CHARLES ALLEN PETERSON

He received his high school training at Punahou, being prepared for Amherst College by Frank Damon, Amherst graduate, son of the Rev. S. C. Damon of the Bethel Chapel. He received his A.B. from Amherst in 1879, his M.A. in 1880, and then attended the medical school of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. He transferred from this medical school in his last year, and his degree of M.D. in 1884 came from the New York College of Physicians and Surgeons, now part of Columbia University.

Returning to Honolulu in August, 1884, with his bride, Susan Jennings (Mt. Holyoke, 1879, daughter of the Rev. William Jessup Jennings of Redding, Connecticut), he was assigned by King Kalakaua as government physician to the Kaneohe and Koolau districts. He was especially valuable in this area, as he spoke Hawaiian fluently. In 1886 he went to California and took a short course at Cooper Medical (now Stanford Medical School and hospital) and practiced for a year in Santa Cruz, California.

In May, 1887, Dr. Peterson returned to Honolulu and was appointed resident physician at Kalaupapa Leper Settlement in November. Feeling that the leper settlement was an unsuitable place to raise his children, he resigned in June, 1888, and returned to Honolulu and engaged in private practice, although he made many trips of inspection for the government to Kalaupapa and his interest in leprosy never flagged. He was one of the first to point out the similarity between the causative agent of leprosy and tuberculosis - for which he was laughed at.

In 1891 Dr. Peterson was appointed prison physician, a position he held until 1893. The following year he became government physician at Ewa and later served the combined Waianae and Ewa districts. Resigning in November, 1896, he moved back to Honolulu where he opened an office on Emma Street. His practice was largely among the Hawaiians. In August, 1898, Dr. Peterson was commissioned Immigration Inspector, which took him to plantations on all the islands to inspect working and health conditions of the laborers.

Once again in private practice when the bubonic plague began in December, 1899, the doctor volunteered his services and lived in quarantine away from his family with the other volunteer doctors in the old building, now demolished, behind Iolani Palace. He was one of the few doctors who volunteered to be injected with the new plague serum which was then being used experimentally.

In April, 1905, Dr. Peteson was appointed resident physician at the Insane Asylum where his knowledge of Hawaiian and smattering of Japanese and several Chinese dialects obtained on the plantations, served in good stead. At the Asylum he initiated a program of hydrotherapy, a varied and balanced diet, and insisted that each patient spend most of every pleasant day out-of-doors. Heavy wooden chairs were made which confined the most violent patients and they, too, were given the fresh air treatment and sun baths.

Dr. Peterson died in Honolulu on January 1, 1913, at the age of 55. He was survived by his wife, a son, Clarence, and two daughters, Elsa and Helen (Mrs. Simes T. Hoyt). A third daughter, Miriam, died in 1911.

For many years the doctor was an active member of the Knights of Pythias, Mystic Lodge No. 2, and held many offices as well as serving as physician for the group. He was an honorary member of the Queen's Hospital board of physicians, a member of the Hawaiian Territorial Medical Society, the Hawaiian Historical Society, the Unversity Club, and of the Central Union Church. At one time he was a business manager of the "Evening Bulletin".

Written by Mrs. Simes T. Hoyt

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