Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 4.djvu/284

 214

X'IRGIXIA BIOGRAPHY

City (Columbia University). 3. Elizal)eth Skyrin, born October 16, 1896.

Walter S. Whitmore, M. D., a distin- j^uished physician and citizen of Staunton, Augusta county, Virginia, is of Virginia parentage, and was born October 14, 1873, a son of Jacob A. and Louise (Rubush) Whitmore, both natives of Augusta county, where the father was a prosperous farmer.

Dr. Whitmore obtained the elementary portion of his education at the local public schools and later took a three years course at the Augusta Military Academy at Fort Defiance, Virginia, and attended for one year the academic department of the Uni- versity of Virginia. Upon the completion of his general education, he took a position as teacher in the Rockingham High School, where he remained for three years. At this time, having made up his mind to the pro- fession of medicine, he entered the medical department of the University of Virginia, graduating from there in 1901 with the de- gree of M. D. He remained two years after graduation with the University Hospital at Charlottesville, Virginia, and later went to St. Vincent's Hospital at Norfolk to gain the requisite experience. He then went to Mount Sidney, Virginia, where he estab- lished himself in practice, and continued there with success for seven years. Per- ceiving the larger field which awaited him in the city of Staunton, he removed to that center, where he has been engaged in a highly successful private practice besides holding the position of surgeon for the Balti- more & Ohio Railroad. Since the year 191 1 Dr. Whitmore has been associated with Dr. J. B. Catlett in the founding and operating of the new Staunton Sanitarium. Dr. Whit- more is associated with a number of medi- cal societies, being a member of the Augusta County, the State of Virginia and the Amer- ican Medical associations, and the vice- president of the former. He is also a member of the Railway Surgeons Association and the :\lumni .Association of the University of Virginia. Me is the present president of the I^>oard of Health, and since July, 1913, city physician. He gives a great deal of time and attention to civic affairs generally and is an active member on the Democratic commit- tees. He is a member of the Masonic order and of those of the Elks and Eagles. Dr. Whitmore is unmarried.

George Benjamin West. Long seated in Virginia, this branch of the family of West has ever been identified with the activities and institutions of the state, and in the per- son of George Benjamin \\'est has, for half a century, been represented in the business world of Newport News.

When the Federal troops landed at New- port News on May 2'j, 1861, Parker West and his family were living on his farm and were caught within their lines. Permis- sion was given them to move, and they refugeed to Richmond, with very "little be- side their clothes, leaving slaves, crops, cattle, utensils and furniture. At this time Parker West could walk but a short distance on account of rheumatism. His older son, William D. West, had enlisted in the Old Dominion Dragoons and was living on an- other farm and was not caught within the Federal lines. George B. West had arrived from the University of Virginia a week or two before and was at home. When the family were settled in Richmond he secured a position in the quartermaster's department and continued in it until he was discharged, April 17, 1865, at Greensboro, North Caro- lina, having left Richmond, April 2, 1865, on the night of its evacuation. The patriot- ism and loyalty thus displayed have char- acterized the line in all generations, and since war could not always bring these qualities to the surface, they have been evidenced in the lives of active, purposeful, and useful citizens.

Benjamin West, grandfather of George B. \\'est. was a resident of Accomack county, Virginia, where he owned and successfully operated a large plantation. By his mar- riage with Margaret Russell he had issue, one of his sons, Parker, of whom further.

Parker West, the son of Benjamin and Margaret (Russell) West, was born in 1803, and died in 1872, aged sixty-nine years. His youthful studies were pursued under private instruction, and in young manhood he began agricultural operations, which were interrupted by the outbreak of the war between the north and the south. During the conflict, his health being improved, he served from 1863 to the evacuation of Rich- mond, in the Confederate States navy in the navy yard at Richmond. In 1844 he moved his family to Hampton, Virginia, to give his children the advantages of good schools, but continued his farming under overseers.