Harvey+Lillard


 * William Harvey Lillard: The First Man to Receive a Chiropractic Adjustment **

Original Author: Leann Weiss, ENG346 FL12


 * William Harvey Lillard **** (September 6, 1856 - September 7, 1925) **

William Harvey Lillard, an African-American man, is known for being the first recipient of a chiropractic adjustment. Lillard, who went by Harvey Lillard,was a janitor in the Ryan building, which was located at the corner of Brady and Second Street in Davenport, Iowa. This was the same building that the founder of chiropractic D.D. Palmer ran his forty-room magnetic healing practice in. Lillard received the first chiropractic adjustment from D.D. Palmerin September of1895 (Barge 1).There is some debate as to the actual date of the first adjustment ranging in dates from 1894-1896, and various days and months in those years.However in 1910,fifteen years after founding chiropractic on the principle of the spinal adjustment wherewith to free the body of nerve interference caused by a vertebral misalignment he called subluxation, D.D. Palmer said,‘This question had worried thousands for centuries and was answered in Sept. 1895’” (Barge 1). Due to this quote, the most common consensus is that first adjustment indeed took place in September of 1895.


 * The Story: The First Adjustment **

This historic moment, said to have taken place in September of 1895, in the town of Davenport, Iowa, is indeed a momentous occasion. That Harvey Lillard was willing to allow D.D. Palmer to attempt this new method of care on him would forever change the course of history.For Lillard to be trusting and brave enough to have Palmer attempt this new method, and in an area that Lillard believed may have caused his deafness to begin with, would affect millions of lives from that day forth, changing lives forever.

According to Harvey Lillard’s daughter, Valdeenia Simons, before the first adjustment actually occurred, Lillard and a co-worker were telling comical tales outside of D.D. Palmer’s office doorway. Palmer was amused and went out to join the two men.Laughing heartily, Palmer struck Lillard on the back with the book he had been reading and had carried with him. Mere days later, Harvey Lillard came to Palmer and conveyed that he experienced a sense of better hearingfollowing the blow to his backby D.D.’s book. D.D. was quoted as replying,“We’ll try to do something about that” (Westbrooks 48). Following this conversation, Palmer began working with Lillard to restore his hearing. Valdeenia’srecollection of this account passed onto her by her father verifies Palmer’s claim that the first adjustment was “accomplished with an object in view’” (Westbrooks 48).

D.D. Palmer referenced Harvey Lillard’s participation in the first adjustment at least ten times in his book //The Chiropractor’s Adjuster.// The first account in his book regarding the incident was:

Harvey Lillard, a janitor, in the Ryan Block, where I had my office, had been so deaf for 17 years that he could not hear the racket of a wagon on the street or the ticking of a watch. I made inquiry as to the cause of his deafness and was informed that when he was exerting himself in a cramped, stooping position, he felt something give way in his back and immediately became deaf. An examination showed a vertebra racked from its normal position. I reasoned that if that vertebra was replaced the man’s hearing should be restored. With this object in view, a half-hour’s talk persuaded Mr. Lillard to allow me to replace it. I racked it into position by using the spinous process as a lever and soon the man could hear as before. There was nothing “accidental” about this, as it was accomplished with an object in view, and the result expected was obtained. (Palmer,//The Chiropractor’s Adjuster// 18)

Lillardsimilarly recounted the incident in the January 1897 issue of the journal, //The Chiropractic,// by saying:

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 deaf- ness 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. (Keating, Cleveland, Menke 9)

His daughter said that Lillard continued chiropractic care following the restoration of his hearing.


 * The Life of the Man **

As a result of Harvey Lillard’s daughter, Valdeenia Simons, and her continued correspondence with her aunt--Lillard’s sister—Julia Bell Williams, we are privy to many of the details of the man who received the first chiropractic adjustment(Westbrooks 48).

