Health and Wellness
The list of mineral springs (left) and advertisement for a doctor (right) show health and welness from springs and doctors went hand-in-hand in nineteenth century Saratoga.
Health and Wellness
Since the 1600s, Saratoga County has attracted residents and travelers seeking to improve their health and wellness through the use of formal medical treatment by doctors, dentists and midwives, therapeutic treatments and relaxation in mineral springs, and recreational use of the forests, rivers, lakes and mountains to restore their spirits and build strength. This opening from R.F. Dearborn's guidebook to Saratoga Springs in 1871 shows how the two forms of treatment have operated side by side -- whether providing all the curative and restorative energy desired or not! Two essays explore health and wellness as experienced in the county, particularly in the last 200 years. A third essay compares and contrasts two major pandemics in the last century: the Spanish Flu of 1918 and the current COVID-19 pandemic.
Timeline of Health and Wellness in Saratoga County
Major Events
1660s: Bostonians visit the Red Springs near Lynn, Massachusetts for medical purposes.
1771: Mohawk tribe members carry Sir William Johnson to High Rock Spring in what is now known as Saratoga Springs.
1793: Dr. Valentine Seaman publishes his first dissertation on the mineral waters in Saratoga Springs.
1803: Gideon Putnam opens a tavern and guest house in Saratoga Springs.
1807: Establishment of Saratoga County Medical Society.
1832: Railway opens between Schenectady and Ballston Spa.
1833: Railway is extended to Saratoga Springs.
1848: Railway is linked to Hudson River.
1863: Racecourse opens in Saratoga Springs.
1869: Gideon Putnam’s hotel is expanded and reopened as the Grand Union Hotel.
1891: Establishment of Saratoga Hospital.
1896: Saratoga Golf and Polo Club opens.
1908: Springs of Saratoga are nearly depleted.
1909: New York passes a bill that makes the springs of Saratoga a state reservation.
1909: New York establishes the Saratoga Spa State Park in Saratoga Springs.
1914: Homestead was opened in Barkersville, East Galway, and treated patients for tuberculosis until 1960.
1914-1918: World War I.
1918-1920: Spanish Flu Epidemic.
1928: Invention of the Iron Lung.
1929-1930s: New York builds spa facility and health resort in Saratoga Spa State Park, including the Roosevelt Bathhouse, Peerless Pool and hiking trails.
1936: Saratoga Spa Golf Course opens.
1957: Flu Frenzy.
1963: SPAC opens.
2018: CDPHP Cycle! The program begins in Saratoga County.
2019 to Present: Covid-19 Epidemic.
Figures of Importance
1771: Sir William Johnson visits the mineral waters in Saratoga Springs.
1790: Dr. Samuel Davis (1765-1840) came to Ballston Spa to practice medicine.
1793: Dr. Valentine Seaman publishes his first dissertation on the mineral waters.
1790s: Dr. Samuel L. Mitchill studies Saratoga’s mineral waters and writes about them.
1803: Gideon Putnam opens a tavern and guest house in Saratoga Springs.
1844: Dr. R.L. Allen published a book in 1844 called “A Historical, Chemical, and Therapeutical Analysis of the Principle Mineral Waters of Saratoga Springs”.
1858: Dr. Samuel Pearsall, a native of Wilton, returns to Saratoga Springs after attending lectures at the Homeopathic Medical College of Philadelphia for 2 years to practice medicine.
1918: Dr. Ralph B. Post left to serve as a physician in the European Theater in World War I.
1910s-1920s: Dr. Simon Baruch writes about the value of hydrotherapy and popularizes Saratoga Springs’s waters, spas and bathhouses.
1930s: President Roosevelt supports hydrotherapy at the Saratoga Springs bathhouses.
1957: Dr. Ralph Isabella, president of the Schenectady County Medical Society, urged the public to overwhelm the program of mass inoculation before "essential priority groups" in the community had been inoculated.