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Characters who appear Inside the Barbary Coast Jack Pitman, son of John and Esmerelda Pitman. Not originally wanting to become a doctor like his father, who practiced antiquated ways of medicine, young Jack is finally convinced to go to medical school after he gains a reputation as a bonesetter on the docks of San Francisco. The lanky young physician with blond hair and a reddish tinge to his moustache establishes his practice inside the Barbary Coast where he feels there is great opportunity to practice medicine. But soon he is confronted by moral dilemmas posed by a quack doctor named Pierre Louthan and his assistant wife Marie. John Pitman, M.D., true-life physician to William Chapman Ralston, San Francisco’s great builder and civic leader in the 1860s and early 1870s. Esmerelda Pitman, Australian-born wife of Dr. John Pitman. Victoria Pitman, Jack’s younger sister. Pierre Louthan, an itinerant, silver-tongued purveyor of patent medicines. Born in Alsace-Lorraine, his French and German heritage appeals to the uneducated as he gains wealth hocking dubious cures like Vital Spirits, Viavi and Curasol. Marie Louthan, fashionable assistant and young wife of Pierre Louthan. Raised as an orphan in Boston, she clings to Louthan who provides the home she never had. Hans Louthan, the son born to Marie whose name is short for Johann, which means John in English. Max Morgan, bulky fellow medical student to John Pitman; drops out of school and goes into electro-therapeutics; falls in love with Victoria, Jack’s sister. Warren McWilliams, another fellow medical student at the University of California who graduates and becomes a highly sought-after physician - especially to women clients - on Nob Hill. Li Chi Chung, also known as Prince Li, a boy actor purchased by Pierre Louthan to serve in his medical show. Stricken by diphtheria, his life is saved by the newly graduated Jack Pitman. Mei Ling, Prince Li’s sister. Madam Wong, nurse to Jack Pitman. Her real name is Wong Ping, but she is affectionately referred to as Ah Yee by Jack. She and her husband Chiu Tai-fook, a grocer, are Chinese Jews from Kaifeng. Phil Campbell, Scottish owner of Campbell’s Dispensary, a drugstore inside the Barbary Coast next to Chinatown. Nate Nordstrand, close friend of Jack’s since their days as stevedores on the docks of San Francisco. He becomes an assistant to Louthan after he convinces him that one of his opiate drugs will cure his stuttering. Charles Wright, Jack’s first patient. He is frustrated that another physician’s blood-letting doesn’t cure his impotence until he tries one of Madam Wong’s ginseng teas. Louis J. Jordan, owner of the Pacific Anatomical Museum in San Francisco and connected to the New York Museum of Anatomy. He share his office at 211 Geary with Pierre Louthan. “Gentleman Jim” Corbett, famous boxer from San Francisco and contemporary to Jack Pitman. His Irish father Patrick Corbett is Dr. John Pitman’s undertaker. Paddy and his wife Catherine, whom most people call Kate, become well known in San Francisco after their son beats John L. Sullivan for the world heavyweight boxing title. William Randolph Hearst, prominent Populist and publisher of the San Francisco Examiner. He opens San Francisco’s first X-ray clinic in 1896. Eugen Sandow, born Friederich Wilhelm Mueller in 1867, his feats of strength at the Palace Hotel catalyzed San Francisco’s health craze in the 1890s. Adolph Sutro, flamboyant Populist mayor of San Francisco in the 1890s who built the Cliff House and seaside bath complex. Mammy Pleasant, wealthy, influential, voodoo-practicing socialite from Haiti; her demented friend Sarah Althea Hill, formerly married to Senator William Sharon, briefly becomes Jack’s patient. David Kalakaua, King of the Sandwich Islands, otherwise known as Hawaii. A large man, beloved by his people, he is considering to expand trade with the United States when he suffers from kidney failure in San Francisco at the Palace Hotel. Jack arrives just after other physicians have tried heroic means to save his life. Richard Beverly Cole, M.D., Jack’s professor, advisor and close friend; a gold digger who went on to become dean of the Toland School of Medicine from 1871 to 1881, president of the American Medical Association in 1895, and San Francisco coroner until he died in 1901. Maggie Culbertson, founder of the Presbyterian Mission at 920 Sacramento; her young assistant Donaldina “Dolly” Cameron becomes quite close to the young Dr. Pitman as they work together to save young Chinese girls from slavery. Jimmy Phelan, Irish mayor of San Francisco who forms a Committee of One Hundred in 1897 to help govern his fast-growing city. Major Frank Bourns, a Civil War veteran and chief surgeon at the Presidio who convinces Jack to serve in the Philippines when war breaks out. Eugene
Schmitz, musician and first Union Labor mayor in U.S.
history; a puppet of labor boss Abraham
Ruef. They order entire neighborhoods to be dynamited
after the great earthquake and fire of 1906. |
