Mingo County, West Virginia Biography of BENJAMIN J. READ, M. D. This biography 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 II, pg. 595 Mingo BENJAMIN J. READ, M. D., who since 1911 has been in charge of mine practice in the coal district of Mingo County, where he is in charge of the professional service of this order for the Red Jacket Consolidated Coal Company, maintains his home and headquarters at Red Jacket. He is a skilled physician and surgeon who is aiding effectively in maintaining the high standard of his profession in the state. Doctor Read was born on the family homestead farm in Bedford County, Virginia, August 11, 1876, and is a son of Thomas G. and Imogene Penn (Jordan) Read. Thomas G. Read was born on the same old homestead, in 1851, and there his death occurred in 1913, his widow still remaining there. Thomas G. Read was a university graduate, but was content to devote his attention to the basic industries of ag- riculture and stock-growing, of which he continued a suc- cessful exponent in his native state until the close of his life. He was a democrat and was influential in public af- fairs of a local order. His father. Dr. John Thomas Wyatt Read, was named in honor of three Read brothers who died at Valley Forge while serving as patriot soldiers in the War of the Revolution. The American progenitors of the Read family came from the ancestral seat of the family at Readsdale in the North of England, one representative of the name having settled in New Jersey, one in Bedford County, Virginia, and one in a state farther to the south. George Bead, another member of the family, was a resident of Delaware and figures in history as one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Dr. John T. W. Read owned a fine landed estate of 2,500 acres on the Lynchburg and Salem Turnpike in Bedford County, Virginia, and most of this property is still in the possession of the family. He was long one of the leading physicians and surgeons of that section of the Old Dominion State, and was a man of far- reaching influence in connection with civic and public af- fairs. Dr. Benjamin J. Read, the only son in a family of five children, gained much of his early education in New Lon- don Academy, near the old home, this institution having been founded in 1793 and is still one of the important in- dustrial schools of Virginia. At this academy the doctor continued his studies until he was eighteen years of age, and in 1896 he matriculated in the medical department of the historic old University of Virginia, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1900. After thus receiving his degree of Doctor of Medicine he was for two years established in practice at Bellevue in his native county. For five years thereafter he was connected with the medical department of the United States Bureau of Pensions in the City of Washington, D. C., and he next passed one year in Oklahoma as special examiner for this bureau. In April, 1911, Doctor Bead established his resi- dence at Bed Jacket, West Virginia, where his large general and mine practice places heavy demands upon his time and attention and marks him as one of the representative phy- sicians and surgeons of Mingo County. Until its destruc- tion by fire Doctor Read also had charge of the hospital at Matewan. He is a member of the Mingo County Medical Society, West Virginia State Medical Society and the Ameri- can Medical Association. In the Masonic fraternity he is affiliated with Marshall Lodge No. 39, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, at Lynchburg, Virginia; the Chapter of Royal Arch Masons at Wayne, West Virginia; Bluefield Commandery No. 19, Knights Templars, at Bluefleld, this state; and the Consistory of the Scottish Rite at Wheeling. The doctor is a past noble grand of Friendship Lodge No. 12, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, at Washington, D. C., is a member of the Lodge of Elks at Huntington, his religious faith is that of the Presbyterian Church, and his wife holds membership in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. June 8, 1921, recorded the marriage of Doctor Read and Miss Chloe Dymple Spriegel, daughter of E. L. Spriegel, of Red Jacket, and she is a popular figure in the representa- tive social life of the community.