Marion County, West Virginia Biography of Luther B. BURK MD ************************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: Material may be freely used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material, AND permission is obtained from the contributor of the file. These pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for non-commercial purposes, MUST obtain the written consent of the contributor. Submitted by Sherry Neff , March 2000 ************************************************************************** The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 380 Luther B. Burk MD, Marion County Luther B. Burk MD, who is established in successful practice in the City of Fairmont, Marion County, as a specialist in diseases of the eye, ear nose and throat, was born on a farm at Sand Fork, Gilmer County, this state, January 5, 1862, a son of Archibald and Malinda E. (Moyers) Burke, the former having been born on the same farm as the son, in the year 1835, and the latter having been born in Greenbrier County, Virginia, April 9, 1842. Her parents were pioneers of Greenbrier County, from which they removed to Braxton County. Archibald Burk, whose death occurred August 8, 1902, was a son of John Burk, who was born in Virginia and who became a pioneer of what is now Gilmer County, West Virginia, where he settled in the midst of the forest and instituted the reclamation of a farm. His father, John SR., was a native of Ireland, and came to America as a British Soldier in the British Army in the Revolutionary War, after the close of which he settled permanently in Virginia, now West Virginia. Doctor Burke was reared on the old homestead farm, and after attending the rural schools, he continued his studies in the State Normal School at Glenville, West Virginia, in which he was graduated in 1886. He had previously made a successful record as a teacher, and after his graduation he continued his service in the pedagogic profession nine years. From May 1888 to June of the following year, he was editor and publisher of the Gilmer County Banner at Glenville, West Virginia. In 1890, he entered the Louisville Medical School, and in the following year, after brief attendance in the Kentucky School of Medicine, he matriculated in the medical department of the University of Louisville, in which well ordered Kentucky institution he was graduated March 14, 1892, with the degree Doctor of Medicine. On the 1st of the following May he engaged in practice at Flemington, Taylor County, West Virginia, where he remained two years and six months. From October, 1894, until March 1897, he was engaged in practice at Lost Creek, Harrison County, West Virginia, and since that time he has continuously maintained his office in the same building at Fairmont save for an interval of one year. He has built a substantial and representative practice in his special field, that of diagnosis and treatment of diseases of the eye, ear, nose and throat, to which he confines himself exclusively. In 1896 he did post-graduate work in the New York Polyclinic and in the national metropolis he did post-graduate work also in the Manhattan Eye and Ear and the Northwestern Hospital. In 1897 he availed himself of the clinical advantages of the Presbyterian Eye and Ear Hospital in Baltimore, and in 1899 he specialized further by attending clinics at the Wills Eye Hospital in the City of Philadelphia. In that city in 1899 he graduated in the Eastern College of Electro-Therapeutics and Psychologic Medicine, with a degree of Electro- Therapeutics. September 5, 1893, Doctor Burk married Miss Edmonia Currence, who was born in Braxton County, this state, a daughter of Layben and Alice (Ward) Currence. Doctor and Mrs Burk are active members of the Methodist Protestant Church.