Abstract
There may be no more exemplary story of the development of natural healing within chiropractor-naturopaths than the story of Henry J. Schlichting, Jr. of Midland, Texas. Schlichting was trained as a chiropractor in Oklahoma, and moved to Texas in 1941, setting himself up as a naturopath. At the time, neither chiropractors nor naturopaths were licensed in Texas. Schlichting became a leader within natural healing professionals, first within Texas, and then nationally. He became a trusted ally of both Robert Carroll and of Dr. Budden at Western States College. He and his Texas naturopaths achieved licensed status in 1949. In the early 1950s all looked bright; and then it all turned dark. This is Part 1
On the evening of July 17, 1953, the commencement for 37 recipients of the degree of Doctor of Naturopathy took place in the Auditorium at Western States College in Portland, Oregon. This special commencement was scheduled as the Tuesday night program for the 1953 annual convention of the American Naturopathic Physicians and Surgeons Association; as the immediate Past President of the ANPSA Henry J. Schlichting, Jr. of Midland, Texas, was in attendance. (Journal of the ANPSA, September, 1953 (volume 6, number 6))
As Schlichting had said a year earlier in a speech at WSC the prospects for naturopaths seemed good as this WSC Class of 1953 graduated, most of them as DC, NDs. But the forces of medical dominance were building starting back home in Texas even as Schlichting was attending the convention in Portland. Within six years natural healing in the United States would be much diminished. No career demonstrates this as clearly as that of Schlichting, a remarkable man and physician who by the end of the 1950s had been barred by the State of Texas from practicing his chosen profession and who had lost almost everything.
Introduction to Dr. Schlichting
Henry J. (Hank) Schlichting, Jr. was born in Fowler, Kansas in 1915, and was raised – or as he put it “reared” – in Weatherford, Oklahoma. As previously discussed in the last column (February, 2019) by 1938, at age 23, he had graduated from Oklahoma City’s Carver Chiropractic College and relocated to Amarillo in the Texas panhandle where he joined “Dr. Roy G. Moore’s Chiropractic Hospital – Serving the Entire Southwest” as “Assistant Specializing in Dislocations and Fractures.” By the fall of 1941 he had relocated to Midland, Texas, and opened his own practice, the Modern Health Clinic. He advertised himself as “Dr. Henry Schlichting, Jr., Naturopathic Physician Specializing in Fractures and Dislocations.” (El Paso Herald Post, Monday, 8 April, 1957; Amarillo Globe-Times (TX), Monday, 09 May, 1938; Amarillo Sunday News and Globe, Sunday, 14 August, 1938; Midland Reporter Telegram, Wednesday, 26 November, 1941 and Monday, 24 November, 1941 and Monday, 12 January, 1942)
How Schlichting came to call himself a Naturopath is somewhat unclear. In the mid-1930s there was no licensing in Oklahoma or Texas for either chiropractors or naturopaths. Carver Chiropractic College in Oklahoma City taught obstetrics, minor surgery and a broader use of adjustive technique than “straight” chiropractic. Texas was mostly dominated by straights through the influence of the Texas Chiropractic College in San Antonio. While Schlichting’s early training was in chiropractic, and he was first in chiropractic practice in the Amarillo, Texas area when he settled in Midland in 1941 he allied himself with the naturopaths in Texas and always called himself a naturopath. (Various issues of the Midland Reporter Telegram from 1941-1944 carried ads for Dr. Schlichting’s practice “emphasizing fractures and dislocations;” the Carver technique is discussed in Wardwell, Walter (1992) Chiropractic: History and Evolution of a New Profession (St. Louis, Mosby, Inc.).)
Also by the fall of 1941 he had joined the newly formed American Naturopathic Association of Texas. At the organization’s first statewide convention in Dallas – attended by more than 500 initial members – he was elected Secretary-Treasurer. This quick ascension into the leadership ranks of the naturopaths of Texas led in turn to his connection with the Western ANA group and with Robert V. Carroll (Midland Reporter Telegram, Monday, 24 November, 1941).
