Jackson Sanatorium

As these water cures were located near some noted springs, "the Home on the Hillside" was created and the institution was ready for occupancy in 1853.

In the meantime, Bingham's health continued to fail; Granger thought he would withdraw also from the enterprise so they both sold their interests to Abraham Pennell, at that time a resident of Richmond, Ontario County, New York, who had a son-in-law (Dr. Stevens) who was anxious to establish in the Water Cure practice.

The building was closed then for a year when a Dr. Blackall, a physician of New York City, assumed charge and carried the Water Cure on for some time.

Not achieving the success he had desired, he forsook the enterprise and nothing more was done until the year 1858 when Dr. James Caleb Jackson, who had been physician in a similar Institution in Glen Haven, Cayuga County, New York, came to look over the property.

He had been induced to do so by Pennell in the hope that he might, by reason of his extensive acquaintance with Water Cure people, find someone to purchase the same, was so attracted by the character of the spring and the possibilities for the future, that he entered into an arrangement to lease the property for three years, with the privilege of buying at a stipulated sum within that period.

His eldest son, Giles E. Jackson, his adopted daughter, Dr. Harriet Newell Austin, and a good friend, F. Wilson Hurd, who afterwards became a physician, were the original proprietors.

The original plot of land on which the building was erected or connected with the same, was bought of Peter Perine and consisted of 13 acres (5.3 ha).

Emerson Johnson, came to live at Jackson Sanatorium and was an important factor in the business aftairs of the Institution from that time until his death in 1896.

The main building, when the steam heating and plumbing were completed, had cost US$180,000, so that with its furnishings, it was a heavy financial investment with debt upon it of US$200,000.

This amount, with the insurance money and the capital put in it by the Leffingwells, represented the practical cost of the Institution when it was ready to do business in October 1883.

The men's department included a combination cabinet machine made by the Kidder Company of New York, and portable batterires.

A Waite & Bartlett machine was added to the Static electricity room, which, with a Ramsey charger attached, was to fortify it against atmospheric influence.

The resident family hoped through it to gain a personal relationship with many who had at some time within the previous forty years visited the institution.

In the Year Book, the Jacksons held that the way to health and highest being of body and mind was to be found by "living in obedience to the divine laws of life".

This included diet, exercise, rest, baths, electricity and other therapeutic forms of treatment recognized and employed by the medical profession at that time, but also mental and spiritual forces for regaining and preserving health.

They believed in the healthful influence of "right mental habits", in the "potency of good thinking", and that the power of faith, hope and love as being the most natural, practical and efficient way for therapeutic purposes.

[8] War veterans suffering from nervous disorders were treated here for the next year and a half, fully 150 being accommodated at one time.