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· 214 · 27 The unwanted penetration of one’s body is an invasion of the mind and of the heart and of the soul. And the scars of this crime endure if it is left untreated. —Raymond B. Flannery, Post-Traumatic stress Disorder: The Victim’s Guide to Healing and recovery Life went on, leaving the victim and her family to fend for themselves in the aftermath. While the word “victim” is usually reserved for the person against whom a criminal act is committed, in a very real way, the victim’s closest family members are victims as well. The Bonds were no exception, and, not surprisingly , A. D. Bond took one of the hardest hits. For eighteen months, he’d put up his best front, not just for emma’s sake but for that of his entire family. With the disappointing verdict, his deepening money deficit, and the tragic loss of his dear cousin, he sank into a deep depression, taking to his bed for days on end. For the victim, life continued to look bleak. The much-talked-about wedding never materialized. And although her outward appearance had improved dramatically, emma’s back pain was an ever-present torment. Worse yet, her emotional progress was slow and excruciating, marked by the proverbial two steps forward and one step back. it soon became obvious that emma needed more help than her local doctors could give her. so in February 1884, A. D. Bond decided to place her under the care of Dr. Davis, who had initiated the emma Bond Fund at the Palmyra sanitarium and had generously offered her his services and free care at the facility. The small town of Palmyra lies in southeastern Wisconsin, twenty-five miles north of the illinois state line. There, in 1871, a fellow named Bidwell had picked up a piece of land just east of town, specifically because of its mineral hot springs. Knowing of their therapeutic value, he took on a partner, Dr. G. C. Wood of michigan—a longtime proponent of the hydropathic approach to treating illness. The two men erected a building near the hot springs, and thus began the enterprise known as the Bidwell House. Though the place sat well off the beaten path, by 1873 it was attracting many locals in search of cures for rumors, ramifications, and new revelations · 215 whatever ailed them. of Bidwell’s six springs, two produced superior drinking water—healthy, pure, and crystal clear. They each contained a different mix of minerals and varied slightly in temperature. The list of chronic illnesses thought to respond to their curative powers included everything from epilepsy to diabetes to arthritis. in the late 1870s, Dr. John W. Davis of Lansing, michigan, took over as manager of the retreat, renaming it the Palmyra springs sanitarium. Davis had a reputation as a freethinker—someone who had “a natural bent for independent investigation” and who “fearlessly ignored precedent” in his approach to disease .1 The sanitarium was the perfect vehicle for such a man, and, under his guidance, it flourished. in 1884, he was joined by a Colonel Davidson, whose talents leaned more toward the business end of things. The two complemented each other, and together, they added a large new wing to the sanitarium. This housed not only a lecture room but a large dance hall, which did double duty as a roller-skating pavilion. These inviting new features were luring a growing number of visitors from further away—all seeking modern cures for their ills. The place soon became so popular that “ten trains ran east and west bringing guests to the sanitarium, some from as far away as New orleans, New york, and san Francisco.” When emma arrived at the sanitarium on Friday, February 15, 1884, the place was being promoted as a destination for “summer visitors , pleasure seekers, and invalids” alike.2 emma clearly belonged to that last category; her father escorted her there by train and placed her in the capable hands of the “sympathetic and charitable” Dr. Davis.3 it is uncertain whether the doctor’s goal was to ease emma’s habitual back pain or to ease her off of the restoratives so freely prescribed by her hometown doctors. The term “restoratives” was definitely a misnomer; they had done absolutely nothing to restore emma—quite the opposite, really, for the drug that her doctors had so casually administered to her for now going on two years was the opiate morphine. By the...
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