Dr. Schlichting & the Western ANA
At the 1942 convention of the American Naturopathic Association in Chicago – the convention that was boycotted by Benedict Lust, Jesse Mercer Gehmann, T.J. Schippel and their allies that became the Eastern group. They held a “rump” convention of about 75 Eastern naturopaths in Atlantic City in anticipation of the Chicago convention electing someone other than Lust as ANA President. In Chicago Fredric Dugdale of Portland, Maine was elected President. The President of the ANA of Texas, which since its formation in 1940 had delivered the biggest state representation to the ANA, was H.A. Brown of Canyon, Texas. He was elected 1st Vice president of the national ANA under Dugdale (Robert Carroll stayed as Chairman of the Board of Directors) and in 1944 Brown was elected national President. When Carroll succeeded Brown as ANA President in 1946 he tapped Schlichting as his Secretary. (See previous column re: ANA convention of 1942 and The Canyon (TX) News, Thursday, 02 November and Thursday, 09 November, 1944 and Thursday, 25, October, 1945 re: H.A. Brown, ND.)
What made Schlichting stand out to Robert Carroll must be hazarded at, but Carroll was a superb leader and organization man and he recruited many significant naturopaths into the profession and into the Western ANA. He recruited john Bastyr and many others in Washington State into naturopathy before moving onto to the national stage. Schlichting had much to commend him: he became a strong ally of Harry Brown in the Texas ANA, and organization that grew to more than 400 members most of whom also joined the national; he was a talented writer and speaker; and he was a strong organization man.
Once he was placed as national Secretary by Carroll, Schlichting brought all of these talents to the national ANA. He continued to advance naturopathy in Texas, and he built a busy, thriving practice in Midland. Throughout the 1940s he advertised specializing in fractures and dislocations. Midland was a Western Texas oil town, and oil roughneck work was notorious for its physical toll. The Carver techniques emphasized minor surgery and a “structural” approach to chiropractic. This became known in chiropractic as the Carver Technique and as it evolved it became one of the roots of naturopathic physical medicine.
More Background on Clinical Practice
Willard Carver “opened the Carver-Denny School of Chiropractic in Oklahoma City in 1906, which in 1908 became the Carver Chiropractic College…Carver’s philosophy gave equal importance to any anatomically produced ‘nerve occlusion,’ whether or not related to the vertebral column, while his structural approach to biomechanics became more ‘holisitic’ than B.J.’s (Palmer) segmental one-bone-out-of-place approach.” (Wardwell, Walter (1992) Chiropractic: History and Evolution of a New Profession (St. Louis, Mosby, Inc.))
Carver established four chiropractic schools, in New York City, Washington, D.C. and Denver in addition to Oklahoma City. It was the Denver school that became most significant to natural healing education and clinical technique. As Walter Wardwell described the relevant history: “Homer G. Beatty (1897-1951), who had graduated from Carver’s Oklahoma school in 1922, became the dean of the Colorado school in 1923 and its president in 1924, serving until his death in 1951. In 1939 Beatty published Anatomical Adjustive Technique. By 1935 the school was reorganized as the nonprofit University of the Natural healing Arts, which offered three doctoral degrees, D.C., N.D. and D.P.T. (Doctor of Physical Therapy), the last requiring 3 years of study rather than the 4 required for the others…” (Wardwell, p. 89)
Homer G. Beatty, DC, ND, is a part of the story of the professionalization of natural healing for several reasons. He was a part of the educational efforts of the national Chiropractic Association from its commencement in the early 1930s. He adopted the 4-year residency educational model for the UNHA DC and ND degree programs in lock-step with Budden at Western States. While Colorado did not adopt licensure separately for NDs his ND program at UNHA provided about half of the licensed NDs in the neighboring stste of Utah by the mid-1950s. And perhaps most importantly, his book Anatomical Adjustive Technique, which described methods of treatment by manual adjustment for the entire anatomy, became a cornerstone for natural physical medicine.
