Occupations and Professions

59:1 CHIROPRACTIC (Dr. David W. Johnson)

LAKEWOOD PRESS - March 7, 1918, Pg. 13

That Chiropractic has made tremendous strides in the past ten years, and that the treatment is not only successful but entirely practical, is now admitted not only by those who have received its benefits but by most of the medical fraternity.

Some years ago, before those who have since admitted that Chiropractic is successful, it was hard for those practicing to gain even a hearing. Laws were passed antagonistic to such practice, and in other ways impediments were put in the way of such treatments. Since that time, year by year, however, it has become recognized by thousands as the practical remedy for many diseases and remarkable results have been obtained.

In Lakewood, Dr. David W. Johnson having offices and operating rooms at 15905 Detroit Avenue, has been so successful that his office hours are entirely taken up by "adjustments” and consultations. "Chiropractic," said Dr. Johnson to a Press man, "is so simple that a child could easily understand the benefits of it if it was explained.”

“It is easy to understand,” continued Dr. Johnson, “that any channel, if clogged, if the flow is impeded, will cause trouble, and it is just as easy to understand that if this clogged, impeded channel is opened the cause of disease removed, that health will result."

Dr. Johnson explained that there is a vast network of nerves that reach every portion of the body and governs the operation of every organ and every function of the body; that the main trunk line, the spinal cord, draws its nerves together like a great telephone cable down through the center of spinal column, from which the nerves radiate and send their local wires to every portion of the body.

The Chiropractic "adjustments" being on the spinal cord, its function restored, it is easy to see the benefits resulting from such treatments.

59:2 CHIROPRACTIC (JOHN BRACHER, D.C.)

LAKEWOOD PRESS - March 7, 1918, Pg. 28

That Lakewood people are alive to modern health methods is apparent from the large following that Chiropractic treatments have in the West End.

It has only been a comparatively short time since this method of combating disease was known, and it has been a still shorter time since it was introduced in this city. In spite of this the method of treatment has become so popular that Chiropractic is thoroughly known and many of the best known of Lakewood's residents take regular "adjustments”.

Being a graduate of the Universal School of Chiropractic of Davenport, Iowa, John Bracher, D.C., located in Lakewood four years ago and is the oldest practicing Chiropractor in this city.

Dr. Bracher is a graduate of Mount Union College, was connected with the Morgan Engineering Works, and was also the chief engineer of the Alliance Water Works. Realizing that the dawn of drugless healing was at hand he became a student at the Universal School, and after years of study graduated from this school and located in this city.

Being centrally located at 14820 Detroit Avenue, and having an office as well as reception room, and adjustment compartments, Dr. Bracher has many patients, all of whom are enthusiastic in the benefits they are receiving.

"Chiropractic," said the doctor to a Press man, "is now an acknowledged fact that and we are not laboring under the disadvantages of a few years ago when we had to practice without a license. Now the state recognizes the treatment, but this was only accomplished after an insistent demand from those who had been benefited."

59:3-4 EDUCATORS (Dr. J.P. Kirtland)

MAGAZINE OF WESTERN HISTORY - Vol. II, Pg. 76, pp 4, 5 to Pg. 78, pp 2

The natural history of this state was entrusted to Dr. Kirtland of Portland, Trumbull county, Ohio, who was professor of the theory and practice of medicine in the medical college of Cincinnati. He was educated as a practitioner of medicine at Philadelphia and at Yale, the best schools in the United States. His mother was the daughter of Dr. Potter, an eminent physician at Wallingford, Connecticut, who adopted his grandson as an heir. The proclivity of young Kirtland was much stronger in the direction of a naturalist than that of a physician. At the age of twelve years he investigated the varities of fruit grown in that region, and began the practice of budding.

His father, Turhand Kirtland, emigrated to Poland in 1798, having received the appointment of agent to the Connecticut land company, which he held until his death in 1834. In 1823 Dr. Kirtland removed to Ohio with his family, in order to be near his father. He was placed in charge of the public schools of Poland, a position more agreeable to him than the practice of medicine; but, in a new country, where physicians were scarce and fevers common, he was compelled by his surroundings to answer the calls of the sick. As a physician his reputation soon brought him an extensive practice, but in his extensive rides from cabin to cabin, his thoughts were absorbed by the luxuriant plants of the region and the variety of animal life, on land and in the waters. He soon declined to attend surgical cases, on account of the risk which practitioners ran of suits for malpractice.

