George H. Taylor was born  in Williston, Vermont, on January 4, 1821  -  the same day as John W. Hutchinson.¹ Largely self-educated, before he was eighteen he began teaching in the common schools of Williston; and soon he was selected to be the town's first Superintendent of Schools. Before he had turned twenty-one, though, George Taylor was suffering from various chronic, difficult-to-understand, and evidently impossible-to-treat health problems. So, he began researching the matter for himself. This led to studies at the Medical Department of Harvard and at the New York Medical College, where he graduated in 1852.²

Dr. Taylor started his professional career at the New York City Water Cure, 184 12th Street, at the corner of University Place  -  a hydropathic institution that was visited by members of the Hutchinson family.³ He established his own practice, in or soon after February, 1853; and a few years later, he was joined by his younger brother, Dr. Charles Fayette Taylor (1829-1899).

Early in his career, George H. Taylor encountered a curious belief among people in general, as well as among physicians, that women's bodies were particularly susceptible to disease.⁴ He found no evidence to support this notion; and much of his work was devoted to promoting the health of women, particularly through exercise.

Taylor developed a system of exercise therapy, and later he learned of institutions in Stockholm that used similar methods. This is probably why his brother Charles, very soon after being awarded a degree in medicine in 1856, sailed to England to learn Per Henrik Ling's system of Swedish movements from Dr. Mathias Roth, the author of the first English book about Swedish massage.⁵ In 1858, George traveled to Sweden to observe the Swedish movements firsthand.⁶ Once back in New York, he founded the Remedial Hygienic Institute.

Prescribed exercises and massage were at the heart of what became known as the Swedish movement cure.⁷ Dr. Taylor invented a mechanical massage device which he introduced in 1864.⁸ Later, his clinic at 67 West 38th Street became known as the Improved Movement Cure Institute. We know that, in addition to exercise and massage, it incorporated certain elements of hydropathy (water cure). Patients of the Institute were taught about the nature of their illnesses and about their treatment regimen, as well as about the importance of good nutrition.

Dr. Taylor, in addition to his mechanical massage device, invented various types of exercise equipment used to treat specific medical problems.

We are not told exactly when and how Abby Hutchinson Patton first learned of Dr. George H. Taylor, but it is quite possible that she made his acquaintance as early as 1852-1853 when he was a hydropathic physician. Spiritualist Kate Fox practiced her art at his Institute, beginning in the mid-1860s⁹  -  a possible attraction for the Hutchinsons. And records of the American Equal Rights Association show that Dr. Taylor donated money during Ludlow Patton's term as Treasurer.

We know a little of what the Movement Cure meant to Abby's health, from a letter she wrote a few years later.

[A]s I wished to make myself strong against all work to come, I at once repaired to Dr. Taylor's Movement Cure, where at present I am stopping for treatment.¹⁰

Abby seemed confident that the therapy she received gave her more strength and stamina, and her level of public activity did pick up considerably.

Material from this Web page,  with many details added,   now appears as a section of a chapter in my 2006 biography of the Hutchinson Family singers.   I am publishing my book in Web pages on the Internet,  and nearly all of it is posted now, though not quite in final draft form.  It will be a while before the Dr. Taylor's Movement Cure material, with particular reference to the documentation, will be complete;  but it is very far along even now.  The new direct Web address is

www.oocities.org/hfsbook/hoff/ch16a.htm

If you follow that link and scroll down to page 7,  you should have no trouble finding my revised account of Dr. Taylor's Movement Cure.

No decision has been made as to what to do with this Web page, long-term; but if I revise it, separate from my book, it will not appear at this location.  It will remain here in its current form for now, though, because this Web page is very well indexed by search engines and directories.  Moving or deleting it could confuse matters quite unnecessarily.  -  Alan Lewis,  August 29, 2006

Dr. George H. Taylor's son, William George Langworthy Taylor (1859-1941), was a college professor and a well-known author on economics and other topics. A grandson, Edward Langworthy Taylor (1899-1974), was involved in theater in New York City and Paris. With Edward Taylor's death, George H. Taylor's lineage seems to have come to an end.

Charles Fayette Taylor's son, Henry Ling Taylor (1857-1923), was a well-known orthopedic surgeon. Charles F. Taylor's grandson, Charles Fayette Taylor (1894-1996), took an early interest in internal combustion engines and aviation, worked for the Wright brothers, and, after a long career in engineering, may be best remembered for developing the engine for the Spirit of St. Louis, the first airplane to fly nonstop across the Atlantic Ocean.

-- Alan Lewis

1. Though Dr. George H. Taylor's middle name often has been given as Henry, evidence shows that it is actually Herbert: Dr. George Herbert Taylor.

2. National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 77 vols. (New York: J. T. White, 1893-1984), 5:494.

3. This was a notable address in the water-cure world. Until quite recently, it had been the establishment of Dr. Joel Shew (1816-1855), the earliest hydropathic practitioner in the United States.

4. George H. Taylor, Health for Women: Showing the Causes of Feebleness and the Local Diseases Arising Therefrom; with Full Directions for Self-Treatment by Special Exercises (New York: American Book Exchange, 1879), 22-23.

5. Dictionary of American Biography, 30 vols., 1928-1995 (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons), 18:317-318; "Death List of a Day: Dr. Charles Fayette Taylor," New York Times, 1/27/1899, p. 7 col. 6.

6. National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 5:494.

7. Dr. Taylor's establishment also provided hydropathic treatments and gave patients instruction about good nutrition.

One can easily see significant points of comparison between the movement cure and more modern physical therapy.

8. "Death List of a Day: Dr. George H. Taylor," New York Times, 12/12/1896, p. 8 col. 2.

9. Two books--one by the wife and the other by the son of Dr. George H. Taylor--seem to have been overlooked by modern researchers on spiritualism. They are: Sarah E[lizabeth] L[angworthy] Taylor, ed., Fox-Taylor Automatic Writing, 1869-1892): Unabridged Record (Boston: Bruce Humphries, 1936); and W[illiam] G[eorge] Langworthy Taylor, Katie Fox: Epochmaking Medium and the Making of the Fox-Taylor Record (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1933).

10. Abby Patton to Henry Hutchinson, New York, 10/24/1872, in John Hutchinson, Story of the Hutchinsons (Tribe of Jesse) (Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1896, 2:367). A navigation bar appears at or near the bottoms of pages.

Copyright © 2001 by Alan Lewis.
All rights reserved.