Wood County, West Virginia Biography of BENJAMIN O. ROBINSON, 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 II, pg. 532-533 Wood BENJAMIN O. ROBINSON, M. D., has been established in the practice of his profession in the City of Parkersburg since the year 1904, and is consistently to be designated as one of the representative physicians and surgeons of his native county, the name of the Robinson family having been prom- inently and influentially linked with civic and industrial history in this county since the pioneer days. Dr. Robinson was born in the Lubeck District of Wood County, West Virginia, on the 10th of March, 1879, and is one of the four children-all living-of James W. and Mar- garet Ann (Taylor) Robinson, both ot whom likewise were born and reared in Wood County. James W. Robinson's father, Benjamin Robinson, was the pioneer founder of the family in Wood County, where he obtained land and devel- oped a productive farm and where he played well his part in connection with the earlier stages of civic and material progress, both he and his wife having been honored pioneer citizens ot the county at the time of their deaths. James V. Robinson gained his youthful education in the schools of the locality and period, and in connection with the basic indus- tries of agriculture and stock growing he here achieved a large measure of success. He was a man of civic loyalty and progressiveness, commanded unqualified popular esteem and was influential in community affairs of public order. He served as county assessor and later as land appraiser of his native county, and he was distinctly an honored and representative citizen of Wood County at the time of his death in 1913, his widow being still a resident ot her native county, which is endeared to her by many hallowed'mem- ories and associations. The invigorating discipline of the old home farm compassed the childhood and earlier youth of Dr. Robinson, and that he made good use of the advantages of the public schools of his native county is indicated by the fact that at the age of seventeen years he became a successful and popular teacher in the school of his home district. In consonance with his well defined ambition and purpose he entered in 1000 the College of Physicians and Surgeons in the City of Baltimore, Maryland, and in this great institution he was graduated in 1904, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. While in Baltimore he further fortified himself by the valuable clinical experience which he gained in one year of service as an in- terne in Mercy Hospital. Upon receiving his degree he returned to his native county and engaged in active general practice at Parkersburg, the county seat, in which city he has long controlled a large and representative practice. The Doctor has insistently kept in touch with advances made in medical and surgical science, and in evidence of this is the fact that on three different occasions he has taken effective post-graduate courses in the celebrated Post-Graduate School of Medicine in New York City. Though his practice is of general order, Dr. Robinson gives special attention to surgery, in which department of professional work he has gained high reputation. He is actively identified with the American Medical Association, the Southern Medical Association, the West Virginia State Medical Society and the Wood County Medical Society. During the period of American participa- tion in the World war Dr. Robinson served as a member of the Examining Board of Wood County, in connection with the calling of young men into the nation's service, and he was otherwise prominent in connection with local patriotic activities. In the time-honored Masonic fraternity the Doctor's maximum York Rite affiliation is with the Com- mandery of Knights Templar in his home city, and in the Scottish Rite he has received the thirty-second degree, besides which he is a member of Nemesis Temple of the Mystic Shrine. He is a member also of Parkersburg Lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and of the Elks and Country Clubs of his home city. September 30, 1916, recorded the marriage of Dr. Robin- son and Miss Marjorie Cloy Behringer, of Defiance, Ohio, and she is a popular figure in the representative social activities of Parkersburg.