Horace Getchell Cates (ca. 1864–1911) was a surgeon in Los Angeles County, California. He died of blood poisoning a week after scratching his thumb with a pin while preparing a dressing for a patient in Crocker Hospital, of which he was superintendent.[1][2][3]
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The Los Angeles Times said his case was "one of the most serious that ever came to the attention of the surgeons in the Los Angeles hospitals."[2] "The injury was hardly noticeable, but the infection developed with startling suddenness. All of the methods of modern medical science failed to check the spread of the disease," reported the Los Angeles Evening Express, labeling it "blood poisoning."[1][4]
A native of Maine, the doctor was a graduate of Colby College in Bangor, Maine, and the University of Minnesota. He moved to Los Angeles about 1886 and began practicing surgery five years later.[1][5] Cates worked for the Southern Pacific Railroad and for the Pacific Electric Railway Company.[2][4]
He was a member of the Santa Monica school trustees until he moved from the city in 1891,[6] and he was elected Los Angeles County Coroner for a four-year term on the Republican ticket in November 1892.[7]
Cates was first married to Ella Van Every on May 16, 1889, in Santa Monica, California.[8] She died in Monrovia, California, in May 1891.[9]
He and Mary E. Bicknell were married on June 15, 1895, in Los Angeles.[10] He was survived by her and five children, Charles B., Horace B., Ella, Mildren N. and Mary Edna. He died without a will, leaving property in Los Angeles, Ventura, and Fresno counties.[11] Interment was in Inglewood Park Cemetery.[2] The New York Insurance Press reported on June 27, 1912, that the largest single insurance claim paid in California during 1911, $95,000, was to the Cates heirs.[12]
His mother, Helena A. Cates, had died on May 26, 1891.[13] He had a brother, Alton M. Cates, who died November 23, 1920.[14]
References
edit- ^ a b c [1] "Dr. Horace Cates Dies at Hospital," Los Angeles Express, March 27, 1911, image 1
- ^ a b c d [2] "Dies Martyr to His Profession," Los Angeles Times March 28, 1911, image 17
- ^ [3] Great Registers, 1866–1898. Microfilm, 185 rolls. California State Library, Sacramento, California
- ^ a b [4]"Life Ebbing for Surgeon," Los Angeles Times, March 27, 1911, image 18
- ^ "Colby 1883 Banquet," Bangor Daily News, June 24, 1903, image 8
- ^ "Santa Monica," The Los Angeles Herald, May 21, 1891, image 8
- ^ "The County Ticket," Los Angeles Times November 19, 1892, image 6
- ^ [5] California, U.S., County Birth, Marriage, and Death Records, 1849-1980
- ^ "Santa Monica," The Los Angeles Herald, May 29, 1891, image 8
- ^ [6] California, Marriages, 1850-1945. Salt Lake City, Utah: FamilySearch, 2013
- ^ [7] "Left No Will," Los Angeles Times, April 1, 1911, image 18
- ^ "Financial and Commercial," San Francisco Chronicle, June 27, 1912, image 18
- ^ "The Courts: New Suits," The Los Angeles Herald, June 24, 1891, image 8
- ^ "Supreme Court Decisions," The Recorder, San Francisco, January 30, 1925, image 9
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