The Keeley Institute, Dwight, Illinois & Keeley Day at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition.

Dr. Leslie Keeley

The Keeley Institute, known for its Keeley Cure or Gold Cure, was a commercial medical operation that offered treatment to alcoholics from 1879 to 1965. Though, at one time, there were more than 200 branches in the United States and Europe, the original Institute was founded by Leslie Keeley in Dwight, Illinois. The Keeley Institute's location in Dwight significantly influenced the development of Dwight as a village, though only a few indications of its significance remain in the village.

Treatment at the Keeley Institute has been referred to as pioneering and humane. The Institute maintained a philosophy of open, homelike care throughout its history. Little is known of what exactly went on in the many branches or franchises of the Keeley Institute around the world, but it is thought that many were modeled after the Dwight Institute.

New patients who arrived at the Dwight Institute were introduced into an open, informal environment where they were first offered as much alcohol as they could imbibe. Initially, patients were boarded in nearby hotels, such as the Dwight Livingston Hotel or the homes of private residents. Later patients stayed in the converted John R. Oughton House.

The Institute operated out of homes and hotels using a spa-like atmosphere of peace and comfort. All patients received injections of bichloride of gold four times daily. There were other tonics given as well. The medical profession continued criticizing the method, and many tried to identify the mysterious ingredients. Strychnine, alcohol, apomorphine, willow bark, ammonia, and atropine were claimed to have been identified in the injections. The injections were dissolved in red, white and blue liquids, and the amounts varied. In addition, patients would receive individually prescribed tonics every two hours throughout the day. Treatments lasted for four weeks.

Patients at Dwight were free to stroll the grounds of the Institute as well as the streets of the village. It has been called an early therapeutic community.

After Keeley's death, the Institute began a slow decline but remained in operation under John R. Oughton and, later, his son. The Institute offered the internationally known Keeley Cure, a cure that drew sharp criticism from mainstream medical professionals. It was wildly popular in the late 1890s. Thousands of people came to Dwight to be cured of alcoholism; thousands more were sent for the mail-order oral liquid form they took in their homes' privacy.

The Keeley Institute profoundly influenced Dwight's development as a village. As the Institute gained national and international acclaim, Dwight became a "model" village. Eight hundred passengers per week were arriving in Dwight at the height of the Keeley Institute. Other developments followed the influx of people: modern paved roads replaced older dirt roads, electric lighting was installed in place of older gas lamps and water, and sewage systems were replaced and improved. New homes, businesses, and a railroad depot were all constructed, and Dwight became the "most famous village of its size in America."

There are a few examples of structures associated with the Keeley Institute still extant in Dwight, Illinois:

The Livingston Hotel once provided housing for hundreds of Keeley patients. A Keeley office building, known as the Keeley Building, was first used by the Institute in 1920 and now houses private commercial offices. 

The John R. Oughton House and its two outbuildings remain. With the closing of the Keeley Institute in 1965, the home was transformed into "The Lodge Restaurant."  In 1977, it was purchased by the Ohlendorfs, remodeled and reopened as "The Country Mansion," The carriage house is a public library, and the windmill has been restored and is owned by the Village of Dwight.

The Keeley Institute solidified its place in American culture throughout its prominence as several generations of Americans joked about people, especially the rich and famous, who were "taking the Keeley Cure" or had "gone to Dwight." Dr. Keeley is remembered as the first to treat alcoholism as a medical disease rather than a social vice.

The Effectiveness of the Keeley Cure

The effectiveness of the Keeley Cure was a matter of much debate at the time, and there was no clear consensus on its efficacy. Some studies have shown that the Keeley Cure may have been effective in some cases, but others have found that it was no more effective than other treatments for alcoholism.

One of the most famous studies of the Keeley Cure was conducted by Nellie Bly, a journalist who went undercover to receive treatment at the Keeley Institute in White Plains, New York. Bly's account of her experience, published in the New York World, was highly critical of the Keeley Institute and its treatment methods. She alleged that the Institute was making fraudulent claims about the cure's effectiveness and that the treatment was dangerous.

Other studies of the Keeley Cure have found that it may have been effective in some cases. For example, a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1893 found that 60% of patients who received the Keeley Cure remained sober for at least one year after treatment. However, this study was not without its critics, who argued that the study's methodology was flawed.

Ultimately, the effectiveness of the Keeley Cure is challenging to assess. There is some evidence to suggest that it may have been effective in some cases, but other studies have found that it was no more effective than other treatments for alcoholism. 

