Hydrotherapy - Hydrotherapy in The United States

Hydrotherapy in The United States

The first U.S. hydropathic facility has been attributed to Joel Shew (1816–1855), in 1843 or 1844, and to Russell Thatcher Trall ('R.T. Trall'. 1812-1877) in 1844. The American Cyclopedia states "the first establishment appears to have been that opened in 1844, at No. 63 Barclay Street, New York", with David Campbell the proprietor and Joel Shew the physician. Campbell also founded the Water Cure Journal

Metcalfe attributes the first establishment to Dr Charles Munde, although this is not supported by Munde himself, or by historical evidence now available. Munde describes himself as becoming familiar with Priessnitz' methods around 1836, and later migrating from Germany, where he treated scarlet fever cases in Dresden during the winter of 1845-46. Munde's son recalls that the family went to the area now called Florence, Massachusetts "in the early fifties", after his father had struggled "for nearly a year in New York in search of a practice". A blind African American man named David Ruggles had previously set up a water cure practice, and after his death in 1849, Charles Munde learned "of the opportunity to take up his favorite method", which led him to pick up where Ruggles left off, thence to the naming of Florence, and accordingly, the name of the Florence Water Cure, also called the Munde Water Cure.

By 1850, it was said that "now there are probably more than one hundred", along with numerous books and periodicals, including the New York Water Cure Journal, which had "attained an extent of circulation equalled by few monthlies in the world". By 1855, there were attempts by some to weigh the evidence of treatments in vogue at that time.

The experience of Mary S. Gove and Dr Thomas L. Nichols illustrates this growth. In 1844, Dr. Wesselboeft opened a "water cure house" in Brattleboro, Vermont, which Mary S. Gove attended to observe Wesselhoeft's practice, following which she was resident physician at the Lebanon Springs establishment. She then went to New York, where she observed Dr Shew's establishment in Bond Street, and in May 1845, opened her own establishment at 261 Tenth-Street, where she gave lectures, took board and day patients, and attended out-door practice. "The first two years I had a large number of board-patients, who came from a distance, from Connecticut, Northern New York, Rhode Island, Ohio, Kentucky, and several from the Southern States". A few years later, the character of her practice had changed, involving fewer board patients, as establishments opened throughout the country. Gove teamed up with Dr Nichols after they became acquainted in 1848. Nichols reports that his own attention was first drawn to water cure "by the celebrated letter of Bulwer, which was an earnest and enthusiastic, but in some respects mistaken advocacy of the system".

Other notable American hydropathy proponents of that era were R.T. Trall, who wrote several works and co-edited the Water Cure Journal, Following the introduction of hydrotherapy to the U.S., John Harvey Kellogg employed it at Battle Creek Sanitarium, which opened in 1866, where he strove to improve the scientific foundation for hydrotherapy. Other notable hydropathic centers of the era included the Cleveland Water Cure Establishment, founded in 1848, which operated successfully for two decades, before being sold to an organization which transformed it into an orphanage.

At its height, there were over 200 water-cure establishments in the United States, most located in the northeast. Few of these lasted into the postbellum years, although some survived into the 20th century including institutions in Scott (Cortland County), Elmira, Clifton Springs and Dansville. While none were located in Jefferson County, the Oswego Water Cure operated in the city of Oswego.