ABBOTT, Anderson
Dr Anderson Rufin Abbott, the son of a successful businessman, was born in Toronto, Ontario, in 1837. Educated at Toronto Academy and Oberlin College in Ohio, he proceeded to study medicine at the University of Toronto from which he obtained his degree in 1861. He was the first black graduate from the Toronto Medical College. Two years later, he was appointed a surgeon in the Northern army during the American Civil War.
He returned to Ontario in 1865 to open his private practice in Chatham, where he became president of the Wilberforce Educational Institute during 1873-80. He became coroner for Kent County in 1874 and was associate editor of the British Methodist Episcopal Church’s mouthpiece, The Messenger, as well as a writer for the Planet. Abbott moved to Chicago in 1894 to take up the post of surgeon-general at the Provident Hospital and Training School, the first such institution for African-Americans. Following his retirement, he returned to Toronto, where he died in 1913. He is best remembered as one of the earliest black physicians in Canadian history and a vocal critic of segregation in the Ontario public schools. He wrote numerous articles on a variety of subjects ranging from Darwinism, politics, and history to education and poetry