Press and Sun-Bulletin from Binghamton, New York • Page 3

THE SUNDAY PRESS 3 A SANITARIA SPRINGS -WHERE THEY ONCE 'CURED' CANCER MimmtmMHiifMiimiifmHftmiimmHiHtMMriiiitmtmmimifi iMIIMtltMMMIttlHIHIMHtlMIIIHIlMHIMUMIIIIIIIIMMHHMIMIIHIMMflMIHimiM Andral Kilmer Sure Made Em Forget Eli Osborne ninhmton, N. Feb. 28, 1063 in i a mi ii yy By TOM CAWI.KY V' is tW. i v. 7 i 1 it 1 III mm, -tr 1 Nobody ever Rave Osborne Hollow its rightful name back.

So it remains Sanitaria Springs, a curious relic of an era of unquestioning faith in the healiog powers of foul-smelling water. Partly in awe, partly out of sentiment and probably because S. Andral Kilmer was about the biggest thing ever to hit town, the hundred or so Eeople who live there never ave gotten around to putting Osborne Hollow back on the map. Mr. Kilmer said he could cure cancer.

He said so in a brochure that rained over the East in the early part of this century: "In the proclamation of an evangel so frought (sic) with hope and joy to untold thousands, I hereby assert the absolute truth of the most important message that has been transmitted to mankind in eighteen centuries: Cancer can be cured!" HE BUILT a three -story hospital-hotel-gymnasium 10 miles from Binghamton, promptly had the name of Osborne Hollow changed to Sanitaria Springs, and said he could eliminate cancer because of a spring that gushed forth sulphurous water. "The most miraculous healing follows the use of from to 65 tumblersful a day," his advertising flyers said. "The blood of cancer and tumor patients is thus cleansed and rinsed. Tumors empty, shrivel away. With prayer, with faith, with hope, come now." The sulphur water that bubbled off the beautiful hillside also, he said (Mr.

Kilmer DAYS OF GLORY This was the sanitarium that gave Sanitaria Springs its name. It was here the late S. Andral Kilmer ballyhooed "cancer cures" and put the tiny town on the map. He drew patients from all over. when It took on new life from the religious sect, Jehovah's Witnesses.

This group turned the land to truck gardening, to furnish vegetables for other Witness groups in New York City. Family members of the sect lived in the old hospital for a while and then it was torn down and the lumber used to build a similar truck-garden center near Ithaca. TODAY, IN A backwater of Broome County, all that remains of Sanitaria Springs' -PRESS PHOTO BY CENB SWIERKOSZ. COUNTRY ROAD 540-That's the official name of the place where a "cancer cure" sanitarium flourished for about 40 years. Shade elms once graced front yard of the establishment.

In background is old coach house once occupied by sanitarium horses and carriages, now containing two living apartments. for anyone, but then he got into the cancer business. "Plasters would be put on the people where the cancers were. They would draw the cancer out. "They drank the sulphur water.

I did, too. It was good for you. It was a big place, with a gymasnium and a huge bathroom and it was the first place around with indoor plumbing," Mrs. Odell said. MEANWHILE, KILMER wasn't frying only one fish.

In Binghamton he was building up a staggeringly successful business by mixing and bottling a concoction called "Swamp-Root," a patent medicine that still is sold around the Western Hemisphere. On "Swamp-Root" was founded a family fortune which put the eventual Kilmer inheritor, Willis Sharpe Kilmer, on a social level with the Wideners' and the other billed himself as "The Invalid's would cure everything from diabetes to flagging sexual power. With a blockbuster like this, the folks of Osborne Hollow paid him the big tribute of changing the name of the town, founder Eli Osborne faded into history, and Sanitaria Springs boomed. COACHES WERE driven daily to the tiny Depot to pick up the patients from all over the East. Elderly men and women drank the water, took the baths, and gazed upon the scenery.

Persons with contagious illnesses were barred. "He cured many people," Mrs. Vivian Odell, 78 years old, says today. She played around the sanitarium as a child. "He was a good doctor.

It was a beautiful place. At first, it was gilt-edged American horse raring families of the early 20th Century. Andral Kilmer also had a "Cancer and Tumor Thera-pium Near the Sea" in Queens. Anybody who wanted his cancer cured could get free railroad transportation. The advertising said, "The above liberal offer is made to cancer patients, and to regular Sanitarium patients who remain six months or longer." He prospered.

ALSO, ANDRAL Kilmer was planning on expanding into Binghamton, which he did by building what was known as "The Cancertor-ium" in Conklin Avenue, where Benjamin Franklin School now stands. By the time World War 1 rolled around, business in the establishments dropped off and, for a while, Kilmer operated the Sanitaria Springs place a restaurantf business petered out and Kilmer died in 1924. The old structure brooded forlornly until the mid-20s, former glory is the old coach house, occupied by the families of Mr. and Mrs. David Brace and Mrs.

