... Alfred Newton Wakefield, physician and surgeon of Johnstown, and the pioneer physician of that part of the city in which he now lives, was born on his father's farm near Mt. Pleasant, in Westmoreland county, December 7, 1842. At the age of six years he removed with his parents to Pittsburg, where they lived two years and during that period he attended public school in an old two story frame building on Marbury street, now known as Duquesne way. The family then returned to the farm, which was soon sold, and another was purchased in Rostraver township, near West Newton, to which place he was taken when about ten years old. Here he attended public school during the winter, and at other times worked on the farm until he was about seventeen, when he became a student at West Newton Academy and pursued the regular course of study of that school for three years.
In 1861 he began the study of medicine under the direction of Dr. David Porter, an old and distinguished practitioner of Rostraver, but after two years of continuous reading in his office he was compelled to change his preceptor on account of Dr. Porter's retirement from practice and his removal from the county. However, he finished the prescribed course of preliminary study with Dr. H.S. Lindley, of Ligonier, and in 1865 went to Philadelphia and became a special student of anatomy under Professor Forbes, a distinguished practitioner of medicine and teacher of anatomy of that city, and for many years a member of the faculty of the Jefferson Medical College. In the fall of 1866 he matriculated at the Western Reserve University Medical Department at Cleveland, Ohio, took two courses in that institution, and was graduated with the degree of M.D. March 4, 1868.
Having come to the degree in medicine, Dr. Wakefield returned to his native county and began his professional career by purchasing the practice and good will of Dr. D.W. McConaughy, of Madison, in which place he lived four years. In 1872 he sold out, in accordance with the custom of that period, and removed to Johnstown, where he has since lived, and where he has been recognized for many years as one of the leading men of his profession in Cambria county. He was the pioneer physician in that part of the city which is known as the South Side, and for seven years was the only medical practitioner on that side of the river, where now besides himself are eight others. In the flood of 1889 his residence with all household and office furniture were washed away or ruined, but with his family he escaped to the hills, where he at once began the work of relief for those less fortunate than himself. He established the first dispensary opened during that disastrous period, and it was the last one to be closed.
Dr. Wakefield became a member of the Cambria County Medical Society soon after its reorganization, and was its president in 1889. By direction of the society he received and disbursed to twenty-seven physicians relief money to the amount of $6,967.60. He is one of the directors of Conemaugh Valley Memorial Hospital, member of its surgical staff and chairman of its executive committee, a permanent member of the Pennsylvania State Medical Society, and a member of the American Medical Association. On the 1st day of July, 1894, the board of trustees of the Medico-Chirurgical College of Philadelphia elected him a censor of that institution, with all the privileges and honors of that office. For several years he was physician to the outdoor poor of the vicinity of Johnstown, and it is doubtful if there is any professional man in all Cambria county who has given more service in answer to the calls of charity than has Dr. Wakefield. He was for four years United States examining Surgeon for Pensions, and was the first president of the Johnstown Board of Health on its organization in 1890. During his second term in that office and under his personal supervision the Municipal Hospital was planned and erected.
Dr. Wakefield has been married twice. In October, 1865, he married Missouri B. Matthews, of Greensburg, Pennsylvania, by whom he had two children - Carl Wakefield and Morrison Wakefield, the latter of whom died in infancy. Carl Wakefield is a graduate of the WEstern Pennsylvania College of Pharmacy, class of 1906. Missouri B. Matthews Wakefield died in 1873, and on January 21, 1875, Dr. Wakefield married Clara Wagoner, daughter of Rev. George Wagoner and Mary Henry, his wife, and a sister of Dr. George W. Wagoner, of Johnstown, of whom mention will be found elsewhere in this work. Three children were born of the second marriage - Earl, Mary and Jessie Wakefield. Earl Wakefield is a civil engineer with the Pennsylvania Coal Coampany, and is now at Cresson, Pennsylvania ; Mary married Fletcher P. Hartshorn, head book-keeper of the Canton Hardware Company of Canton, Ohio, of which company he is a member ; and Jessie, the youngest child, died in infancy. ...
