Yolo County Biographies


This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
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Mattie Lou WILKERSON, D. C.
 
As the world advances, more and more are thinking people realizing the 
deleterious effects of drugs on the human system and seeking relief from 
physical ills through other means than medicine.  Among the many systems of 
drugless healing in use today there is none that has more remarkable cures to 
its credit than the system known as chiropractic, which as the word implies is 
hand (chiro) manipulation; the cause of the disease being removed by adjustment, 
nature provides the cure.  Woodland is favored in having in her midst a 
practitioner of this school of healing in Dr. Wilkerson, whose remarkable cures 
have given her a wide reputation.  Not only from Yolo county do her patients 
come for treatments, but also from Sacramento, Yuba, Sutter and Solano counties, 
as well as from Berkeley and Oakland.
 
Dr. Wilkerson is a native of Missouri, having been born in Fayette, Howard 
county, the daughter of James Hudson.  The latter was a native of Scotland and 
came to this country in childhood with his parents, who settled in Howard 
county, Mo.  There the son grew to manhood, and became an agriculturist of 
considerable importance in the community which was practically his lifetime 
home.  In Missouri he married Miss Martha Gibbs, who was a native of that state, 
and who became the mother of six children.  Both of the parents passed away on 
the old Missouri homestead.
 
Mattie Lou Hudson was the youngest child in the paternal family and was given 
every advantage that her native town afforded.  After completing the studies 
prescribed by the common schools she attended Central College at Fayette and was 
graduated with honors from that institution.  It was about this time that she 
became the wife of George Wilkerson, and after their marriage the young people 
continued to make their home in the locality with which they had been familiar 
from childhood.
 
Previous to taking up her studies for the profession in which she has won signal 
success, Dr. Wilkerson became a nurse and followed that profession in Missouri 
until failing health compelled her to relinquish the work for which she was so 
well adapted.  Her medical advisor had pronounced her case incurable, but with a 
determination to refute the statement, Dr. Wilkerson went to Davenport, Iowa, 
for adjustments at the School of Chiropractic, and almost immediately she 
responded to the adjustment and was soon able to resume her former duties as 
nurse had she been so inclined.  So remarkable had been her cure that she was at 
once a convert to the school of chiropractic and without loss of time prepared 
herself to become a practitioner, in fact, became a student of the profession 
after three weeks in the aforesaid institution.  Continuing her studies in the 
Palmer School of Chiropractic at Davenport, on February 1, 1910, she received 
the degree of Doctor of Chiropractic.
 
Dr. Wilkerson�s advent in Woodland, Cal., dates from March 17, 1911, and it was 
just five days later that she opened an office for the practice of her 
profession at No. 609 Second street.  Between that time and the present she has 
gathered about her a large practice, her patients coming not only from Yolo 
county, but from points far distant, which is abundant evidence that her cures 
have been numerous and remarkable in character.  Aside from the pleasure which 
Dr. Wilkerson takes in the practice of her profession is the deeper, and 
therefore greater satisfaction of knowing that she is adding her mite to the 
great transformation that is slowly but as surely making the practice of healing 
by drugs a thing of the past.  She has two sons, Harry and Hawkins, both 
attending school in Woodland.  She is a member of the Christian Church at 
Woodland, fraternally is identified with the Rebekahs and the Fraternal 
Brotherhood, and professionally is a member of the Universal Chiropractors� 
Association.
 
Transcribed by Bea Barton
Source:  �History of Yolo County, California� by Tom Gregory.  Published by the 
Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1913, pages 812 � 813.