[Antiracism] Second Saturday Tour: David Ruggles and the Watercure in Florence

[Steve Strimer]

>
> Dear Friends,
> Please let your friends know about this Tour coming up this coming
> Saturday. Hope you can make it. A pdf flyer is attached if you can find a
> use for it.
>


>
> Steve
>
>
 *The Northampton Watercure: David Ruggles, Charles Munde, Hydrotherapy in
Florence*
*Saturday, August 9, 10 am, Elks Lodge Parking Lot*
*17 Spring Street, Florence, MA*

>  **
>
> The third tour in the Second Saturday Summer Series to benefit the new
> David Ruggles Center for Early Florence History. Join guides Steve Strimer
> and Linda Ziegenbein to visit sites of the Florence years of David Ruggles,
> hydropathic doctor, the country's first African American bookseller,
> journalist and assistant to over 600 fugitive slaves. We will explore the
> former practices of the Northampton Watercure, one of the first watercure
> hospitals in the United States.
>
> When Ruggles came to Florence in 1842 he suffered from numerous medical
> complaints, many of which were the direct result of the allopathic
> treatments he had received in New York City. Over 18 months, with the help
> of the noted hydropathic doctor Robert Wesselhoeft a student of the famous
> Vincent Priessnitz of Germany, Ruggles nursed himself back to a
> substantially improved state of health. After his recovery he found he had
> developed an ability to diagnose illness from sensing the state of a
> person's "cutaneous electricity."
>
> As more people became aware of his skills Ruggles began to treat patients,
> first his fellow members of the Northampton Association and later people
> from all over the east coast until by 1846 he needed more space and built
> the first new structure in the U.S. dedicated to hydropathic treatment.
> Sojourner Truth, Payson Williston, and William Lloyd Garrison were among his
> patients. Sadly, Ruggles died on December 16, 1849, at the age of 39,
> leaving one of the major business concerns of the growing village with an
> uncertain future.
>
> As one of only two or three developed businesses in the area at the time,
> Florence's major benefactor, Samuel L. Hill, felt it important to preserve
> the watercure. Charles Munde, an accomplished hydropathist from Germany, was
> recruited to take over. It was Munde who suggested the name Florence for the
> growing village. The facility continued to expand under Munde's leadership
> until it burned to the ground in on November 7, 1865.
>
> We will walk to what is thought to be the current site of David Ruggles
> house, the first building in the watercure complex, and to the Ross Farm
> which supplied milk to the watercure. Email Steve Strimer with questions:
> stevestrimer at gmail.com
>
>
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