Biography of Samuel R. Holroyd, M.D.

SAMUEL R. HOLROYD, M. D., who is engaged in practice
at Athens, Mercer County, is not only one of the leading
physicians and surgeons of his native county but has also
gained in his profession a reputation that far transcends
mere local limitations. He has served as president of the
West Virginia State Medical Society, and was for three
years superintendent of the State Hospital at Spencer, the
institution having had 700 inmates during the period of his
administration, which was marked by efficiency and by
earnest stewardship both professionally and in a humanita-
rian way. While he has not specialized in mental cases, he
is a recognized authority in connection with the care and
treatment of the insane and feeble-minded. During the
period of the nation's participation in the World war

Doctor Holroyd was in active service in recruiting and ex-
amining physicians for service in the Medical Corps of the
United States Army, and this work took him into all parts
of West Virginia. He is now a member of the Board of
Censors of the West Virginia State Medical Society, is an
influential member of the Mercer County Medical Society
and holds membership also in the American Medical Associa-
tion.

Doctor Holroyd was born on a farm in Mercer County,
West Virginia, June 18, 1868, and is a son of William and
Sarah (Conklin) Holroyd, both of whom were born and
reared in England, where their marriage was solemnized at
Manchester in 1847. The father was a skilled woolen-mill
operator and as such was engaged for a time in the City of
Philadelphia. He then came to what is now West Virginia
as a missionary clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal
Church. He served as chaplain of a Confederate regiment
in the Civil war, with commission as captain, and in Mercer
County he and his noble wife established their home and
reared their children. Rev. William Holroyd was a man of
sterling character and fine mentality. He labored long and
earnestly in aiding and uplifting his fellow men, and his
influence rested as a benediction upon all with whom he
came in contact. James F., a brother of Dr. Samuel R.
Holroyd, was for forty two years an able and revered in-
structor in the Concord State Normal School at Athens,
and in the main building of the school is a tablet in his
honor, the same having there been placed by the alumni of
the institution. He was county superintendent of schools
for Mercer County four years and for five years was
librarian at the normal school at Athens, he having been the
incumbent of this position at the time of his death, when
venerable in years.

In 1888 Dr. Samuel R. Holroyd graduated from the
Concord State Normal School at Athens, and in 1890 he
graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in
the City of Baltimore, Maryland, with the degree of Doctor
of Medicine. In 1906 he took a post-graduate course at
Johns Hopkins University in the same city, and later he
did effective post-graduate work in leading medical institu-
tions and hospitals in New York City, Cleveland, Philadel-
phia, Cincinnati and Chicago. After his graduation he
engaged in practice in his old home town of Athens, and
here he has continuously maintained an office, although his
work has involved his absence from this community at in-
tervals of greater or less duration. He here resumed the
active practice of his profession in October, 1921. The
doctor has been especially zealous in the - service of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, South, especially in the organ-
izing of churches and the erection of requisite church build-
ings throughout this section of West Virginia. Incidentally
he has served simultaneously as trustee of five different
churches of this denomination, and he is now a trustee of the
church at Athens. For eleven years he was a member of the
board of directors of the State Hospital at Huntington,
and in this capacity he gave close attention to the construc-
tion and equipment of the buildings of the institution. He
was formerly vice president of the Bank of Athens, a posi-
tion which he finally resigned. As a member of the County
Board of Highways he assisted in laying out and construct-
ing many of the roads of Mercer County, and he has served
also as a member of the Board of Education at Athens for
many years. A signally busy, conscientious and useful life
has been that of this honored physician, who holds inviolable
place in the confidence and esteem of all who know him.
The doctor has a great fondness for fine horses and dogs,
and he is the owner of White Ranger, the dog that won
the American derby at Louisville, Kentucky, in 1921.
Doctor Holroyd has passed all official chairs in the Blue
Lodge and Chapter of York Rite Masonry, is now grand
scribe of the West Virginia Grand Chapter of Royal Arch
Masons, and he is affiliated also with the Knights Templars
and the Mystic Shrine, as well as with the Elks and the
Knights of Pythias. As a fancier of dogs he takes special
pleasure in the fox chase, and his sane, vigorous and helpful
attitude marks him as a man among men and as a citizen
of prominence and influence in the community. His pro-
fessional affiliations include also his membership in the
American Psychological Association, and he is a charter
member of the Princeton Country Club.

On the 26th of October, 1893, at Gap Mills, Monroe
County, Doctor Holroyd wedded Miss Blanche Appling,
daughter of R. C. and Sudie (Neal) Appling, the former a
native of Virginia and the latter of what is now West
Virginia. Doctor and Mrs. Holroyd have three children:
Trevor is a salesman in the employ of the Emmons-Hawking
Company of Huntington; Danise is the wife of Clyde
Mitchell, of Spencer, this state; and Samuel R., Jr., re-
mains at the parental home. Mrs. Holroyd is an earnest
and zealous member of the Presbyterian Church, and she is
the gracious and popular chatelaine of their attractive and
hospitable home at Athens.


From The History of West Virginia, Old and New, page 47-48

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

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