A 1914 letter from Sidney A. Weltmer

Lyndon Irwin, from Springfield (originally from Bronaugh) has shared information on his Web page about a recent discovery of a letter written by Sidney A. Weltmer in 1914.

Floyd Harlow Lawrence discovered this letter which his grandmother, Lucretia Harlow, had in her possessions. She was considering coming to the Weltmer Institute for treatment of Diabetes and had asked advice from a W.C. Bauer of Corning, Iowa. The letter from Weltmer is to Bauer. The Weltmer Institute of Magnetic Healing was on the corner of North Ash and Austin. After the Institute closed the large house was the Eichinger-Milster Funeral Home. That building has been razed and is a video store is now occupies the site. Weltmer's Institute combined philosophy, logic, and psychology in a type of drug-less healing. The Institute became so popular that Nevada had to build a larger post office to handle all the mail generated by the Institute. It also brought much business to the area until the founder's failing health caused the Institute to close in the early '30s. The letter from Sidney A. Weltmer is especially valuable in that it gives details of how the patients were treated when they arrived in Nevada.

Here is the letter:

"Dear Sir;

Your answers to the questions on the diagnostic sheet regarding your exact physical condition of September 30th, 1914 have had my careful attention. In reply will say since you are only 48 years of age, I am quite sure that you have every reason to expect to be restored to normal health through proper and effective treatment in our Sanitarium. Your condition is very littleworse than was the condition of Mr. T.T. Potts when he began treatment with us, as I suppose he has already told you. I advise that you come to Nevada as soon as possible and assure you of careful attention from the very beginning of your stay with us.

"I shall expect to hear from you by return mail and see you in a few days.

You will find herewith an emblem to wear on your coat when you leave the train in Nevada. By means of this emblem our Station agt. will be able to

identify you and bring you from the train directly to the Sanitarium.

Yours most Sincerely,

Weltmer Institute of Suggestive Therapeutics.

(Signature of Sidney A. Weltmer)

Superintendent

Nevada, Mo. U.S.A. Oct.3,1914"

On Lyndon Irwin's Web page Mr. Lawrence says that his grandmother did not come to the Institute and died of untreated type 2 diabetes in 1922. We do not know her reasons for not coming or what her relationship with Mr. Bauer in Iowa was, but we are grateful for this insight into an important part of the history of Nevada. For more information on the Weltmer Institute (which went by various names at different times in its history) see Irwin's Web site at http://www.lyndonirwin.com/weltmer2.htm or "Scenes From the Past" by Betty Sterett.