B. J. Palmer

Bartlett Joshua Palmer (September 10, 1881 – May 27, 1961) was an American chiropractor. The son of chiropractic founder Daniel David Palmer, he earned the title "Developer" of the field.

Born in What Cheer, Iowa, B. J. was one of six children in a family that lived behind the grocery store his father ran. After his mother died in 1885, D. D. remarried several times before settling in Letts, Iowa, where he worked as a schoolteacher and magnetic healer while developing chiropractic.

Chiropractic career

On May 30, 1904, B. J. married Mabel Heath. Both worked as chiropractors and instructors at Palmer College, with Mabel teaching mostly anatomy to a heavy load of students. B. J. ran research clinics in Davenport for sixteen years, eventually concluding that the upper cervical spine was key to health. He then reshaped the Palmer School curriculum around this idea and promoted the use of the Neurocalometer and X-ray machines.

Their only son, David Daniel Palmer, was born on January 12, 1906. Known as "The Educator," David chose to study at the University of Pennsylvania and its Wharton School of Business, believing he would one day run the school and needed business training. He also graduated from Palmer as a Doctor of Chiropractic, though he and his father had a strained relationship for years.

In 1922, B. J. bought a local radio station, WOC—whose call letters were actually assigned by the government to a previous owner, not, as often assumed, standing for "World Of Chiropractic." He used the station to promote chiropractic and broadcast farm, sports, and weather reports. Future U.S. President Ronald Reagan got his first broadcast job there, calling sports for Palmer. In 1930, Palmer bought a second station, WHO, in Des Moines from Bankers Life; despite common belief, neither station ever used the phrases "World Of Chiropractic" or "With Hands Only" in promotions. Television stations later joined under the same call letters.

Following the 1920s trend of world travel, B. J., Mabel, and David toured much of Asia. B. J. wrote Round the World with B.J. about their trips and the people they met, and he shared these stories in the Palmer School newspaper and on WOC.

Mabel Heath died in 1949 from stroke complications. In 1951, B. J. bought a home on St. Armands Key in Sarasota, Florida, where he spent his final years. He died in 1961 of intestinal cancer, and his son then became president of the Palmer School.

B. J. and Mabel Palmer residence

The Palmer home at 808 Brady Street in Davenport, Iowa—known as the Palmer Mansion—holds many souvenirs from their world tours. A porch addition was built in the 1920s to accommodate the collection. Now owned by Palmer College, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1948 and is open for public tours. B. J.’s winter home in Sarasota, at 342 North Washington Drive, still contains original artifacts, including Roycroft furniture, a lamp and clown collection, bedroom furniture, his death certificate, and framed documents.

Questioned involvement in father's death

A controversial incident occurred on August 27, 1913, during a homecoming parade. D. D. Palmer filed a lawsuit for attempted murder against his son, alleging B. J. deliberately hit him with a car. The accusation followed B. J. for decades. The 2008 book Trick or Treatment repeated the story, suggesting D. D.’s death weeks later in Los Angeles—officially from typhoid—may have resulted from injuries caused by his son, and speculated about patricide.

B. J. resented his father for beating three of his children with straps and for being so absorbed in chiropractic that "he hardly knew he had any children." D. D. maintained that B. J. struck him. However, chiropractic historian Joseph C. Keating, Jr. called the patricide interpretation a myth and "absurd on its face," citing an eyewitness who recalled D. D. stumbling rather than being hit. He also noted that Joy Loban, executor of D. D.’s estate, voluntarily withdrew a civil suit against B. J., and several grand juries refused to bring criminal charges. D. D. Palmer died on October 20, 1913.