Orlando's Doctors

Several doctors have set up their practices in Orlando. So far we have information on Drs. Furbee, Trimble and Peck. Joy Gilchrist also names Brothers Charles and James Rusimell and Russ Meizleo as Orlando practioners.1

Dr. Gilbert Furbee, (shown at the left at Webster Springs with his wife Bessie, and their two children, Lilli Belle and Presley) was an early, possibly the first, doctor to locate and practice in Orlando. We don't know what years he was in Orlando, but it must have been near the beginning of the 20th century. We know that at the age of 32 the 1910 census finds him in Larimer County, Colorado and, according to David Parmer, by 1913 he was practicing medicine in Preston County, West Virginia. He died there in 1918 of tuberculosis at the age of 40.2

It is interesting that Dr. Stanton Trimble also practiced medicine in Colorado around 1910. (The saddle bags Dr. Trimble used in Colorado to carry his medical supplies in the Rocky Mountains are now on display in a doctor's office in Douglasville, Georgia.) Dr. Trimble returned east to practice medicine in Orlando during the late 1910s or early 1920s. I recall that Doc Trimble was my grandparents' doctor into the 1950s, and Charles McNemar knows Doc Trimble delivered his dad in 1927.

The Trimbles' two children, Stanton and Mary Elizabeth, (pictured to the right with their father) were born when he practiced in Orlando. Clora Henline, daughter of Beham and Samantha Henline, provided day care for the children.

Dr. Trimble was a member of Burnsville's IOOF and a leader in his community. He was also an inventor of sorts, having invented a tool to remove clincher tires from clincher rims on early automobiles. This invention became obsolete with the invention of the balloon tires for automobiles. Doc Trimble was also noted for the 1937 Chevrolet he drove very slowly around Burnsville and adjoining areas. Dr. Trimble practiced medicine and provided pharmacy services at the Burnsville Pharmacy until the time of his death.

Charles McNemar points us to a bio of Doc Trimble.

Dr. BenjaminWilliam Peck 's Orlando practice, even after he moved to Burnsville, is remembered warmly in an article about Masell (Parmer) Bennett in Lewis County West Virginia, Her People and Places, edited by Joy Stalnacker (pg 58). A photo and more information about Dr Peck will be added when they become available

Thanks to David Parmer for both photos and part of the research. Thanks to Charles Nemar for more research.

1. Lewis County West Virginia by Joy Gilchrist (pg 146)
2. Rootsweb family tree Gary Bond's Ancestors and Their Descendants

See also
Feb 26 '06 Smallpox in Confluence
May '06 The Last Midwife