The ability with which Dr. A. G. Deardorff has handled intricate and important cases at once indicates his marked ability and his high standing in the profession. He practices at Berkeley, and throughout his connection with the profession his progress has been continuous. He was born near Oakland, Oregon, in 1854, and is a representative of a pioneer family of the northwest, his parents being W. H. B. and Georgiana (Harl) Deardorff. In 1849 the father came to California from the vicinity of Burlington, Iowa, and in the fall of 1851 went to Portland, Oregon. The following winter he returned to Iowa, where he remained for about a year, and in the spring of 1853 he married and organized a company of relatives and friends, numbering more than one hundred people, whom he piloted across the plains to the Pacific coast, being particularly well qualified to act as their leader because he had been over the ground before. Mr. Deardorff and most of the party located in Oregon, but a few continued on their way to California. In the Beaver state he engaged in ranching and after years of earnest and well directed labor he retired and established his home in the town of Oakland, Oregon, where he remained until his death, which occurred November 25, 1902. His widow survived him for about nine years and passed away in Portland, Oregon, in May, 1911.
Dr. Deardorff pursued his education in the schools of Wilbur, Oregon, with an academic course in Willamette University. He then taught school in Oregon for several years and also engaged in farming for a time. He lived most economically, saving his earnings until he had a sum sufficient to enable him to pursue a course in medicine. He then entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Keokuk, Iowa, in the fall of 1878, and was graduated with the class of 1882. At once he returned to Oregon and engaged in the practice of medicine in the town of Jefferson. There he continued until the fall of 1885, when he established his home temporarily in Salem, but in 1886 removed to Fresno. In that city he enjoyed a liberal and extensive practice, remaining there for nearly ten years. In 1895 he opened an office in San Francisco, where he practiced for eleven years, or until the fire of 1906. In August of that year he came to Berkeley, where he was soon well established as a successful physician. He has since resided here and has always been very active with the exception of the year 1913, when, owing to ill health, he was not able to practice. In 1909, in connection with G. C. Bohannon, he organized the Bohannon Cancer Institute, a sanitarium for the scientific treatment of cancer. The institution was thoroughly equipped along the most scientific lines and the work accomplished has been of most splendid and commendable character. While in Fresno Dr. Deardorff was for some time United States examiner for pensions. He is never a man to rest content with his success of past years, nor is he content to continue the practice of his profession according to the old methods. On the contrary, he is at all times busy in experimental work and study and in his research work has been remarkably successful. His progress is of a character that will be of decided help to humanity through the prevention of disease. He is successfully administering vaccines and serum treatments for the cure of chronic and acute rheumatism, pneumonia, bronchitis, typhoid, diphtheria and numerous other prevalent and dreaded diseases.
He and his wife are members of the Congregational church at Berkeley, in which Dr. Deardorff is serving as a trustee. Mrs. Deardorff is also active in the church and in the social circles of the Bay cities. Dr. Deardorff belongs to the Masonic fraternity, in which he has attained the Knight Templar degree. He assisted in organizing and firmly establishing the republican party in Fresno county and while there was closely associated with the late Joseph Baker in political affairs. On all political, economic and sociological as well as professional questions he keeps abreast with the best thinking men of the age and is well fitted for leadership upon many essential questions.
Past and Present of Alameda County California, Vol. II
Published in Chicago by The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company
1914
Pages 44-46
Transcribed by Linda Jackson 5/24/2008
Alameda County Biographies ~ Archive Biography Index ~ Archive Index
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