John Franklin Gray (September 23, 1804 – June 9, 1882) was an American educator and physician, a pioneer in the field of homoeopathy and one of its first practitioners in the United States.

Dr. Gray's father served as a captain in Col. Samuel Whiting's 4th regiment of the Connecticut Militia in the American Revolutionary War.

His life was celebrated by the poet John Greenleaf Whittier, at his funeral in 1859 thus recalls him: When watched by eyes that love him, calm and sage, Slow fade his late declining years away.His mother was Diantha Burritt,[4][5] (January 9, 1776 - October 14, 1846) the daughter of the Rev.

He then left for Dunkirk, New York, where he opened a private school, studying medicine all the time under Dr. Ezra Williams.

[13] During the time of his studies he was appointed assistant surgeon in the navy; and as it was necessary that he should be a graduate or licentiate in order to hold this position, he was accorded a license by the county medical society.

[10] Immediately after graduating and completing his residency, he opened an office on Charlton Street in New York City.

Dr. Gray's success in obtaining patients and social patronage was very strong and rapid; so much so, that in his first year he was enabled to get married and to support a moderate house comfortably, and in his second to sustain a doctor's horse and gig.

Soon after starting in private practice he began the study of the French language, and carried it far enough to read medical authors; two years later he began the German, and kept at it till he could read it fluently and even speak it with palpable scope and accuracy of diction.

Strong, George Baxter; corresponding secretary, Federal Vanderburgh; recording secretary, Daniel Seymour; treasurer, F. A. Lohse; registrar, A. Gerald Hull; librarian, F. L. Wilsey; finance committee, J. H. Patterson, Oliver S. Strong, L. M. H. Butler, William Bock.

Every week, the Grays hosted a salon remarkable for attracting the leading artists and intellectuals of the day as well as other prominent medical men of the city who attended, and they became well known as social leaders in the city, supporting causes such as the abolition of slavery and women's suffrage.

Dr. Gray befriended the poets William Cullen Bryant,[17] John Greenleaf Whittier and Walt Whitman and was a patron of American artists including, Asher Brown Durand and Frederic Edwin Church as well as Samuel Morse, the inventor of telegraphy He was also a well-known and prominent Spiritualist[18][19] in New York as well as a frequent lecturer on the subject.