Dr. Eugene Mathewson claims to have been one of the first
doctors in El Cajon Valley. He came to this valley in 1896.
He was a native of Rhode Island and came to Bostonia from
Colorado. Dr. Mathewson served as a Baptist minister for a
while in Colorado.
He had his office in Bostonia. He had patients from the
Mexican border to Mission Valley and the edge of San Diego.
The only hospital was in San Diego, so Dr. Mathewson added
rooms to his house on North Second Street for his real sick
people. In his office he had many drugs. He used these to
make medicines that people needed.
For many years Dr. Mathewson covered this valley on
horseback, with horse and buggy and a bicycle for shorter
trips in good weather. He tells of seeing mountain lions in
the road while riding his bicycle. In 1906 he bought an
automobile, but he still kept his horses to drag the car
home when it broke down.
Dr. Mathewson tells the story of when two Indians got
into a fight with their knives. Finally one Indian got the
other one down and scalped him. Dr. Mathewson cleaned up the
wound and sewed the scalp back on. Surprisingly, the man
lived.
When he came to El Cajon, it was a small village of two
stores, a hotel and a saloon. People could get to this town
by stag coach, train, horse back or carriage. El Cajon was a
stage stop-over point where horses were rested and the
travelers rested and ate.
Copyright 2000 Lucas @ Hillsdale Middle School.
