Dr. Benjamin Shurtleff

8/7/2019 Dr. Benjamin Shurtleff

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BENJAMIN SHURTLEFF, M.D.

Among the present representatives of the learned professions identified with Napa is thegentleman whose name heads this sketch; yet so widely is he known, especially in the upper half of the State, that a much more than passing notice of his career and of his antecedents becomesvaluable, and even essential, in a history of Northern California. From manuscript and publishedrecords of undoubted authority, this genealogical and biographical sketch has been for the most pastcompiled.

Dr. Benjamin Shurtleff was born on the ancestral estate in Carver, Plymouth County,

Massachusetts, September 7, 1821, a son of Charles and Hannah (Shaw) Shurtleff. On both sides heis descended, without admixture, from old settlers of New England, members of the first successfulcolony, that of Plymouth. The name of Shurtleff has been found in old records of the PlymouthColony, spelled in various forms and therefore at times incorrectly – something which often occurs

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when those doing clerical work write names from sound. The natural evolution of the language mayalso have cut some figure. In some cases the name is quite distorted by the spelling, and it appears indifferent places respectively as Chyrecliff, Shiercliff, Shirtley, Shurtlef and Shurtleff.

The founder of the family in this country was William Shurtleff, who was born in England

(probably in Yorkshire), about 1619. He landed in Plymouth, Massachusetts, some time prior to1635, a youth in his ‘teens. He is on record as having been enrolled for military duty there in 1643,and also as having been married unto Elizabeth Lettice, October 18, 1655. While at Plymouth hisestate was at Strawberry Hill, near the Reed Pond, not far from the boundary line of Kingston. Heafterward moved to Marshfield, where his name is of record in 1664. He died there June 23, 1666,being killed in a severe tempest by a stroke of lightning. In the marriage record referred to his nameis written Shirtley. He is said to have written it with one final “f” – Shurtlef, - and one of hisgrandsons added an “f”, since which the name has been spelled, as now, Shurtleff. It is so spelled onthe tombstone, at Plymouth, of William Shurtleff, the eldest son of the above first settler, who diedin 1729.

William and Elizabeth (Lettice) Shurtleff had three sons, William, Thomas and Abiel. Thelatter, born in June, 1666, at Marshfield, was married in January, 1693, to Lydia Barnes, a daughterof Jonathan and Elizabeth Barnes, of Plymouth, who bore him seven sons and three daughters. Theirson Benjamin (first), who was born in 1710, was the great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch.

To supplement this genealogical record it will be necessary at this point to turn back and referto other of the original families of the old colony. Isaac Allerton and his family came in theMayflower to Plymouth, in 1620, among whom was a daughter, Mary. She in due time was marriedto Thomas Cushman, who, at the age of fourteen years, came in the ship Fortune, in 1621, with his

father, Robert Cushman. Among the children of Thomas and Mary (Allerton) Cushman wasElkanah, who had a son names Josiah Cushman; and of the children of Josiah Cushman was adaughter named Susannah Cushman, who was married to the aforesaid Benjamin Shurtleff (first),and was the great-grand-mother of the subject of this sketch.

Thus it will be seen that by this union then veins of this branch of the Shurtleff familyreceived an affluent from a conspicuous source more remote in the past than the point to which thefamily name can be traced. Isaac Allerton and Robert Cushman were leading and historic charactersin connection with the Puritans, not only as regards their settlement in the “old colony” of Plymouth,but in their native England and in their chosen exile of Amsterdam and Leyden. They lived in the

Elizabethan age. Thomas Cushman, son of Robert, was born in 1607, the year in which, accordingto Shakesperean commentators, “Antony and Cleopatra” and “Timon of Athens” were written, andnine years before the death of Shakespeare. Hence his father, Robert Cushman, was strictly acotemporary with Shakespeare. Charlotte S. Cushman, mentioned because so widely known, andwho honored the stage more than any other woman America has produced, was a descendant of these Cushmans.

