Grant County, West Virginia Biography of Dr. Gideon Thomas PLUMMER This file 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. 213-214 DR. GIDEON THOMAS PLUMMER has had an unusual range of experience as a medical man in the forty odd years he has practiced in West Virginia and elsewhere. For nearly thirty years his home and work have been in Grant County, at the Town of Bayard. When Doctor Plummer came to Bayard in 1894 it was a new lumber town. The Buffalo Creek Lumber Company had a large mill and a small one operating, and these mills and this large force of men were rapidly beginning the process of stripping the hills and valleys of the fine spruce and the hemlock which hardwood nature had placed there. Doctor Plummer has witnessed the passing of the lumber resources from this particular locality, and in place of the saw mills mining has become the typical industry, and he witnessed the opening of the first mines. Doctor Plummer was born at Piedmont, in what was then Hampshire, but is now Mineral County, on March 24, 1859. His father, Patrick Plummer, was born at Summerhill in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, of Pennsylvania-Dutch stock, and became a locomotive engineer of the Baltimore and Ohio Railway before the Civil war, establishing his headquarters at Piedmont in 1853. He continued in the service of this company until his death on August 28, 1889, at the age of fifty-nine years, eleven months and ten days. He was a strong Southern man, and would have joined the Confederate Army had he been called to serv- ice. He was a democrat and a member of the Catholic Church. Patrick Plummer married Susanna Paxton at Piedmont. She was born August 1, 1840, daughter of Jo- seph Paxton, who was born in October, 1793, and died at Piedmont. Mrs. Paxton was born May 22, 1802, and is also buried at Piedmont. Susanna Plummer died at New- burg, June 14, 1904, and is buried beside her husband. Her children were: Laura A., born July 5, 1857, living at Grafton, widow of James Flanagan; Dr. Gideon T.; William, born March 19, 1861, and died June 12, 1862; George McClellen, born April 9, 1863, and died January 10, 1879; Anna, born November 3, 1865, wife of Michael Ma- loney, of Newburg; Catherine, born January 17, 1868, wife of G. A. Frey, of Fairmont; Mollie, born February 27, 1870, wife of John Burk, a locomotive engineer of New- burg; Frank, born May 27, 1875, of Homestead, Pennsyl- vania; Charles E., born March 23, 1878, a locomotive engi- neer, living at Newburg; May, born January 12, 1881, wife of Charles Warnick, of Newburg; Edith, born May 15, 1883, wife of William B. Annan, a Newburg druggist. Doctor Plummer spent most of his useful years at New- burg in Preston County, attended the public schools there, and for a time did work as a laborer during the construc- tion of the double track of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. He also worked at the round house and the machine shop at Newburg. At the age of seventeen he had made a definite selection of medicine as his life work, and he began his reading under the direction of Dr. William M. Dent of Newburg. Subsequently he entered the College of Physi- cians and Surgeons at Baltimore, and completed his med- ical course in 1881. Soon afterward he began practice at Rowlesburg in Preston County, a year later moved to Simp- son in Taylor County, and leaving there went to Utica, Ne- braska, and had charge of a drug store as prescription clerk for a year. Then, following a visit back home, he located at Arappahoe, Nebraska, and practiced medicine and acted as prescription clerk in a drug store. On return- ing from the West, Doctor Plummer practiced for over a year at Fellowsville in Preston County, and then in the nearby Town of Austin, and subsequently practiced at New- burg and at Corinth. In 1894 he came to Bayard, establishing his home in that village on July 10th, and his skill and abilities as a physician and his public spirit as a physician have been constantly at the service of the community. Doctor Plum- mer is the present mayor of Bayard, and several times served on the council and as town recorder. He is a demo- crat and is affiliated with the Fraternal Order of Eagles and the Knights of Columbus. During the World war he was a member of the Medical Reserve Corps, but his duty was in his home community. He was also treasurer of the Bayard branch of the Red Cross. At Newburg, September 28, 1887, Doctor Plummer mar- ried Alice Golden, who was born in July, 1858, daughter of William and Mary (Sherwood) Golden. Doctor and Mrs. Plummer have one daughter, Mary Susan.