SIERRA SACRAMENTO VALLEY |
PIONEER PHYSICIANS
Harvey Wilson Harkness , MD (1821-1901)
Dr. Harkness was one of the many physicians who came overland to California during the Gold Rush of 1849. Unlike most of his medical colleagues he did profit from gold mining. He mined at Bidwell’s bar on the Feather River where he also practiced medicine.
He was born in Pelham, Massachusetts in 1821 into a poor farming family of seven children. Parents and all but one brother died of tuberculosis while Dr. Harkness was still a youth. He received his medical degree from Pittsfield Medical College after serving an apprenticeship with Drs. Barrett and Thompson at Northampton, Massachusetts. It was for health reasons that he came to California.