SIERRA SACRAMENTO VALLEY |
PIONEER PHYSICIANS
Alexander Butler Nixon, MD (1820-1889)
Additional Information*
Tall, impeccably dressed with a Prince Albert Coat, tall hat and carrying a gold handled cane, Dr. Nixon could be seen in downtown Sacramento walking toward 13th and D Streets to the Central Pacific Railroad Hospital where he was chief surgeon from 1869 to 1885. His cane is on exhibit in the Medical Museum of the Sierra Sacramento Valley Medical Society.
History was made by Dr. Nixon when he was President of the California State Medical Society in 1875. Five women physicians led by Euthanasia Meade, MD applied for membership. The vote to admit them was a tie and Dr. Nixon cast the deciding vote in favor of the women who became the first female members.
Dr. Nixon was one of the twelve founding members of the Sacramento Society for Medical Improvement and served as President in 1875. He was State Commissioner of Lunacy for 22 years. During the Civil War he was a United States examining physician for the Board of Enrollment. He was instrumental in popularizing the Republican Party in Sacramento, although in later years he supported the Prohibition Party and ran for mayor on that ticket. For many years he served on the Board of the Unitarian Society.
Dr. Nixon is buried in the Pioneer Section of Sacramento’s Old City Cemetery. He was survived by three sons, a daughter, and his second wife, Anne Wisewell, who in 1892 obtained her MD from Cooper Medical College ( now Stanford School of Medicine) in San Francisco.
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*Physician information research provided by Dr. Irma West