Medicine in the Wild West – William Reed Kerr: Stockton’s Gold Rush Doctor

Local history is a gold mine for narrative. In San Joaquin County, we are blessed with numerous rich and interesting tales. While stumbling through the archives of the County Historical Museum, I came across the papers of William Reed Kerr, MD, who, along with Dr. Locke of Lockeford, was Stockton’s first known medical doctor. He lived an extraordinary if short life, and his story deserves to be told.

While many details are lost to the tides of history, some information concerning Dr. Kerr is well established. William Reed Kerr was born to Thomas and Margaret Reed on October 11, 1813, in Glasgow, Scotland. Devout Methodists, his family moved to the United States to escape religious persecution in 1820. William attended the Jefferson Medical School, now the Sidney Kimmel Medical School at Thomas Jefferson University, and graduated in 1843. In 1844, he traveled to Haverhill, in Scioto County, Ohio, and while there he married Ms. Frances Brown. In 1847, their first child, John Brown Kerr, was born. In January 1849 they had a second child, Emma California Kerr. Later that year they departed on a wagon train west across the continent, in search of a better life in California.

Following the trail west was no small feat. The Kerrs traveled the Southern Emigrant Trail, also known as the Santa Fe Trail, connecting Missouri with Santa Fe across the great plains and Southern Rockies, and Santa Fe with San Diego through the Colorado and Chihuahuan deserts and along the Gila River. Along the trail, the Kerrs braved extreme weather in the American Southwest, had several encounters with indigenous peoples in Yuma territory, and an especially hairy experience crossing the Gila River, where one of their oxen drowned and another was lost to quicksand. On Christmas day 1849, wild dogs reportedly stole the family’s meat reserves, and the family was reduced to a holiday meal of beans and salt. In spite of the severe challenges, the Kerrs made it to San Diego on February 5, 1850. The family moved from San Diego to San Francisco that spring, where their second son, William Taylor Kerr, was born in 1851. While in San Francisco, Kerr is reported to have served as a detective for the newly organized San Francisco Police Department and as an active member of local vigilante committees.

In 1851, the Kerrs again uprooted and began traveling in the direction of the gold mines. In the early winter of 1852, the Kerr family found a grove of oak trees just east of Stockton, which they referred to as the Sheltered Oaks. They decided to make a claim to the land and ranched there for 40 years. The original house was near modern-day Cherokee Lane. While living there, Mrs. Kerr gave birth to four children: Lewis, Benjamin, Sarah and Mary. In Stockton and the Southern Mines, Dr. Kerr set up a lucrative practice as a “circuit doctor” who traveled by horse from town to town in the Mother Lode, seeing patients, attending to miners and operating Stockton’s second pharmacy. Mrs. Kerr operated a handsome vegetable garden and took care of their children. Dr. Kerr reportedly struck an imposing figure; a tall man of 6’4”, he is known to have worn formal suits with ruffled feathers every day, even in 100-degree heat. A linen duster worn on horseback kept his clothes clean. He was known by his contemporaries to be an excellent doctor.

In some circles, Kerr was also known for his political affiliations. In Pennsylvania, he had been an active member of the Whig Party, and in San Joaquin County he would become famous for serving as the founding president of the San Joaquin County Republican Party. Staunchly anti-slavery, pro-temperance and pro-labor, Kerr was elected president of the new party chapter at its second meeting on August 9, 1856. He stood for election to the Assembly in 1856 but would become a key surrogate for Abraham Lincoln in 1860, stumping the state for the Republican candidate.

After being drenched by a particularly heavy rainstorm in 1861, Kerr contracted typhoid fever and pneumonia, passing away at the relatively young age of 49. His funeral was one of the largest Stockton had seen to that date. His close friend, I.S. Locke of Lockeford fame, would help take care of his many children through adulthood, and his family would go on to play prominent roles in the history of the Stockton, Lodi and San Francisco areas. Frances Kerr would later remarry and live into the 20th century.