Randolph County, West Virginia Biography of ROBERT WIRT DUNHAM, M. D. This file 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 III, pg. 537-538 Randolph ROBERT WIRT DUNHAM, M. D. There is one profession, that of the medical practitioner, which opens to its fol- lowers an extremely wide range of usefulness. Its sphere is many-sided, and that particular phase which accomplishes the more than splendid work of preserving God-given life says nothing of the world of sorrow that is banished or of the happiness which is re-enthroned through health restored at the exercise of the divine art. It is indeed an art which approaches divinity, and those who study it, mellowed and enriched as they are through their association with un- masked humanity, are possessed of a priceless ability to answer the command to "heal the sick." Among the lead- ers of the Randolph County medical fraternity is Dr. Robert Wirt Dunham, of Elkins, who since taking up his practice in this community has gained the confidence of all and the gratitude of many. Doctor Dunham was born at Belington, Barbour County, West Virginia, November 19, 1881, and is a son of Jacob A. and Lola Montes (Shurtleff) Dunham. His paternal grandfather was Rev. Robert Foster Dunham, who was a native of New Jersey, and as a youth came to what is now West Virginia with his father, Jacob Dunham, who settled in Taylor County. Reverend Dunham was a pioneer Baptist preacher, his field of labor including Barbour, Randolph and Taylor counties. He lived to the remarkable age of ninety-seven years, and at his death it was said of him: "A grand old man has passed away." The maternal grandfather of Doctor Dunham was Frank Shurtleff, who came from Boston, Massachusetts, and settled in Barbour County, West Virginia, where he engaged in agricultural pursuits until his death, which occurred when he was fifty- one or fifty-two years of age. He married Lucinda Booth, a daughter of Gen. Isaac Booth, one pf the makers of his- tory in what is now West Virginia. Jacob A. Dunham was born in Tyler County, West Vir- ginia, and for many years was engaged in agricultural pur- suits in Barbour County, where he was the owner of a farm in the vicinity of Belington. He died at the age of sixty- seven years, highly esteemed and respected as a good citizen and honorable man of affairs. In politics he was a demo- crat, but he did not seek political honors. With Mrs. Dun- ham, who died when fifty-three years of age, he belonged to the Baptist Church. They were the parents of four chil- dren: Rhoda F.; Robert Wirt, of this notice; Emma Q.; and Dr. Porter C., who is engaged in the practice of dentis- try at Bridgeport, West Virginia. Robert Wirt Dnnham was reared on the home farm, and after attending the country schools went to the Belington High School, from which he was graduated. From 1901 to 1905 he was a student at West Virginia University, to obtain further literary training preparatory to the study of medicine. He graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1908, receiving his degree of Doctor of Medicine, and in the same year was also given a degree of the same kind by West Virginia University. Doctor Dun- ham began the practice of his profession at Junior, West Virginia, but in a few months removed to Bemis, this state, where he remained in practice for about ten years. He next went to Atlanta, Georgia, to continue his professional ac- tivities. Subsequently he returned to West Virginia for a visit. While here, in 1919, he was offered the post of medical examiner for the Western Maryland Railroad, and, accepting, located at Elkins, where he has since discharged the duties attached to that position and has also carried on a general practice. He has built up a large clientele and is. now accounted one of the leaders of the Randolph County profession. Doctor Dunham is a close and careful student and has done post-graduate work at the Post-Graduate School of Medicine, New York City; Washington University, St. Louis; Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, and at Harvard. He is a member of the Tri-County Medical So- ciety, the West Virginia Medical Society and the American Medical Association. As a fraternalist he is a thirty-second degree Scottish Bite Mason, a Knight Templar and a Noble of the Mystic Shrine, and also holds membership in the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. His religious affiliation is with the Baptist Church. Doctor Dunham is unmarried.