Marion County, West Virginia Biography of Uriah Herbert DEBENDARFER, M. D. 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. 202 URIAH HERBERT DEBENDARFER, M. D. For the greater part of three decades Doctor Debendarfer has performed the typical services of a physician and surgeon in West Virginia, and for the greater part of that time has been in practice at Mannington in Marion County. Doctor Debendarfer was born on a farm in Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, December 5, 1868, son of Amos Spang and Caroline (Kepple) Debendarfer, natives of the same county. His grandfather, Frederick Debendarfer, a native of Wurtemberg, Germany, when a boy of twelve years came to America with his two brothers, and he grew up in Armstrong County, where he married Salome Klingensmith, a native of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. Amos S. Debendarfer was born in 1845, devoted his active life to farming, and died November 5, 1891, His wife, Caroline Kepple was born in 1842, and died June 5, 1921. Her father, Samuel Kepple, was also a native of Westmoreland County. Doctor Debendarfer spent his early life on the farm, while there attended the common schools, supplemented these ad- vantages in the Ellerton Academy of Pennsylvania, and passed three years of his student life in Thiel College at Greenville, Pennsylvania. He graduated from the medical department of the University of Pittsburgh in 1894, and while a student acquired some practical experience in the West Penn Hospital. After graduating he began practice in Canton, Ohio, and in 1896 located at Smithfield in Wetzel County, West Virginia. Since 1898 Doctor Debendarfer has had a home and professional office at Mannington, and has been busy with his professional practice as a physician and surgeon. He is a member of the Marion County and West Virginia State and American Medical Associations. Doctor Debendarfer outside his profession has taken an active interest in fraternal and civic affairs. He is affiliated with Mannington Lodge No. 31, A. F. and A. M., Crusade Commandery, K. T., at Fairmont, West Virginia Consistory No. 1 of the Scottish Rite at Wheeling, Osiris Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Wheeling, and served as district deputy grand master in 1904 and was grand patron of the Grand Chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star in West Virginia in 1920. September 17, 1897, Doctor Debendarfer married Minerva Cecilia Kepple, a native of Westmoreland County, Penn- sylvania, and daughter of Jacob and Elizabeth Kepple. Doctor and Mrs. Debendarfer have two children: Madge Virginia, who is a graduate of the Mannington High School and a student in Emmerson College at Boston, Massachu- setts; and Harold Kepple, now manager of a store at Clarks- burg. He married Mildred Snodgrass, of Mannington, West Virginia, August 25, 1920.