Tyler County, West Virginia Biography of John A. GRIER, M. D. ************************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: Material may be freely used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material, AND permission is obtained from the contributor of the file. These pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for non-commercial purposes, MUST obtain the written consent of the contributor. Submitted by Valerie Crook, , March 1999 ************************************************************************** The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 33 John A. GRIER, M. D. While for a quarter of a century he has been ever responsive to the heavy demands made upon his time and energy in his profession as a physician and surgeon, Dr. Grier has contrived time to serve the com- munity of Sistersville in various relationships that involve the performance of duty with scarcely proportionate honor and insignificant financial reward. Doctor Grier has an interesting relation to the name and founding of Sistersville. His grandmother was Delilah Wells, who was born and spent all her life at Sistersville. She and her sister Sarah owned two adjoining farms, on which was laid out the town of Sistersville, named in their honor. Delilah Wells married Robert Grier, a native of Pennsyl- vania, where his family was established in Colonial times on coming from Scotland. Robert Grier moved to Monroe County, Ohio, when a comparatively young man, was a farmer, and later one of the first merchants at Sistersville, where he also owned and operated a grist mill. He and his wife reared five sons and one daughter, all now deceased. Prather Grier, father of Doctor Grier, was born in Monroe County, Ohio, in 1834, and as a young man removed to Parkersburg, where he married. He owned a large amount of land in the river bottoms near Parkersburg, and made farming his chief vocation. He died at Parkersburg in 1883. In politics he was a democrat and was an influential member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Prather Grier married Sarah West, who was born in Monroe County, Ohio, in 1834 and died at Parkersburg in 1884. She was one of the most zealous members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, at Parkersburg. She became the mother of four children: Mary, who died at the age of thirty-six, wife of Frank dark, who is a farmer in West Virginia, opposite Racine, Ohio; Charles W., in the real estate and automobile business at Roswell, New Mexico; Dr. John A.; and Frank C., who died at the age of twenty. John A. Grier was born on his father's farm in Wood County, near Parkersburg, February 26, 1870. He attended the public schools of his native county, spent one year in the Morgantown preparatory school, and in 1892 graduated Bachelor of Science from West Virginia University. He received his M. D. degree in 1894 from the College of Physi- cians and Surgeons at Baltimore, and has since gone back to Baltimore a number of times for post-graduate courses and clinical experience. While in university he was a mem- ber of the Phi Kappa Psi college fraternity. Doctor Grier began practice at Ravenswood, West Virginia, but in 1896 located at Sistersville, where for many years he has had an exceptionally heavy practice in medicine and surgery. His offices are in the Review Building on Wells Street. Doctor Grier for the past eight years has been health officer of Sistersville, served four years as coroner of Tyler County, and for twelve years has had a prominent part in the educa- tional advancement of the community, serving as president of the Sistersville School Board and is president of the Sisters- ville School and Public Library. Doctor Grier is a democrat, is past master of Phoenix Lodge No. 73, A. F. and A. M., past high priest of Sistersville Chapter No. 27, R. A. M., and is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason in West Virginia Consistory No. 1 at Wheeling, and is a member of Nemesis Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Parkersburg. He is president of the Masonic Temple Association at Sistersville. Doctor Grier, who has never married, is a member of the Tyler County, West Vir- ginia State and American Medical Associations, the Sisters- ville Country Club, and during the war was interested in all the drives, and spent much time instructing Red Cross classes.