Turfler, Francis A.

Submitted by Lora Radiches

This book has no cover, and no index, and no author. I bought it on Ebay; it just has the insides, but it is full of Indiana biographies. I am not researching this family, just thought I would share. I do not know anymore about these families or these surnames. NOTE: I don't know if there is any additional mention of this family in the book, it has no index. I do not want to sell this book. I am typing the biographies from it.

FRANCIS A. TURFLER, Doctor of Osteopathy, one of the pioneers of his profession in Indiana, divides his professional time between his hometown of Rensselaer and the City of Hammond. These are not the only communities that know and appreciate his work. As a matter of fact, his fame is at least nationwide. For many years he has been called upon to demonstrate his ability and lecture on his own discoveries to members of his profession throughout the country, and it was premeditated and carefully considered praise when one prominent member of the profession called him the best in this country, the best in the world. But the praise that comes nearest in application to his splendid work is the title bestowed upon him of being the human sculptor. Doctor Turfler was one of the early graduates of the original center of osteopathy, at Kirksville, Missouri. By natural endowments and inclination he was prepared when he entered that school to derive from its opportunities more than the average student. For over thirty years he has worked and labored, thought and studied, and incorporated every item of his individual experience and the experience of others into a growing mastery and perfection of his science, and out of this long experience he has developed his wonderful powers in diagnosis as well as in treatment.

Doctor Turfler was born on a farm in Orange County, New York, near Sugarloaf, a village about sixty miles from New York City, October 13, 1878. His paternal grandfather, George Turfler, came from Prussia and married an American woman, a Miss Rodgers, in who was a Mayflower descendant. Doctor of Turfler's father was Francis A. Turfler, a native of New York City, where at one time the family owned a city block between Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth streets. Francis A. Turfler was a soldier in the Forty-sixth New York Infantry during the Civil war, was under General McClellan and later on duty at St. Augustine, Florida, and Savannah, Georgia, where he was wounded. He married Jennie Peters, whose mother was descended from the ruling nobility of France. Doctor Turfler spent his boyhood on one or the other of the various country properties owned by the Turfler family in and around Warwick. He attended a rural school, the Warwick High School, and put into his young life the experiences of a country boy. His first knowledge of anatomy was gained in dissecting a groundhog, and he also studied the interior of the fish, which he caught in the streams. When he was twenty years of age he went to Kansas City, Missouri, to join an older brother, John, and to be near his favorite uncle, George Peters. While in that city he worked for the Campbell Glass & Paint Company and later in the sheep department of the Kansas City Stock Yards Company. He had already made up his mind as to the profession he would follow, that of a doctor. During his residence at Kansas City he came to know a family, one of whose members was a doctor of osteopathy. It was this association that turned him to osteopathy rather than to the regular schools of medicine.

Thus in the fall of 1900 he entered the American School of Osteopathy at Kirksville, supporting himself with money he had earned himself and also with funds supplied by his good mother. While at Kirksville he played football, and was a particularly attentive member of the Atlan Club, whose members devoted their program chiefly to scientific discussion. He also while a student acted as prosector. In 1902 be was given his degree as Doctor of Osteopathy. For nine months he practiced at Seward, Nebraska, and while there he handled his first important case, the reduction of a fibroid tumor. In the spring of 1903 Doctor Turfler came to Indiana and on April 12 of that year married Miss Anna Francis, daughter of William Francis. His wife was an osteopath. After his marriage he took over her practice and they established a home at Rensselaer.

Three years after getting his degree Doctor Turfler took a post-graduate course in St. Louis, in what was then a branch of the Kirksville school? In 1907 he went to the Jamestown Exposition to demonstrate before the National Osteopathic Association. The following year he again demonstrated before the National Society in its convention at Chicago. Later he was similarly invited to appear on the program at Minneapolis, in 1915 again demonstrated before the National Society. In 1912 he was invited to Boston to lecture and demonstrate before the New England Osteopathic Society. When the National Association met in Boston in 1918 he was called upon to appear on the program because, as the president of the association said, his demonstration in 1912 had given him a reputation Besides his frequent appearances before the National Society he has appeared before district and state societies all over the country, including demonstration work several times before the Chicago Osteopathic Society. Doctor Turfler is credited with having made more individual important discoveries in the field of osteopathy than any other member of the profession. These discoveries relate chiefly to the positions of the bones of the spinal column and the significance of these positions with regard to mental and physical health and well being. Perhaps his best-known contribution is that the discovery of "Arthritis Deformans" is caused by certain vertebra irritating the spinal cord. And this irritation carried by the nerves to the muscles, causing them to be in a chronic state of contraction thereby blocking the return circulation to the joints, and this in turn causes the joints to become tender and sore, from which there is not any relief until the pressure is take off the spinal cord. Thus perhaps his best-known contribution is the discovery that arthritis deformans is never present in people whose muscles are relaxed.

 Maladjustment of the vertebrae, according to this eminent authority, causes more trouble and suffering to the human race than any other one factor. For a number of years it has been the habit of osteopaths from as far west as California and Oregon and as far east as Massachusetts and from all the intervening states to visit Doctor Turfler and study his methods, observe him in his daily practice, and thus in a way he has conducted a continuing Clinic. Experiences have gone to improve the methods and technique of other members of the profession and thus improve the health and well being of hundreds of thousands of patients whom Doctor Turfler has never seen. His fellow osteopaths speak with unstinted administration of the many remarkable results that have been achieved by him.

Obviously Doctor Turfler during the nearly thirty years he has lived in Indiana has been too busy with his profession for many outside interests. The interests which he has permitted to encroach upon his time and energy have been mainly relaxation interests. He is a voracious reader not only in the literature of his own profession, but in general science, history and the classics of literature. He loves music, enjoys outdoor life, and for number of years was one of Indiana's leading onion growers, cultivating about fifty acres of land to this crop. He was at one time trustee of the Indiana State Osteopathic Society. His only fraternal connection is with the Knights of Pythias. Doctor Turfler has three sons, all of whom are potential members of his profession. They are Francis, Robert and David. Francis is a graduate of DePauw University, and will graduate from Kirkesville soon. Robert, a student at Purdue University, plans to enter Kirkesville soon. David is still in school at Rensselaer.