Dr. John Wakefield Francis (1789-1861)

He was born in New York City and was educated at Columbia College (1809) and the College of Physicians & Surgeons, University of the State of New York (1811-1820). After graduating, he went into partnership with Dr. David Hosack and in 1822 he accompanied the English actor Charles Mathews on his tour of America. He attempted to establish the New Rutgers Medical College with four colleagues but the venture failed in 1830. In 1846, with Doctors Mott and Steam he co-founded the New York Academy of Medicine and was elected its second President. As a result of his aid, James Marion was able to establish the Woman's Hospital and Francis help establish the State Inebriate Asylum at Binghamton. Near the end of his career, he gave clinical instructions at Bellevue Hospital. On November 16, 1829, he married Maria Cutler, sister-in-law of the banker Samuel Ward and aunt of the social arbiter of the Gilded Age, Ward McAllister. From 1837 they lived at 1 Bond Street in New York and they were survived by two sons. In 1858, he wrote and published Old New York, or, Reminiscences of the Past Sixty Years.