Go to the Prairie · Frontiersman, Visionary and Founder of Osteopathic Medicine

History of Osteopathic Medicine and founder

Andrew Taylor Taylot Still, MD, DO

This book is intended to resurrect the historical events that shaped the life and character of Andrew Taylor Still, MD., DO. His life began on a farm in Virginia and required hard labor and early responsibilities even during childhood. His educational opportunities were minimal and suffered as a result of his family's frequent moves to provide service for the Methodist church in the remote areas of the country.

His nomadic life was further complicated because of his family's uncompromising abolitionist views. His father's life was threatened while the family served the church in Northern Missouri, and they were reassigned to the Kansas Prairies for their safety. This move unknowingly would land them in the bulls-eye of the slavery conflict. As a result of the recently passed Kansas-Nebraska Bill, the entire family was subjected to and involved in the pre-Civil War battles of Kansas. Atrocities were committed by both the proslavery proponents and the abolitionist and continued for almost seven years from 1854 to 1861--well before the beginning of the American Civil War.

Andrew learned his medical craft from his father, beginning early in childhood. He would practice medicine in Northern Missouri in his early life and later at the Wakarusa Mission while living among the Shawnee Indians on the Kansas Prairie. It was during this period that he developed the Osteopathic Medical Philosophy. He had lost faith in the use of medication for the treatment of disease, which intensified after losing three of his children in one week during a meningitis epidemic. His radical departure from mainstream medicine and his beliefs in "no drugs in medicine" would finally drive him to Kirksville, Missouri. Although he faced monumental struggles, he developed a medical dynasty and the philosophical culture of Osteopathic Medicine, which currently provides almost 80,000 DO physicians practicing in the United States. Today, one-fifth of all medical students graduate from an Osteopathic medical school.

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