It was this type of clinical technique that was used by Schlichting in his West Texas practice. These clinical techniques were supplemented by the treatment methods illustrated in Alton Johnson’s Principles and Practice of Drugless Therapeutics, the first edition of which was also published in 1939. Johnson, another DC, ND, covered physiotherapy, electrotherapy and hydrotherapy in addition to adjustive techniques in his book on clinical science for natural healers. Both of these works were integrated by Budden into the postwar curriculum at Western States and both Beatty and Johnson became members of the Western ANA after the war. In Johnson’s case, he was recruited by Carroll and Schlichting to attend the 1948 Western ANA convention in Salt lake City, and prevailed upon by them to accept the chairmanship of a new ANA committee on Physiotherapy. In this position Johnson wrote or edited a regular Physiotherapy column in the Journal of the association for several years (while also writing regularly for the journal The Scientific Chiropractor) and in the early 1950s he served a three-year term on the national association’s Board of Directors. (Johnson, Alton Cornelius (1939), Principles and Practice of Drugless Therapeutics (Los Angeles, Chiropractic Educational Extension Bureau); see previous column on Western States postwar curriculum; see Journal of the ANA and ANPSA 1948-1954, especially Journal of the ANA September, 1948 (Vol.1, No. 9) at page 18 for Johnson’s initial column on Physiotherapy and his explanation of being recruited for and acceptance of his position.)
These were the clinical techniques at the center of Schlichting’s clinical practice during the 1940s, when he established his practice and became a leader in the national movement of natural healers. He also became a civic leader in Midland, as a prototypical American joiner of voluntary civic associations: the Lions Club, the Jaycees, the Toastmasters and various civic improvement efforts. Dr. Schlichting, or “Doc” to the citizens of Midland, practiced and lived very visibly in his adopted hometown as many members of the Western ANA did in the 1940s before natural healing came under assault by the AMA in the 1950s.
Back to the National Scene
As a national officer by 1946 Schlichting found himself in the middle of the dispute over control of the American Naturopathic Association, chartered in Washington, D.C. by Benedict Lust in 1919. After the “pseudo-group insurrection” of 1942 Lust remained embittered and denied the legitimacy of the “Western ANA” until his death in August, 1945.
But for these 3 years the nation was at war and the nation was diverted from much of civilian life. The Westerners largely built a communication network, held annual meetings and waited out the war. Peacetime would come, and by circumstance when it did Benedict Lust was had died. Then in peacetime internecine warfare broke out among the naturopaths as both Carroll and his Western group and the Eastern group led by Jesse Mercer Gehmann, T.M. Schippel and a new face, Paul Wendel, laid claim to the “ANA.” Working with Carroll, Schlichting and a few others built up their Western “pseudo-group” while defending their right to being “the real ANA” and while constantly pushing the concept of unifying all naturopaths within one organization. (See previous columns and specifically: Naturopath and Herald of Health, July, 1942; August, 1942; January, 1943; Newsletter from the American Naturopathic Association, Office of the Secretary, Midland, Texas, dated March 1, 1947, listing Robert A. Carroll as President; American Naturopath, Volume III, No. 4, June 1947; Herald of Health and Naturopath, October, 1947; November, 1947 (Published by T.J. Schippell, Wash., D.C.) in the editor’s column, “This Month with Dr. Schippell,” all have been parsed to gather this history. This material is in the collected archives at the National University of Natural Health, Portland, Oregon.)
Looking through the historical record it seems clear that Robert Carroll had followed a methodical campaign to make the ANA into true professional organization and that he had done so, by amending the ANA constitution, bylaws and governing structure. The Western group had every right to be recognized as the legally constituted ANA organization as WWII ended; and Carroll’s ANA represented the broad-scope practitioners from the urban areas of about 20 states including all of the licensed states. The Eastern group that survived Lust though continued his dispute of their claim of legitimacy from 1946-1950 and the issue was a constant distraction. (The Constitution and Bylaws adopted in 1935 were printed and published in Naturopath and Herald of Health, November, 1935 and January, 1936; Naturopath and Herald of Health, November, 1941; January, 1942.)
