Kelly, Dr. Edna Merle

HIBBARD, HAYNER, DUNHAM, POWE, STONE, BURR, LA FAYETTE, HIBBARD, SHORT, REED, SMITH

Posted By: BCGS
Date: 1/12/2010 at 10:51:51

Dr. Edna Merle Kelley, a successful representative of the comparatively new school of naprapathy, controlling a large and growing practice in Waverly, was born in Vinton, Iowa, a daughter of Henry Beecher and Emma (Hibbard) Kelley, the former born at Rochester, New York, December 11, 1844, and the latter at Marengo, Illinois, August 4, 1854. When he was sixteen years of age the father began his independent career and soon afterward became manager of a nursery in New York, where he remained until he made removal to Foster, Warren county, Ohio, where his marriage occurred in 1868. There, in partnership with a brother-in-law, in 1871 or 1872, he started the first corn drying establishment in the west and continued this up to 1880, when he associated himself with J.M. Hayner, of Lebanon, Ohio, and Peter Dunham, then of Morrow, Ohio, and started the canning of sweet corn on the J.M. Hayner farm near South Lebanon. Mr. Kelley and his brother-in-law, William H. Powe, first dried corn in a general way for marketing. They did experimental work at Bushberg, Missouri, in the way of canning it, thus helping to perfect the process of canning this very desirable and popular vegetable. Mr. Kelley managed the South Lebanon factory until 1882. Following the death of his wife in March, 1883, he went to Vinton, Iowa, where he was made manager of the Watson Canning Factory, holding this responsible position until 1899, when he moved to Waverly. In this city he established the canning factory still known as the Kelley Cannery and he continued to manage this enterprise until his death, which occurred June 2, 1903. His interests extended to many other fields of activity. He was the inventor of a silking machine which is now in general use. He also was well known as a breeder of standard trotting horses, taking a great interest in the races which were held in various parts of the state. He bred for racing purposes the horse Trump, which as a three-year-old made a record of 2:21 and for which he refused an offer of five thousand dollars. He also raised Aragon K, whose record was 2:13 3/4 and who was a winner at the Iowa State Fair, the Minnesota State Fair and the Nebraska State Fair in 1897. Mr. Kelley also engaged extensively in raising purebred Jersey cattle and was a lover of animals, keeping pedigreed dogs and also giving considerable attention to high grade strains of poultry. His home was one of the most beautiful in Waverly, being surrounded by a wide level of lawn, of which Mr. Kelley took the most scrupulous care. He cultivated various kinds of flowers, of which he was a great lover. At the time of his death Mr. Kelley was president of the Iowa Canners Association and widely and favorably known as an important factor in the canning industry. He was a thirty-second degree Mason and had been for a number of years connected with the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks and the Mystic Toilers. Of the latter he was a charter member of the executive board and one of those who gave this name to the society. Mrs. Kelley, who survives him and makes her home in Waverly, is a graduate of the St. Louis Normal School, in which city she taught for eight years. She is a great-granddaughter of Enos Stone of Rochester, New York, of Revolutionary fame, who was an aide to Washington and who later in his life entertained Louis Philippe of France, who later became the king of that nation. He also was host to Aaron Burr and the Marquis de La Fayette. Her grandfather, Enos Hibbard, was judge in New York state and her father, Charles Hibbard, was the founder of Marengo, Illinois, building the first frame house there. He named the town and he painted the eagle on the first flag unfurled there. Mrs. Kelley is well known in the local lodge of the Eastern Star and belongs to the American Woman's Republic. Henry Beecher Kelley was twice married. His first union was to Mrs. Roselinda Short, the widow of Colonel Short, an officer in the Union army during the Civil war. Colonel and Mrs. Short had one daughter, Cannie M, who is the wife of William Reed, of St. Paul, Minnesota. Mrs. Roselinda Kelley passed away in 1883, leaving four sons: Carlos M., who is president and general manager of The Hampton-Kelley Canning Company, of Hampton, Iowa; Horace G., secretary and general manager of the Iowa City Canning Company of Iowa City; George R., president and general manager of the Grinnell Canning Company at Grinnell, Iowa; and Milo F., who has been manager of the Belle Plaine Canning Company at Belle Plaine, Iowa, for ten years and since he was twenty years of age. Henry Beecher Kelley's second marriage occurred in October, 1884, and to this union were born six children; Harold Hibbard, who is in the automobile business in Mason City; Dr. Edna Merle; Leslie H., connected with the telephone company at Waterloo; Mary Margaret, residing with her mother; Rachel Louise, who teaches school near Tripoli; and Ruth Carrie, attending high school.

After graduating from the high school with the class of 1907, Dr. Edna Merle Kelley began the study of naprapathy in September, 1908, in Chicago, Illinois, and completed the required course in 1910. She afterward took the Illinois state board examination, obtaining a license to practice, and in partnership with another woman naprapathic physician opened office on Jackson boulevard in Chicago, where she remained for nearly a year. During this time she matriculated at a night medical school but was not permitted to finish because of the illness of a sister. She was called to Waverly on that account and has since made her home here, engaging in the practice of her profession. She is now fitting out an office in the new Schlutsmeyer building, has another in the Tremont hotel in Clarksville and uses a portion of her mother's residence as a sanitarium. She enjoys a large practice, for a number of important cures stand to her credit and her ability is widely recognized. She has had special success in the treatment of different kinds of paralysis, including infantile paralysis, hay fever, asthma and all nervous disorders and has also accomplished important work in organic disease, saving a number from the surgeon's knife. The underlying philospophy of naprapathy, which Dr. Kelley practices, is founded upon the fact that the nerves of the body control all functions. It is utterly impossible for any organ to functionate at all excepting under the stimulus of some nerve higher in command. By the same rule it follows that any organ will functionate well or ill in exact relation to the amount and intensity of nerve force transmitted to it. Naprapathy, therefore, in treating the nerves, treats the actual cause of disease, while other methods treat symptoms only. Dr. Kelley is a woman of high professional advancement of the naprapathic school, being numbered among its most important representatives in the middle west.

In this connection it will be of interest to many of our readers to present an article on the history of naprapathy, for which we are indebted to Dr. Kelley and which follows.

The name Naprapathy means "to correct disease." The word comes from the Bohemian and Greek and has not yet found its way into the dictionaries.

The origin of Naprapathy is interesting. It is traceable to two valuable discoveries: One, by a noted English surgeon, of the Royal College of surgeons; the other, made by the Bohemians of Europe.

Dr. Edward Luson, one of London's greatest anatomists, found that a shortening of the connective tissue ligaments that connect the vertebrae of the spine to each other, by drawing the bones too close together, caused a decrease in the size of the spinal openings or foramina through which the nerves pass from the spinal cord to all parts of the body. This caused a pressure upon the nerves just as they left the spine. Consequently these nerves became diseased and organs supplied by them were also diseased.

Being fully convinced that this was the way in which disease was caused Dr. Luson was still at a problem as to a way or means by which he could thus correct this nerve impingement. After much thought Dr. Luson then invented a machine into which he fastened his patient and suspended him from the ceiling. This he called a stretching machine for the purpose of lengthening the "tightened spines," which he felt to be the cause of disease. This was very effective in a number of cases and cured many diseases. Yet the more Dr. Luson worked the more fully he realized that this was not specific nor local enough; that the whole spine was put on a stretch but the particular point which he wanted to effect was not effected sufficiently. Being a surgeon, he knew he dared not use the knife to remove this now generally recognized cause of disease. It was then that he wrote his book called Spinal Debility upon the subject advancing his "theory of disease" to the medical profession.

Because he had dared to depart from the old established theories and beliefs in regard to the laws governing the medical progession and having made this first bold departure in thought from his fellowmen, his Fellowship in the Royal College of England was taken from him and his books were suppressed. Only two of his books are now extant.

About this time among the peasantry of Bohemia was discovered a means by which the ligaments of the spine could be lengthened without the aid of knife or drugs, and at the same time with no pain to the patient. This adequate method was discovered more than a hundred years ago but had been kept secret from the medical profession because of the fear on the part of the peasantry of being punished by that august body. For in a number of instances they had been arrested and thrown into prison for no greater offence than that of curing people. So this method of treatment or "Napravit" as they called it was kept secret among a few and handed down as an "Heirloom" in certain families from generation to generation until it was brought over to America. Here it was combined with research work and a thorough study of the human body until a well rounded science of treating and curing many human ailments has evolved.

Early in the fall of 1908 the college - the only college in the world where Naprapathy may be learned - was moved to Chicago where it could secure the best of clinical advantages for its students.

Naprapathy which is revolutionizing the cause and cure of disease owes the origin of its scientific basis to Dr. Oakley Smith of Chicago - "The father of Naprapathy." He is called this because of the many years of patient sacrifice spent upon this subject, working with his whole heart and soul upon it.

Realizing that this is an age of research in science and all branches that tend to throw light upon previously unenlightened subjects, the naprapaths have made use of this fact and have taken advantage of the opportunities of the age in which they live to further advance their science.

Naprapathy is surely the greatest of healing arts still in its infancy for to have cured a disease which heretofore has been incurable is nothing short of miraculous. An investigation of this science leads one to the conviction that Naprapathy is the key by which disease is being unlocked from the chest of human ailments.

If this future were to be measured by the good it has already accomplished we would predict for it an indefinite extension. The field of its possibilities is unlimited.

History of Bremer County, Iowa Vol. II 1914