Ohio businessman Col. Arthur Latham Conger fought for the Union and for the osteopathic medical profession. During the Civil War, he served in the Union Army and later was commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, Ohio Department, and a member of the Loyal Legion. After suffering a stroke, he became an advocate for osteopathic medicine in gratitude for the osteopathic medical treatment he received. In 1897, he served as editor of the Journal of Osteopathy; one year later, he became a founder of the Dr. S.S. Still College of Osteopathy, now DMU.
“Hon. A.L. Conger, of Ohio – a man of National reputation, a Union soldier of proved merit, and a citizen of general usefulness – is in Des Moines, with a desire to establish here a School of Osteopathy with departments for the treatment of afflictions by that most modern and successful method for the cure of the ills of humanity,” stated The Des Moines Register in an 1898 editorial.
The University is featuring displays in the DMU Library to mark the sesquicentennial of the beginning of the Civil War.
