Ticknor, Francis Orray

Extract

Ticknor, Francis Orray (13 November 1822–18 December 1874), poet and physician, was born at Fortville, Jones County, Georgia, the son of Orray Ticknor, a physician, and Harriet Coolidge. Both parents were natives of Connecticut. Ticknor’s middle name—Orray, not Orrery—is frequently misspelled. He was only a few months old when his father died in 1823. His mother then moved to Columbus, Georgia, where she raised and educated her three children. In 1835 Ticknor was sent to a boys’ school in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, operated by the Reverend R. M. Chapman. The school’s curriculum included Greek, Latin, French, English, mathematics, drawing, and singing. Ticknor received his medical education in Philadelphia and New York. After spending 1842 in Norwich Town, Connecticut, his mother’s birthplace, he received his medical degree the following year from the Philadelphia College of Medicine....