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

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Keeley Day, September 15th, at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition.
Twenty thousand copies of the call for the third international convention of the Dr. Leslie E. Keeley Institute, to be held in Central Music Hall, Chicago, in September, and seven thousand copies of a call for the convention of the Women's Auxiliary Keeley league, to be held in the Temperance temple on the same date, have been sent out from the national headquarters in Dwight, Illinois. Secretary John M. Kelly was deluged with responses from clubs throughout the United States.

Kelly said that the convention would be the largest of its kind ever held. Temperance organizations of all kinds have been invited, and many have already accepted. The Keeley movement embraced 800 organizations representing 500,000 people.

From some localities, entire Keeler clubs will attend the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The Colorado delegates have chartered a special train from Denver, picking up other delegates throughout Kansas, including the Soldiers' Home delegates, a band of Fort Leavenworth, and the Kansas City and St. Joseph contingents.

Some 400 enthusiastic Keeleyites, accompanied by 2,000 of their friends, celebrated Keeley Day at the World's Fair with parades and speeches.

At 9 a.m., the delegates, alternatives and visitors will march to the Administration building, led by the national officers and the brass band accompanying the delegations from the soldiers' homes. Director-General Davis will make the address to welcome, after which the line will march to the Illinois State Building, which will be the headquarters.

At 10 o'clock, a procession of gold-cure graduates numbering between 400 and 500 formed at the Terminal Station and marched to the plaza at the east front of the Administration Building, where the graduates were given a welcome to the grounds by National Commissioner Towsley of Minnesota. Gov. A. J. Smith, President of the National Association of Keeley Leagues, presided and Introduced Judge Charles E. Hamilton of Maine, who responded in an eloquent address. In closing, he said it was an eminently fitting thing for the men who had been rescued almost from the gates of perdition to hold a reunion within the precincts of this White City.

After these exercises, the procession again formed and up to the Illinois State Building, where Benjamin Funk, Chairman of the Board, received it. While there, the principal address of the day was delivered by Lyonel Adams of New Orleans. He was followed by Dr. Leslie E. Keeley, after which the party visited the Colorado Building, where there were more speeches.

At 2 o'clock, the Woman's Auxiliary held a session in the assembly hall of the Woman's Building, which was presided over by Mrs. Helen S. Barber. She read a short paper Mrs. M. Kate Reed prepared and then introduced Mrs. Elizabeth L. Saxon of New Orleans. Mrs. Mary Louise Perrine sang a solo, and Dr. Keeley made a short talk. He said 40,000 drunkards had been cured at Dwight, Illinois, and 160,000 in the United States. He predicts that twenty-five years from this time, seeing a drunken man will be rare.

The remainder of the day was spent sightseeing. 

By Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

The U.S. Post Office in Shawneetown, Illinois. circa 1940s

The U.S. Post Office in Shawneetown, Illinois. circa 1940s

Marshall Field Garden Apartment Homes, Chicago, Illinois.

The Marshall Field Garden Apartments, located at 1450 North Sedgwick in Chicago, is a large non-governmental subsidized housing project in the Old Town neighborhood.

Construction of the Marshall Field Garden Apartments, located on the block bounded by West Blackhawk Street, North Sedgwick Street, West Siegel Street, and North Hudson Avenue. 1928

The project occupies two square city blocks (6 acres) and was the largest moderate-income housing development in the U.S. at the time of construction in 1929.

Marshall Field Garden Apartments has 628 units within 10 buildings. Construction was financed by Marshall Field III.

This "experiment" aimed not only to provide housing at a reasonable cost but also to provide a catalyst for the renewal of the surrounding area. Marshall Field Garden Apartments was at the time of construction one of two large philanthropic housing developments in Chicago.

The other was Michigan Boulevard Garden Apartments, at 47th and Michigan. Both were built in 1929 and both were modeled after the Dunbar Apartments built by John D. Rockefeller, Jr., in 1926 in Harlem, New York City.

Marshall Field Garden Apartments was meant to be the first of three or four similar projects, but the Great Depression kept those plans from coming to fruition. Marshall Field had hoped to provide low-cost housing but land acquisition and construction cost overruns pushed the rent into the moderate range.

In 1991, the apartments were deteriorated and were sold to private investors with a clause that specified that they would remain available only to low income tenants for 25 years.

In 2016, the apartments were sold to Related Midwest. A public-private partnership agreement was made to keep the units affordable until 2045. 

All 628 Marshall Field Garden apartments are currently Section-8 assisted living units. 

MARSHALL FIELD AND COMPANY ARTICLES

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

The First Courthouse in Pittsfield, Pike County, Illinois. (1834-1839)

The first term of court in the first courthouse in Pittsfield, Illinois, opened on Monday morning March 24, 1834 with the Honorable Samuel D Lockwood [3rd Illinois Attorney General (1821-22), Illinois Supreme Court Justice (1824-48)] of Jacksonville upon the bench.