To resume the original thread, Benjamin (first) and Susannah (Cushman) Shurtleff had a son,Benjamin (second), who was born in 1748, and who, being an only son, inherited his father’s estatein Carver, on which his life was spent. His son, Charles, the father of our subject, was born there,

October 29, 1790. He was reared on his father’s farm. Soon after his marriage to Hannah Shaw, heremoved to New Hampshire, and entered upon a mercantile career. Abandoning this, he returned toCarver, Massachusetts, where he died at about the age of fifty, being an exception in the Shurtleff family, most of whom have reached the Scriptural three-score years and ten, or more.





The above is a mere genealogical outline, necessary in introducing the sketch of a pioneer of California, a descendant of some of the first settlers of the Atlantic coast, and of necessity brief,though much interest could be written of members of the family, who have attained more than localdistinction in various walks of life, but especially in literary and professional pursuits. Rev. WilliamShurtleff, a grandson of the first settler, was a graduate of Harvard, about 173 years ago (1717),when such an education was alone a distinction. Roswell Shurtleff was a graduate in 1799 and also aProfessor of Dartmouth College, during the period when Daniel Webster and his brother, Ezekiel,were students there; and his reminiscences of the college life of these famous alumni are published inone of the biographies of the great statesmen. Dr. Benjamin Shurtleff, an eminent physician of Boston, a brother of the father of our subject, was a founder of Shurtleff College, at Alton, Illinois, toan extent which caused his surname to be given to the institution. His son, the late Dr. N.B.Shurtleff, was Mayor of Boston two terms, and did much in aid of the progress of the city, but ismore distinguished for his exhaustive genealogical and antiquarian researches, and for the accuracyand value of his writings on these topics.

Our subject has had two uncles, five cousins and a brother who were regular graduates inmedicine – the latter the well-known Dr. G. A. Shurtleff, of Stockton. This gentleman, who came toCalifornia in 1849, was a member of the first and second city councils of Stockton, two yearsRecorder of San Joaquin County, and became a Director of the State Insane Asylum at Stockton, in1856, and its Medical Superintendent in 1865, holding the position with signal ability untiladmonished by failing health, brought on by overwork, to resign in 1883. He was one of theCommissioners who located the Napa State Insane Asylum, and was the author of the bill providingfor it. He has been President of the State Medical Society, and is Emeritus Professor of MentalDiseases and Medical Jurisprudence in the University of California. He was for years a prominentmember of the Association of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions for the Insane, andattended the meetings of the Association at Madison, Wisconsin, in 1872, at Baltimore in 1873, atPhiladelphia in 1880, and the American Medical Association also in 1880, in New York city. Hewas elected, in 1876, as the sole delegate for the State of California to the International MedicalCongress. He was also the first President of the San Joaquin Society of California Pioneers. Thoughnow retired from practice, he stands to-day one of the most honored and representative of themedical profession who ever lived in California, and is one of the most favorably known men in theState, in or out of the profession.

Dr. Benjamin Shurtleff spent his boyhood days in Carver, Massachusetts, where he attendedthe public schools to the age of fifteen years. He continued his education at Pierce Academy, andwhen he was nineteen years old he began teaching school during the winter seasons, attending theacademy during the intervals until he had the completed the regular course. He first studiedmedicine with his brother, Dr. G.A. Shurtleff, and afterward with the late Dr. Elisha Huntington, of Lowell, Massachusetts. He also graduated at Harvard, in 1848, meantime attending FremontMedical School of Boston, and being in both a pupil of Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes.

While at Harvard, in 1846, he heard Rufus Choate’s celebrated speech in defense of Albert J.Terrill, charged with the murder of Maria Bickford, and considers the great advocate’s address to theury on that occasion the most fascinating display of eloquence he ever witnessed. Reared in the

county where Daniel Webster resided, he occasionally heard him discuss the political issues of thosetimes. He often speaks of the great orator’s celebrated Marshfield speech, in the Taylor campaign of 1848, as one of rare eloquence and power.

