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Founder of Osteopathic Medicine

Andrew Taylor Still (August 6, 1828 – December 12, 1917) was the founder of osteopathic medicine. He was also a physician and surgeon, author, inventor and Kansas territorial and state legislator. He was one of the founders of Baker University, the oldest four year college in the state of Kansas, and was the founder of the American School of Osteopathy (now A. T. Still University), the world's first osteopathic medical school, in Kirksville, Missouri.

Still was the son of a Methodist minister and physician. At an early age, Still decided to follow in his father's footsteps as a physician. After studying medicine and serving an apprenticeship under his father, he entered the Civil War. He served as a hospital steward assigned to Company F of the Cass County Home Guard of the Missouri Cavalry (Union), but later stated in his autobiography that he served as a "de facto surgeon." At the time, the hospital stewards of the Army had many responsibilities, including maintaining hospital stores, furniture, and supplies for the sick. Since pharmacists were not provided for the hospitals, the hospital stewards also filled prescriptions, and when the medical officers were not present, they took care of the patients. In his autobiography, Still says he served in the Civil War in Company F of the 9th Kansas Cavalry. His military service record for the Missouri regiment says that his company was transferred to the 9th Kansas Infantry, not cavalry, but that the transfer was made "without proper authority." The judge advocate general then orders that these men not be given credit for this unauthorized service. The use of Calomel, also known as mercury chloride, was one such medical practice Still took particular issue with. At the time, there were no standardized dosages for the drug so practitioners of heroic medicine would often deliver dosages that were too large, resulting in mercury poisoning. Still devoted the next thirty years of his life to studying the human body and finding alternative ways to treat disease; his methods involved meticulous anatomical dissection to discover its structure and, therefore, function. This involved exhuming corpses which, while controversial, was a widespread practice among many medical schools in the United States and abroad during that time. During this period, he completed a short course in medicine at the new College of Physicians and Surgeons in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1870. Still adopted the ideas of spiritualism sometime around 1867, and it "held a prominent and lasting place in his thinking."

Still was active in the abolition movement and a friend and ally of the Free State leaders John Brown and James H. Lane. He became deeply embroiled in the fight over whether Kansas would be admitted to the Union as a slave state or a free state. The Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854 provided that the settlers in those two territories would decide the question for themselves. Civil war raged in Kansas as both sides tried to gain control of the territorial government. In October 1857, Still was elected to represent Douglas and Johnson counties Still and his brothers took up arms in the cause and participated in the Bleeding Kansas battles (between the pro and anti slavery citizens). By August 1858, a free state constitution had been passed; Kansas was admitted to the Union as a free state on January 29, 1861.

Still was fascinated by machines, and whenever faced with a mechanical problem, his answer was always to devise a better approach. In the 1870s, he patented an improved butter churn. He made improvements to a mowing machine designed to harvest wheat and hay, but before a patent could be submitted, his idea was stolen by a visiting sales representative from the Wood Mowing Machine Co. but had "some difficulty producing a full sized working model. Heartbroken after his wife, Mary Elvira's, death in May 1910, he did not have the will to pursue the matter further, and the invention was never successfully marketed."

Still published four books during his life. His first book, published in 1897, was entitled Autobiography of Andrew Taylor Still with a History of the Discovery and Development of the Science of Osteopathy. A revised edition of the book was re published in 1908 after a fire damaged the original printing plates. He published Osteopathy Research and Practice, his fourth and final book in 1910.