John Franklin Gray

John Franklin Gray (September 23, 1804 – June 9, 1882) was an American educator and physician, a pioneer in the field of homoeopathy and one of its first practitioners in the United States. He is also recognized as an important medical reformer. Biography Early life and ancestors John Franklin Gray was born on September 23, 1804, at Sherburne, New York and died on June 9, 1882, at the Fifth Avenue Hotel, in New York City. He was the fourth of five sons of John Gray, (December 15, 1769 - April 24, 1859), and the grandson of John Gray, a founder of Sherburne, and Elizabeth Skeel. Two of Dr. Gray's brothers, Dr. Alfred W. Gray (1802–1873) and Dr. Patrick Wells Gray (1806–1882), were both prominent homeopathic physicians and surgeons. Dr. Gray's father served as a captain in Col. Samuel Whiting's 4th regiment of the Connecticut Militia in the American Revolutionary War. He was appointed and served as first Judge of the Court of Common Pleas for Chenango County, New York until 1819 when the family removed to Sheridan, Chautauqua County, New York. His life was celebrated by the poet John Greenleaf Whittier, at his funeral in 1859 thus recalls him: His mother was Diantha Burritt, (January 9, 1776 - October 14, 1846) the daughter of the Rev. Blackleach Burritt, who graduated from Yale College in 1765. Diantha had been a school teacher in Vermont before her marriage, at Winhall, Vermont on May 26, 1793, and was a poet and woman of literary taste.