His last year at school was the memorable one in which Marshall discovered gold in





California, and the news at once turned his thoughts in that direction. When the early reports wereverified by President Polk’s message, he at once determined to try his fortune on the far-away shoresof the Pacific, and began making preparations with that idea in view. Late in December, 1848, hesecured passage on the schooner Boston, then fitting out in the New England metropolis for the tripto San Francisco, and while waiting for the departure of the vessel he put in his time about the city.Learning through the newspapers that Choate and Webster were to appear on opposite sides of thepatent case of Marcy vs. Sizer, he eagerly availed himself of the opportunity to witness these twogiants of the forensic arena arrayed against each other, and as a result enjoyed one of the greatesttreats of his life. Both were at their best, while every available particle of the space allowed forspectators about the court-room was crowded with the representatives of the brain and the beauty of Boston. The scene was an inspiring one, and the occasion worthy of its brilliant setting.

Preparations being completed, the vessel made ready to depart with her passengers on January25, 1849, though on account of adverse weather the start was not effected until two days later.Those who sailed with Dr. Shurtleff were for the most part fine specimens of bright young manhoodof New England, men of nerve, adventurous and of more than ordinary capacity, as indeed were thegreat majority of the pioneers who came to California before the proofs of California’s golden wealthwere actually laid down before their eyes. Instead of rounding Cape Horn, the vessel route of 1849,the schooner passed through the Straits of Magellan, and without any unusually noteworthy incident,proceeding on her way, casting anchor in the harbor of San Francisco July 6, 1849. That was quite anoted day in the history of arrivals, as no less than five other vessels of note also appeared in theharbor, namely, the ships Edward Everett and Atilla, and the brig Forest of Boston, and the shipsMary Stewart and Taralinto of New York. The Boston made the voyage in 160 days, which wasmore than an average trip, as the California-bound fleet of 1849 could boast of only a few fastsailers. The ship Gray Eagle, a Baltimore clipper, made the best record of all the vessels of that year,having arrived in San Francisco from Philadelphia on May 18, in 117 days. But the discovery of gold in California quickened the spirit of commercial enterprise and created a demand for the fleetestships that mechanical skill and invention could devise. The Flying Cloud, built at East Boston, in

1850, by Donald McKay, made the voyage in 1851 from New York to San Francisco, a distance of 13, 610 miles, in eighty-nine days and twenty-one hours. In 1854 she made the same trip in eighty-nine days and eight hours, and on one occasion making 374 miles in twenty-four hours. No othersailing vessel has ever made the voyage from any Atlantic domestic port to San Francisco in lessthan ninety days.

Of course all on board had become more or less acquainted during the long voyage, and Dr.Shurtleff recalls, among his fellow-passengers O.M. Craig, the well-known Sonoma viticulturist andthe late William Wallace, who was a member of the San Francisco firm of Sisson & Wallace in afteryears. He and others debarked from a boat at Clark’s Point, and proceeded to town by a path which

followed an undulating course, sometimes twenty or thirty feet above the water, and again only afoot or two over. Many of the passengers, however, landed from boats about where Montgomerystreet now is, and spent a week looking about the city, and becoming acquainted with prospects inmining districts. He was struck with the novel appearance of San Francisco, which yet wore the oldMexican air, and like everyone else he little thought that the place would grow back into the hills,which it has, or that Knob Hill and similar sites would be crowded with the places that stand there to-day; yet he felt that the city must be an important commercial center, and a large one, too, - goodplaces for investment in reality but for the general uncertainty that hung about land tittles in thosedays. The schooner Olivia, which had been with them in the passage through the Straits of Magellan, arrived in San Francisco a few days before the Boston; and as she was to proceed on upthe river to Sacramento, our subject, who had been on shore a week, took passage on her for the trip.

