Richard Owen Currey

Richard Owen Currey (1816–1865) was an American university professor, physician and Presbyterian minister.

Early life

Richard Owen Currey was born on July 28, 1816 in Nashville, Tennessee.^[1] His father, Robert Brownlee Currey (1774–1848), served as the Mayor of Nashville from 1822 to 1824. His mother was Jane Grey Currey. He had three brothers, Algernon Sidney Currey (1820–1891), George Washington Currey (1823–1886) and John H. Currey (1831–1902), and a sister, Susannah Elizabeth (Currey) Perkins (1814–1837).

Currey graduated from the University of Nashville and went on to become the first person to receive a PhD in Science from the University of Tennessee.^[1] He then studied medicine at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky from 1837 to 1838, and received his MD from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1840.^[1]

Career

After teaching at the University of Nashville, Currey became a Professor of Chemistry, Experimental Philosophy, and Natural History at East Tennessee University in Knoxville, where he pioneered laboratory-based botany teaching in Tennessee.^[1][2] He also practiced as a physician, and published an almanac.^[1] He volunteered for the Tennessee Geological Survey.^[1] Additionally, he wrote a book about the geology of Tennessee and another one about the geology of western Virginia.^[1]

In 1850, Currey returned to Nashville and taught at the University of Nashville.^[1] He continued to work as a physician as well, and was particularly active during the cholera epidemic.^[1] In 1851, he published two issues of the Southern Agriculturist, a widely read review for Southern planters, and another almanac.^[1] He also opened an apothecary shop in Nashville.^[1] The following year, in 1852, he joined the Tennessee State Medical Association and chaired on committees pertaining to the adulteration of drugs and medical botany.^[1] The following year, in 1853, he started the Southern Journal of the Medical and Physical Sciences, a medical journal.^[1] Over the next five years, he would publish fifty-seven articles, editorials and book reviews on regional geology, medical practice and botany.^[1] Shortly after, he helped establish a hospital and the School of Medicine and Surgery for Private Instruction in Knoxville, and became a gynecologist.^[1] In 1858, he returned to Nashville to teach at the Shelby Medical College and serve as co-editor of the Nashville Monthly Record of Medical and Physical Sciences, another medical journal.^[1]

In 1859, Currey returned to Knoxville to study Christian theology.^[1] He became the pastor of Lebanon-in-the-Fork Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, which had been established by J. G. M. Ramsey (1797–1884).^[1] Additionally, he directed the Daughter's Collegiate Institute, where he added nude sculptures of women in the garden to teach women about their own anatomy.^[1]

During the American Civil War, Currey volunteered as a chaplain-surgeon for the Confederate States Army, as early as 1861. Over time, he also took care of Union soldiers who had been caught by the Confederates.^[1] Unfortunately, due to lack of hygiene in the hospital wing of the Salisbury Prison he was operating from, he died four years later.^[1]

Personal life

Currey married Rachel Jackson Eastin in 1842.^[1]

Death

Currey died on February 17, 1865 while serving the Confederate States Army during the Civil War.

Bibliography

• Iron (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1840).^[3]
• Chemical Hall Almanac: For the Year of Our Lord 1852...Calculated for the Horizon of Nashville, Tennessee...Will Answer for Kentucky, Mississippi and Alabama (W.F. Bang, Republican Banner Office, 1851).^[4]
• A Sketch of the Geology of Tennessee (Kinsloe & Rice, 1857).^[5]
• A Geological Visit to the Virginia Copper Region (1859).^[6]
• The Polk County Copper Company of Tennessee: Its Mineral Resources and Mining Prospects (with Matthew Fontaine Maury, Bulletin Book and Job Office, 1859).^[7]

References