|
Dr. Albert L. Derbyshire
During the past three years Dr. A. L. Derbyshire has filled the position of Assistant
Surgeon of the U. S. Marine Hospital Service in
Nome. This position places him in charge of the
hospital and quarantine work, and requires him to
inspect all vessels arriving at Nome. Dr. Derbyshire
has discharged his duties faithfully, and in a manner to
receive the commendation of the public. Many times
in midsummer he has been awakened after midnight by
a hustling agent of a steamer, and has obligingly
arisen from his bed to go out and inspect a vessel, although the regulations of his department did not
require him to work at these hours. But he is an old
resident of Nome, and understands the conditions here
— the uncertainty of the weather, and the value to
steamship companies of a smooth sea when cargoes
are to be discharged, or passengers are to be landed.
Frequently storms come up suddenly, without an hour's
warning, and lash the sea into fury so that steamers
have to seek safety in an anchorage five or six miles
from land, or shelter in the lee of Sledge Island, twenty miles distant.
Derbyshire's prompt response to calls for his official service at all hours is commendable and has been
helpful to steamship companies and the public.
Dr. Derbyshire is a native of Franklin County, Indiana. He was born May
23, 1851 . When a young man he learned telegraphy, and was employed as a telegraph
operator on the Wabash Railroad for a period of six years. It twas during this
time he began the study of medicine. He afterward completed his medical
education in the Ohio Medical College at Cincinnati and Indiana Medical College
at Indianapolis, and was graduated from the latter institution Feb. 18, 1886. He
began the practice of medicine in Connersville, Ind. In 1887 he moved to San Diego, Cal., and practiced in San Diego and El
Cajon Valley. He spent a year at Cedrous Island, Mexico, as physician for a mining
company, and moved to Oregon in 1893, locating at Stayton, seventeen miles from Salem. Five
years later he moved to Portland where he resided until the spring of 1 900, when he came
to Nome. He tried his hand at mining for a couple of years, but resumed the practice
of his profession in 1902, subsequently receiving the Government appointment heretofore
noted.
Dr. Derbyshire was married in 1879. The issue of this marriage is a daughter,
Laura, now twenty-three years old. Mrs. Derbyshire died in 1882. Thirteen years later
he contracted a second marriage with Miss Francis A. Briggs, of Stayton, Oregon. Dr.
Derbyshire is a courteous gentleman, and a man of worth.
Source: Nome and Seward Peninsula by
E. S. Harrison. Seattle: The Metropolitan Press, 1905.
|
