Barbour County, West Virginia Biography of Elijah Elsworth CLOVIS, M. D. This biography was submitted by Valerie Crook, E-mail address: The submitter does not have a connection to the subject of this sketch. This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 308-309 ELIJAH ELSWORTH CLOVIS, M. D. The State Tubercu- losis Sanitarium at Terra Alta was established in 1911, and the initial quarters were first opened for the recep- tion of patients in January, 1913. From the beginning the superintendent of the sanitarium has been Doctor Clovis, a West Virginia surgeon and physician who successfully combated the white plague as his personal enemy, and soon after recovering came to his present office and respon- sibilites. Doctor Clovis was born at Hebron, West Virginia, August 27, 1879. His grandfather, Solomon Clovis, was a native of Pennsylvania and many years before the Civil war moved from Greene County, that state, and bought Falls Mills at Shiloh, West Virginia. Later he located at Hebron, where he became a manufacturer of brick and tile, also conducted a tan yard, and continued active in those lines of business the rest of his life. He married Elizabeth Wrick, a native of Hebron in Pleasants County. Their children comprised three sons and four daughters, and the three sons and one daughter, Mrs. Semantha Wagner, are still living. The sons are Benjamin, Theodore and Amos. The two older sons were Union soldiers in the Civil war. Amos Clovis was born in Pleasants County in 1854 and he took up farming as his vocation instead of giving his attention to the factory or the merchant's counter. He was active in this line until advanced years came on, and he still lives on the farm. He and the other members of the family have been very stanch republicans, but none of them have been active in political affairs. Amos Clovis is a member of the Church of Christ. In Hebron he mar- ried Martha J. Fleming, who was born at Fairmont in 1856, daughter of Enoch Fleming. Their children are: W. Edward, who has the Ford automobile agency at St. Marys, Dr. Elijah Elsworth; Cora wife of Homer F. Simon- ton, of St. Marys; Harry T., of St. Marys; and Lawrence, a drug clerk at Huntington. Elijah Elsworth Clovis grew up around Hebron, where the country air and the life of the farm contributed to his physical development. He attended the public schools, taught school four years in a country district, and at the same time carried on his studies in high school branches preparatory to entering medical college. Doctor Clovis was graduated in 1905 from the College of Physicians and Sur- geons at Baltimore, where he specialized in diseases of the chest. After graduation he practiced five years at Hebron, giving up his professional work when threatened with a breakdown from tubercular trouble. He employed his will power and his professional knowledge in his own behalf, and for two years lived in the healthful atmosphere around Asheville, in Western North Carolina. He practically re- covered his normal health there and then returned to West Virginia, and in August, 1912, entered upon his duties as superintendent of the Tuberculosis Sanitarium at Terra Alta. This institution had provision for only sixty patients when it was opened in January, 1913. By June of that year the full quota of patients had been received. Subse- quent additions were made to the facilities by sixty more beds in 1916, forty more in 1919 and forty in 1920, so that at present there are accommodations for 200 patients, and there is a long waiting list of applicants, indicating the need for such an institution and also for additional facilities of that kind. During the past nine years the sanitarium has treated more than 2,000 patients, and a large number of them have been out five or six years after being discharged as cured. Doctor Clovis, on account of his position and also his individual attainments, is one of the widely known pro- fessional men in the state. He is president of the Preston County Medical Society, a member of the West Virginia State and American Medical associations and the Amer- ican Sanitarium Association. He was made a Mason at Hebron and is a past master of that lodge, a member of Osiris Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Wheeling, and is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias and Independent Or- der of Odd Fellows. He is a member of the Official Board of the Terra Alta Methodist Church. At Hebron January 1, 1904, Doctor Clovis married Miss Clara McKnight, who was born there, a daughter of James B. McKnight. Mrs. Clovis finished her early education in the Carroll High School, and was a teacher before her marriage, doing her last work in the grade school at Whis- key Run, Ritchie County. Doctor and Mrs. Clovis have two daughters, Mildred and Madaline.