The boys' parents, Thomas and Catherine were forced to leave Canada in 1856 after the failure of Thomas' grocery business. So, taking their four other children, the Palmers returned to the States and left David and Thomas J. in Port Perry. This put an end to the boys' education and the two children went to work in Charles Frederick's match factory. It is unclear whether the boys lived on their own at this time or with their grandparents, but either way, it was a difficult life for the boys.
In 1865, the boys decided to rejoin their family in the States. They had little money but managed to pay their way by working at a number of odd jobs. D.D. took a teaching position upon reaching Iowa and soon married for the first of five times. In the 1880s, D.D. became interested in spirituality and the works of Paul Caster, a magnetic healer. Theory behind magnetic healing proposed that a magnetic field surrounded the human body and minor illnesses could be cured by influencing this force. D.D. moved to Davenport Iowa in the late 1880s. By 1887, he was known as a vital healer and soon became popular enough to open a 14 room infirmary.
According to D.D."An examination (of Harvey Lillard) 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 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. There was nothing crude about this adjustment; it was specific."
Mr. Lillard was astounded to hear noises from the street below. Palmer decided that he would call his method of care Chiropractic from the Greek cheir meaning hand and praktos meaning doer.
With his new healing art, Palmer became very popular and his office was filled with the discarded crutches and canes of his patients.
In 1896, Palmer founded the Palmer School of Magnetic Cure in Davenport Iowa and accepted his first chiropractic students the following year. In 1904, D.D. changed the name to the Palmer School of Chiropractic. His students came from all over the United States, and a large number of them were women.
Despite this success, Palmer was mired in controversy. He had been charged by the state of Iowa for practicing medicine without a licence and was jailed. Later D.D. was arrested on the same charge in Santa Barbara, California but was never jailed there. Though his school was popular, Palmer soon found himself in heavy debt as competing schools came on the scene.
In 1906, Palmer was again charged by the state for practicing without a certificate, and was found guilty. The sentence was a fine or 105 days in jail.
During his incarceration in Iowa, D.D.'s son B.J. took over the administration of the school and his wife Mabel Heath Palmer became heavily involved in both teaching anatomy and in the school's operations.
Controversy
Even the events surrounding Palmer's death were controversial. Invited to take part in a parade at the Universal Chiropractic College in Davenport Iowa, D.D. stepped out in front of a car while attempting to lead it. B.J. was driving the car and didn't see his father until it was too late. A case charging B.J. with murder was thrown out of court. D.D. died several months after the accident in Los Angeles. According to Palmer's death certificate, the official cause of death was
typhoid. And so, even in death there is an air of mystery surrounding David Palmer.
Palmer's Legacy
What Palmer left behind is the world's third largest diagnosing health care profession in the world. Today, over 60,000 Doctors of Chiropractic are practising in over 60 countries around the world. Research into chiropractic continues at institutions all over the world. In 1995,
the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College celebrated its 50th anniversary, and what is now called the Palmer College of Chiropractic has been educating practitioners in Davenport, Iowa, for almost 100 years.
David Palmer's Legacy is one that spans the world, and unites it in the search to end needless suffering.
