HOFFMAN, David Bancroft, physician, born in Bainbridge, Chenango County, New York, 25 July, 1827. He studied medicine in his father's office, and attended lectures at Rush and Jefferson medical colleges. He crossed the plains in 1849, and spent two years in California. In 1851-'3 he was a surgeon on mail steamers from New York to Aspinwall and from Panama to San Francisco. He then settled in San Diego, California, was coroner and afterward postmaster there, and represented the county in the legislature in 1861-'2. He received the degree of M. D. from Toland medical college in San Francisco in 1864. During the civil war he served as a field-surgeon in the United States army, and afterward as a contract-surgeon till 1880. In 1868 he was a presidential elector, in 1869-'73 collector of customs at San Diego, and in 1870-'5 United States commissioner in bankruptcy. He engaged in railroad enterprises, and was chosen president of the San Diego and San Bernardino railroad company. He published a "Medical History of San Diego County" (San Francisco, 1864).