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Forgotten Folks: Dr. Alexis Martin Source: Blue Sulphur Springs’ Face Book By Charles Culbertson

If   you   were   sick   in   the   1820s   or   '30s,   you   had   your   choice   of   four   doctors   in Staunton. One of the most popular – and controversial – was Alexis Martin. Martin,   a   native   of   France,   spoke   little   or   no   English   and   was   so   illiterate   he could   barely   write   his   name,   yet   he   operated   a   thriving   practice   that   was   based on   the   alleged   healing   properties   of   mineral   water.   He   lived   in   an   old   frame house    which    stood    across    from    what    is    today    the   Augusta    Street    United Methodist   Church,   and   expanded   his   business   to   include   a   three-story   brick bath house and a complex of cottages.

Not   much   is   known   about   Martin's   early   years.   He   claimed   to   have   been   a   surgeon   in   the   Imperial Army   of   France   during the   reign   of   Napoleon,   a   story   that   no   one   in   Staunton   could   affirm   or   deny,   and   was   known   to   have   spent   at   least   15 years practicing in the East and West Indies. He came to Staunton in about 1826. Physically,   Martin   was   short   and   stout,   with   a   florid   complexion.   His   wife   reportedly   was   a   smart   and   educated   woman, and   it   was   undoubtedly   she   who   wrote   the   business's   many   published   treatises   extolling   the   virtues   of   his   healing methods. Martin   had   only   two   basic   remedies,   which   he   claimed   would   cure   scrofula,   schirrous   tumors,   cutaneous   and   liver diseases,   dyspepsia,   gout,   rheumatism,   "white   swelling,"   asthma,   debility,   paralysis,   dropsies   and   –   according   to   one advertisement   in   the   National   Intelligencer   –   "all   disorders   arising   from   the   derangement   of   the   digestive   organs."   These remedies were a "Le Roy" bath and a "vapor sulphur bath." Patients   visiting   the   North   Augusta   Street   spa   were   ushered   into   the   bath   house   and   were   treated   in   one   of   two   large bathing   rooms   on   the   first   floor   –   one   for   ladies   and   one   for   gentlemen.   A   third   room   on   the   first   floor   was   Martin's laboratory   in   which   he   generated   the   steam   which   was   pumped   upstairs   to   a   room   for   men   and   a   room   for   women. There were   also   two   segregated   "cooling   rooms."   The   third   story   accommodated   Staunton's   black   population   and   "people laboring under cutaneous diseases." Martin    was    not    only    patronized    by    some    of    Staunton's    most    esteemed    citizens,    who    considered    him    an    eminent physician,   but   by   patients   from   abroad,   as   well.   For   several   years   his   practice   was   crowded   with   what   one   writer   called "the sick and decrepit." It   was   reported   that   Martin   and   his   wife   were   so   anxious   to   be   able   to   claim   that   no   patients   died   while   under   their   care that they sometimes spirited the worst cases to other locations so they could die elsewhere. The   Martins   were   a   curious   couple,   to   be   sure.   The   doctor   was   so   frequently   seen   dashing   about   town   on   his   black pacer,   Cuffey,   that   small   children   believed   him   to   be   a   centaur.   His   wife,   an   Episcopalian,   converted   to   Presbyterianism and   joined   Staunton's   First   Presbyterian   Church.   Together   they   began   to   host   prayer   sessions   in   the   house,   and   placed lighted candles in their windows at times of service so that passersby could see how devout they were. While   Martin   was   considered   by   some   people   to   be   a   distinguished   physician,   many   others   –   including   the   other   three doctors   in   Staunton   –   thought   he   was   a   quack.   Martin   especially   irked   Dr.   Addison   Waddell,   whose   son,   Joseph,   would write in 1864: "It   was,   naturally,   very   mortifying   to   my   father   to   see   such   a   pretender   as   Dr.   Martin   patronized   so   extensively.   But   he   was not   inclined   to   indulge   professional   jealousy,   and   associated   with   intelligent   and   courteous   physicians   on   the   most friendly terms." By   1840   Martin's   practice   had   begun   to   fail,   and   when   people   generally   lost   confidence   in   his   methods   he   moved   to   Blue Sulphur   Springs   in   what   would   later   become   West   Virginia.   Here   he   headed   the   medical   staff   and   built   a   series   of   boilers on   the   property   so   that   he   could   provide   baths   at   any   temperature.   While   at   the   springs,   Martin   created   the   nation’s   first curative mud bath, based on European models. Martin remained at Blue Sulphur until his death sometime just prior to the folding of the spa in 1858. CAPTION: Considered   to   be   a   quack   by   many   in   Staunton,   Dr.   Alexis   Martin   gained   notoriety   when   he   left   the   city   in   1840   for   Blue Sulpher   Springs,   pictured   in   this   1857   painting   by   Edward   Beyer.   Here   he   headed   the   medical   staff   and   pioneered   the curative mud bath in the United States. From 1826 to 1840, he was one of Staunton's most colorful characters.