As a naturalist he was self-educated. Nature had formed him mentally and physically for that mission. His observations on animal and vegetable life were acute and his activity untiring, guided by the inspiration of genius. In 1829, while studying the unio or fresh water mussels, he discovered that authors and teachers of conchology had made nearly double the number of species which are warrantable. Names had been given as species to what is only a difference of form, due to males and females of the same species. This conclusion was announced in Stilliman's 'Journal of Arts and Sciences.'

The fraternity of naturalists in the United States and Europe were astonished because of the value of the discovery and the source from which it came. There were hundreds and probably thousands of professors who had observed the unios, and enjoyed the pleasure of inventing new names for their varities. A practicing physician in the backwoods of Ohio had shattered the entire nomenclature of the naiades. His name from that time was well known and respected among naturalists. His conclusions were generally accepted, with the exception of the assistant secretary of the Smithsonian istitute. At the Cincinnati meeting of the American association, in 1852, Professor Kirtland produced specimens of unios of both sexes, from their conception through all stages to the perfect animal and its shell. The demonstration was palpable to everyone except Professor Baird, who renewed his criticisms upon Professor Kirtland's position. Agassiz was present and said that Kirtland's views were correct, and were sustained by such foreign naturalists as Seibold and Burnett, also in English by Charles Knight and in America by Isaac Lea. Those who cultivate trees for timber or for ornament should examine a British oak on his grounds at Rockport, from an acorn planted by himself. It is a handsome shade tree of rapid growth, and the wood is as solid as the live oak of the south.

59:5 FRUIT GROWING

HISTORY OF CUYAHOGA COUNTY - C. JOHNSON - 1879, Pg. 508

Fruit growing is one of the most important and remunerative industries in Rockport. The region especially devoted to it is that contiguous to Detroit Street between the township line and Rocky River, whence large supplies of all the kinds of fruit raised in this climate are annually conveyed to the Cleveland market.

Dr. J.P. Kirtland was one of the earliest, if not the earliest, to engage to any extent in fruit culture in Rockport, setting out a number of various kinds of trees in 1850. Not long afterward Lewis and Ezra Nicholson and others began a liberal cultivation of fruit. The business developed rapidly and in a short time assumed considerable proportions along the line of Detroit Street, and engaged the attention of all the dwellers upon that thoroughfare.

According to the published statistics, the value of fruit sent to Cleveland from Detroit Street in 1867 was $10,000, while in 1872 it was no less than $50,000. Fruit culture is by no means a losing business elsewhere in the township, but the peculiar characteristics of the soul on the northern ridge makes that the most profitable locality.

59:6 EARLY DOCTORS

OHIO ARCHAELOGICAL AND HISTORICAL PUBLICATIONS - Vol. 48, No. 3, Pg. 202

Pioneer doctors prior to 1835 made their visits on horseback. Their equipment, therefore, included a good saddle and saddle-bags. In those days saddles represented quite an outlay. Saddle-bags were thrown over the horse's shoulders in front of the saddle, and in them drugs and instruments were carried. Sometimes a case of instruments was fitted into the bag. One pair of saddle-bags in our Museum has a note attached recording that they were made by a saddler in Allentown, Pennsylvania, at a cost of ten dollars. In crossing swollen streams the bags were hung around the doctor's shoulders to keep dry. If the doctor was not able to finish his journey by nightfall he tethered his horse and slept, pillowing his head on the precious bags. When he had examined his patient he sat down with the bags across his knees, exploring their double pockets for appropriate medication.

By far the most important equipment of this old time physician was his horse. Not infrequently he had two in order to rest one after a tiring journey to a remote settlement. The greatest obstacle between doctor and patient was communication. Once he could reach the patient's bedside with his meager equipment he was ready to battle any emergency. His horse was the link with his patient. It had to be a good swimmer for every spring the trails led to washed out bridges, or the usual ford would be found swollen in flood. The story is told of Dr. David Long, Cleveland's first physician, that he once returned at night from beyond Rocky River by the same road he had taken to reach there. The next day he was surprised to learn that his horse had brought him back in the dark over a single stringer of the bridge which was washed out after he had gone over it on his outward journey.

59:7 PHYSICIANS (ROCKY RIVER)

MAGAZINE OF WESTERN HISTORY - Vol. III, Pg. 50

(Exhibit Historical Society of Cleveland)

Blade of an amputation knife of the old Benj. Bell model, adapted to a surgeon's pocket-case of instruments; found near the ashes, coals and rubbish of the old campfire on Capt. Tisdale's farm, Rocky River. Presented by Dr. Kirtland.

