Joseph Widney - Early Life

Early Life

Joseph Pomeroy Widney was born on December 26, 1841 in his grandfather's log cabin in Piqua, Ohio in the forests of Miami County, Ohio. He was the third son of John Wilson Widney (born December 4, 1809; died 1852) and Arabella Maclay Widney (born 1811; died February 15, 1880). He was the nephew of Robert Samuel Maclay, a pioneer missionary to China; and of Charles Maclay, later a state senator of California. At the age of fifteen, Joseph became head of the family after his father died of pneumonia at the age of 42, as his two older brothers John Widney (born March 14, 1837; died 1925) and Robert Maclay Widney (1838–1929) had migrated west to California. He had to provide for his mother, two younger brothers: William Wilson Widney (born December 25, 1850) and Samuel Alexander Widney (born November 15, 1852), and two younger sisters: Arabella Erwin Widney (born 1843; died 1917) and Elizabeth Widney (born 1848) (latter married to Joseph Leggett).

After graduating from Piqua High School, Widney entered as a sophomore at Miami University at Oxford, Ohio. Widney studied Latin, Greek, and the classics during his five months there. In 1907, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) degree for his Race Life of the Aryan Peoples. The poet-preacher David Swing was one of his instructors.

In 1861 he enlisted in the Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiment of the Union Army in the Civil War. Though in frail health, Widney served in the field as a regular infantryman, and became a medical corpsman. He was trained to administer first aid to wounded soldiers. He was transferred onto steamers on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers in a medical capacity. He was discharged from the Union army in 1862 due to physical and nervous collapse.

With the encouragement of his two older brothers and his uncle, Charles Maclay, who were in California, Widney sailed to San Francisco via the Isthmus of Panama, arriving in November 1862, prior to his twenty-first birthday. He travelled throughout California on horseback, visited the missions and lived with the Spanish-speaking inhabitants, learning their culture and language.

He returned to university in 1865, receiving a Master of Arts degree from the California Wesleyan College (later the University of the Pacific), (then located at Santa Clara, California). In January 1866, he moved to San Francisco and on June 4, 1866 began the third session of the medical course at the Toland Medical College (later part of the University of California, San Francisco, graduating at the head of his class with a Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) degree on October 2, 1866. He was awarded a gold medal in recognition of his superior scholarship.