Tehama County CA Archives Biographies.....Westlake, George Walker 1843 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ca/cafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com February 21, 2007, 10:24 pm Author: Lewis Publishing Co. (1891) GEORGE WALKER WESTLAKE, M. D., 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 become 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 till 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. 0. 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. Additional Comments: Extracted from Memorial and Biographical History of Northern California. Illustrated, Containing a History of this Important Section of the Pacific Coast from the Earliest Period of its Occupancy to the Present Time, together with Glimpses of its Prospective Future; Full-Page Steel Portraits of its most Eminent Men, and Biographical Mention of many of its Pioneers and also of Prominent Citizens of To-day. "A people that takes no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote descendents." – Macauley. CHICAGO THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY 1891. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ca/tehama/bios/westlake766gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/cafiles/ File size: 4.1 Kb