"Portrait and Biographical Record of Portland and Vicinity, Oregon." Authors: "a
compilation of this work....by a number of writers".  Chapman Publishing Co;
Chicago, 1903. p. 333.

CHARLES E. GEIGER, M.D.

     Has spent a large part of his life in Oregon and therefore needs no
introduction to the readers of this volume.  He is widely and favorably known
both as a citizen and a physician, and is now successfully practicing in Forest
Grove.  His birth occurred on the farm near Forest Grove, March 20, 1853, a son
of Dr. William Geiger, Jr., who was born in Angelica, N. Y., in 1816.  His
father, a native of Germany, came to America at the age of sixteen years,
locating in New York, whence he afterward removed to Michigan and later to
Kansas, where he died at the advanced age of ninety-three years, while his wife
was eighty-five years of age at the time of her demise.
     Dr. Geiger, the father of our subject, was reared in the Empire state and
in Michigan and began preparing for missionary work in Quincy, Ill., where he
remained for a year.  He then went to Missouri, where he engaged in teaching
school, and in 1839 he came to Oregon.  It was his intention to make the trip
sooner, but he found that before that time he could not meet the American Fur
Company's men, which were to pilot him through.  By pack horses, in  1839, he
proceeded rapidly from Independence, Mo., to eastern Oregon, and under the
direction of Dr. Whitman he took up the study of medicine, continuing his
reading with that physician until the spring of 1840, when he came to the
Willamette valley, settling in Washington county.  Later he decided to go to San
Francisco, Cal., but it was necessary that he should go first to the Sandwich
Islands in order to secure a passport which would enable him to land in
California.  He made the journey across the Pacific waters in a sailing vessel
and for a year he remained in the Sandwich Islands, there engaging in teaching.
Having secured his passport in February, 1841, he arrived in San Francisco in
due season, and from that point started to return east by the overland route,
planning to travel with mule teams.  He took with him provisions for ten days,
expecting there would be plenty of buffaloes by that time to replenish his food
supply, but the party reached the desert where it was impossible to obtain
buffalo meat, and for three days Dr. Geiger had no food.  He then caught a sand
hill crane, which was killed and eaten, and after about twenty days of travel he
could secure the meat of buffaloes and antelopes, but he learned that the
Indians were numerous on the plains and decided to return to Oregon.
     Carrying out this resolution the doctor secured a donation claim at Salem,
but afterward gave it up to the Salem Methodist Episcopal Church, who wanted it
for their mission.  Later he secured a donation claim of six hundred and forty
acres, south of what is now Cornelius.  He was married in this state in 1847 and
then engaged in farming, and he further continued the study of the homeopathic
system of medicine under Dr. W. N. Griswold, beginning practice at Forest Grove
in 1864.  He continued in active practice until eighty years of age, when he
retired to private life, his death occurring in Forest Grove, June 16, 1901.  In
the meantime, however, in 1848, he had made an overland trip to the gold mines
of California, and through the succeeding winter engaged in placer mining with
success, taking out $5,000.  He served as county clerk of Washington county for
a year while Oregon was still a territory and was afterward county surveyor for
several years, having excellent ability in that line.  He surveyed and laid out
Forest Grove and the Buxton cemetery and from the time of his first arrival in
the northwest he was not only a witness of the wonderful development of this
section of the country, but bore an important part in its upbuilding and went
through all the hardships and many of the exciting experiences of frontier life.
In the practice of medicine his labors were particularly beneficial to his
fellowmen and he was an honored member of the State Medical Society of Oregon,
of which he served as the president.
     Dr. William Geiger was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth Cornwall, a
southerner by birth, a daughter of Rev. Joseph Cornwall, who was born in the
south and was a minister of the Presbyterian Church.  He removed to Arkansas and
in 1846 came to Oregon by the overland route, traveling by way of the Applegate
cutoff.  The part lost their cattle, had some terrible experiences and their
supply of provisions becoming exhausted they had to spend the winter in the
Umpqua valley, and venison was their chief article of diet.  In the spring they
came on to Yamhill, where Mr. Cornwall secured a donation claim four miles south
of McMinnville.  Years afterward, about 1864 or 1865, he went to California and
died near Ventura, that state, while his wife died in Eugene.  Mrs. Geiger still
survives her husband at the age of seventy-five years, and three hundred and
twenty acres of their original donation claim is still in possession of the
family.  There were nine children:  William C., a farmer of Eastern Oregon;
Sarah E., the wife of Captain Magee, of Coos Bay; Charles Edwin, of this review;
Millard F., who was a physician of Forest Grove and died in 1881; F. Lincoln, a
farmer of Cornelius; Wolcott W., a resident of Salem, Ore.; Ella, the wife of S.
B. Huston, of Hillsboro; Laura B., now Mrs. Wells, of Forest Grove; and Hubert
H., a dentist of Montague, Cal.
     Dr. C. E. Geiger was reared in Washington county and pursued his education
in the Tualatin Academy and the Pacific University.  His resolution to become a
member of the medical fraternity caused him to begin study under the direction
of his father and later to enter the St. Louis Homeopathic College, where he
remained for a year.  Later he further read and practiced with his father for
eighteen months and in the fall of 1878 he matriculated in Hahnemann Medical
College of Chicago, where he was graduated in 1879 with the degree of M.D.  He
then practiced in Portland through the summer and September 1 of that year
started for Victoria, British Columbia, where he practiced for two years.
Returning then to Portland, he remained in general practice in that city from
1881 until 1896, and in August of the latter year he located in Forest Grove to
take up his father's practice and the name of Geiger has thus been continuously
associated with medical work in this city for many years.  Dr. C. E. Geiger was
also made administrator of his father's estate which is now almost entirely
settled.  In his profession he displays ability and comprehensive knowledge and
successfully copes with the intricate problems which continually arise in
dealing with disease.  He owns an interest in the old home and some fine Beaver
Dam land.
     In Salem Dr. Geiger was married to Miss Alice E. Shirley, who was born in
Salem, a daughter of James Shirley, one of the pioneers of Oregon, who traveled
across the country in 1847 and settled in the Willamette valley.  The doctor and
his wife have a daughter, Constance Louise.  The parents hold membership in the
Methodist Episcopal Church and are prominent in social circles, the hospitality
of the best homes being extended them.  The doctor votes with the Republican
forces and for three years he has served as a member of the school board, during
which time the schools were regraded after the Portland system.  Fraternally he
is connected with the Odd Fellows Lodge, of which he is a past noble grand and
has been a representative to the grand lodge.  He is also connected with the
Artisans, the Fraternal Brotherhood and the Ancient Order of United Workmen, for
which he is medical examiner.  He also belongs to the Oregon Pioneer Association
and was the vice president of the Oregon State Homeopathic Medical Society.  His
interest in his profession is deep and sincere and he keeps in touch with the
progress and improvement which is continually advancing the medical science
toward perfection.


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Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in October 2005 by Diana Smith.  Submitter
has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned above.