Flossie Myers. The coach-house apartment building is notable in that a stream flows beneath it. The pipe, outlet of the famous sulphur spring used to stick out of the ground on the cite, of the old hospital, and 'was a'' local curiosity1 to be shown sightseers, but it's gone now. County engineers built a road over it. S.

ANDRAL KILMER it. Boyea Arraigned In Shooting Spree Thomas Lee Boyea, charged with first degree assault as a result of New Year's shooting spree near Whitney Point, was in Broome County Jail last night awaiting grand jury action. I 1 V.w JyTtf ST NS'-" wm-mn -rrm Mjjjj.m iiijoum) uJUULi mm -r a re" '-a I The 35-year-old Whitney Point RD 1 man had been 4 W' i Your list DIB 9 MNW- fire, but three persons required hospitalization after inhaling tear gas used to flush Mr. Boyea from his one-story house in Pease Hill Road. They were Sheriff John M.

Perhach, Sgt. G. William Norton, and Mr. Boyea's 3-year-old daughter, Rochelle. Investigators said Mr.

Boyea had been drinking with his wife and two other couples at the Boyea house and apparently became jealous when one of the other men danced with Mrs. Boyea. undergoing psychiatric examination at Binghamton State Hospital since his arrest. He was arraigned on the charge Friday before Barker Peace Justice LaVerne Ken-yon, who remanded him to the county jail to await grand jury action. In the early hours of Jan.

1, authorities said, Mr. Boyea fired some 100 rounds of ammunition at 15 deputies, his wife and father-in-law. No one was truck by his If seasonal or emergency expenses have knocked your budget out of shape, don't worry. It happens to people every day. It's quite likely that a PERSONAL LOAN from Marine Midland will help you solve your financial problems.

You can pay your tax bills, doctor's bills, tuition expenses, or other accumulated bills now. Then in small payments over a period of several months, you can repay the loan. You receive your cash quickly confidentially. Stop at your nearest Marine Midland banking office this week for a PERSONAL LOAN. IIHWIIHII III llllUMIlf Mil Ill -PRESS PHOTO BY GENE SWIERKOSZ.

ALL THAT'S LEFT This curious building, bridging a stream, was sanitarium's coach house, now converted to apartments. It is relic of a once-flourishing business based on claims of cancer cure. Cash You YOU REPAY MONTHLY ReC6IV8 iTMos. 24 Mos. 36 Mos.

60 Mos. 300 26.70 18.43 14.32 10.30 500 44.51 30.7T 23JB7 17.17 800 7L2f 49.14 38.20 27747 1200 10682 73.72 57.30 4lT20 27.33 1500 13353 92.15" 71.63 51.51 34J6 2500 "153.58 "1 19.38 85J35 5694 5000 17170" Tl3T89 4 'tP Two Area 4-IPcrs Off To Albany Diane Valky, 15, of Stella Road, Town of Union, and Richard Hagelberg, 17, of Harpursville RD 2, have been named as Broome County's delegates to the annual 4-H Club Capital Day program at Albany tomorrow and Tuesday. The Broome delegates, in addition to attending Senate and Assembly sessions and a reception in the office of Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller, will breakfast with the three state legislators from Broome.

Diane, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William Valky, has completed six years of work in the Lucky Leaf 4-H Club. Richard, son of Mr. and Mrs.

Harold Hagelberg, has finished eight years of work in the Susquehanna Valley Club, of which he is treasurer. Diane also is a member of the board of directors of the Broome 4-H Council. The two delegates have completed a total of 34 projects and presented 12 demonstrations. Diane has taken part in six dress reviews. EARL MARSH invites You to Available only for Property Improvement fcji Lift ii Wli will A i-i The above payments include special life insurance on the unpaid balance.

An accident and health insurance feature valuable protection for you and your family is available for a small additional cost per monthly payment. III! v. ArJ. 18 Banking Offices Serving the Southern Tier rVlVRIlME IVIIDLAIMD TRUST COIVlPAiMY OP SOUTHERN NEW YORK Mtmktr ftttrtl Dtpnlt Inmrttin Cerptrwtiaa CLOSED FOR LACK OF BUSINESS The old sanitarium closed its doors in the World War 1 era. At right is the house that contained the "miraculous" sulphur water outlet.

Other buildings in distance are a power house and the coach house. Main buildings were torn down by Jehovah's Witnesses. Arrow points to cupola of old coach house, which still stands ond can be seen in present state in picture above this one..