This required about three days’ time, and the first night the vessel anchored at the junction of the SanJoaquin and Sacramento Rivers, where some ambitious person soon afterward endeavored to start asettlement, which he encumbered with the high-sounding title “New York of the Pacific.” The





Doctor will always remember that night, when the mosquitoes made it so hot for him that he thoughtthere was certainly not more than one place warmer! On July 16, he landed at Sacramento, where hesaw a busy village of tents, among which he recollects seeing only two or three wooden buildings.

As soon as convenient, he proceeded to Beal’s Bar, which in now in Placer County, near the

El Dorado line, and commenced mining, meeting with fair success. Among those in the vicinity wasa man from Oregon, who had come down in 1848, and had secured a claim of unusual richness. Hislocation was then such a fortunate one that he could take out two or three hundred dollars’ worth of gold in a few hours, and he thought the metal would soon become so plentiful that it would not beworth scarcely anything. As a result, he had sold much of his dust for coin at the rate of eight dollarsan ounce, half what it was worth, and had gambled his wealth away or otherwise disposed of it witha lavish hand, thinking he would have a good time while it was worth something, anyway. Now,things had begun to change. His claim was not so good, new arrivals appeared every day, and hesaw that gold was not going to decline. He was terribly despondent, and when asked by Dr.Shurtleff the reason of his downheartedness, he related the facts above mentioned, saying he hadthrown his gold away when he could get plenty of it, and now, when he realized its value he couldnot take out more than $50 to $100 worth a day! He was truly an unfortunate man.

After mining on his account for a time the Doctor went to work for a company, who wereengaged at a point near the confluence of the American River and its south fork, in digging a canalbetween those two streams. The dirt was taken out in constructing this canal, and which was used indamming the river, was the richest he ever saw, and fairly shined with the yellow metal. He received$16 a day for his work, and while a few shovelfuls of the dirt taken out would have paid his wages,the result of his enterprise when finished proved disappointing to the promoter of the scheme, whohad supposed that the bed of the river would be almost lined with gold. Another party, above them,imbued with the same idea, had made great preparation for celebrating the turning of the river, whichthey had also undertaken at that point. Among the festivities planned was an elaborate banquet, forwhich they procured all the delicacies known to the mining camp, including even a supply of champaign purchased at great expense in San Francisco. When the work was completed, and thewater commenced to flow through the new channel, they had their banquet and drank theirchampaign, but an inspection of the river bottom in the morning showed only the barren rock as theresult of all their work, and the end of their dreams of wealth.

While mining on the American, Dr. Shurtlefff did not entirely neglect his profession, which hepracticed when occasion demanded. In the fall of 1849, hearing the reports of rich discoveries inwhat is now Shasta County, he went up to Reading Springs, (now called Shasta), where he arrived onthe 21st of October, and there resumed mining on Middle Creek, and he took up a good claim in thebed of the creek. Among the miners on Rock Creek were two ministers of the gospel from Oregon,who worked every day in the creek, including Sundays. For this some of the miners called them totask, but in reply the preachers said they had families at home to which they were anxious to returnas soon as possible, so that the ministers had the best of the argument, especially as most of thosewho lay off on Sunday put in their weekly holiday at the gaming tables.

The Doctor continued working in his claim, with an occasional bit of practice until theNovember 2, 1849; but as the rains then commenced and the high water drove him from his claim,he gave up mining. The rains caused quite an exodus from the camps. Some of the emigrants, ontheir way up there, had laid in heavy supplies of provisions, with a view of selling them afterreaching their destination; but when the weather changed in the fall, they wanted to get away, andoffered their supplies very cheap. The late R. J. Walsh, afterward widely known as the extensiveColusa farmer and stock-raiser, who was at one time President of the State Agricultural Society, was





then a merchant at Reading Springs; and while he was a far-seeing business man, he was thefortunate possessor of considerable money as well, and he bought in the greater portion of the staplesoffered. Flour, for instance, which was always of Chilean manufacture, packed in hundred-poundsacks, was purchased by him at 20 to 25 cents per pound, while freights were 40 to 50 cents. Whencommunication between that point and Sacramento were shut off by the high waters of winter, pricesbegan to rise on all the necessaries of life, and it was not long until Walsh was selling flour from $2to $2.25. Miners would come in and buy a sack, and Walsh would take $2.25 from their sack of dust, the transaction being treated on both sides with as great nonchalance as would be the buying of a fifty-pound sack of flour now. Other things sold proportionately high.

