Jonathan Freeman Dana M.D. (1793 - 1827)

Born 23 Sep 1793 in Amherst, Hillsborough, New Hampshire, United States

Ancestors

Died 15 Apr 1827 at age 33 in New York City, New York County, New York, United States

Biography

• Jonathan changed his first name to James after college.
• His remarkable life is reviewed in the Dana Memoir by James Dana, 1877, pages 29-38.
• Phillllilps Academy, Exeter, NH.
• Graduated University at Cambridge (Harvard) in 1813.
• Studied medicine with Dr. Gorham, Harvard Professor of Chemistry.
• In 1815 Harvard chemistry dept. appointed him to go to England to "procure suitable modern apparatus" and studied chemistry while there.
• In 1817 he received his MD.
• Rep. to NH state legislature.
• p. 34, Dana Memoir: "in the summer of 1826, Professor Dana was appointed by the Sec. of War, one of the Visitors of the National Academy at West Point."
• Samuel B. Morse inventor of the telegraph attended Dr. Dana's lectures on electro-magnetism. The following is from p. 36 Dana Memoir: From Professor Morse's own pen, "I learned from Professor Dana in 1827, the rational of the electromagnet, which latter was exhibited in action".
• Interment in vault No 32, St. Mark's Church, NYC.

Birth

23 SEP 1793 Amherst, Hillsborough, New Hampshire, USA

Sources

• Dana, James. Memoir of the Late Hon. Samuel Dana (John Wilson and Son, Cambridge, 1877) Page 29-38

• William Arba Ellis, ed., Norwich University, 1819-1911: Her History, Her Graduates, Her Roll of Honor (Montpelier, Vermont: The Capital City Press, 1911), 2:40.