The Milling Brothers: Texas “Outlaw” Medicine Men July 13, 2010

This talk, presented by Gene Fowler, looks at the lives and careers of brothers R. G. and G. R. Milling, folk healers active in North Texas in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Older brother R. G., known as “the Indian Adept” and “the Long-Haired Doctor,” employed (and taught many other practitioners) his own magnetic-healing system that combined massage, faith healing, hypnotism, and showmanship. Both brothers persisted in their ministrations to a grateful public despite repeated arrests for practicing medicine without a license. Sometimes called a “rubbing doctor,” younger brother G. R. was shot to death in Glen Rose in 1914, perhaps by the angry husband of a female patient.

Lecture guests are invited to join us at the Gazebo after the lecture for snow cones and to view an exhibit of antique patent medicine bottles with their very colorful labels and with their even more colorful claims. After viewing their many claims for cures you will know why the promotion of patent medicines was one of the first major products highlighted by the advertising industry.