Investing in Community: Remembering Dr. John D. Dameron
Photos courtesy of SJ County Historical Museum
Quality healthcare that is accessible to all is a foundational component of modern society. In their early days as Anglophone places, San Joaquin County and Stockton were relatively blessed with the presence of many regionally prominent doctors, including national healthcare leaders such as Dr. Asa Clark, a leader in early American mental health research, and Dr. J. H. Sanderson, who pioneered many innovations in medical administration.
One early player in the local health sector whose efforts greatly benefited the community in ways seen and unseen was Dr. John D. Dameron. Born in Missouri in 1867, Dr. John Dysart Dameron received his credentials at the Missouri State Medical College, where he graduated in 1894. He came to California the following year and practiced in San Francisco before moving to Stockton in June 1896. His practice was so well regarded that he was immediately named to the board of the San Joaquin Medical Society, and within two years of moving to Stockton he was nominated and then elected the health officer of San Joaquin County, a now defunct elected official in charge of countywide public health. Recognizing the urgent need for emergency care in Stockton, he opened a hospital emergency room in the basement of the county jail, known at the time as Cunningham’s Castle. In 1901, he was lauded by the community for stopping in its tracks a potentially devastating smallpox outbreak in Lodi, immediately instituting a strict neighborhoodwide quarantine in central Lodi that restricted the outbreak to a handful of cases.
The same year as the outbreak, Dr. Dameron was elected the superintendent of San Joaquin General Hospital, a post he held from 1901 to 1912. Dr. Dameron’s efforts at San Joaquin General were impactful, tumultuous and little remembered. Within weeks of assuming his post, he created a significant stir among the hospital staff by requiring eight-hour shifts and expanding the number of surgeons on staff. By 1904, he had established a county-operated nursing school, which graduated a significant percentage of the regional nursing staff. In his time at the hospital, he even had a brush with death, when in 1905 a patient stabbed him twice in the back, leaving him temporarily paralyzed. The city remained on pins and needles for months before he made a complete recovery. He recovered that December and immediately set about fundraising for the hospital’s first modern operating room and began working with local farmers to establish publicly owned chicken and dairy farms to generate income for increased staffing. He was indefatigable.
Today Dr. Dameron is best remembered for having established the private hospital that bears his name, Dameron Hospital. While the hospital was established in 1912, its origins lie in the last five years of Dr. Dameron’s administration of the county hospital. In 1907, the doctor petitioned the Board of Supervisors to permit him to practice medicine privately at an office in Stockton. Due to his reputation, by 1910 he had developed the largest medical practice in the city, with over 1,000 patients. Realizing that his time was stretched too thin, the doctor offered his resignation to the Board of Supervisors, solicited the backing of Stocktonian businessmen, and built a modern hospital at North Lincoln Street between Magnolia and Acacia.
Dameron Hospital would go on to become a pillar of regional healthcare in the 20th century and beyond. Dr. Dameron would continue to own and operate the hospital until 1943, at which point the hospital incorporated as a nonprofit, which it remains to this day. Dr. Dameron passed away in 1945, his legacy permanently etched in the region’s fabric.
