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HARRISON 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. 361-362
WILLIAM GASTON, M. D., of Clarksburg, has practiced
medicine successfully for over thirty-six years. After at-
tending the rural schools and Fairmont Normal School, and
teaching school for four years, he read medicine one year
under the preceptorship of his cousin, Dr. Florent Gibson,
at Freemansburg, and then completed a course in medicine
at the Eclectic Medical College, Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1884.
He at once began the practice of medicine at Good Hope,
Harrison County, and soon gained a lucrative clientele,
remaining at that point until the spring of 1907, when
he transferred his offices to Clarksburg. While residing
at Good Hope he took a post-graduate course in medicine
at the New York Polyclinic Hospital and Post-Graduate
school at New York City, where he took a second course
in 1909. Thus he has kept abreast of the advances in his
profession. His is a general practice, and he has gained
an honorable standing among the reputable medical men
of Harrison County and a strong place in the confidence of
the people. Doctor Gaston is a member of the Harrison
County Medical Society, the West Virginia Medical Society
and the American Medical Association, and belongs to the
medical staff of St. Mary's Hospital, Clarksburg. He is
a Knight Templar Mason and Noble of the Mystic Shrine,
and in politics is a democrat. The Doctor has diversified
business interests, including oil, as a producer.
Dr. William Gaston is a native of Lewis County, West
Virginia, where he was born on a farm May 18, 1859.
Both paternally and maternally he comes of old and highly
respected families of West Virginia. His parents were
George and Martha Ann (Gibson) Gaston, the former born
in Harrison County and the latter in Lewis County. His
paternal grandparents were William and Mary (Post) Gas-
ton, and his paternal great-grandparents came to West
Virginia from their native state of New Jersey at a very
early date, settling on Duck Creek, in what is now Harri-
son County. The maternal grandparents of Doctor Gaston
were Smith and Malinda (Hall) Gibson. The Gibsons
came from old Virginia and settled in Upshur County,
West Virginia. The paternal great-great-grandmother "mar-
ried John Gaston, and her father was a Davison, a Revo-
lutionary soldier.
The parents of Doctor Gaston resided for many years
in Freeman District, Lewis County, and both lived to bo
beyond seventy years of age. They were United Brethren
in church faith, and were the parents of six children:
Willia; Edwin; Emma; Clark, deceased; Laura, and Ivan,
deceased. The boyhood of Doctor Gaston was passed on
the farm, where he learned the lessons of perseverance and
industry which have been characteristic of his entire life.
Doctor Gaston has been twice married and is now a
widower. In 1884 he married Miss Nellie Thrash, who
died in 1892, without leaving children. In 1894 Doctor
Gaston married Mrs. Susan Easter, nee Wolfe, who bore
him two sons, Howe Russell and William Bryan. and in
June, 1921. was called in death. Both of Doctor Gaston's
sons rendered service to their country during the great
World war. Howe Russell Gaston enlisted in the United
States Regular Army in 1916, and when the United States
became involved in the greatest of all wars was trans-
ferred from Troop F, Fourteenth Cavalry, to Company C,
Third Division Ammunition Train, and went overseas
March 2, 1918, then as corporal, but later became acting
first sergeant. He rendered service overseas for eighteen
months in the Ammunition Train Division of his unit, and
took part in the defensive and offensive at the Marne, was
in the St. Mihiel and Argonne campaigns, and later was
with the Army of Occupation in Germany. His honorable
discharge was dated in April. 1920, and he is now a suc-
cessful traveling salesman and a member of the Veterans
of Foreign Wars. William Bryan Gaston volunteered in
the service of the United States Army the day after he
wag twenty-one years of age, at Pittsburgh. He was sent
first to Camp Meade, later to Annapolis, still later to Wash-
ington, District of Columbia, and in February, 1918. went
overseas with the Twenty-third Engineers, an entirely vol-
unteer organization. He rendered service in the truck
train for nineteen months in France, and received his hon-
orable discharge in July, 1919. He is a member of the
American Legion and Clarksburg Lodge No. 155. A. F.
and A. M. He is now a medical student at the University
of Maryland, Baltimore.
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