Editor's note: As the Gonstead Clinic readies to celebrates its 50th year with an Oct. 11-12 event, the C.S. Gonstead Chiropractic Foundation was gracious enough to share the following synopsis of Dr. Clarence Gonstead's life and achievements in chiropractic by Matthew J. Amman, DC. For details regarding the October celebration, click here.
Dr. Clarence Selmer Gonstead (1898-1978) took chiropractic practice from back-alley bone setting to an understandable biomechanical science. His life was dedicated to clinical competency. In the 1930s, the chiropractic profession was dominated by its iconoclastic leader, B.J. Palmer, and his Hole-In-One upper cervical specific technique. At that time, the technical skills of the typical graduating chiropractor were crude and rudimentary. Gonstead changed that and gave the profession a logical and biomechanically sound system for practicing chiropractic.
With a gift of solving mechanical problems, he developed his own ideas on subluxations, X-ray and adjusting bones through the empirical data he gathered from his large practice.
Although perhaps not his intent, Gonstead redefined the very nature of chiropractic. With the adoption of the Gonstead technique by the Palmer School of Chiropractic in the early 1960s, his technique assisted the profession in restoring chiropractic to its full-spine roots.
Life in Primrose, Wisconsin
Gonstead was born in Willow Lake, S.D., on July 23, 1893, the son of Carl and Sarah Gonstead. A few years later his father decided to relocate the family to Primrose, Wisc., and become a dairy farmer.
Growing up a rural farm provided young Gonstead with plenty of opportunities to explore the mechanical world. His enthusiasm for repairing tractors and early automobiles provided him with the kinesthetic tools for his later calling in life.
The Eureka Moment
Surprisingly little is known about Gonstead's education, but while in trade school, he became terribly sick, suffering from what he described as acute rheumatoid arthritis. According to Gonstead, his foot and knee were so sore that he couldn't walk for several weeks.
Eventually, Gonstead's aunt (whom he was living with at the time) essentially demanded that he be evaluted by her doctor, who happened to be Dr. J.B. Olson, a chiropractor. Dr. Olson came to the house to care for Gonstead and after a series of adjustments and rest, he could walk again. It was a life-changing event for Gonstead.
After trade school, young Gonstead took a job working as an automotive engineer. The job allowed him to save enough money to pay for chiropractic school.
1923
After graduating from Palmer School of Chiropractic and Infirmary, Gonstead started practice with his mentor, Dr. Olson, who had become temporarily disabled. After leaving Dr. Olson's practice, Gonstead purchased his own practice in Mount Horeb, Wisc.
Mechanics always guided Gonstead's thought process, which was constantly refined during his 50 years of practice. From his early childhood playing with farm machinery and automobiles to the unique scientific exploration taking place at Palmer School of Chiropractic while he was a student, Gonstead was nurtured by his surroundings to become an investigative clinician. Following the paradigm of observational science, he sought to perfect the craft.
The Bonds of Brotherhood
Merton Gonstead, Clarence's younger brother, joined the practice in 1929. The collaboration resulted in the Gonstead disc concept to better explain the mechanism of subluxation. The prevailing theory at the time was B.J. Palmer's idea that the subluxation was the result of a vertebral bone causing nerve pressure. In contrast, the Gonstead concept emphasized that the vertebral disc was the primary culprit of nerve pressure. It would later become recognized as a model for understanding discogenic back pain.
1939-1950
Gonstead's chiropractic talent attracted numerous patients seeking relief. His first office was located above the bank building in downtown Mount Horeb. With only a small reception area, patients often overflowed into the street outside.
In 1939, Gonstead built a new ultramodern chiropractic office on the corner of Main Street and Second Street in Mount Horeb. As his practice continued to grow, Gonstead started working six-and-a-half days a week, adjusting up to 250 patients a day. Patients came from all over the Midwest for care.
1954
Gonstead's clinical success attracted the attention of other chiropractors. They wanted to know why their patients in Iowa, South Dakota, Illinois, Michigan and elsewhere were traveling all the way to Mount Horeb, Wisc., to get adjusted. With much hesitation due to the demands of his own practice, Gonstead finally consented to have Drs. Ted and Phyllis Markham organize the first formal class for other chiropractors to learn his unique approach to chiropractic.
