Mingo County, West Virginia Biography of ERVIN PRENTICE STEPP, 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. 596 Mingo ERVIN PRENTICE STEPP, M. D., is another of the able physicians and surgeons engaged in successful general prac- tice in the great coal-mining districts of West Virginia, his residence and professional headquarters being at Kermit, Mingo County. Doctor Stepp was born at Pilgrim, Martin County, Ken- tucky, September 30, 1888, and is the only child of Moses and Elizabeth (Payne) Stepp, whose marriage was solem- nized in that county, where Mrs. Stepp was born and reared. Moses Stepp was born in Tennessee, and after his marriage he was actively identified with the timber business on Tug River in Kentucky and West Virginia, his death having occurred when he was still a young man and when his only child, subject of this sketch, was a small boy. The widowed mother later became the wife of C. C. Fannin, a lawyer in Martin County, and later they came to Mingo County, West Virginia, and established their home at Naugatuck. There the death of Mr. Fannin occurred, and his widow now resides with her son. Dr. Ervin P. Stepp, who is still an eligible bachelor. Doctor Stepp acquired his early education in the public schools of Martin and Lawrence counties, Kentucky, and as a young man he was a successful teacher in the schools of Martin County and also Mingo County, West Virginia, he having taught six different schools. Finally, with his sav- ings and the further financial reinforcement gained through money lent to him by friends who approved his ambitious purpose, he went to St. Louis, Missouri, in 1911, and there entered the National University, where he completed his high school course the first year and also passed the examination that enabled him to enter the medical depart- ment of the institution. In his last year at the university he again did double work, by taking not only the regular studies of the medical school but also specialized in the study of diseases of children. After receiving his degree of Doctor of Medicine from this institution he was for two years engaged in practice at Parma, New Madrid County, Missouri, and he then returned to his native county in Kentucky, whence, shortly afterward, he came to Kermit, West Virginia, where he has since built up a most successful practice, in which he is associated with Dr. H. Haws. This representative professional firm has the practice of the Himler, Earlston and Grey Eagle mines in addition to a large general practice. Doctor Stepp is a member of the Mingo County Medical Society, the West Virginia Medical Society and the American Medical Association, he is a democrat in politics and is affiliated with the Lodge of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons at Inez, Kentucky. His revered and devoted mother presides over the domestic economies and social hospitalities of their pleasant home, she having been his inspiration, his guide and counsellor, and he having provided for her since his boyhood days, with utmost filial solicitude.