Brain Surgery on Spring Street

By Kris DayVincent

Most San Juan Islanders have heard of the remarkable Dr. Victor Capron. Many however may not realize the breadth of his contributions. He was born in 1868 in New York. After receiving his medical degree, he came west to settle in Port Townsend. When the local economy collapsed in 1892, he moved to Hawaii where he worked with people with leprosy, developed an expertise in tropical disease, and started a coffee company. After being thrown from a horse in 1896, he moved to San Juan Island to recuperate.

In 1900, he married Fanny Kirk. Fanny’s parents, Peter and Florence Kirk, founded the city of Kirkland. At the time that Fanny and Victor married, the Kirk’s owned a home and 500 acres on what is now Yacht Haven Road. Doc Capron worked as the Roche Harbor Lime Company physician for 39 years and also had a practice in Friday Harbor.

These are the basic facts of Doc Capron’s life. What made him remarkable are the details. As Friday Harbor’s mayor three times and state legislator four times, he was responsible for many advances in his community. After researching the technology, he brought telephones to the island. He started the first electric light system in Friday Harbor, was responsible for organizing the water system, and consolidated the schools. During his tenure as legislator, he passed “Capron’s Fund” which allocated state monies to those counties without state roads. The fund brought the first “real road money”* to the county. That money built Warbass Way, which once was known as the “State Road”. We still receive this money today.

When the saw mill, the only source of electricity in town, burned down in 1911, Doctor Capron figured out a way to run his X-ray machine off the back wheel of his car. That proved to be very handy for a patient with a broken bone when a simple trip to the doctor’s was a bumpy, painful undertaking.

Doc Capron had proficiencies that extended beyond the normal skills of a country doctor. He was reported to have performed brain surgery at his office on Spring Street on a patient for whom all hope was lost. The patient survived. He delivered over 500 babies without a fatality. His five-hundredth baby was our very own Sam Buck Sr.

*From his obituary, Friday Harbor Journal, Nov. 22, 1934