Alameda County
Biographies
DR. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN BUCKNELL
(deceased). Was born in the town of Hiram, State of Maine, in the month of October, 1821. Losing his father at the early age of five years, he was left with three sisters to the care of his mother; who, finding it difficult to support and properly rear so large a family, gave him (soon after his father’s death), to her sister’s husband, a farmer living in an adjoining town. The farmer with little regard to his tender years and delicate constitution, required very hard work from him, infant as he was, during the summer months, but allowed him to attend the public schools in winter. Being a good scholar and very ambitious; he determined to have a better education than it was possible to obtain where he was; he left his uncle, despite his efforts to retain him, at the age of fourteen, and entered the Manual Laboring School in Readfield, Maine, where he remained about three years, receiving some aid from two of his mother’s brothers, residents of Readfield, and much kindness from the wife of one of his uncles, which he always remembered with great gratitude. When seventeen years old, he commenced teaching during the autumn and winter months, thereby earning money to defray the expense of studying during the remainder of the year. When about nineteen he began the study of medicine with Dr. Potter of Waterville, but failing health, and the fear of consumption, inherited from his father, obliged him to seek a milder climate. He went to Savannah, and afterwards to Florida, teaching and still pursuing the study of medicine. Three years later, finding his health much improved, he returned to New England and entered the Medical School at Dartmouth College, from which he graduated in 1846 and commenced the practice of his profession soon after in his native town. The following year he was married to Miss Martha E. Lincoln of Cornish, Maine. The Doctor’s ambition soon led him to seek a larger and more lucrative practice, and he went to take the place of a physician recently moved from Machias, Maine. Here he found an abundance of work, but his health never robust soon failed rapidly. He took a young physician as partner, hoping thereby to be able to remain, but a return of hemorrhage from the lungs again drove him to seek a more genial clime, and on the 4th of November, 1850, accompanied by his wife and sister, sailed in the brig Agate bound for San Francisco. During the voyage of six months his health seemed quite restored, he having gained sixty-eight pounds in flesh, and on reaching San Francisco, April 24th, he concluded to commence the practice of his profession in that city. Six months later a return of his old pulmonary troubles convinced him that he could not long endure the cold winds of the bay. He visited Alameda County in quest of business, where the wind was said to be less severe; meeting with John M. Horner, he obtained from him the agency of a steamboat, which was to run daily from Union City (now Alvarado) to San Francisco and back, loaded with vegetables and other produce raised by Mr. Horner, and the farmers in the vicinity. Here Dr. Bucknell established a post-office, got an appointment as Justice of the Peace; and besides attending daily to the loading and unloading of the steamboat, he discharged the duties of these offices, occasionally performing the marriage ceremony for those who could not obtain a minister’s services; in addition to all this he went to attend the sick whenever called, and as he spoke Spanish, he soon received calls to visit the afflicted in most of the Spanish families in that part of the county. In 1852 and 1853 he suffered so much from rheumatism, that he concluded to leave Alvarado and try the interior of the State, and he moved to Marysville, but after living one year in that city, and another year on a ranch near the city, he was prostrated with malarial fever, and returned to Alameda County, this time to the Mission of San Jose, where he received much kindness from Mr. and Mrs. Lyman Beard; soon afterwards he purchased from Mr. Combs a farm of two hundred and forty acres, between Washington and Centreville, and in September moved into the farm-house which Mr. Combs had built for his own family, which was quite commodious and comfortable. During all these changes and wanderings Dr. Bucknell had been accompanied by his wife, and in this farm-house, Feb. 25, 1856, their first child, a daughter, was born. Her name was Frances. The doctor was exceedingly fond of this child, and after she attained the age of one year, she could be seen seated by his side during most of his rides about the neighborhood. In September, 1858, a second daughter was born. About this time his mother, who had come to California two years previous, became an invalid, and died the following autumn. Her death was a great blow to the doctor, and his own health failed rapidly afterwards. Inherited consumption which for more than half his life he had been battling against, could no longer be kept at bay, and he sank beneath its power, dying April 19, 1860. His wife and children remained upon the farm two years after his death. During the winter of 1862-63 they were in San Francisco, where the youngest fell a victim to measles, which was at the time prevailing as an epidemic. The following autumn Mrs. Bucknell with her only child went to New England to visit her mother, and having always felt great interest in her husband’s profession, determined to study the same herself. The following winter she entered the Woman’s Medical College in Boston, and three years after graduated. She intended to return immediately to California, but her aged mother was still living, and she could not make up her mind to go so far away as long as her mother lived, consequently she went to Portland, Maine, and practiced for three years in that city; her mother died about this time, and she returned to California, since when she has practiced her profession in San Francisco and Oakland. She is a member of the State Medical Society of California, also a member of the Alameda County Medical Society. Her present residence is No. 616 Eight Street, Oakland, which is also the residence of her daughter, now the wife of I. W. Reed. From her daughter, Mrs. Bucknell has never been separated at any time since her birth except for about four months, soon after her marriage.
History of Alameda County, California…, Oakland, M.W. Wood Publ., 1883
p. 856-857
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler