Healer or faker? … a visit from royalty
When the railroad came through Will County in 1854, it did more than give our citizens a way to get to Chicago or St. Louis; it made Will County a “jumping off” place.
That is to say, those who were looking to get away from the big city to sell their wares to a more rural unsuspecting community found our county a perfect place. Whether it was lightning rod salesmen, instant cures for cancer, or faith healers, many found their way here. Today, let’s look at one such case:
Because of this relatively cheap transportation, Will County became a gold mine for a whole new type of charlatan, the traveling doctor. It was standard practice for doctors to travel from town to town, setting up shop in a suite of rooms in the local hotel. After a few weeks, they would move on, before their patients realized they had been duped.
The first documentation I have for this appeared in the October 10, 1861, edition of the Wilmington Independent:
“Dr. Carmancha Tucker, who professes to have had long practical experience in curing cancers, gives notice in our advertising columns that he may be consulted by the afflicted, at Mitchell’s Exchange Hotel, in this town on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday next week.”
A cure for cancer in just three days!
From July 31, 1866 in the Joliet Signal: “Dr. Knapp, formerly of New York, who has visited Joliet regularly the past six years, and effected many wonderful cures of old Chronic Diseases, Cancers, and diseases of the Eye and Ear, which have been pronounced incurable by the medical profession generally, can be consulted at the National Hotel, Friday, August 10th, as will be seen by his card in another column. Consultation free.”
Our next example was a more unique individual. We read on February 26, 1862: “A remarkable young lady – The celebrated Doctress and Prophetess, who was once called ‘the wounded child,’ Miss Tennessee Claflin, has arrived in this place with her father and mother, and is stopping at Mitchell’s Exchange Hotel, where she may be consulted upon all matters pertaining to life and health, and disease of the human system.”
Miss Tennessee Claflin was born in 1844 in Homer, Ohio, to German immigrants. We know little about her parents, but we do know that by the age of 11, she was making money as a clairvoyant and faith healer. As in all these cases, there were a few people who claimed that they were cured as if by miracle, but there were others who claimed she was a fraud.
While in New York, she was arrested for taking money under false pretenses. She jumped bail and went to Ohio to practice, and then on to other cities in the Midwest. That is probably why she and her parents came to Will County.
Tennessee’s sister, Victoria Woodhull, was also controversial. Together, they went on to publish a newspaper that, among other things, advocated women’s equality, the right to vote for women, and the right for women to behave like men when it came to “love.”
They formed a political party, and Victoria ran for President of the United States, with Tennessee running as Vice-President. They managed to get on the ballot, but since women were not allowed to vote, they were arrested when they tried to vote for themselves.
Eventually, they were arrested for sending pornography through the mails. The pornography referred to was described as the “advocating of free love.” The sisters moved to England where they were embraced by society and where both managed to marry very rich men. Tennessee became Lady Cook, baroness of Montserrat.
They then returned to the United States, opening up a stock brokerage house on Wall Street, the first women to ever invade this solely male occupation. And they did good. In six weeks’ time, they managed to make $750,000.
The Philadelphia Inquirer did a piece on the sisters in 1915. They said, “Bold? Those Ohio young women were as bold as lions!”
After making themselves known on Wall Street, they started up another newspaper advocating those same principles that had got them in trouble before. Only this time, it was the rich Wall Street tycoons that came after them, with all the political clout their money could buy.
The sisters were once again arrested; their clients fled in terror, and their brokerage house fell into a financial shambles. They once again fled to England, where they were welcomed back with open arms. They continued to fight for the vote, both in England and the U.S. Tennessee died in obscurity in 1923. She is still honored as one of the pioneers of the Women’s Movement. Had Will County known in 1862 what a controversial figure that little 18-year-old girl was and would be, perhaps they would have asked her to move on. But I like to think that they welcomed her, like we do with any person with a bit of character, and hopefully, she healed a few and gave inspiration to a few more.
Sandy Vasko is Director of the Will County Historical Museum & Research Center and President of the Will County Historical Society.
A photo of Tennessee Claflin when she was 18, traveling the country as a clarvoyant with her parents.