From "HISTORY OF THE UPPER OHIO VALLEY,"  Vol. I, pages 342-343.
Brant & Fuller, 1890.


S. L. JEPSON

S. L. Jepson, A. M., M. D., a prominent physician of Wheeling, was 
born in Belmont county, Ohio, April 7, 1842, a son of John Jepson, 
one of the early citizens of Belmont county, Ohio. The latter was a 
native of Lancashire, England, and was born in 1795.  He was married 
in 1823 to Hannah Hunt, also a native of Lancashire, born in 1803.  
About 1830 John Jepson came to America, prospecting for a new home 
and so spent about two years in New York, during which time he was 
joined by his family and a brother.  From New York he came west to 
Ohio, journeying by way of Cleveland, and made his home in Belmont 
county, one mile east of St. Clairsville, where he engaged in 
agriculture.  Subsequently, while assisting a neighbor in the raising 
of a barn, he met with an accident which left him unfit for farm 
labor, and he afterward gave up farm life and engaged in merchandise 
at St. Clairsville.  He remained there in that employment during the 
remainder of his active life, with the exception of a period of two 
years from the spring of 1852 to the spring of 1854 spent at 
McConnelsville and Wheeling.  He was an elder of the Presbyterian 
church, and a man of strong character.  In 1874 he and his wife 
celebrated their golden wedding, and during ten years longer lived 
happily together.  They died in 1884 and 1885 respectively, deeply 
mourned by their family and friends.  To them were born eleven 
children, two were born in England.  Four children survive: Hannah 
E., Nathaniel H., a jeweler of Washington, Ind.; George, a merchant 
of St. Clairsville, and the subject of this sketch.  Dr. Jepson was 
given a liberal education in the St. Clairsville school, and in 1860 
entered the junior class of Washington college, where he was 
graduated in 1862.  His brothers having enlisted in the Union army, 
he went into his father's store at St. Clairsville, where he clerked 
during the war period.  Immediately after the close of the war, in 
July 1865, he took up the study of medicine, and in 1866 he entered 
the Ohio Medical college, and was graduated in medicine in 1868.  
After graduation he was by competitive examination appointed resident 
physician of the Cincinnati hospital, for one year.  He located at 
Wheeling in 1869, and began the practice of his profession.  He soon 
became prominent in his profession, and in 1873 was elected health 
officer of Wheeling for a term of two years, and was twice re-
elected, serving continuously until 1879.  During this period he 
added to his medical acquirements by study in London, Edinburgh and 
Vienna, during a year's visit to Europe.  The doctor has held various 
important positions in the gift of the people, having served as a 
member of the city council from 1880 to 1884, as a member of the 
board of education, elected in 1880 and 1886, for terms of six years 
each, and he is secretary of the board of trustees of the Wheeling 
Female college. He has received a due share of the honors of the 
medical organizations with which he has affiliated, has served as 
secretary for four years and president one term of the medical 
society of the city of Wheeling and county of Ohio, was four years 
secretary of the State Medical society, and was elected president of 
the state society in 1886, presiding over the meeting held at White 
Sulphur Springs in 1887.  He is also a member of the American Medical 
association.  In 1883 he was appointed acting assistant surgeon of 
the United States Marine hospital service, a position he resigned in 
1890.  In May, 1889, he was appointed United States examining surgeon 
of pensions, and is secretary of the board at Wheeling.  Dr. Jepson's 
contributions to leading medical journals are as follows: "The 
Duality of the Chancrous Virus," NEW YORK MEDICAL JOURNAL, September, 
1871; "Sudden Death in Puerperal Cases," THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF 
OBSTETRICS, August, 1872; "Cholera in Wheeling, W.Va.," TRANSACTIONS 
OF AMERICAN HEALTH ASSOCIATION, Vol. I, 1874; "Pyo-pneumothorax 
Following Acute Pneumonia in a Child," AMERICAN JOURNAL OF 
OBSTETRICS, July, 1881; "Cases of Long Retention of Placenta after 
Abortion," idem, October, 1883; "Treatment of Bursae," 1875.  In 
STATE TRANSACTIONS of various dates, "On Typhoid Fever; The Relation 
of Ovulation to Menstruation; Puerperal Fever, Its Intra-urine 
Antiseptic Irrigation," and others.  His annual address as president 
of the State Medical society at White Sulphur Springs in July, 1887, 
met with much favorable criticism from both the press and the 
profession.  Dr. Jepson was married in 1871 to Isabella, daughter of 
Rev. Andrew Scott, of Jefferson county, Ohio, and has four daughters.  
The doctor and wife are members of the First Presbyterian church, and 
the doctor is an elder. 


(Linda Fluharty)