Leslie E. Keeley, 1834-1900, was an assistant surgeon for the Union Army during the Civil War, following his medical education at Rush Medical College in Chicago (1864). In 1866, he settled in Dwight, Ill., as surgeon for the Chicago and Alton Railroad. Discouraged by drinking in the armed forces, he sought a cure for alcoholism. With an Irish chemist named J.R. Oughton, he developed a cure made of gold salts and other ingredients that sold for $9.00 per bottle.

In 1879, Keeley opened his first clinic, the Keeley Institute, in Dwight, Ill. Soon he was expanding into other states. Shares in his operation sold for $50.00 by 1893. The bottled products now included a cure for tobacco, opium and "neurasthenia.” Eventually Dr. Keeley established franchises in Canada, Mexico, Russia, Denmark, Sweden and Norway. He died Feb. 1900, in Los Angeles, Ca. and was buried in Dwight, Ill.

[Sources accessed online Sept. 2002: www.dwighthigh.k12.il.us/Dwight.htm#general ; www.larrysantiques.com/keeley.htm ; www.lib.unb.ca/archives/keeley.html ]