The north side of the Pittsfield Public Square in 1870. The white frame building at the extreme right was the first courthouse to be erected in Pittsfield. At the time this photograph was taken it had become the bake shop and confectionery store of Joseph Heck. 

Alpheus Wheeler, eccentric preacher and lawyer, represented John Lyster at the first court term in a case involving a cow. Wheeler prided himself on his bursts of eloquence, his lofty flights of oratory in addresses to the jury being among Pike County's courts rarest classics. In 1838 and 1840 Alpheus Wheeler was elected to the Illinois State Legislature from Pike County Illinois.

The first courthouse in Pittsfield was built 1833-34. The courthouse was two stories and built largely of walnut. The edifice was built by Israel N. Burt to whom the contract was let June 4, 1833 and he built it for $1,095. The courthouse was razed in 1881 to make room for a new brick building George Heck built.

After the second courthouse in Pittsfield was occupied for court purposes in 1839 the previous courthouse served as a public hall; dances and frolics were held there. Its walls that once echoed to impassioned pleas of justice were now resounding with joy to tunes like "Money Musk" and "Old Rosin the Beau." 

For a time the old courthouse building also served as a post office for the town.

In 1855 Joseph Heck and his wife Regina of Hannibal occupied the first courthouse opening a bakeshop and the first lunch and ice cream parlor in town. The popular lunch in those 'olden days' comprised of gingerbread with cider, cheese and crackers, rusks (a sweet or plain bread baked, sliced, and baked again until dry and crisp; i.e. biscotti), dried herrings (called blind robins) and sausage links. 

Mr. Heck built another room at the rear of the old courthouse for a kitchen and dining room. The family lived upstairs where court had been held in early times. Across the front of the store was hoisted the sign "J. Heck, Baker". In 1937 George Heck had found the sign still legible in the basement of his store. The Heck’s who had been in business at the site for 82 years turned over their place to the Pittsfield Hardware company in 1937.

On October 1, 1858, Abraham Lincoln came to Pittsfield from Springfield joined by John Nicolay. Nicolay and Attorney Dick Gilmer  took Lincoln around the square introducing him to folks. The three entered the Heck bakery with Nicolay telling Lincoln "We are stopping here for a while for some of Mother Heck's gingerbread and Father Heck's sweet cider."

Across the alley to the west of the first courthouse is shown the early three story building that preceded the Shaw Building. At the time of the picture the three story building was occupied by Burt the druggist in the east part and Talcott & Hodgen general store in the west part. The building would later burn. 

Next west is shown a two story frame that was variously occupied until finally taken by John Field the jeweler. West from this shows a vacant lot with a board fence in front usually plastered with show bills. 

The next building west is where the Pittsfield Hotel would be built in 1871.The building shown in the picture was occupied by Chapman, Kellogg, & Hull who ran a general store. The first floor was high above the street level and steps led from the sidewalk up to the store. 

Across the street beginning on the corner is a row of little frame shops that stood on stilts or posts on the marsh. At the northwest corner of the square was then an expanse of low marsh land where water stood and which in winter was used as a skating pond. The little business houses shown in the picture stood high above the flood on posts with steps leading up to the shops. One of these was a marble shop. 

The church seen in the distance is the early Congregational Church built by Colonel Ross which was on the site of the Congregational Church built in 1881 and torn down in 2003. 

Across the street where the Pittsfield Public Library was is now a vacant lot.

by Lisa Ruble

The Evanston Avenue Steam-Dummy Locomotive, Chicago, Illinois.

As of 1861, rail tracks for public transportation - streetcars were planned along Green Bay Road (Clark Street) and Evanston Avenue (now Broadway). The residents along Evanston Avenue would have a hate/love relationship with the new technology of its day. The residents loved their horses and did not like private companies telling them what they needed.

A steam engine called the 'dummy' train was used along Evanston Avenue from Fullerton Avenue (the north boundary of Chicago) to Graceland Cemetery (at Montrose) during the 1870s. The first car of this steamed-powered train was designed for the engine. 

The engine was enclosed to look like a passenger car, hence the name 'dummy.' The story goes that if the horses saw the engine, they would get spooked. It was thought that the more familiar appearance of a coach presented by a steam dummy compared to a conventional engine would be less likely to frighten horses when these trains had to operate in city streets. 

Later, it was discovered that it was actually the noise and motion of the operating gear of a steam engine that frightened horses rather than the unfamiliar outlines of a steam engine.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.