Marion County, West Virginia Biography of James Hustead BROWNFIELD, M. D. This file was submitted by 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 II pg 197 + 198 James Hustead Brownfield, M. D., was a man whose professional and civic stewardship was of the finest type, and at the time of his death he was the dean of his profession in the City of Fairmont, Marion County, where his name and memory are held in lasting honor. He was born in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, July 5, 1836, and his death occurred January 19, 1921. Thomas Brownfield, a representative of one of the pioneer families of Western Pennsylvania, crossed the Alleghany Mountains and settled in Fayette County. One of his sons, Rev. William Brownfield, became a distinguished Presbyterian clergyman and was a contemporary of Rev. Alexander Campbell in effective Christian service in the State of Pennsylvania, Mr. Campbell having been founder of the Disciples or Christian Church. Another son, James, married Hannah Bowell, and among the children of this union was Judge John Brownfield who was born in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, and who there became a successful merchant, besides which he served ten years, 1851-61, as associate judge of that county. Judge Brownfield married Belinda, daughter of John Hustead, and she died July 2, 1882, at the age of seventy-two years. They were the parents of the subject of this memoir, Dr. James H. Brownfield. In his native state the Doctor received the advantages of old Lewisburg College, now Bucknell University, and thereafter he read medicine under the preceptorship of Dr. H. B. Mathiot at Smithfield, Fayette County. Thereafter he took one course of lectures in historic old Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, and in 1860 he established his residence at Fairmont, West Virginia. Here he was retained as a contract physician for a time, and when the Civil war began he tendered his services to the Union. He became assistant surgeon of the Fourteenth West Virginia Volunteer Infantry, and served in this capacity until the close of the war. He then returned to Fairmont, and for many years thereafter he held inviolable place as the leading physician and surgeon in Marion County. The Doctor was one of the organizers of the West Virginia State Medical Society in 1867, and was a member also of the American Association of Railroad Surgeons and the American Public Health Association. He received the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite of the Masonic fraternity, was a member of the Mystic Shrine, and was a republican in politics. From 1867 to 1884 he was elected a representative in the State Legislature. In all the relations of life he was loyal, earnest and helpful, and he was held in affectionate esteem in the community which was long the stage of his labors. October 18, 1866, recorded the marriage of Doctor Brownfield and Miss Ann Elizabeth Fleming, daughter of Matthew Fleming, and her death occurred in 1903. Of the children the eldest is John M., a banker at Fairmont; Clark B. died in January 1909, leaving one son, James H. (II); Dr. George H. is the subject of a personal sketch following; and Arch F. is engaged in the jewelry business at Fairmont.