Over the next few years, the Markham team, with the help of their friend Lee Vogel, helped organize the lexicon, symbols, tools, and concepts unique to Gonstead's method of chiropractic.
Adapting to the growing demands on his schedule, Gonstead refused to slow down and simply added more office hours in his day to ensure he saw all his patients. He often treated his last patient at 2:30 in the morning. Furthermore, his informal classes became more structured, and Gonstead started traveling across the country to teach.
1964
With his ever-expanding practice and the growth of the seminar business, Gonstead needed a larger facility. In 1964, the new Gonstead Clinic of Chiropractic was completed east of town. The two-level facility boasted 29,000 square feet, 11 adjusting rooms, a complete chemistry laboratory, research facilities, and various seminar rooms.
To better manage the seminar business, Gonstead hired Dr. Ted Markham and Lee Vogel. Drs. Marvin Klaes and Albert Grove were brought on board as additional seminar instructors.
In 1965, adjacent to the new clinic, a full-service motel was constructed. Prior to the motel, out-of-town patients stayed at local boarding houses. Gonstead's reputation as a remarkable chiropractor had expanded beyond the United States and he had patients flying in from all over the globe. To assist these patients, limousine service was set up between the Madison airport and the Gonstead clinic. Patients with their own private planes could fly in and land at Gonstead's personal airport, located next to his home on the outskirts of Mount Horeb.
In 1961, Palmer School of Chiropractic lost its leader, B.J. Palmer. Under new leadership, the faculty decided to rewrite its technique curriculum. Within a few years the Gonstead method had become the cornerstone of the school's technique department. In time, other chiropractic schools followed suit and added the Gonstead technique to their curriculums.
1974
After 51 years of practice, Gonstead sold the clinic and Gonstead Seminars to Drs. Alex and Doug Cox. Today the clinic is owned by the nonprofit C.S. Gonstead Chiropractic Foundation. The Gonstead seminars continue in their original format under the leader-ship of Alex Cox’s son, Dr. John Cox. This group continues to teach the material across the globe to chiropractic students and doc-tors.
In the later part of?Gonstead’s life, another seminar group formed with the purpose of being a focus group for experienced Gonstead practitioners. After Gonstead’s death, under the leadership of Dr. Larry Troxell, the group restructured itself to focus on providing valuable internship opportunities for students to master the Gonstead work. It also offers a limited number of seminars to the profes-sion.
1978
In 1978, Clarence Gonstead died at the age of 80. Throughout his life, he was deeply concerned with questions about biomechanical dysfunction and its role in neuromusculoskeletal pain. In his later years, he devolved into chiropractic's more complicated clinical questions such as the subluxation's role in type O disorders (diabetes, bradycardia, asthma, etc.). In turn, Gonstead's reception by patients and by his professional colleagues brought out the ideas inherent in his work.
Gonstead is credited with several innovations in chiropractic. Some were modest: consulting with Electronic Development Lab to produce a better nervoscope (a descendent of the neurocalometer), and refinement of the knee-chest table and high-low table. Others were more ambitious: an X-ray line-marking system, a chiropractic X-ray machine, split-screen X-ray film cassettes, and adjusting the cervical spine in the chair position.
For all of his life, Gonstead maintained a commitment to the craft. He never abandoned the tools that defined his schooling – the neurocalometer and X-ray. He was driven by a desire for technical control and mastery of the perfect adjustment. In the end, his legendary reputation as a great healer confirmed the value of his unique method.
When sports chiropractors first appeared at the Olympic Games in the 1980s, it was alongside individual athletes who had experienced the benefits of chiropractic care in their training and recovery processes at home. Fast forward to Paris 2024, where chiropractic care was available in the polyclinic for all athletes, and the attitude has now evolved to recognize that “every athlete deserves access to sports chiropractic."
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Some doctors thrive in a personality-based clinic and have a loyal following no matter what services or equipment they offer, but for most chiropractic offices who are trying to grow and expand, new equipment purchases help us stay relevant and continue to service our client base in the best, most up-to-date manner possible. So, regarding equipment purchasing: should you lease, get a bank loan, or pay cash?
