Dr. Hallock Hart Look, one of the most scholarly representatives of the medical fraternity in Sacramento, who has won distinction as an oculist and aurist, as well as general practitioner, was born in Hocking County, Ohio, near the town of Logan, on the 9th of August, 1862. The family is of English lineage, connected with the old Puritan stock. His ancestors came to the New World during an early period in the colonization of this country, and the family home was established in Massachusetts. The paternal grandfather, born in this country, served as a soldier in the War of 1812.
The father, Adam Look, was born at Little Falls, New York, and was a tanner by trade, following that pursuit in his early manhood, while later he devoted his energies to farming. His death occurred in August, 1881. He had married Miss Rachel Graffis, who was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and was a representative of an old family of that state, of Dutch descent, that also furnished members to the patriot army in the War for Independence, her grandfather having been a soldier. Her father was one of the pioneers of Lancaster County, Ohio, going to that state in 1804, and her brother, Abraham Graffis, now resides at the old homestead there. Mrs. Look passed away prior to the death of her husband, her demise occurring in September, 1876. In the family were the following named: John C., who is engaged in the raising of fruit at Los Gatos; Luther, an inventor of Los Angeles, who is now engaged in the manufacture of concentrators for mines; Dalton Z., who is engaged in the harness business in Marysville, California; Harriet, the wife of George Flattry, who is residing in Kansas; and Rebecca F., the wife of Zerah Bunnell, of Kansas. One sister, the eldest, has passed away.
Dr. Hallock Hart Look was educated in the district schools of Kansas, to which state his parents removed when he was a very small lad. He pursued his studies for three or four months during each year until sixteen years of age, and then did not attend school again until twenty-two years of age, when he received private instruction, for he realized the value of mental training and desired further advancement in that direction. When eighteen years of age, he came to California, making his way to Sutter County, where he worked on a ranch for four years. He then returned to Kansas and spent about eight or nine months in a private school. Determining to enter upon a professional career, he took up the study of medicine in the Kansas City Medical College and pursued his last course in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, which is the medical department of Columbia College, of New York. He was graduated from that institution in the class of 1887 with the degree of Doctor of Medicine.
Dr. Look then went to Chicago, where he practiced for three years, and in 1890 returned to this state, accepting the position of surgeon with the Pacific Mail Steamship Company upon a vessel running to Panama. He occupied that place for eighteen months, during which time he made nine trips. In 1892 he came to Sacramento, where he remained until the spring of 1898, when he took a trip to Alaska, traveling through the whole Yukon valley, a most interesting experience. He went by way of Chilcoot Pass, with a hand sled, raft and rowboat to St. Michaels, the trip requiring six and a half months. It was a most interesting journey, bringing him into close and intimate knowledge with the conditions of the country as well as its scenic features, and during this period he also did considerable professional work. He was called in attendance on the first white woman who gave birth to a child on Lake Le Barge. He visited all sections of the gold field, not as a prospector but as an observer, and he had many thrilling experiences while in the far north.
Returning to Sacramento, Dr. Look again entered upon the active practice of his profession here, and has since given his undivided attention to his ever increasing duties. He is engaged in the general practice of medicine and surgery, but also makes a specialty of the treatment of diseases of the eye, nose, and throat. In the line of his profession, he has also rendered some official service, having been sanitary inspector for the northern district of California in 1901, appointed by the state board of health. He is a member of the Sacramento Society for Medical Improvement, the Northern District Medical Society, the California Medical Society, and is a past president of the first named. He has made continuous and consecutive progress along the line of his chosen profession and is thoroughly in sympathy with modern thought and ideas, while at the same time he does not quickly discard the old and time-tried remedies whose value has been proved. In addition to his profession, he has some outside business interests and is the president of the Sunflower Gold Mining Company, owning property at Grass Valley, California.
In his political views, Dr. Look is a Republican, although he does not consider himself bound by party ties at local elections. He has done considerable independent work and was chairman of the committee which elected C. H. Hubbard as the independent mayor of Sacramento. He attended the county Independent-Republican convention in 1897, and his labors in behalf of purity in municipal government, of practical reform and substantial improvement have been far-reaching and beneficial. He has various fraternal relations, belonging to the Masonic Lodge, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Sons of St. George, the Ancient Order of United Workmen, and the Knights of the Maccabees. He is examiner for the four last named and has recently been elected state physician for the Maccabees. Dr. Look also has a military record, being at the present time captain and assistant surgeon of the Second Infantry Regiment of the California National Guard. He has been connected with the National Guard since 1897 but was absent from the state at the time the Spanish War broke out, being in Alaska, much to his regret. Recently, at the time when some of the convicts from the Folsom penitentiary broke out, he commanded a detachment of the hospital corps in the effort to recapture the prisoners. On the last day of the fight, in which two of the boys were killed, Dr. Look and his command were ordered home.
Few men have a more thorough appreciation of the value of education than Dr. Look, and his own mental advancement was made possible through his earnest purpose and indomitable labor, for he earned the money which enabled him to pursue his college course. He has always been a student and is now a linguist of great ability, speaking both the German and Italian tongues and also writing French and Spanish. His mind is broad and extensive, and by reading, observation and experience he is continually gaining new thoughts and increasing his intellectual capacity and power. He is widely recognized as a man of scholarly attainments as well as of marked capability in a profession which he has chosen as a life work and in which he is now meeting with signal success.
Source: Leigh H. Irvine; A History of the New California Its Resources and People, 2 Volumes; New York and Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1903.