Collection: Books and Periodicals > Nevada County Historical Society Bulletins

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Title: Volume 027-4 - October 1973 Collection Type: Books and Periodicals Collection Name: Nevada County Historical Society Bulletins # of Pages: 6 Download PDF: User Login Required Download OCR Text: User Login Required

Date Scanned: 2014-01-26 11:37:14 OCR Software Version #: tesseract 5.4.1 Item Sourced From: PDF First Created: 2025-03-17 04:05:33 Last Updated: 2025-03-17 04:05:33

Original Held At: Searls Historical Library Location: 161 Nevada City Hwy, Nevada City, CA 95959

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CHAPTER . HIS EARLY YEARS Nevada County is noted for being the birthplace of famous men, and foremost among them is Dr. Howard Christian Naffziger. Born in the Union Hotel on Main Street, Nevada City, May 6, 1884, he was the son of Christian Jacob and Lizzie Scott Naffziger. His father came to the United States from Bavaria, Germany at the age of nine, and farmed in Illinois until 1870, when he migrated to Nevada City and opened a butcher shop on Commercial Street. Here he remained for several years until purchasing the National Meat Market on Broad. Two children were born to the Naffzigers, but one died in infancy, and Howard was raised as an only child. Their home at 216 Nevada Street, (Peter E. Hoffman residence) was purchased Oct. 30, 1889. (A view of this house may be found in Thompson & West, ‘‘History of Nevada County’? opposite page 60.) In his autobiography, Howard Naffziger wrote, ‘‘My memories are few prior to the time we moved into our house on Nevada Street, or as the street was then called, ‘‘Aristocracy Hill.’’ It was a big house with lots above and below it, a stable behind and a large chicken yard. I had many pets, thirteen dogs at one time, quail, white mice, chameleons, ducks, chickens and particularly horses, Had my own horse when quite small, at the age of seven, named ‘‘Dot.” My friend, Frank Glasson, from North Bloomfield, lived withus as company for me during part of his high school period. He was a good student and I didn’t like to study!”’ . However, Howard Naffziger was a senior at the age of fifteen, and graduated as the class salutatorian from the Nevada City High School in June, 1900. With the idea that we was too young to go to college and needed more work in secondary curriculum, his parents sent him to live with cousins in Berkeley for a year to study science, physics and chemistry. After graduating from Berkeley High in 1901, he returned to Nevada City to work during the summer, and entered the University of California in 1902 taking a pre-medical course. In contemplating the reason for his having chosen medicine, he traced it back to his deep admiration of Dr. Robert M. Hunt, prominent Nevada City physician and County Hospital Doctor. An accident while sledding down a hill ‘‘belly buster’’ during the winter of 1893, left young Naffziger with a broken leg. In his memoirs he wrote, ‘‘Dr., Hunt put a stocking on me, then plaster of Paris with no padding, but cut out a little hole for my heel when it burned and hurt. It was a green-stick fracture, but had the cast very high and my knee was kept bent. I was in the cast for a couple of months during which time I read sixty-three books. After the removal of the cast, it was necessary to give me a general anesthetic to straighten my knee. Had a good result and accompanied my parents to the Mid-Winter Fair and did much walking. My admiration for Dr. Hunt, and I’m certain the family’s fondness for this country doctor must have been a factor for my choice of medicine. Shortly after the accident, I recall reading some book about a brain surgeon which made me want to be one.’? By the spring of 1903, his father, at the age of fifty-five suffered a heart attack, then diagnosed as fatty heart. The butcher shop was sold, and Howard returned home. In October of that year, after eating breakfast, the older Naffziger went outside, and Howard found him leaning against the barn calling for help. He was carried into the house and died immediately. After the loss of his father, the young man went to work at the Culbertson Mine on the Yuba River near Graniteville for $3.00 a day. Here he snaked timber, sledded in giant powder for blasting, sharpened drills, ran car and mucked Naffziger home, 216 Nevada Street, Nevada City, at the time it belonged to Charles Kent in 1880. 0) 0 000A RAR RR RR RR a a a rground. The crew attended dances at Graniteville. These were held in ry "dining room of the hotel. A small organ and a fiddle provided the music, The men were attired in jeans, shirts and vests, and after each dance all adjourned to the barroom next door. The ladies sat around the wall of the dining room in straight-backed chairs. Around midnight the miners would start back to the mine; some were too drunk to make it; others carried demijohns of wine while some t under the bushes until morning. oo was no fruit and rarely fresh meat at the mine boarding house. Corned beef and pickled pork were provided instead along with potatoes and cannes vegetables. When he returned home to Nevada City Howard Naffziger couldn’t get enough fruit and fresh vegetables to satisfy him. In the fall of 1904 he returned to Berkeleyand took a refresher course of his first year’s pre-med work. In1905 he entered the medical school in San ni and was there during the earthquake and fire of 1906. He assisted in the : hospital set up opposite the end of Haight Street. When he returned home tha summer, Dr. Alfred Tickell, the County Physician gave him work at the i Hospital as a nurse-orderly and night-watchman with hours from 6:00 P.M. . os ‘eee San Francisco Hospital had been destroyed because of plague, and when Howard returned for his junior year (1907-08) the patients had been transferred to the barns and sialls of the Ingleside Race Track. Patients were