{{Short description|American physician}} {{Infobox person | name = Cassandra Pickett Durham | image = | alt = | caption = | birth_name = Cassandra Pickett | birth_date = May 21, 1824 | birth_place = [[Fairfield County, South Carolina]] | death_date = {{Death date and age|1885|10|18|1824|05|21}} | death_place = [[Americus, Georgia]] | other_names = Cassandra Pickett Windsor | education = Reform Medical College | module = {{Infobox medical details | profession = Physician | field = [[Eclectic medicine]] | work_institutions = | specialism = | research_field = | prizes = }} }} '''Cassandra Pickett Windsor Durham''' (May 21, 1824 – October 18, 1885) was an American [[physician]] and the first woman to earn a [[medical degree]] in the U.S. state of [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]].
==Biography== Durham was born Cassandra Pickett in 1824 to John Jeptha Pickett Sr. and Nancy Boulware in [[Fairfield County, South Carolina]]. She grew up in [[Stewart County, Georgia]] and married Jonathan Windsor in 1845. After Windsor's death six years later, she married John Pryor Durham, a physician, in 1854. Cassandra Durham would often accompany her second husband when he tended to patients, and together they had four children.<ref name=amer>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2IIMvgAACAAJ|title=Remembering Americus, Georgia: Essays on Southern Life|chapter=Georgia's First Female Doctor|pages=57–63|publisher=[[The History Press]]|year=2006|first=Alan|last=Anderson |isbn=9781596291317|oclc=67773716}}</ref> After her husband died in 1869, she sent her children to live with relatives and moved to [[Macon, Georgia]] to attend its Reform Medical College.<ref name=gwom>{{cite web|url=https://www.georgiawomen.org/cassandra-pickett-durham|title=Durham, Cassandra Pickett|publisher=[[Georgia Women of Achievement]]|date=March 1993 |accessdate=August 27, 2020|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200827181516/https://www.georgiawomen.org/cassandra-pickett-durham |archive-date=August 27, 2020}}</ref>
After graduating from the Reform Medical College, Durham became the first woman in the state of Georgia to earn a degree in medicine.<ref name=amer/> She moved to [[Americus, Georgia]] and took up [[eclectic medicine]], gathering and preparing [[medicinal herbs]] herself. In 1871, a local newspaper in Americus referred to her as a "Doctress in Medicine" and "a professional acquisition to the city".<ref name=amer/> She practiced in Americus for over 15 years, and although some male doctors objected to her practice, she built a successful practice with a patient base in and around Americus. A local journalist wrote at the time that Durham "has as good a knowledge of medicine as most of the gentlemen who practice. She commands the respect of every gentleman and lady of this section and is doing good business."<ref name=amer/>
Durham died suddenly in 1885 when she developed acute [[apoplexy]] while treating a patient.<ref name=amer/>
==Legacy== After Durham's death, four successive generations of her family continued the practice of medicine.<ref name=amer/> She was inducted into the list of [[Georgia Women of Achievement]] in 1993.<ref name=gwom/>
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{Georgia Women of Achievement |state=collapsed}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Durham, Cassandra Pickett}} [[Category:1824 births]] [[Category:1885 deaths]] [[Category:People from Americus, Georgia]] [[Category:People from Stewart County, Georgia]] [[Category:People from Fairfield County, South Carolina]] [[Category:Medical doctors from Georgia (U.S. state)]] [[Category:19th-century American women medical doctors]] [[Category:19th-century American medical doctors]]