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HANCOCK COUNTY WEST VIRGINIA
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Submitted to the West Virginia Biographies Project by:
Valerie & Tommy Crook
vfcrook@trellis.net
March 19, 2000
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The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume III,
pg. 361
ROBERT SHIELDS DONEHOO, M. D. In the development
of a career that has been characterized by faithfulness
to duty, integrity in all of life's affairs and the achieve-
ment of merited success the younger generation should
take interest, for in this way lessons of incalculable value
may be learned. Such a career has been that of Dr.
Robert Shields Donehoo, of Pughtown, who enjoys the dis-
tinction of Being the oldest physician and surgeon in Han-
cock County. Throughout his life he has given his best
services to his profession and the people among whom he
has lived and labored, and now, in the evening of life,
he may be content in the knowledge of a career well spent
and appreciated.
Robert Shields Donehoo was born in the Village of Cross
Creek, Washington County, Pennsylvania, August 14, 1848,
a son of James Donehoo. His father was born in County
Armagh, Ireland, and as a child was brought to the United
States, the family settling in Allegheny County, Pennsyl-
vania, in 1800. Later James Donehoo removed to Wash-
ington County, Pennsylvania, where he died at the age of
seventy-four years. Robert Shields Donehoo grew to man-
hood in his native locality, and after attending the public
schools pursued a course at Cross Creek Academy. He
then taught school for three years in Pennsylvania and
for a time was teacher of the Shady Glen School in Clay
District, Hancock County, West Virginia. Resolving upon
a career in medicine, he began reading for that profession
under the preceptorship of Dr. J. N. Boggs, an early Pitts-
burgh physician, following which he enrolled as a student
at Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, from which he
was graduated as a member of the class of 1874, receiving
the degree of Doctor of Medicine. Among his classmates
were Dr. John D. Campbell, of Wheeling; Dr. James P.
Baldwin, president of a hospital at Columbus, Ohio; and
Dr. John B. Roberts and Dr. Ed Montgomery, both of
whom afterward became professors at Jefferson Medical
College. For a short time Doctor Donehoo practiced at
Beaver, Pennsylvania, in association with an uncle, and
then went to Dallas, Texas, where he also remained for a
short period. Returning in December, 1876, he settled at
Pughtown, where he has been in continuous practice to the
present, and is the oldest physician and surgeon in Han-
cock County. He has a large general practice, to which
he continues to devote himself whole-heartedly and unself-
ishly, and in addition to the confidence of his patients
has their unqualified esteem and affection. He belongs to
the various organizations of his calling and stands high
in the regard of his fellow-practitioners. A democrat in
politics, he has taken an active interest in public affairs,
has stood stanchly by his party and at various times has
been a delegate to conventions. He is an advocate of out-
of-door life and believes in baseball and other forms of
athletics.
In 1882 Doctor Donehoo was united in marriage with
Miss Alice M. Flanegin, of Pughtown, daughter of A. M.
C. Flanegin, for years clerk of both the County and Cir-
cuit Courts of Hancock County when the county seat was
located at Pughtown. He died when past seventy years
of age. Doctor and Mrs. Donehoo have been the parents
of four daughters and one son: Eunice, who married
John Mayhew and died young; Ella, who is the wife of
Dr. Fred H. Riney, of Mingo Junction, Ohio; Alice, the
wife of Rex H. Jones, a mining man of Huntington, West
Virginia; Elizabeth, unmarried, who formerly taught at
Newell and Chester in Hancock County, and at East Liver-
pool, Ohio, and now teaching at Mingo Junction, Ohio;
and Robert S., Jr., who served for a few months in an
army camp during the late war and is now associated with
his uncle, W. W. Flanegin, in an insurance agency at
Pittsburgh.
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