The Neal Institute tried to cure alcoholism in three days. Then prohibition happened: Looking back

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, there was a cottage industry in treating alcoholism. For some, it was a real problem that needed a solution. Years before Alcoholics Anonymous was created, people put their faith in the sanitarium and its treatments. Sanitariums were places of wellness where those with chronic illnesses would convalesce, at least in this early understanding of the word.

The Keeley Institute, which opened in Sioux Falls in 1891, offered its “gold cure” in a 28-day stay at its facilities. While there, patients would taper off their use of alcohol and drugs while receiving injections of gold chloride. As an improvement on this method, the Neal Institute offered its cure in three days, without injections and the threat of blood-borne infections that came with dirty needles. A patient staying at the Neal Institute would be brought a doctor-approved vegetable-based concoction, several times a day, to eliminate the poison of alcohol from his system. The patient would then be returned to his wife and children, cured of the alcohol habit and ready to resume his duties in society. It was really just a three-day detox session.

The Neal Institute was named for Dr. Benjamin E. Neal, of Minneapolis, who once operated a version of the Neal Institute out of Colorado, promising cures for syphilis by mail. By 1907, there were a handful of locations in operation, some in Canada. By 1909, the company was incorporated in Atlantic, Iowa. Banker and state senator James E. Bruce lent his name, along with no small amount of cash, to the operation.

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By March of 1910, Sioux Falls had its own Neal Institute, located at 417 S. Duluth. It was managed by Captain George A. Ludlow, and Dr. W. O. Dunham. Ludlow and Dunham sold out to Adolph G. Hahn, a local realtor, in August 1910. Hahn, seeing the need for more space, moved the operation to 800 W. 12th St. in April, 1911. By June of that year it would move again to 621 S. Summit. On Aug. 5, 1911, Dr. Eli T. Spencer took over the ownership and operation of the Neal Institute.

Spencer was an interesting guy: He was born in 1848 in Hamilton, Ohio. He served in the 146th Indiana infantry during the Civil War and attended the Cincinnati College of Medicine, graduating in 1870. He practiced medicine in Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Kansas, and Nebraska before moving to South Dakota in 1904. He homesteaded in Gregory, South Dakota, later becoming its first mayor. He was responsible for the planting of many trees in that area, as well as the development of that city’s park.

When Spencer took over the Neal Institute, he was in his early 60s. It was perhaps a more relaxed specialization than what he’d practiced before. In Mid-May, 1912, the Neal Institute was moved to 703 S. Summit, into the old stately home of Robert Buchanan, who had run the Sioux Falls Argus for a while before it merged with the Leader. This opulent space would provide a haven for those working toward their sobriety, at least for the next five years.

In November of 1916, the state voted for liquor prohibition, which went into effect at the start of 1917. The Keeley Institute folded, seeing no more need for its gold cure in a state without liquor. Dr. Spencer saw his Neal business taper off as well. He pivoted into other healthful remedies and fitted the building with sulphur steam baths and electrical massage devices to provide relief for “all chronic diseases, namely rheumatism in all forms, kidney and liver diseases, dropsy. Bright's disease, stomach troubles, nervousness, neuritis and female troubles,” along with “Contagious skin diseases a specialty, eczema and syphilitic patients handled”. The new building was called Dr. E. T. Spencer’s Health Sanitarium, with other variations of the name to follow.

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By 1919, Dr. Spencer’s health began to waver. He took a year off and headed to Wyoming to convalesce. He ended up moving to Lusk to profit from the abundance of oil newly found there. In November 1922, the old Neil Institute reopened as a maternity hospital.

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: The Neal Institute tried to cure alcoholism in three days. Then prohibition happened: Looking back