As one looks at this blade how many questions arise, only to be left unanswered. We know that in the war against Pontiac, in 1763, an expedition under the English was wrecked at Rocky River, and that many batteaux were destroyed and many men were drownded. Among those who perished is supposed to have been Dr. Williams of the Eightieth British regulars. Perhaps this knife belonged to him, and, useless without its master, was thrown aside. Its history is uncertain, but it remains to tell us that among that early expedition west, and beside what was, perhaps, the first campfire built by white men on the Western Reserve, was a surgeon, whose office it was to do what lay within his power to alleviate the sufferings of his fellows. The knife seems in fitting company with swords and muskets. With them it had been mid scenes of danger; it had, perhaps, caused suffering; but it had also helped to save the lives of those who, in risking their lives, helped to save and perpetrated the supremacy of the English race upon the continent. Thirty years and more elapsed before a physician again visited the Reserve.

59:8 PHYSICIANS (DR. LONG, DR. KIRTLAND)

MAGAZINE OF WESTERN HISTORY - Vol. III, Pg. 52-53

One morning Dr. Long started early from Painsville where he had spent the previous night, and coming to Cleveland hastened through his business as rapidly as possible in order to pass Rocky River before nightfall en route for Black river. Darkness overtook him, however, before he had reached Rocky River. Fording the stream, in spite of the darkness he attempted to climb the steep bank on the other side. Unfortunately he missed the path and his efforts to climb the bank were met by difficulties. Climbing a little way he would either slip back or be pulled back by his horse falling, and it was only after a prolonged effort he reached the top of the bank beyond the river. Here again failing to find the path he finally desisted, unsaddled his horse, and using the saddle for a pillow, tied the horse to his ankle and slept until daybreak, when he proceeded to Black river.

The fording of streams was often attended with great difficulty and even danger. The daughter of Dr. Kirtland remembers to have seen him return home one cold winter's day, his clothes frozen perfectly stiff about him. He had been obliged to cross a swollen stream, swimming his horse, and ride a considerable distance home afterward.

59:9 SEWING MACHINES

ANNALS OF CLEVELAND (COURT RECORD SERIES) - Vol. 10, No. 177

George Stead and Alden Guilford had an agency contract with W. C. Eggleston to sell the Lillise Ankle-Motion Treadle, a device used on sewing machines. Stead sold his interest to Guilford for $10, and Guilford sold his interest to Russell Beach.

Eggleston on November 11, 1876 in a written contract gave Beach the exclusive right to sell the Lillis treadle in Cuyahoga and Lorain counties, Ohio. Eggleston agreed to supply Beach with every size and kind of treadle needed. For each treadle shipped to him in Lorain county, Beach was to pay Eggleston $2.00. Beach was to receive a commission of $2 on each sale made in Cuyahoga county. He was to employ canvassers and pay for local advertising. Eggleston was to furnish circulars and an office for Beach.

Beach declared that Eggleston did not supply him with the kinds of treadles needed and after December 16 he failed to supply any. He failed to furnish an office and the printed matter necessary to introduce the treadles. Eggleston denied this. He stated however that Beach appropriated the proceeds from the sale of 53 treadles.

Beach admitted receiving the 53 treadles but contended Eggleston never requested an account of them, which he at all times was willing to give.

Stead and John B. Culbertson, a salesman for Beach, deposed that Eggleston did not furnish Beach with a sufficient variety of treadles to carry on the business successfully. Culbertson averred it required 35 to 65 types and sizes of treadles to conduct the agency properly. Culbertson obtained 250 orders but could not fill 244 of them. Eggleston furnished treadles suitable for 10 makes of machines, among which were the Singer, Howe, Wheeler, American, Domestic, Florence and Victor. The treadles were fairly satisfactory only on the Singer machines.

Eggleston averred that Beach did nothing to further the sale of the treadles; he even told potential customers that the treadles were worthless. Until November 30, 1876 he furnished Beach an office at 11 City Hall, paying a rental of $16.62 a month; this was too expensive, as the business did not pay because of Beach's negligence. He claimed that Beach abandoned the business entirely after December 30.

Beach asserted he was damaged to the extent of $300 and on February 5, 1877 filed suit against Eggleston in the court of Justice of the Peace L Dean in Rockport Township. Eggleston did not appear in court and Beach was given a judgment of $150 and costs amounting to $6.90.

Eggleston appealed the case to the Court of Common Pleas, asking for judgment of $300 with interest from February 5, 1877. A jury returned a verdict for $100 in Beach's favor. Eggleston filed a motion for a new trial. The Case was settled in the September 1878 term of court at Eggleston's costs.