Harvey Lillard was born in 1856. His grandfather was an English nobleman from Virginiaand his grandmother was one of his grandfather’s slaves.Though it was relatively unknown to happen in situations such as these, Harvey was given and used his grandfather’s name of Lillard. Harvey lived his younger years in Davenport, Iowa and was married to Amanda Christine Bradshaw. He owned a janitorial company, and according to his daughter, Valdeenia Simons, “he would get hired to provide janitorial services for buildings, then would hire other men to work for him” (Westbrooks 48). It was such a situation that brought him to the Ryan building where D.D. Palmer had his office, and would therefore become the site of the first chiropractic adjustment.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">According to a display in Lyceum Hall on the campus of Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport, Iowa, Harvey Lillard had a total five children from two separate marriages. One of his daughters from the first marriage is the above-mentioned Valdeenia Simons.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Lillard moved from Davenport in 1907, and relocated to Seattle, Washington. There he was reported to have worked for Montgomery Ward and in his later years became a deputy sheriff. Lillard re-married and had another daughter. Following the early death of this daughter, Lillard became responsible for raising his two grandchildren. As he told his daughter Valdeenia, he was intending on returning to the Davenport area. However, on September 7, 1925, following a day of chopping wood, he told a neighbor that he did not feel well. He died later that sameday, “one day after his sixty-ninth birthday” (Gielow 78) According to the display in Lyceum Hall at Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport, Iowa, Lillard was reported to have died of acute cardiac failure.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Harvey Lillard was buried in Lakeview Cemetery in Seattle, Washington. His tombstone was found therewith the misspelled inscription of William Harvey Lillar. It was recovered by notable chiropractor Sid Williams, founder of Life College of Chiropractic in Marietta, Georgia. While he was living, Sid Williams keptthe tombstone of Harvey Lillardin his office and stated that out of respect for the brave recipient of the first adjustment, “I am going to make a shrine to him”(Stacy). Williams commissioned a new tombstone be made with the correct spelling of Lillard’s name, to be placed over his grave in Lakeview Cemetery.

**<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">The Lineage of the First **

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">As stated above, Valdeenia Simons was a veritable source of information on her father and his role in the beginnings of chiropractic. Valdeenia was born April 5, 1895, and died Dec. 10, 1990. She owned and ran a restaurant in Rock Island in the 1940’s and was a Rock Island City Council candidate. Some of her hobbies were noted as being sewing and forestry (Peoria Journal Star Dec 1990).

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Mrs. Simons did a large number of speaking engagements over the years, with travel paid by various chiropractic institutions, to recount the story of her father’s involvement in chiropractic. At a Palmer School celebration, B.J. Palmer (son of the founder of chiropractic, D.D. Palmer) said of Valdeenia Simons, “I know she’s proud to know that her father was responsible for all this” (Westbrooks 49).

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Valdeenia was a lifelong chiropractic patient, often times given free chiropractic care from D.C.’s who, in her opinion wanted the opportunity to say that they had adjusted Harvey Lillard’s daughter. Valdeenia herself considered attending Palmer College of Chiropractic, regrets that she did not choose to enroll. She was quoted as saying that shefelt“that she would have been a good chiropractor, a living legacy of her father” (Westbrooks 49).
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Works Cited **

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Barge, F.H., //One Cause, One Cure//. La Crosse: La Crosse Graphics, 1990. Print.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Franks, D.C, Rick. Interview by Robert Weiss. Email interview. 12 Nov. 1929.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Gielow, Vern. //Old Dad Chiro: A Biography of D.D. Palmer, Founder of Chiropractic.// Davenport: Bowden Brothers Inc., 1981. 78-79. Print.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Keating, JC Jr., CSCleveland III, M. Menke (2005). "Chiropractic history: a primer". Association for the History of Chiropractic. Retrieved 2008-06-16.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">"Lake View Cemetery." //Lake View Cemetery//. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Dec. 2012. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"><http://www.lakeviewcemeteryassociation.com/burials.php>.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Palmer, D.D..//The Chiropractor's Adjuster//. Portland: Portland Printing House Company, 1910. Print.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Westbrooks, D.C., Bobby. "The Troubled Legacy of Harvey Lillard." //Chiropractic History// 2.1 (1982): 47-54. Print.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Return to African Americans in the Postbellum QCA

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Return to Home