ABANDONED HISTORY: Alternative medicine in the Lockport area – Lockport Union-Sun & Journal

At a time of little knowledge, when medicine was searching for answers how to help those needing care, several local healers were offering their assistance. In the 1880s, physicians were not licensed and traditional medicine was not yet organized. In the present day, their treatments would be considered alternative medicine. Here is some information about two such practitioners in late 19th century Niagara County.

Professor Wamon

Professor Wamon, the "magnetic healer," was based at the Magnetic Institute, 74 Walnut St., Lockport, in the 1880s. He traveled to local towns including Wilson, Somerset, Lyndonville and Medina, offering magnetic healing to those in need. An ad in the Lockport Journal, 1889, titled "Professor Wamons Public Healing!," listed his many skills. The report also mentioned:

He is certainly endowed with an astonishing and phenomenal healing gift, and thesebold, public exhibitions of his beneficent power, have now placed its absolutegenuineness and the reality of his singular cures beyond all doubt. The cures witnessedand carefully investigated by our reporter, he asserts, exceed in marvelousness any of theapparently incredible testimonials that have been so often advertised in the Journal in the past.

Further on in the advertisement, there are many stories of his miracle cures in local towns. Here is an example from Newfane:

Mrs. Hern lay on a sofa and had long been unable to walk from inflammatoryrheumatism. Within five seconds, she started up, ran and leaped several times,and next day amazed everybody by walking to church.

The belief was that as the professor placed his hands on the patient, magnetic radiation energy was passed from his hands through the patient's body, assisting in the healing process.

Magnetic healing was promoted as a drug-free approach to cures. The drugs that were available and utilized by traditional physicians at the time could be dangerous to your health.

Wamon was practicing his healing skills at a time when colleges, the government and the American Medical Association (AMA) were trying to standardize and license doctors, as there were many paths to becoming a doctor and many medical schools, some of questionable quality. The professor who never claimed to be a physician avoided this scrutiny.

Dr. Daniel Lester

According to city directories, Dr. Daniel Lester practiced in the Lockport area from the 1880s onward, with his first Electro-Medicated Bath at 144 Washburn St. Eventually in 1887, his facility, now named the Electro Therapeutic Bath, moved to 131 Church St. at Green Street. This large sandstone building is listed in an Index of Stone Buildings, which indicates that the house was once the residence of Patrick J. Hopkins, a blacksmith. S. Parmele and and Dr. Lester are also named as past owners. The listing, compiled by Teresa Lasher, can be found at the Niagara County Historian's Office.

Lester was educated at the Virginia Eclectic Medical College in Philadelphia. As an eclectic physician, Lester would have been trained in the use of non-traditional medicine. Eclectic physicians considered themselves open to a plan of treatment that would fit the patient; they were educated in the use of herbal medicines and alternative practices, which contrasted with the mainstream allopathic medicine of the time.

Lester also offered Electro-Therapeutic Baths as a treatment. These baths could range from an old-time tanning bed to a battery-powered machine producing low-level electric current through sponges placed on the body. They could also involve the use of hot and cold water and vapor.

Eclectic medicine was a reaction against established medical treatments of the era and there were many eclectic medical schools, some legitimate with a prescribed course of study and others which have been now labeled diploma mills. The last eclectic medical school closed in 1939. Before medical education was research-based, with schools certified and physicians licensed, much of the education was of unquantifiable quality.

As traditional medicine struggled with a questionable reputation, there developed a market for alternative healers. In early Lockport, Rattlesnake John sold boiled-down snake fat as a cure for rheumatism and other ailments. Doctor Dean the Sweat Doctor and Dr. Knapp practiced hydrotherapy and operated a water cure just up the street from Dr. Lesters Electro Therapeutic Baths. Sleights Mineral Baths was a few blocks away. Teasdill the charm doctor and many others operated in the city as well.

In 1905, Dr. Lester and his wife Mary are listed in the city directory as living at 186 Green St., just up the street from his Electro-Therapeutic Baths.

Life Animated will be presented from 7 to 9 p.m. April 28 at the North Park Theatre, 1428 Hertel Ave., Buffalo. This PG-rated, Academy Award-nominated documentary tells the story of Owen Suskind, a young man with autism who was unable to speak as a child until he and his family found a unique way to communicate via classic Disney animated films. The documentary is presented jointly by the Museum of disABILITY History and Autism Services Inc.; a brief discussion with Q-and-A will follow its airing. Tickets are $7.50 each; buy them at the North Park box office on the day of the show. For more information, go to disabilityfilmfest.org

Lockport native Jim Boles is a senior researcher with the Museum of disABILITY History, focused on early care and healing in Niagara County. His US&J column Abandoned History is published every other week. Contact him at Jboles@people-inc.org

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ABANDONED HISTORY: Alternative medicine in the Lockport area - Lockport Union-Sun & Journal