Sunday, October 20, 2013 will mark the 100th year anniversary of the death of DD Palmer. This record of the memorial service to honor DD’s passing came from Peter H. Morgan, DC
MEMORIAL SERVICE
In Respect to Dr. D. D. Palmer, Discoverer of Chiropractic, October 23, 1913, at The P.S.C.
In respect to D. D. Palmer, discoverer of Chiropractic, who died at Los Angeles, Monday morning, October 20th (1913), memorial services were held at The Palmer School of Chiropractic, Chiropractic Fountain Head, Davenport, Iowa, Wednesday morning, October 22nd. A full account of the services follows:
Dr. A. B. Hender: We are assembled here this morning for the purpose of paying our respects to the memory of the Founder and Discoverer of Chiropractic, Dr. D. D. Palmer, whom we consider the parent of this science. We have with us some speakers who knew Dr. Palmer personally, and were well acquainted with his early work. I am going to ask that there be no applause of any kind, as we are gathered here in a different cause than for which we usually gather, and for a different reason. Following the services this morning, school will be dismissed. There will be no official duties. We are going to be here this afternoon to take care of such practice member as may be here, who could not be notified of the fact of our closing down. The first speaker I am going to introduce this morning is Reverend Weed of Monmouth, Ill. Rev. Weed was in close touch with Dr. D. D. Palmer and named the science.
Reverend Samuel H. Weed: Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: I think I would not stand before you here today were it not for the science of Chiropractic of which I have received the benefit from Dr. D. D. Palmer and Dr. B. J. Palmer, and others who have learned the science and practice the method. I first knew Dr. D. D. Palmer in 1894. I felt sad when I heard the news yesterday that he had departed this life. I will endeavor to briefly relate the circumstances under which I formed his acquaintance. My daughter, at the World’s Fair Exposition in Chicago, in 1893, dislocated her ankle and though she set it herself, which was a remarkable thing for her to do, the ankle proved a grave trouble to her. She employed three celebrated physicians who were recommended in Chicago. They gave her the best treatment the M.D’s knew how to give. She came home and suffered for months. One day she said to me, “Father, I want to go to Dr. Palmer. I hear him recommended.” He was then practicing the magnetic treatment. I said to her, “You don’t want to go to that quack, do you?” She remarked that she had been unable to sleep for about three weeks, and that she was suffering intense pain with her ankle, and she said, “I feel that I will die if I do not get relief, and I want to go to Dr. Palmer.” I said to her, “If you look on it that way, go.”
It was about the middle of the week when she left home; she was using crutches, as she could not put her foot to the ground. The Saturday evening following, we were surprised to see her coming home carrying her crutches in her hands, walking on that sore foot. She returned and took further treatment and was cured by the magnetic process, and came home and said, “Now, father, it is your time to go.”
I was an old soldier and had contracted disease in the army that had continued with me all of those years, and I was in a bad state of health. I protested, but she insisted. I came and took an examination. The doctor said he thought he could help me, but I went away without taking treatments. Dr. Palmer located my trouble on the left side, just over the spleen, and when I spoke to my son Robert about it he laughed at the idea and said that every person is tender at that place. I concluded that I was different from other people in that respect when I found that I could not make him flinch by punching in that place. So I came to Dr. Palmer and he relieved me from the trouble from which I had suffered for many years. That was in July, 1894.
Afterwards, I came to him for another trouble. It was the next year, in 1895, and he told me he had discovered a new method of relieving disease, and he gave me adjustments, and I got relieved. Later, after the members of my family had come and received benefit, I came again, and Dr. Palmer told me that he had discovered a new method of treatment but it was without a name. He wanted a name from the Greek language. I suggested three or four different names. I gave them to him for consideration. He looked them over, and finally decided to take the name “Chiropractic,” from “cheir” which means “hand,” in Greek, and “praktos” which means “done.” That is the history of the name of this science.
