The collection incldues biographical sketch of Zina Pitcher and the Backus-Pitcher family genealogical information. Correspondence includes scattered letters relating to Pitcher's activities as Medical School professor at the University of Michigan; Emily Louisa Pitcher's undated letter to the University of Michigan President Angell in which she writes about Dr. Pitcher's professional accomplishments; a letter by the former University of Michigan professor of botany and founder of the Harvard Herbarium Asa Gray, addressed to Emily Pitcher. Collected Backus family papers include Civil War documents. Also included documents relating to Detroit property, notably a deed agreement with the Association for the Promotion of Female Education.
Zina Pitcher was born at Fort Edwards, Washington County, New York, April 14, 1797. He received his education in the local schools. At the age of twenty Pitcher went to the Castleton School to attend medical lectures and studied medicine with neighboring physicians. After having completed his term at Castleton, he was admitted to Middlebury College. Dr. Pitcher graduated from Middlebury College in 1822. He was appointed Assistant Surgeon in the U.S. Army by President Monroe in 1822 and was promoted to the position of Surgeon by President Jackson. In 1835 he became President of the Army Medical Board. He resigned, after fifteen years of service.
According to an undated letter of Pitcher's wife Emily Backus Pitcher to the University of Michigan President James Burrill Angell, Pitcher was responsible for selecting Ann Arbor as the site of the University of Michigan campus. Pitcher was instrumental, she continues, in bringing a number of outstanding faculty members. Among them, she names the Dean of Medical School Abram Sager and Silas H. Douglass, professor of Chemistry, among others.
Pitcher served as the Regent of the University of Michigan between 1836 and 1851. He took active interest in the establishment of the Medical Department. One of the streets on the University of Michigan medical campus has his name.
Pitcher held the office of Mayor of Detroit in 1840-1841 and 1843. During this period he influenced the development of public school system in the city. A Detroit elementary school established in 1928 was named after Pitcher (the school was closed in 2006).
From 1848 to 1867 Pitcher served as a physician at St. Mary's Hospital and also as a surgeon at U.S. Marine Hospital in Detroit, and was appointed Examiner of the Mint in 1859.
Pitcher was a founding member and trustee, and the first president of Wayne County Medical Society. He also served as a director of the Detroit Savings Fund Institute (later Detroit Bank and Trust and now Comerica Bank). In addition, he served as a trustee of the Kalamazoo Asylum (later the Kalamazoo State Hospital).
Pitcher married Ann Sheldon of Kalamazoo County in 1824. They had two children, Nathaniel and Rose. Ann died in 1864. In 1867 Pitcher married Emily Louisa Montgomery (1825-1903), granddaughter of Col. Rochester of Virginia, the founder of Rochester, NY.
Dr. Zina Pitcher died on April 4, 1872.
