Biography of Thomas Gooch Tickle, M. D.

THOMAS GOOCH TICKLE, M. D., is one of the able and
representative physicians and surgeons of the younger
generation in McDowell County, with residence and pro-
fessional headquarters at Lick Branch, where he is official
physician and surgeon for the Pocahontas Fuel Company.
Further distinction is his by reason of the loyal service
which he gave in the great World war.

Doctor Tickle was born at Bluefield, Mercer County, West
Virginia, January 29, 1891, and is a son of Stephen and
Mary (Gooch) Tickle, he having been two years old at the
time of his father's death. Stephen Tickle was a native of
West Virginia, as is also his widow, and he became one of
the leading merchants and influential citizens of Bluefield,
in which city he continued to reside until his death. He
was affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and was a zealous
member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, as is his
widow. Doctor Tickle is of Scotch and English lineage and
is a representative of families founded in Virginia in the
Colonial period of our national history.

In 1910 Doctor Tickle graduated in the high school in
his native city, and thereafter he completed a two years'
academic course in the University of West Virginia. He
then entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons at
Baltimore, Maryland, and in this institution he was gradu-
ated in 1916, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. For
six months thereafter he served as an interne in St. Luke's
Hospital at Bluefield, West Virginia, and he then returned
to Baltimore, where for six months he held the position of
assistant superintendent of the Gundry Sanitarium. The
ensuing eighteen months found him engaged in general
practice at Keystone, West Virginia, where he served also
as physician and surgeon for the Keystone Coal & Coke
Company. When the nation became involved in the World
war Doctor Tickle subordinated all personal interests to the
call of patriotism and on the 18th of August, 1917, en-
listed and was sent to Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, where he
remained six weeks and where he gained commission as first
lieutenant in the medical corps. Thereafter he passed about
six months at Camp Wadsworth, South Carolina, and in
June, 1918, he arrived with his command at Brest, France.
He went to the front as a member of the First Army Corps
of the American Expeditionary Forces, and as surgeon with
the Fifty-third Pioneer Infantry took part in the historic
St. Mihiel and Argonne campaigns, his command having
been constantly on the move and having endured the
maximum tension of the great conflict. After the signing
of the armistice Doctor Tickle was transferred to the
Goundie Court Replacement depot, and about three weeks
later became a surgeon at the camp at Tours, where, on the
22d of February, 1919, he received his commission as
captain. About four months later he was sent to Marseilles,
and August 18th of that year he arrived in the port of New
York City. He received his honorable discharge at Camp
Lee, September 4, 1919. After his return to Bluefield, West
Virginia, he went to Bramwell, this state, where he remained
five months, as assistant to Doctor Tanner, physician for
the Pocahontas Fuel Company, Booth-Bowen Coal & Coke
Company and the Buckeye Coal & Coke Company. From
Bramwell Doctor Tickle removed to Lick Branch, where he
has since been physician and surgeon for the Pocahontas
Fuel Company, with a well equipped office and operating
room, besides a dispensary. His hospital patients are sent
to State Hospital No. 1 at Welch, St. Luke's Hospital or the
sanitarium at Bluefield, in consonance with their wishes.

Doctor Tickle is a member of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, South, has become a member of the Mercer County
Medical Society and the West Virginia State Medical So-
ciety, is affiliated with the Phi Sigma Kappa and the Kappa
Psi college fraternities, and is an appreciative member of
the American Legion.


From The History of West Virginia, Old and New, page 63

Submitted by Valerie F. Crook <vfcrook@trellis.net>

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