Through 1946 and 1947 the Western group for various reasons – including a postwar paper shortage – struggled to produce a monthly publication for its membership. During this time the leadership communicated with members through a series of “Dear Doctor” newsletters that Schlichting sent out from his Midland, Texas, office as “American Naturopathic Association, Inc., Office of the Secretary.” In January, 1948, at long last the Journal of the ANA debuted and the Western ANA became a more established presence on the cultural, political and professional scene. With much anticipation of a “Unity Convention” the group convened in July, 1948, in Salt Lake City, Utah for its annual meeting. Though the organization had grown in strength and presence – and over 300 naturopaths attended the meeting from about 20 states – “unity” was not achieved and Carroll passed the reins of the presidency to Schlichting. (See also Journal of the ANA, April 1948 (Vol.1, No.4); August, 1948 (Vol.1, No.8; and September, 1948 (Vol.1, no.9).
As of the summer of 1948, there were ND degree programs at National College of Chicago, UNHA in Denver, Western States in Portland and Metropolitan College in Cleveland, Ohio that were legitimate 4-year residency colleges, as well as a program at the Los Angeles College of Chiropractic that was in a state of flux although soon to be disbanded completely by the National Chiropractic Association. Schlichting took the presidency from Carroll at a time when the future for chiropractor-naturopaths looked promising. (Wardwell, Walter (1992) Chiropractic: History and Evolution of a New Profession (St. Louis, Mosby, Inc.) and Keating, Joseph C., Jr., Callender, Alana K., and Cleveland, Carl S. III (1998) A History of Chiropractic Education in North America, (Scottsdale, AZ, Council on Chiropractic Education).
A historical note here is in order. Almost all of the naturopaths in the Western group were chiropractors who had branched out in classic “mixer” fashion. With the exception of Robert Carroll himself, who had been a direct student of Henry Lindlahr and who had begun to call himself a “naturopath” instead of a drugless healer in the early 1930s, a historical tracking of every ND leader from the postwar era leads back to an early chiropractic college (see the discussion in the last column, February, 2019). As just two examples (Schlichting’s education has been covered) Harry Riley Spitler (the lead editor of Basic Naturopathy) graduated from Ross Chiropractic College in Fort Wayne, Indiana before WWI and John Bastyr (after whom today’s Bastyr University is named) graduated from the Seattle Chiropractic College in the early 1930s. Spitler was also on the faculty of the Metropolitan College from the mid-1930s until WWII. Also, in several states “mixers” became identified as naturopaths because chiropractic ‘straights” took control of chiropractic licensing. Washington, South Carolina, Utah and Texas were such states. (Fort Wayne (IN) News and Sentinel, 23 July, 1918; Keating et. al., at page 74. John Bastyr’s diploma and other information are in archives or on display at Bastyr University. For the story of mixers licensed as NDs in ‘straight” states such as Utah and South Carolina see Phillips, Reed B. (2006) Joseph Janse: The Apostle of Chiropractic Education (Reed Phillips, publisher))
Dr. Schlichting Becomes President
When Schlichting took over as President of the Western ANA things were at a critical juncture for natural healers, whether they identified as chiropractors or naturopaths both nationally or back home in Texas. Schlichting, while running a busy, growing practice and emerging as a civic leader in Midland, was up to the task of growing the ANA as an organization and achieving legal recognition for naturopaths in Texas. In doing so he followed Robert Carroll’s model: practice openly and proudly as a “ND” and “Dr.,” be a civic leader, push constantly for recognition for naturopaths and legitimate ND school programs and do everything possible to unify the profession within the ANA. (See El Paso Herald Post, Monday, 8 April, 1957).
