[1] He was educated at the medical department of Union University in Albany, New York and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Maryland.

When he was forty, Gordon suffered a nervous breakdown, travelled widely and lost faith in medicine.

Doctors gave him only thirty days to live but he survived another eleven years, whilst his wife cared for him.

[1] Gordon was a vegetarian and believed that "alcohol, tobacco, and flesh food was the trinity of all existing evil for mankind".

[1] The Encyclopedia of American Biography noted that Gordon is "one of the pioneer vegetarian advocates of the United States".