One of the noteworthy features not to be forgotten about many of these early Californiamining camps was the large proportion of men of marked ability, from the different pursuits in life,some being representatives even of the learned professions, but all on the same level as miners,store-keepers, etc., with no distinction to be recognized by dress or the other usual signs. Perhaps ata meeting held to discuss the rights in a disputed mining claim or other matter of that nature, somequiet man who had never made any pretensions or given to his associates any evidence of beingmore than the ordinary run of a miner, would rise and address the assembly in a speech that would bea credit to the United States Senate. To illustrate this characteristic it may here be related thatHarrison J. Shurtleff, a cousin of our subject, who had come out with him on the Boston, came to thetent in which he and the Doctor lived, and announced to the latter that there were some fellows in thelower part of the town, near the creek, who made splendid peach pies. After that they occasionallyvisited the pie camp, and patronized the proprietors, who found a ready sale for their pies at $1.50each. Years afterward the Doctor learned that the men who composed that pie firm were the lateColonel Benjamin F. Washington, an influential Democratic leader and editor of California, andCollector of the port of San Francisco during Buchanan’s administration; Vincent E. Geiger, anotherprominent editor, and Indian agent at the Nomelachie reservation; and the late Colonel William S.Long, subsequently one of the foremost leaders at the Sacramento bar. Geiger cut the wood andpacked it into camp; Long was salesman and washed the dishes, while Washington made the pies.

These men were Virginians, and could have known nothing of such work previously, but theyadapted themselves to circumstances, and their pies were excellent, the only criticism of the Doctor,who had been accustomed to the splendid cookery of New England, being that their upper and lowercrusts were a little too close together, - a fact explainable by the high price of the dried Chili peachesused in making them.

Soon after his arrival at Reading Springs, Dr. Shurtleff was elected to the office of Alcalde,which, as Americanized, was one of almost unlimited power, the incumbent being competent to tryany kind of a case as Judge. An Orgonian named Bowles, charged with murder, had a jury trialbefore him, the hearing lasting two days. The counsel for the prosecution was Royal T. Sprague, late

Chief Justice of California, while the defense presented as its attorney W. R. Harrison, a distantrelative of the President, who later became the first County Judge of Shasta County, andsubsequently District Attorney in Tehama and also in Lassen counties. The trial, despite theseriousness of the charge, was an amusing one in some respects. Sprague, who had practiced in NewYork State and afterward in Ohio, quoted from the statutes of those States in support of his position,while Harrison relied upon the inspiration to be drawn from the codes and reports of Indiana andIowa, in which commonwealths he had in former time resided. Judge Shurtleff, who could not havebeen supposed to be posted on the laws and practice of those States, said that in order to arrive atcorrect conclusions he wanted the statutes of Massachusetts. However, he was compelled to relyupon his own judgment. Bowles was acquitted. He filled the post of Alcalde satisfactorily to theresidents of the district, until the summer of 1850, when he resigned. The records of the office were

destroyed in the conflagration of June 14, 1853, which laid Shasta in ashes.





