Austin, Harriet N. (1825–1891), hydropathic physician and health and dress reformer, was born in Connecticut but raised in Moravia, New York. Little is known about her parentage or early life. At age twenty-six she enrolled in the first class of the coeducational American Hydropathic Institute operated by ...
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Austin, Harriet N. (1825-1891), hydropathic physician and health and dress reformer
Jane B. Donegan
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Kellogg, John Harvey (1852-1943), physician, surgeon, and health reformer
Richard W. Schwarz
Kellogg, John Harvey (26 February 1852–14 December 1943), physician, surgeon, and health reformer, was born in rural Livingston County, Michigan, the son of John Preston Kellogg and Anne Stanley, farmers. In 1852 Kellogg’s parents accepted the religious teachings that led to the organization of the Seventh-day Adventist church in 1863. This decision had a marked influence on their son’s life. By 1856 the family had resettled in Battle Creek, Michigan. Part of the proceeds from the sale of their farm was used to relocate the infant Adventist publishing plant from Rochester, New York, to Battle Creek, where Kellogg’s father now operated a small store and broom shop....
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Merrick, Myra King (1825-1899), physician and educator
Anne Taylor Kirschmann
Merrick, Myra King (15 August 1825–10 November 1899), physician and educator, was born in Hinckley, Leicestershire, England, the daughter of Richard King, a brickmaker, and Elizabeth (maiden name unknown). In 1826 the family emigrated to the United States and settled in Taunton, Massachusetts. At the age of eight, Myra began working in Taunton’s textile mills, helping to support a family that now numbered five children. In 1841 the family moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where she secured employment as a nurse to several physicians in the area and developed an interest in medicine as a profession. After her marriage to builder and machinist Charles H. Merrick in 1848, the couple moved to Connecticut, where she began the study of medicine under New Haven physicians Eli Ives, professor of theory and practice of medicine at Yale University, and his obstetrician son, Levi Ives....
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Nichols, Mary Gove (1810-1884), reformer and author
Marilyn Elizabeth Perry
Nichols, Mary Gove (10 August 1810–30 May 1884), reformer and author, was born Mary Sargeant Neal in Goffstown, New Hampshire, the daughter of William A. Neal and Rebecca R. Neal. Although Mary’s formal education was limited, with encouragement from her freethinking father she was reading by the age of six. Her father treated her like a son, and the two often engaged in “intellectual sparring.” Despite her abilities, Mary was a shy and lonely child who never felt equal to her siblings....
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Nichols, Thomas Low (1815-1901), hydrotherapist, health educator, and writer
Jean Silver-Isenstadt
Nichols, Thomas Low (1815–1901), hydrotherapist, health educator, and writer, was born in Orford, New Hampshire. His parents, whose names are unknown, were probably farmers. After growing up in New England, he enrolled in Dartmouth Medical College in 1834, only to drop out without earning a degree. Over the next six years he pursued journalism, submitting columns to the ...
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Trall, Russell Thacher (1812-1877), hydropathic physician and health reformer
Jane B. Donegan
Trall, Russell Thacher (05 August 1812–23 September 1877), hydropathic physician and health reformer, was born in Vernon, Connecticut. His parents’ names and occupations are unknown. Trall spent his boyhood in western New York, where he worked on a farm before illness led him to seek medical treatment. Dissatisfied with the result and determined to improve his health, Trall studied with a local preceptor and in 1835 received an M.D. after completing a course of medical lectures at Albany Medical College. He married Rebecca (her maiden name and the date of their marriage are unknown); they had one child....
