PB leader Orto made progress in medicine
Zaphney Jeffrey Orto was a surgeon and prodigious leader in Pine Bluff. He built his own private practice, but he was also president of Simmons Ban...
Zaphney Jeffrey Orto was a surgeon and prodigious leader in Pine Bluff. He built his own private practice, but he was also president of Simmons Bank, the State Medical Society of Arkansas and Jefferson County Medical Society. Orto was born on Aug. 10, 1842, in Somerville, Tenn., to Leonidas Orto and Martha G. McElwee Orto. Two years later, his father died, and his mother raised Orto and his siblings on a farm near Somerville. In 1860, Orto got a job working at a local store at age 18. In 1862, he moved to Evansville, Ind.