The Mayo Clinic has its root in the Civil War. President Abraham Lincoln appointed American surgeon William James Mayo as examining surgeon or the Union enrollment boards for the First Minnesota District on April24, 1863.
Shortly after 1880, William James Mayo formed the first group practice, which became the now well-known Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
William James Mayo received his MD degree in 1883 from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and then engaged at Rochester in the private practice of medicine and surgery with his father and after with his younger brother Charles Horace Mayo.
Charlie was a surgical genius and with his brother and the clinic administrator, William James, he had helped build the Clink’s reputation until, despite the town’s population of barely 20,000, it had become one of the most sought after medical referral centers in all of American.
Mayo clinic offered advanced medical and surgical care, to those who could pay or who had private insurance.
The clinic began to grow in size in the early 1900s, when many young physicians began to apply for positions as interns and assistants.
In 1915 the Mayos opened the Mayo Graduate School of Medicine and in 1972 the Mayo Medical School opened.
In 1986 the Mayo Clinic merged with the nearby St. Mary’s Hospital and Rochester Methodist Hospital.
History of Mayo Clinic