Tehama County Biographies

GEORGE WALKER WESTLAKE, M.D.

Transcribed by: Bonnie Phelan

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

 
is a native of Mercer County, Pennsylvania, born 
May 28, 1843. His ancestors were English people, and settled in Pennsylvania in 
Colonial times. His grandfather, George Westlake, was a soldier in the 
Revolutionary war. He had a son, also named George, born in Pennsylvania, who 
became a farmer and who married Miss Fanny Parker. She was a native of his own 
State and a daughter of John Parker, a Pennsylvania farmer. To them were born 
ten children, the subject of this sketch being the ninth. Three are deceased.
      Dr. Westlake took his first lessons in a log school-house in Pennsylvania; 
went to Pine Grove Seminary one year; taught school in winter and attended one 
term of six months at Hillsdale College, Michigan; and went to Bowen College, 
Iowa, one year.
      When the war broke out, in 1861, he enlisted in Company I, First Iowa 
Regiment. He went to the front with his regiment and was taken prisoner at 
Wilson�s Creek, August 10, 1861. By taking oath that he would not again take up 
arms against the Confederacy or raid the State of Missouri during the war, he 
was released. He returned to Pennsylvania and engaged in the study of medicine 
with his brother, Dr. E.C. Westlake, of Cherrytree, and was a student until the 
fall of 1863, when he took his first course of lectures at the Western Reserve 
College, Cleveland, Ohio. In the spring of 1864 he received the appointment of 
hospital steward in the One Hundredth Pennsylvania Regiment, and served to the 
close of the war. In the winter of 1865 he attended the Ohio Medical College, 
and received the degree of M.D.
      In the spring of 1866 he located at Mechanicsville, Pennsylvania, and 
engaged in the practice of his profession for two years, after which he removed 
to Rouseville, where he practiced six years. He then located in Cottonwood 
Falls, Kansas, and from there, in 1875, came to Red Bluff, California. Here he 
has met with eminent success in his profession. In 1876 he bought property at 
the corner of Pine and Jefferson streets, and in 1884 he built a splendid modern 
home. The Doctor has interested himself, with a partner, in fruit culture. They 
have 300 acres in trees and are planting twenty acres each year, making a 
specialty of apricots, French prunes and peaches. For three years the Doctor had 
charge of the Tehama County Hospital.
      In 1866 Dr. Westlake was married to Miss Isabel Wolfkiel, a native of 
Venango County, Pennsylvania. She is the daughter of Jacob Wolfkiel, a native of 
Germany. They have one child, born in Mechanicsville, Pennsylvania, Ida  May, 
now the wife of Dr. Hamilton Stittson. They reside at Seattle. 
     Dr. Westlake is a member of the Masonic fraternity, and also of the 
A.O.U.W.  By his fellow citizens, he is regarded as a man of sterling character 
and a physician of rare ability. His political views are in accordance with 
Republican principles. 
 
Memorial & Biographical History of Northern California, The Lewis Publishing Co., 
1891, Pages 621-622