As the incoming President in 1948 Schlichting had set the ANA 1949 convention for Houston, Texas to take place coinciding with the opening of Houston’s newest – and in keeping with the mottos of Texas “biggest and best” – luxury hotel. As 200 Texas naturopaths joined with 200 out-of-state naturopaths for the ANA’s largest convention, Schlichting was able to announce to the attendees that the Texas legislature had passed a Texas licensing law as part of a legislative “deal” and the governor of Texas was signing off on the legislation. Within 2 years Texas was the home to over 400 licensed NDs – the largest licensed state in terms of numbers and the largest source of Western ANA members (Journal of the ANA July, 1949 (Vol.2, No.7).
The nature of the “deal” became critical within just a few years. The Texas State Medical Association wanted Texas to adopt a Basic Science law. The Texas chiropractors wanted a licensing law for ‘straight” chiropractic. An earlier law had been struck down by the Texas Supreme Court for violating a provision of the Texas Constitution that prohibited giving preference to any “school of medicine.” And the growing naturopathic group of 500 and counting wanted recognition. A group of legislators brokered a deal: a Basic Science Law would be adopted first, then subject to it a chiropractic law crafted to withstand challenge would be adopted and finally a pending naturopathic bill would be adopted.
The Basic Science law passed both houses of the Texas legislature handily, the chiropractic law was adopted by slightly tighter margins, and then the naturopathic law passed the state House fairly comfortably. But then, in a harbinger of things to come and with its Basic Science law in hand, the state medical association tried to kill the deal with a push against the ND bill in the state Senate. The bill after much delay passed the state Senate by one vote, 23-22, in July, 1949, while the profession was in Houston for its convention.
The Late 1940s and Professional Growth
Under Schlichting’s leadership as national and state leader – and soon as a member of the first naturopathic licensing Board in Texas – the profession continued to grow. But as noted earlier, the number of schools started to decline. Los Angeles dropped its program, Metropolitan closed up in 1949. National dropped its program in 1950 under pressure from the National Chiropractic Association Suddenly in 1951 Homer G. Beatty, DC, ND, of the UNHA in Denver passed away and with him in short order so did another ND program; and so only Western States under Dr. Budden was left. (Keating, Joseph C., Jr., Callender, Alana K., and Cleveland, Carl S. III (1998) A History of Chiropractic Education in North America, (Scottsdale, AZ, Council on Chiropractic Education))
In Memoriam – Robert V. Carroll, Sr.
And then suddenly in March, 1951, Robert V. Carroll – Schlichting’s mentor and the true “father” of the modern naturopathic profession passed away. As Schlichting and the editors of the Journal of the ANA memorialized Robert Carroll’s life and career (Journal of the ANA June, 1951 (Vol. 4, No.6) – W. Martin Bleything, Editor):
“In MEMORIAM
Dr. Robert V. Carroll, Sr., died Friday, May 11th, of internal hemorrhage followed by coronary embolism. He died as he lived, suddenly and dramatically. There had been no prior illness. He went from excellent health to death in twenty-four hours.
The naturopathic field has lost one of its greatest fighters. his was not the fight for individual stature; his was the fight for rightful and legal recognition of Naturopathy. He did nopt aspire a statue, a pedestal or plaque exhorting his name in superlatives; his desire was to see naturopathy reached its honored place in the sun and to be a proud member of that profession.
Now, his three score and ten has been completed. His earthly body has been laid away, but his spirit will march on. He has left a high mark on the wall. When we can measure up to it, his dream will have come true.
The world has lost a man, the nation, a citizen, and naturopathy, a leader. But in our hearts each of us knows that the loss cannot be described in words alone. He admired and respected the qualities in others that fired them to opposition. In his heart he had only friends, agreeing friends and disagreeing friends. All will miss him.”
In the 1950s Henry Schlichting and the naturopaths faced challenging times that could not be foreseen in 1951. Robert Carroll’s leadership and vision would be missed.
Coming next issue: Natural Healing in the 1950s as a Darkness Descends.
Biography
George W. Cody, JD, MA, BA, received his undergradute degree from Stanford University, his law degree from Willamette University, and his master’s degree from University of Washington. He practiced law for 25 years and has worked in public affairs, health policy, and medical history research. His original history of natural medicine is part of The Textbook of Natural Medicine.