Jefferson County, West Virginia         Biography of Briscoe Baldwin RANSON, M. D.

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The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume II,
Pg. 396

BIO: Briscoe Baldwin Ranson, M. D., Jefferson Co., WV

	Briscoe Baldwin Ranson, M. D., who is one of the representative physicians 
and surgeons of Jefferson County, is here established in successful general 
practice in the historic city of Harpers Ferry.  He was born at Staunton, 
Virginia, August 18, 1845, and is a son of James M, and Mary Eleanor 
(Baldwin) Ranson, the former of whom was born in what is now Berkeley 
County, West Virginia, and the latter of whom was born at Staunton, 
Virginia, a daughter of Judge Briscoe Baldwin, a representative lawyer and 
jurist of that section of the Old Dominion.  Matthew Ranson, grandfather of 
Doctor Ranson of this review, was born at Charles Town, Jefferson County, 
and he became the owner of a large and valuable landed estate in Jefferson 
and Berkeley counties, his extensive farm operations having been conducted 
with slave labor.  Matthew Ranson married Elizabeth Bedinger, a member of 
the well known family of that name in Berkeley County, and both passed the 
span of three score years and ten.
	James M. Ranson was in the commissary service of the Confederate states in 
the period of the War between the States, with the rank of captain.  He 
succeeded to the ownership of the old homestead farm near Charles Town, and 
it is on this farm that the present village of Ranson named in honor of the 
family, is situated.  Captain Ranson here continued his active association 
with farm industry until his death, at the age of seventy-two years, and his 
widow passed away at the age of seventy-three years.  Their children were 
seven in number, Thomas, Briscoe B., Mary, James M., Stuart, Betty and 
Martha, the last three being deceased.
	Dr. Briscoe B. Ranson attended the Jacob Fuller School at Lexington, 
Virginia, and thereafter continued his studies in the Charles Town Academy.  
In 1862 he abandoned his studies to enter the service of the Confederacy in 
the Civil war.  He became a member of Company B, Twelfth Virginia Calvary, 
and from that time forward until the close of the war the history of this 
gallant command constitutes the record of his military career, which was 
marked by participation in numerous engagements, including a number of 
important battles.
	After the close of the war Doctor Ranson was for two years a student in a 
preparatory school in Clark County, Virginia, and thereafter was a student 
in the medical department of the University of Virginia until he withdrew to 
enter the medical department of the University of Maryland, in which latter 
he was graduated, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine, in 1869.  He 
further fortified himself by two years of service as an interne in Bay View 
Hospital of Baltimore, and for the past thirty years he has been engaged in 
the successful practice of his profession at Harpers Ferry, where he now 
holds precedence as one of the veteran and honored physicians and surgeons 
of Jefferson county.  The Doctor is an active member of the Jefferson County 
Medical Society, the West Virginia State Medical Society, the American 
Medical Association and the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Surgeons Society.  He 
has long been retained as a member of the surgical staff of this railroad, 
and is also surgeon of Jefferson Camp of the United confederate Veterans, of 
which he is one of the prominent and valued members, besides which he is 
affiliated with Logan Lodge, No. 25, A. F. and A. M.
	In 1870 doctor Ranson married Nannie Truxton Forrest, who was born at 
Norfolk, Virginia, a daughter or Samuel Forrest, who was a purser in the 
United States Navy.  Mrs. Ranson passed to the life eternal in 1888, and was 
survived by four children: Anna Truxton, James M., Briscoe B., and Lyle M.
	For his second wife Doctor Ranson married Josephine, daughter of Solomon 
and Josephine (Jones) Yantis, and the one child of this union is Josephine 
Briscoe.  Briscoe B. Ranson, Jr., graduated from the medical department of 
the University of Maryland as a member of the Class of 1902, and is now 
engaged in the successful practice of his profession at Maplewood, New 
Jersey.  He married Daisy Yarbrough, of Staunton, Virginia, and they had 
four children: Briscoe Baldwin III, Mary and Nannie (twins), and John 
Patterson.  Nannie is deceased.