisted in the Medical Corps for service in the 
World war and was commissioned captain of the Eighty-first Regiment of the 
Sixteenth Division, and stationed at Camp Kearney, San Diego. He served until 
the spring of 1919. He was not sent out of the state.
 
Source:  History of Tulare County and Kings County, California � Kathleen 
Edwards Small & J. Larry Smith, Vol. II, Chicago, The S. J. Clarke Publishing 
Company, 1926., p. 419