Cornelius McKane
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Dr. Cornelius McKane (February 2, 1862 – 1912) was a Guyanese-American physician and educator. With his wife Alice Woodby McKane, he founded medical schools and hospitals in Savannah, Georgia and Monrovia, Liberia.[1] The descendant of an African king, he was urged by his grandmother to return to his African roots to help his people. Upon his family's return to the United States, the Doctors McKane founded a hospital for African-Americans.
McKane was born on February 2, 1862, in Georgetown, British Guiana. McKane's maternal great grandfather was Mannah Funacai, or "King George", ruler of the Vai and Dey tribes of what is now part of modern Liberia. His daughter Funicai was sold into slavery as a child, by her mother Twahalla, who was sold by King George for assisting the settlers of the American colonization society. King Funacai was resentful towards the Americans for attempting to stop the slave trade, in which he was very active, and resettling freedmen there. He attacked them relentlessly and forbade his people from helping them. Twahalla disobeyed, and he sold her. She then sold his favorite daughter, which was Funicai and they were both transported to Guyana by a Dutch shipping agent.[2] Her surviving daughter was McKane's mother.[3]
He accompanied his parents to Liberia when he was ten years old. At 18, he decided to move to the United States for an education. There he met Moses P. Wester, who housed him and helped him get a basic education.
In 1882 he returned to Liberia to study native languages and Arabic. He became an instructor in rural Sherbro, and eventually met the youngest sister of his great-grandmother, who said, "Tako-neh-ebenu Allah! (You have come bring God!)". He resolved to get more education and return to his people as a physician. He obtained medical degrees at the University of Vermont Medical College[4] and Dartmouth Medical College.[3]
Early medical career
McKane traveled to Savannah, Georgia as he had heard of a need for medical doctors to serve the African descended community there.[1] He co-founded the Southern Medical Association with three other doctors in 1892. In 1904, they expanded membership to dentists and pharmacists.[5]
He married Dr. Alice Woodby in 1893.[6] They founded the McKane Training School for Nurses later the same year.[7] Cornelius was an administrator, and Alice was the principal.