DR. ROBERT CALDWELL
EARLY PHYSICIAN- SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA
BIO- Pen Pictures,Dr. Robert Caldwell page 234
SURNAMES: STEVENSON, COMBS
Dr. Robert Caldwell, for the past twelve years one of the most
successful physicians of San Jose, has been in the active study and
practice of the medical profession since 1864. Born at Independence,
Missouri, in 1845, he came with his parents at a very early age to San
Jose, where he attended Santa Clara College up to the age of nineteen
years. Commencing the study of medicine in 1864, he continued it for
two years, under the preceptorship of his father, Dr. A. B. Caldwell,
at San Jose. At the end of this time an expedition was fitting out to
build a telegraph line along the Pacific Coast through then Russian
America, across Behring's Straits, and through Siberia and Russian
Europe to St. Petersburg, in case the Atlantic cable, then being in
course of construction, should prove a failure, and he joined the
expedition as one of its acting surgeons. Starting in 1866 and
returning in 1868, costing the Western Union Telegraph Company
$3,000,000, its objects and labors were rendered unnecessary by reason
of the successful laying and operating of the Atlantic Cable. There
were one thousand men and several ships engaged in the expedition,
about a thousand miles of survey made through Russia and Siberia, and
nine hundred miles of line constructed in British Columbia. After more
than a year of perfect isolation from all knowledge of the outside
world passed in Siberia and among the Esquimax, they were recalled.
During his absence in Siberia, and after his return in 1868, Dr.
Caldwell continued the study of medicine graduating in 1869 in the
Medical Department of the University of California. After practicing
about a year with his father in Santa Clara, he made a tour of Europe,
visiting the hospitals and attending medical schools in the further
study of his profession. After a rest at home for some months he made a
trip to Yokohama, Japan, visiting also various places in China. He
became for one year surgeon of the Costa Rica, a steamship of the
Pacific mail service running from Yokohama through the inland sea to
Shanghai, then settling at Nagasaki, on the island of Kiusiu, where he
enjoyed for four years a very successful practice among its foreign
residents. On the death of his father in 1876 he returned to San Jose,
where he has devoted himself exclusively to his practice since that
time.
He was married in November, 1876, to Miss Lulu Stevenson, daughter of
Thomas and Elizabeth Stevenson, natives of Kentucky, where her father
died in 1863, the family removing to California in 1874. They have
three children, Roberta, Arthur E., and Louise. Dr. Caldwell is a
member of the Garden City Lodge, No. 134, I.O.O.F., and Enterprise
Lodge, No. 17, A.O.U.W. He is a member of the Medical society of the
State of California, and also a member of the California Academy of
Science of San Francisco. He usually supports the Democratic party on
questions of national policy.
The parents of the subject of our sketch were Dr. A. B. and Mary Ann
(Combs) Caldwell, natives of Kentucky, who removed to Independence,
Missouri, in 1843, returning to Kentucky in 1849, in which year Dr. A.
B. Caldwell came to California. He engaged in mining at various places,
built the first house in Nevada City, California, and there conducted
mercantile business for two years. He sold out his interest there and
returned to Kentucky for his family, bringing them to Santa Clara
county in the fall of that year. There the family has continues to
live, Dr. A. B. Caldwell engaging in the practice of medicine until his
death, in 1876.
Pen Pictures From The Garden of the World or Santa Clara County,
California, Illustrated. - Edited by H.S. Foote.- Chicago: The
Lewis Publishing Company, 1888. page 234 transcribed by Carol Lackey-