Randolph County, West Virginia Biography of GEORGE LEEDOM PEIRCE, 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. 551 Randolph GEORGE LEEDOM PEIRCE, M. D. Enthusiastic students of medical science have been the mediums through which have come the medical knowledge that has made the present era more notable- than any other in the history of medicine. These quiet, serious students seek experience in many fields, and their accumulated knowledge benefits the world. A learned member of the medical profession at Elkins, West Virginia, is Dr. George Leedom Peirce, a physician and surgeon in active practice here, a veteran officer of two wars, a member of the representative medical organizations of the country, and president of the Tri-County Medical Society. Doctor Peirce was born at Reading, Pennsylvania, Janu- ary 14, 1872, and is a son of George H. and Adalaide (Lee- dom) Peirce. George H. Peirce was also born in Penn- sylvania, a son of George Scarelet Peirce and a grandson of William Peirce. The earliest record of the family con- cerns one George Peirce, a native of England and a Quaker in religious belief, who accompanied William Penn and his Quaker colony when the great peacemaker settled in the fertile country they found in Pennsylvania. George H. Peirce was an architect and building contractor at Beading for many years, and died in that city in his sixty-eighth year. He was married first to Adalaide Leedom, who died in 1875. She was a daughter of John and Helen Leedom, who were of German extraction. When the war between the states was precipitated they were residents of Richmond, Virginia. Mr. Leedom was a sympathizer with the Union cause and therefore removed with his family from the Southern city and established a home at Reading, Pennsyl- vania, and it was there that his daughter was married to George H. Peirce. At the time of her death her son George Leedom was three years old. The second marriage of George H. Peirce was with Emma Solt, and five of their children grew to maturity. George Leedom Peirce was reared in his native city. He attended the public schools and after graduating from the high school entered the Bordentown (New Jersey) Military Institute, from which he was graduated in 1887. Although but fifteen years old at that time, he had already made choice of a future career, and after some preliminary preparation entered the medical department of the Uni- versity of Louisville, Kentucky, and was graduated from that institution in 1894. He entered upon the practice of his profession at Elk Garden, Mineral County, West Vir- ginia, which place continued to be his home until 1901. In the meanwhile, when the Spanish-American war came on, the young physician was one of the first to volunteer for service, entering the United States Marine Corps as a private. Although he never saw any active fighting and did not get out of his own country, he found the experience professionally valuable and was a better informed physician when he returned to his practice at Elk Garden. It was in 1901 that he volunteered to serve in the Medical Corps of the United States Navy, entering the service with rank of junior lieutenant, and when he resigned in 1915 he enjoyed the rank of full senior lieutenant. When Doctor Peirce returned again to civil life he located at Belington in Barbour County, West Virginia, but before he had become well established there professionally the United States had entered the great conflict of the World war, and once more, with noted patriotism and earnest desire to be helpful along the line for which he was best qualified. Doctor Peiree volunteered early in the Medical Corps of the United States army. He was immediately com- missioned captain, and from then on until the signing of the armistice gave himself entirely to the general hospital at Camp Oglethorpe, Georgia, when he received his honorable discharge. In addition to the invaluable experience with which these various activities had enriched him profession- ally Doctor Peirce in 1916 gave some time and study to post- graduate work in the Presbyterian Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital in the City of Baltimore, but since locating at Elkins, in 1918, has not specialized but has found himself very busy in the field of general practice, although he is oculist and aurist for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Com- pany at this place. Doctor Peirce married in 1900 Miss Elsie M. Fenton, of Elk Garden, West Virginia, and they have two children, George Fenton and Lawrence Barry Peirce. With his family Doctor Peirce belongs to the Presbyterian Church. In the main Doctor Peirce takes little active interest in politics, but as a private citizen, with home interests at Elkins, he concerns himself with civic and social movements that promise to be of substantial benefit. He is a member of the Tri-County Medical Society, of which he was elected president in 1922, and is also a member of the West Vir- ginia State Medical Association, and is a Fellow of the American Medical Association. In fraternal life he is an Odd Fellow, and he is a member of the American Legion.