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- Alexander Hanson Darnes (c. 1840 – February 11, 1894) was the first African-American physician in Jacksonville, Florida, and the second in the state. Born into slavery in St. Augustine, Florida, as a young man he served as a valet to Edmund Kirby Smith, the son of his owner, Judge Joseph Lee Smith. Darnes accompanied Smith to Texas while he served in the United States Army. During the Civil War, Smith commanded as a Confederate general. After the war and emancipation of slaves, Darnes gained an education, aided by Frances Smith Webster, Kirby Smith's older sister. Darnes earned his undergraduate degree at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania and a medical degree from Howard University in 1880. He returned to Florida, settling in Jacksonville, where he set up a practice. In 1888 Darnes served residents during a terrible yellow fever epidemic, when half the population fled the city. Darnes was well respected, an officer of the Freemasons, and a member of the Mount Zion AME Church. Some 3,000 people, both black and white, attended his funeral, the largest in city history up to that time. In 2004 a statue, Sons of the City, was erected at the Sequi-Kirby Smith House, showing both Darnes and Kirby Smith as adults in later life: Darnes the doctor and Smith the professor. It was the first piece of public art in the city to honor an African American. (en)
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- Alexander Hanson Darnes (c. 1840 – February 11, 1894) was the first African-American physician in Jacksonville, Florida, and the second in the state. Born into slavery in St. Augustine, Florida, as a young man he served as a valet to Edmund Kirby Smith, the son of his owner, Judge Joseph Lee Smith. Darnes accompanied Smith to Texas while he served in the United States Army. During the Civil War, Smith commanded as a Confederate general. (en)
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