During the spring and summer of 1850, the Doctor was associated in mercantile business withA. C. Brown, afterward County Judge of Amador County. From that time until the latter part of 1851 he continued merchandising, in partnership with Dr. Jesse R. Robinson, who was the firstCounty Clerk of Shasta County, and both meanwhile practiced their profession, to which our subject,after the last mentioned date, devoted his entire attention. When Shasta County was organized hewas elected its first Treasurer, and later as a member of the Board of School Trustees. With the lateChief Justice Sprague and the late Governor Isaac Roop, of Susanville, he established the first publicschool in Northern California. For ten years, by successive annual appointment from the Board of Supervisors, he held the place of County Physician. He took a prominent part in the Whig partyorganization, of the principles of which he had been since his early manhood a warm supporter andan earnest advocate. He was a great admirer of Henry Clay, and has always looked upon his firstPresidential vote for that immortal leader in 1844 as the proudest of his life. As long as the grandold party held together as an organization, he remained under its banners, but when the end came heunited with the Democracy.

In 1857 he was tendered the office of County Judge of Shasta County, by Governor J. NeelyJohnson, to fill the unexpired term, but declined the appointment. In 1860 he supported Douglas forPresidency, and in the following year was elected to the State Senate from the district comprisingShasta and Trinity counties, serving with credit in the two sessions of his term, and adding largely tohis already considerable prominence and popularity. In 1863 as a war Democrat he received theopposition vote for the United States Senate against John Conness. Shortly thereafter he severed hisconnection with the Democracy, and in 1864 he supported Abraham Lincoln, in his secondpresidential campaign. Since that time he has been an active and ardent worker in the ranks andcouncils of the Republican party, and in 1872 was nominated by the State Convention of that partyfor alternate Elector at Large.

In 1874, after a residence of a quarter of a century in Shasta County, he removed to Napa,where he has since been an honored resident. In May, 1876, he was elected a member of the Boardof City Trustees, and was re-elected in 1878, serving both terms as president of that body. In 1878also he was elected from the Third Congressional District as one of the Delegates at Large to theState Constitutional Convention, and in the sessions of that important body, which sat fromSeptember 28, 1878, until March 3, 1879, he was one of the most prominent figures and earnestworkers. He took a leading part in the debates of the convention, especially where he led the forcesopposed to the incorporation in the constitution of an age limit under which candidates should beineligible for office. His closing speech on that measure was a masterly and convincing effort, and isher incorporated with an outline of the circumstances of its deliver:

Previous sections having been disposed of, section 24 was taken up, which read as follows:“No one shall be eligible to the office of the Justice of the Supreme Court unless he be at leastthirty-five years of age, and shall have been admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of theState; and no one shall be eligible to the office of the Supreme Court unless he be at least thirty yearsof age, and shall have been admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of the State.” Dr.Shurtleff offered as a substitute the following: “No one shall be eligible to the office of the SupremeCourt, or of the office of Judge of the Supreme Court, unless he shall have been admitted to practicein the Supreme Court.” He then addressed the convention in these words:

“Mr. Chairman: That leaves it right where it is in the present constitution, and requires noqualification as to age. I hope that the substitute will at least have a fair support from the Committeeon the Judiciary itself. I see nothing in the history of this State that requires that there should be a





limitation upon the age of those who are to eligible to judicial office. One of the members of theJudiciary Committee, who, I am sorry to see, is now absent, held the office of Chief Justice when hewas only twenty-nine years of age, at least of Justice, and he was made Chief Justice when thirtyyears old. Another distinguished jurist of this State, long since passed away, Hugh Murray, wascalled to the Supreme Bench at the early age of twenty-seven. Every lawyer concedes that HughMurray was one of the most brilliant jurists of the State, young as he was. Then, if we look furtherback and examine the history of other States, and even the nation itself, we find that many of the bestlegal minds have been promoted to important judicial positions when young. Levi Woodbury, of New Hampshire, was Chief Justice of that State at the age of twenty-seven, and was afterward madea Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was a man of signal ability, as evidenced inthe various positions which he subsequently held. His experience while on the bench of the SupremeCourt of New Hampshire was of much benefit to him and the people. James Iredell, of the State of North Carolina, was called to the bench at the age of twenty-six. Hugh L. White, of Tennessee, wasmade a Justice of the Supreme Court at the age of twenty-eight. Stephen A. Douglas was a Judge of the Supreme Court of Illinois at the age of twenty-eight. Young men, comparatively, have beenpromoted to the bench of the Supreme Court of the United States. Judge Story was appointed thereby President Madison when only thirty-two years of age.

