Andrew Taylor Still was born on August 6, 1828 in a wooden hut in Lee County, Virginia.
He studied the medicine from his father’s books and later worked on his father’s medical consultation.
Field doctor, sometimes having to travel great distances to be close to his patients, used the usual methods of medicine at this time: indents, suction cups, purges, etc.
An epidemic of brain-spinal meningitis killed three of her children. By then he had already lost his first wife, Mary Vaughan, due to the complications of childbirth. One month after the epidemic, her daughter born to her second wife Mary Elvira Turner died of pneumonia.
His inability to save his family, added to his bloody experiences as a military doctor during the civil war, led him to reject the majority of what was taught in medicine at the time. This prompted him to investigate new and better healing methods.
Still deeply studied the anatomy and was convinced that most of the diseases could be relieved or cured without drugs. The key was to find and correct anatomical deviations that interfered with the strength of blood flow and ‘nerves’ in the human body.
He opened a clinic in March 1875 to Kirksville (Missouri).
He founded the American School of Osteopathy (ASO) in Kirksville in 1892, in a small two-bedroom house.
Still was active in the ASO practically until his death at the age of 89, but, due to a stroke in 1914, he was considerably limited.
The death of the ‘Old Dear Doctor’ on December 12, 1917 was lamented by the ASO students as well as by more than 3,000 members of the profession he had created for more than 50 years.