Biographical Sketches

John Van Surley DeGrasse (1825-1868) was born in New York in June 1825, the youngest son of George DeGrasse and Maria Van Surley. At age 15, DeGrasse enrolled at the Oneida Institute in upstate New York, then traveled to France, where he attended college for two years. He returned to New York and continued his medical training under the tutelage of Dr. Samuel R. Childs. He received his medical degree as a member of Bowdoin College Medical School’s Class of 1849. After traveling around Europe working in hospitals, he established a medical practice in Boston, where in 1854 he became the first African American elected to membership in the Massachusetts Medical Society. DeGrasse married Cordelia L. Howard on 5 August 1852 in Boston. During the Civil War, he became the first African American medical officer in the U.S. Army, serving as an assistant surgeon for the 35th Regiment of U.S. Colored Infantry (the First Regiment, North Carolina Colored Volunteers). He and his wife had one daughter, Georgenia Cordelia DeGrasse, born 5 December 1855. He died in Boston on 25 November 1868.

Howard DeGrasse Asbury (1907-1978) was minister of St. Paul Methodist Church in Jamaica, New York and the great-grandson of John Van Surley DeGrasse. Interested in African American history, he actively collected information and manuscripts about his ancestors, who included members of the DeGrasse, Howard, Downing, Gardner, and Asbury families. He frequently loaned materials to institutions (including the Brooklyn Public Library, New York Cultural Center, and Museum of Afro American History in Boston, Mass.) for exhibitions about African Americans. He was a member of the Negro History Associates.