Zina Pitcher
| Zina Pitcher | |
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| 18th Mayor of Detroit | |
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In office 1843–1843 |
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| Preceded by | Douglass Houghton |
| Succeeded by | John R. Williams |
| 16th Mayor of Detroit | |
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In office 1840–1841 |
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| Preceded by | De Garmo Jones |
| Succeeded by | Douglass Houghton |
| Personal details | |
| Born | April 12, 1797 Sandy Hill, New York |
| Died | April 5, 1872 (aged 74) Detroit, Michigan |
| Alma mater | Middlebury College |
| Profession | Physician |
Zina Pitcher (April 12, 1797 in Sandy Hill, New York – April 5, 1872 in Detroit) was an American physician, politician, educator, and academic administrator. He was a president of the American Medical Association, a two-time mayor of Detroit and a member of the Board of Regents of the University of Michigan.
Dr. Zina Pitcher was born in Sandy Hill, New York on April 12, 1797. He was the son of Nathaniel Pitcher Sr., who died in Sandy Hill, N.Y., 1802, and Margaret Stevenson, who died in Kingsbury, N.Y., in 1819. He was the younger half-brother of Nathaniel Pitcher, a future Governor of New York. (In his 1836 will, Nathaniel mentioned an Osage orange walking stick given to him by Zina.) Another of Zina's brothers was James Pitcher, who became the first mayor of the city of Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1835. Zina attended Middlebury College in Vermont and graduated in medicine in 1822.
Pitcher joined the Army in 1822 as an assistant surgeon, and was promoted to the rank of major in 1836 as a full surgeon. He was president of the Army Medical Board in 1835, and resigned from the Army at the end of 1836.
Pitcher was also an excellent botanist (not uncommon for medical professionals of his day). He collected and studied plants in the Great Lakes region, and the exceedingly rare Pitcher's thistle (Cirsium pitcheri) was first collected by him from the Grand Sable Dunes during his service as an Army surgeon; subsequently it was named for him as well. At times Pitcher teamed with botanist Thomas Nuttall.
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