Copyright has not been assigned to The Society of California Pioneers. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Librarian. Permission for publication is given on behalf of The Society of California Pioneers as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must be obtained by the reader.
Description
Copyright has not been assigned to The Society of California Pioneers. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Librarian. Permission for publication is given on behalf of The Society of California Pioneers as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must be obtained by the reader Autobiography & Reminiscence of Dr. Washington Ayer (Deceased), San Francisco, 1901. The Society of California Pioneers Dr. Ayer spent two years at Mokelumne Hill & Volcano in Amador County. During the summer of 1852, Ayer was the appointed surgeon during the so-called "French War" of California, a land claim dispute between French and American miners on French Hill. American miners succeeded in driving the French from the coveted claim and "robbing them of $15,000 in one hour." During Ayer's residence in Volcano, he organized a Vigilance committee, which caught the murderer of an elderly man. He also helped to organize, and was elected Master of the Volcano Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons, and was its first Representative at the Grand Lodge at Sacramento. In 1856 Ayer settled permanently in San Francisco. In 1863 he was voted a Member of the Board of Education, and served until 1868 when he refused a re-election. From 1883 to 1891 Dr. Ayer filled the chair of Professor of Hygiene in the Medical Department of the University of California. In 1890 Ayer was elected a Member of the Board of Supervisors of San Francisco, and was made Chairman of the Hospital Committee. He made many reforms in the various institutions of public charity. He helped organize the "Medico-Chirurgucal Society" and was its first president. He was also President of the "Sloat Monument Association" and presided at the Laying of the Corner Stone of the Monument at Monterey, July 7, 1896. Dr. Ayer was an accomplished writer, having published numerous essays in his field as well as a small volume of poems and also a romance entitled, "Might Have Been" Autobiographies and Reminiscences of California Pioneers, p.6-9, Vol. 1. This is a typed transcript, bound into a volume, of the member's autobiographical reminiscence created as an institutional record for the Society of California Pioneers. The transcription includes a reference to a photograph of the member in a set of bound volumes. It appears that the photographs in this set were dispersed throughout the regular photography colleciton. Henry Livingston first wrote Dr. Washington Ayer's biography, which can be found in The Society of California PIoeners "Record" 2. The reminiscence was amended by Dr. Ayer, bringing the biography to January 1st, 1897. The reminiscence covers the period from 1852 to 1897. It does not furnish dates of arrival to San Francisco.
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