History

The Passing of a Giant – Chester Wilk dies at 91

By John Wiens DC|April 23, 2022|History|

Shared from the World Federation of Chiropractic Facebook page

Dr Chester A. Wilk, the chiropractor famed for taking on the American Medical Association – and winning – passed away on Thursday, April, 21 at Advocate Lutheran Hospital, Park Ridge, Illinois.

The case of Wilk v AMA, an antitrust law suit, was a seminal moment in the profession’s history, at a time when chiropractors in the United States found themselves subjected to extreme prejudice and discrimination. The story of Chester Wilk’s epic battle is told in ‘Contain and Eliminate: the American Medical Association’s Conspiracy to Destroy Chiropractic’, written by Howard Wolinsky and published in 2021.

The persistence and fortitude of Wilk and his four co-plaintiffs, in the face of serious roadblocks to practicing as chiropractors, drove him to step up and take on the giant of healthcare. The David and Goliath story saw him consumed by his mission to expose the injustice and the covert Committee on Quackery that had been set up by the AMA to undermine and destroy chiropractic.

Starting in the 1970s, the legal battle continued for years, before a 1987 judgment by Judge Susan Getzendanner ruled that the AMA had illegally engaged in an unlawful conspiracy, a judgment subsequently upheld in 1990 in the Court of Appeals.

The impact of Wilk v AMA was huge. Doors that had previously been firmly shut opened up to allow interprofessional care and changes in the AMA’s ethical rules permitted referral by medical doctors to doctors of chiropractic.

We mourn the passing of Dr Wilk and recognize with gratitude the life of one of the legendary figures of the chiropractic profession.

Chiro.org has compiled a comprehensive page on the Wilk Anti-tust suit.

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Elon Musk’s chiropractic connection

By John Wiens DC|March 14, 2021|History|

Source Regina Leader-Post

Dr. Scott Haldeman is a board certified Neurologist in active clinical practice in Santa Ana, California. He currently is a distinguished Professor at the University of California, the Chairman of the Research Council for the World Federation of Chiropractic and the Founder/President of World Spine Care.

Accomplished in his own right, he also happens to be the uncle of one of the worlds great innovators, Elon Musk. Read how the young Musk spent time on the Haldeman family farm in Saskatchewan. Both Scott’s father and his grandmother (Musk’s great-grandmother) were chiropractors. In fact, Almeda Haldeman became Canada’s first known chiropractor in the early 1900’s.

You can read the rest of the story here.

Information on the Haldeman’s and other chiropractic pioneers can be found in Dr J.C. Keating’s notes in our Chiropractic History section.

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Elon Musk’s chiropractic connection

By John Wiens DC|May 16, 2017|History, Uncategorized|

Source Regina Leader-Post

Dr. Scott Haldeman is a board certified Neurologist in active clinical practice in Santa Ana, California. He currently is a distinguished Professor at the University of California, the Chairman of the Research Council for the World Federation of Chiropractic and the Founder/President of World Spine Care.

Accomplished in his own right, he also happens to be the uncle of one of the worlds great innovators, Elon Musk. Read how the young Musk spent time on the Haldeman family farm in Saskatchewan. Both Scott’s father and his grandmother (Musk’s great-grandmother) were chiropractors. In fact, Almeda Haldeman became Canada’s first known chiropractor in the early 1900’s.

You can read the rest of the story here.

Information on the Haldeman’s and other chiropractic pioneers can be found in Dr J.C. Keating’s notes in our Chiropractic History section.

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Assessing the Oracle at the Fountain Head: BJ Palmer and His Times, 1902-1961

By John Wiens DC|November 18, 2014|History|

Source Journal of the Association for the History of Chiropractic

This article is from Volume 7, No. 1 of the Journal of the Association for the History of Chiropractic, 1987. From the text of the article, “It may be an understatement to observe that while it is quickly apparent that the opinions, writings, influence and impact of B.J. Plamer have blanketed the history and evolution of chiropractic, few objective studies have explored the inner workings of its “Developer”.

The article contains some fascinating insights . It mentions that the only in-depth interview and study of the early years comes from the research of a New York lawyer by the name of Cyrus Lerner. Lerner was a well-respected attorney and at one time had been personal counsel to Joseph Kennedy, the father of JFK. The manuscript produced in 1952 was massive, some 780 pages in length and provides insights not only into Palmer but into the state of chiropractic through the first half of the 20th century.

You can read the original paper here.

Mr. Lerner’s report as reproduced by Joseph C. Keating, Jr., Ph.D. for the Association for the History of Chiropractic can be read here.

Dr Keating’s notes for his many articles on chiropractic history are archived here at chiro.org.

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September 18th – Happy 115th Anniversary

By John Wiens DC|September 18, 2010|History|

Harvey Lillard
These excerpts are taken directly from Dr. Joe Keating’s raw notes which can be found in the Chiro Org History Archive

1895 (Sept): Chiropractic is “discovered” by D.D. Palmer (The Chiropractor, 1904, p. ii)
1895 (Sept 18): “On September 18, 1895, Harvey Lillard called upon Dr. Palmer” (The Chiropractor, 1904, p. 11)
1896 (Jan-Apr): According to Harvey Lillard’s testimonial in the January, 1897 issue (p. 3) of The Chiropractic, he didn’t learn of Palmer’s new science until January of 1896, and received two treatments for his deafness between January and April of 1896

DEAF SEVENTEEN YEARS
I was deaf 17 years and I expected to always remain so, for I had doctored a great deal without any benefit. I had long ago made up my mind to not take any more ear treatments, for it did me no good. Last January Dr. Palmer told me that my deafness came from an injury in my spine. This was new to me; but it is a fact that my back was injured at the time I went deaf. Dr. Palmer treated me on the spine; in two treatments I could hear quite well. That was eight months ago. My hearing remains good.
HARVEY LILLARD, 320 W. Eleventh St., Davenport, Iowa

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