Dr. Robert Sumter Griffith

Dr. Robert Sumter Griffith. Railroad Tracks Ran Through Waynesboro Physician’s Life. , Dr. Robert Sumter Griffith's life involved railroads. Even the fact that he practiced medicine in Waynesboro is because of the railroad. The popular physician, never seen without his round wire spectacles and his trademark western bowtie, was born in Southern Maryland in April of 1861, the day his parents heard about the Civil War bombardment of Fort Sumter, S.C. Griffith graduated from the University of Maryland medical school, married his neighbor Annie Webb, and the two moved to Romney, W.Va., where he opened up a medical practice. , The couple had two young children, a boy and a girl, and were settled into the town when tragedy struck. The children died within days of each other. The distraught parents decided to start a new life in another place. In 1891, while traveling by train to Buena Vista (in Rockbridge County) to accept a doctor's position there, they disembarked at Basic City for a bite to eat. , An industrial boomtown established in 1890 on the east side of the South River, Basic City is no longer an independent city. The name Basic described a manufacturing process for making steel, the perfect name for the industrial railroad city marked by the crossing of two railroads, the east-west Chesapeake and Ohio and the north-south Norfolk and Western. In 1924, a series of economic recessions left Basic City struggling; it merged with Waynesboro and almost disappeared from memory. Dr. Griffith served as Mayor of Basic City for 11 years, opposed the merger with Waynesboro, but did serve on the Waynesboro City Council for 14 more years after the merger. , Railroads were always an integral part of Dr. Griffith's life. The civic-minded doctor and surgeon not only served the community for 56 years (1891-1947), but was also the official doctor and surgeon for both the C&O and the N&W railroads for more than 50 years. , Dr. Griffith's extensive medical practice took him all over the area including over the mountain into Nelson County. Early on, he turned in his horse and buggy for a Model T Ford. In 1935 he upgraded to a Model A that he drove until his retirement. When on medical business, he always wired his official medical seal to the grill of his car. In order to reach patients on the east side of the mountain more quickly, he sometimes took a shortcut by driving straight through the Blue Ridge Tunnel. Being the doctor for the railroad meant that he had "connections" but he always called first to check the train schedules in order to avoid a disastrous collision. , Dr. Griffith's wife Annie died in 1913, and the doctor remarried a year later to a Nelson County woman. After exchanging vows in Nelson, the couple boarded the eastbound C&O train for their honeymoon. The Griffiths had two children born in 1917 and 1919. , Dr. Griffith lived to the ripe old age of 94, passing away in 1955. At the time of his death, he was one of the oldest physicians in the state of Virginia.