Biography of Walter W. Harloe, MD - Mercer Co. WV


The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume II,
pg. 546


WALTER W. HARLOE, M. D. One of the first citizens in
point of time and also in value of service rendered and
leadership exercised, Doctor Harloe has been a resident and
practicing physician and surgeon at Matoaka for fifteen
years.

He was born at Concord, West Virginia, August 23, 1874,
son of William E. and Sarah T. (Kelsoe) Harloe and grand-
son of Capt. Matthew H. Harloe, who was in the United
States Navy during the Civil war and after leaving that
service was master mechanic of the Delaware & Lacka-
wanna Railroad, stationed at Scranton, Pennsylvania. Will-
iam E. Harloe was born in New York City June 30, 1849,
and died on his sixty-eighth birthday. He completed his
education at Poughkeepsie, New York, served an appren-
ticeship as a machinist under his father at Scranton, spent
some time in Hampshire County, West Virginia, after which
he returned to Scranton and later located at Concord, West
Virginia, where he became a manufacturers' agent for the
John A. Harps Company.

Walter W. Harloe, oldest in a family of eight children,
graduated from Bridgewater College at Bridgewater, Vir-
ginia, and took his medical course in the University of
Virginia at Charlottesville, where he graduated in 1905.
For several months following he had charge of the charity
department of St. Joseph's Hospital at Philadelphia, Penn-
sylvania, and in 1906 moved to Giatto, Mercer County, West
Virginia, and a few months later to Matoaka, which was
just beginning its existence as a real town adjacent to the
new developments in the coal industry of the vicinity.
Doctor Harloe has had a widely extended practice, and in
recent years much of it has been confined to office work.
He is a member of the County, State and American Medical
Associations.

Outside the strict limits of his profession he has been
active in many ways in advancing the welfare and progress
of Matoaka. He was one of the organizers and is a di-
rector of the First National Bank, has been chief of the fire
department, health officer, in 1920 was mayor, and during
the World war was active in many branches of patriotic
work, serving as a Four Minute Speaker and as a member
of the Volunteer Medical Corps. He has been district dem-
ocratic chairman, and is a past chancellor of the Knights
of Pythias Lodge and affiliated with the Independent Order
of Odd Fellows and the Moose. In the University of Vir-
ginia he was chosen by the faculty to membership in the
Raven Club, eligibility to which is confined to students who
have an average in all studies of 90 per cent or more.
Doctor Harloe is a member of the Lutheran Church, while
Mrs. Harloe is a Presbyterian. He married in 1903 Miss
Effie Merritt, daughter of John Merritt, of Charlottesville,
Virginia.  Their family consists of three sons and two
daughters.


Submitted by Valerie Crook <vfcrook@earthlink.net> 

****************************************************************

USGENWEB NOTICE:  These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in
any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or
persons.  Persons or organizations desiring to use this material,
must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal
representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb
archivist with proof of this consent. Files may be printed or copied
for personal use only.

****************************************************************