Abraham Okie (1819-1882) was one of six children born to Abraham and Abigail Okie in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1841, he married and had six children with his wife, Henrietta. Okie moved to Providence with his family and lived in three different residences during his time in the city.

The reason Dr. Okie is included here is because Edgar Allan Poe was one of his patients in 1848. On November 9th of that year, Poe sat for his incredibly infamous “Ultima Thule” daguerreotype in Providence. Immediately after the sitting, he visited Whitman at her house on Benefit Street in a frantic state, begging her to save him from some terrible, impending doom. The night prior, Poe had engaged in a bout of heavy drinking at his hotel, not to mention he had attempted suicide three days before that. Concerned for Poe’s mental and physical state, Whitman’s mother, Anna Power, called on Dr. Okie to come to the house and examine Poe. After the brief house visit, Dr. Okie advised that Poe stay at the home of a friend so that he would have a proper eye kept on him during his recovery. William Jewett Pabodie took Poe into his home and cared for him over the next few days.

Dr. Abraham Okie died in 1882 and is buried at Swan Point Cemetery.