“Therefore I think it unwise to make this limitation. Nobody claims that young men havebeen raised to exalted judicial positions to the detriment of public interest. I believe in giving theyoung men a chance. Martin Van Buren, when a little boy playing marbles and flying his kite in thestreets of Kinderhook, told his comrades he was going to be President of the United States. The fireof his youthful ambition never quenched. His education completed, he rose quickly to the positionof State Senator, then became Attorney General of the State of New York; then Senator in Congress.He was then appointed Secretary of State by President Jackson, and then Minister to England. Hewas then elected Vice-president, and finally reached the goal of his ambition and became Presidentof the United States. Though opposed to his school of politics, I glory – what American does notglory? – in the success of the ambitious boy of Kinderhook. It is due to the boys, the young and

rising men of California, that the paths of honor shall be left open to them, and I shall not consent,for one, to placing anything in their way.”

This pithy, brilliant and logical speech won the applause of the convention, and carried thecause of that speaker, who thus gained and important point of advantage for the young men of California.

Another debate in which Dr. Shurtleff took a prominent part in this convention, was that of representation in the Legislature. In opposition to those who favored a large increase in the numberof legislators, he took the ground that a small and compact body would be the more effective one,instancing the well-governed State of New York, where State Senators represent constituencieslarger than Congressional districts. This view prevailed, and the provisions of the old constitution inregard thereto remained in force.

In March, 1880, Dr. Shurtleff was appointed by Governor Perkins, as one of the trustees of theState Asylum for the Insane at Napa, and has been ever since president of the board, and a heartyadvocate of the policy which has already given the institution wide prestige. The incumbency of thisposition caused his declension of the nomination of the Presidential Elector tendered him by theRepublican State Convention of 1884, as he feared his State office might interfere with hiseligibility, and an elector then be lost to his party.





Dr. Shurtleff’s career in this State proves him to have been possessed of much more than theordinary capacity and public spirit as from the first he has taken a leading part in the affairs of hisadopted State, and been one of her prominent figures since the pioneer days. As a professional manhe has ranked with the ablest, and as a politician he has moved upon the highest plane, alwaysactuated by the purest and broadest of motives. As a citizen he is honored and respected far andwide, and loved and esteemed by those who know him best. Having conserved his strength andphysical resources in his young manhood, when the temptations of the gaming tables caused so manyof his comrades to fritter away their youth and health by the light of the midnight candle, he is yet, atthis writing, in the full possession of his strength and faculties, reaping the dividends on his earlyinvestments of self-denial. Thus it is that he has been in active practice of his profession constantlysince 1849, besides attending to his manifold public duties, and he stands to-day as one of the half-dozen pioneer practitioners yet engaged in their profession. He is a life member of the Society of California Pioneers.

In his domestic relations he has been happy, and is the head of an interesting family. On avisit to New England, he was married February 21, 1853, to Miss Ann M. Griffith, a native of Wareham, Plymouth County, Massachusetts. They have three children, all born in Shasta, viz.:George C., who was born April 7, 1854, educated at Oakland High School, and is now with the greathardware firm of Baker & Hamilton, San Francisco; Charles A., born April 4, 1857, a graduate of Hastings Law School, and now a member of the legal firm of Whitworth & Shurtleff, No. 120 Sutterstreet, San Francisco; and Benjamin E., born April 21, 1867, a student in the Medical Department,University of California.

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler, July 2004. SOURCE: Memorial and Biographical History of Northern California, The Lewis Publishing Company, 1891. pg. 289-

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Dr. Benjamin Shurtleff