An old-time Gilroy physician

Today a historic hotel desk occupies a conspicuous spot in a
front window of the Gilroy Museum. Over a century ago, the massive
lectern-like furnishing sat in the lobby of the old Southern
Pacific Hotel, once located at Old Gilroy and Monterey streets.
Museum visitors now pause to ponder the huge desk and its history,
especially the back-piece advertisements of yesteryear.
An old-time Gilroy physician

Today a historic hotel desk occupies a conspicuous spot in a front window of the Gilroy Museum. Over a century ago, the massive lectern-like furnishing sat in the lobby of the old Southern Pacific Hotel, once located at Old Gilroy and Monterey streets. Museum visitors now pause to ponder the huge desk and its history, especially the back-piece advertisements of yesteryear.

A common way to orient newcomers to local businesses, the 125-year-old ads read like a mini-history. Travelers through town in the 1870s and 80s could locate the livery stables, undertaker, and local hay and feed store with enterprise names in gilded letters painted on colored glass inserts. And

in the fashion of the era, among the notices, is one on the far left which reads, “Dr. B. Bryant, Homeopathic Physician. Office near the Bank. Gilroy, California.”

One of Gilroy’s first physicians, Dr. Berryman Bryant didn’t solely practice medicine as a profession, nor did he retire from practice until he had attained the ripe age of 72, and even then he returned on occasion to help out local doctors. The Spartanburg, S.C., native was born in 1819 and graduated in 1848 from the Bratanical Medical College in Memphis, Tenn. He practiced medicine for a year in Alabama, then, caught up in Gold Rush fever, he joined the human wave of Argonauts who flooded the West, arriving in Sacramento in June 1849.

As with many gold seekers, the newly certified physician came not just carrying a supply of medicine, but also with pick and pan. At first he opened and briefly operated a hospital in Sacramento. Then, in early 1850, after observing the mad rush for riches in the Sierras, he traveled back to Tennessee to outfit a mining expedition. On the eve of California’s statehood, he returned with two-dozen companions who were to mine “on shares.” He transferred his family to Yuba County, where he built and operated a hotel. A mere two years later, he pulled up stakes again and in November 1852 sold the lodging enterprise to a man named Rice and came to Gilroy.

Within a month, Dr. Bryant purchased 1,000 acres from Daniel Rhodes, later adding two more tracts of 750 acres each. As a sideline he raised sheep, an enterprise lasting for the next 25 years. Dr. Bryant’s first wife, Nancy Whitby, whom he had married in Tennessee, died in Gilroy. The couple had four sons, Percy, David, William and George.

In 1864, he married Henrietta Reeve in Gilroy and two sons were born of that union. The elder, Edgar, later went on to study medicine both in Philadelphia and Europe, later returning to California to become a San

Francisco physician. The younger, Calhoun, was sent to a law college back East, and later opened a San Francisco law practice.

A man of many talents, Dr. Bryant didn’t just ranch, he practiced medicine in the area as well, and from 1852 until 1866 was Gilroy’s only physician. Then in 1866 he went to San Jose, and for the next decade was engaged, not in medicine, but as a banker and real estate agent. He returned in 1878 to resume the Gilroy practice.

In the growing farm community, business was brisk. Besides the usual maternity cases and sick children, the doctor had to handle accidents.

As was the custom of the era, gunshot wounds, amputations and farm injuries were reported in the local paper. A January 1888 article refers to Dr. Bryant, his junior partner, Dr. Chesbro, and Dr. Morey in the case of P.F. Hoey, an early settler and attorney, who met with a late-night accident on the railroad tracks. A passing train ran over his leg, and since Gilroy had no hospital, Hoey was carried to the city hall, where he was placed on a table and the mangled leg amputated. The patient was taken to San Jose Hospital, where he later died of shock

Dr. Berryman Bryant was considered a very wealthy man for his era,

with investments and real estate holdings to back up his medical practice. His account books, as quoted by his younger and later partner, Dr. Heverland R. Chesbro, showed a thriving practice, “In one month the smallest day’s mark was $9.00, the largest $37.50…there were nine days that [income] was between $20.00 to $30.00.” Bryant’s monthly income averaged $650, thus the practice’s projected annual income came to $7,800.

In 1888, Dr. Bryant sold the Gilroy practice to Dr. Chesbro and retired. He moved first to Hollister, then returned to San Jose, where he and his wife lived in a handsome residence located near the Hotel Vendome. The Bryants later moved to San Francisco, where he died at age 81 in March 1898 at the home of his attorney son, Calhoun, at 2916 Clay St. Mrs. Bryant died in 1902.

A tragedy hit the family in 1916 when the late Dr. Bryant’s son, Edgar,

fell through a skylight and died of the injuries. A San Francisco physician and surgeon, Dr. Edgar Reeve Bryant had served for 10 years as the head of Hahnemann Medical College, which within a year of his demise became the University of California School of Medicine.

Elizabeth Barratt can be reached via email at

da***@ch**********.com