A short time after that, there was a gentleman whom I met in Henry County. He told me of the trouble his daughter had. He had seen a testimonial of mine in reference to Chiropractic, and he wanted to know about it. He told me his daughter, Miss Abbie, was suffering with a spine trouble. The medical doctors had said that the only relief for it was to enclose the spine in a cast and thus strengthen it, and they put a mechanical support on the spinal column for the purpose of enabling her to support the upper portion of her body. They fed her with food that would induce the growth of bone. They gave her medicine with that in view. They succeeded in ankylosing the spine. This only increased her misery. It was endangering her life. It was making an encroachment upon the nerves that prevented the energy passing through those nerves to the different vital organs of the body. It is no wonder that she was almost in despair on account of it. Following my advice, the gentleman sent his daughter to Dr. Palmer and he brought her out.
The support was thrown away. The ankylosis was broken up, and the nerves were free, and she regained good health. She wrote a letter to Dr. Palmer, thanking him for what he had done for her. This letter was published by Dr. Palmer, and it was plagiarized, or stolen, by another who endeavored to set up a school in opposition to Dr. Palmer, in Iowa City, and take away the students from this institution. The head man of that college—there were three Chiropractors that had learned under Dr. D. D. Palmer—stole that testimonial and placed his own name in place of Dr. D. D. Palmer’s, and published that letter as one that had been addressed to himself. This appeared to me to be a great damage, and through credit to Dr. Palmer for what he had done for me, I exposed the matter to him, and he did the matter justice in his future publications.
Now I will state another thing personal, and then I will continue some remarks about the science that has been discovered and is being taught so largely in this institution. When we had learned of the success of Chiropractic, I came to Dr. Palmer one day and said, “Doctor, what will you take to cure me of everything that ails me?” “Well,” he said, “I do not cure anybody. I simply open up the way for Innate Intelligence to do the cure. I adjust and free the nerves from impingement, and Innate does the balance. But if you wish, I will adjust you for everything that ails you and I think you will come out all right.” I asked him what he would charge, and he told me a figure which was a mere nominal sum, and I told him to go ahead.
In the end, I felt better than I had felt at any time since I left the service of the country in 1864, and I felt that I had regained my youth. Immediately after that my son came up from Rock Island and asked me about my health and about the treatment I had received, and I told him that I was well; that Dr. Palmer had done that which was necessary to allow me to become well. He said, “Father, now is the time to take life insurance.” I was going without life insurance because my health had never been such since I left the service that I could have taken a medical examination that would give a certificate of sufficient health to be received into any insurance company.
I protested that I did not wish to do that, that I did not believe I could stand an examination. “Why,” he said, “didn’t you say that Dr. Palmer had cured you?” I said, “Well, that seemed to be the case; I do not feel any infirmity of any kind.” “Well, then, go and get insured,” he said. I thought it over, and I did. I went to the old family physician who had treated me for years, to take the examination. He told me, “You have come to the wrong person. I know too much about you, Mr. Weed.” “Well,” I said, “I don’t want insurance if I am not entitled to it, but I would like to take the examination. I feel pretty well now;” and I did not mention Dr. Palmer. This physician was in the habit of speaking of those that used magnetic treatment as “long-haired skeezicks”—so I did not name Dr. Palmer. He examined my lungs and expressed surprise to find them in such good condition. So he proceeded with all of the organs, and he gave me a certificate by which I was admitted to life insurance.
For this I have felt very grateful to Dr. D. D. Palmer. I cherish his memory for the benefit that I have received. Later, I had an attack of dropsy. I went to him and got relief. Sixteen months later, the dropsy appeared in nearly the same form, and again I came to B. J. Palmer and got relief, and I have never had any symptoms of that disease since.
Now if I were to preach a funeral of Dr. D. D. Palmer, I would take a text from the Acts of the Apostles, 13th Chapter, 36th verse, that says:
“For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, . . .” meaning that he was buried, of course. Dr. Palmer has served his generation after the will of God. This science was started by him, it was discovered by him. I believe firmly that God raises up men for special purposes, and that He raised up D. D. Palmer for the purpose of giving to the world this science in its beginning, and that he raised up his son who is here with this institution to develop the science and give it to the world, one of the greatest boons the world has ever received. Dr. Palmer, the father, has served his generation after the will of God. Dr. Palmer, the son, is serving his generation after the will of God—and it will be a grand record that the two leave behind them.
