Dr. John G Gehring

Dr. John George Gehring came to Bethel from Cleveland in 1887 and married Susie Marian True Farnsworth in October 1888. Until his death in 1932 he attracted attention from Broad Street residents, Gould Academy, The Bethel Inn, Congregational Church member and other local citizens who had interests in his neurological work and his reputation as a naturalist.

There were seven stages in Gehring’s life in Bethel: (1) Getting settled with his new wife who was a dominating personality, pursuing his own scientific and naturalist instincts, presenting lectures to various local groups and supporting the temperance movement; (2) Loss of the Dt. True home and the supervision of building a new grand abode; (3) Launching his re-directed medical practice into the field of individual rehabilitation from nervous breakdowns; (4) The association of the Gehring's with Gould Academy Principal Frank Hanscom; (5) Involvement with creation of the Bethel Inn and becoming both a father figure and doctor to William Bingham 2nd; (6) Coping with the growth of his clinical practice and further involvement with Gould Academy and (7) Retirement.

Sifting through the facts of his early years in Bethel, it seems apparent that Gehring realized he was curing himself of a combined physical-nervous breakdown by studying, pursing botany and animal husbandry projects, building a better natural world around their estate and through reading scientific medical journals.

Gehring was a Bethel resident for 45 years. Overall, however, the key event in his career occurred in 1911 when William Bingham 2nd arrived to check himself in at the Gehring Clinic. From this year on, along with the urgings of his wife, Marian, he became father and counselor for Bingham. In turn this relationship resulted in Bethel becoming a center for Bingham’s generous philanthropies, the development of the Bethel Inn and most of all the notable expansion of the Gould Academy campus.

On September 13, 1932, The Oxford Democrat printed this obituary of Dr. Gehring’s sudden death in Bethel which briefly summarizes Gehring’s life and accomplishments:

Dr. J G Gehring

“Dr. John George Gehring, a distinguished neurologist or specialist in nervous disorders, died at his home in Bethel very suddenly on the 1st of September. He had apparently been in good health up to the hour of his death.

Dr. Gehring received the degree L.L.D. from Bates College in 1923, and was a warm personal friend of President Gray of Bates.

In recognition of Dr. Gehring’s achievements and work in the field of neurology, in which he was regarded as a specialist, William Bingham II, of Bethel donated $200,000 for the construction of one of the two large wards in the New York Neurological Institute, which was named the “Gehring Ward and Rooms”. He also wrote one book “The Hope of the Variant,” which was published in 1923.

Besides his Bates degree, Dr. Gehring held an M.D. degree from Western Reserve University School of Medicine in 1885. His followed this work with post graduate work at the University of Berlin. In 1928, he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Science by Rollins College (in Florida). He began practice in Cleveland, Ohio in 1885, but since 1895 has practiced at Bethel, specializing in functional nervous diseases.

He was born in Cleveland, Ohio, July 4, 1857, the son of Karl August and Wilhelmina (Vetter) Gehring. On October 20, 1888, he married Marian True Farnsworth of Boston, Mass., and she with one stepson, Dr. George Bourne Farnsworth of Cleveland, Ohio, survive him.

Highly respected in the field of medical science, Dr. Gehring found time to make many friends in and around Bethel, where he has made his home for approximately 35 years. While living here he has served as president of the board of directors of Gould’s Academy and as a director in the Bethel National Bank. He was a member of the Maine Medical Association and the Oxford County Medical Society.”

Dr. Gehring followed Dr. True’s career path. Neither gentleman found standard medical practice to satisfy their career expectations. Dr. True was interested in history, scientific investigation, turning research into practical applications and, of course, as Gould’s principal for many years, teaching.

Dr. Gehring’s entrance into the Bethel stage showed many similarities with True’s. He apparently enjoyed giving lectures on science and health, diving into the study of social issues and as many do today, gardening but with a scientific focus. While still living in Dr. True’s home, he gained a reputation for advanced gardening and of all things raising poultry, barred rock hens. He operated the largest incubator in town. Did learning how to raise better chicks teach him about correcting human psychological stress? Maybe.

In less than two years, he had earned the confidence of the town’s leadership circle. His insightful and critical report of the town’s school system during 1890, led to town meeting support for the creation and appointment of a new school official—Supervisor of Schools.

In 1896 when he began to develop his so-called “Gehring Clinic”, he found that his new home which is still standing was the best kind of hospital or sanatorium for the type of therapy he would practice—an isolation, a leaving behind of day to day anxieties and real of imagined social, professional demands. Therefore, over the next 20 years his home became his therapy “castle” which all of his patients could fix in their memories.

Some claim that hundreds came to see him—likely an exaggeration. But if partly true, then he dispensed two completely different types of therapy: one on one for the elite guests and group therapy for those who came to take the cure as sort of a vacation. Most of the photographic records of his work show those who were part of the group therapy program—cutting wood, working outdoors and hacking away at his private golf course.

In 1911 Messer’s Bingham and Upson arrived in Bethel at a propitious moment as the Prospect Hotel which was essentially a lodging unit for Dr. Gehring’s clinic burned down. During the next year, our newspapers tell the story of how the new alliance of Gehring, Bingham and Upson competed with Bethel’s other notable character, William Rogers Chapman, for the rebuilding of a new more elegant hotel on the common. Although the Bethel Inn was ostensibly a public hotel when it opened in 1913, in fact it became and was even so noted in its incorporation papers, a private club for the Gehring inner circle. It became a retreat for Dr. Gehring where he could do what he seemed to enjoy most—talking with people.

On the other hand, his wife Marian and the new principal of Gould’s Academy, Frank E. Hanscom, were allied in seeing the academy survive and prosper. For Mrs. Gehring, daughter of Dr. Nathanial True—a person who had became a Gould legend—the real crusade was marshaling help for Frank Hanscom. Maybe for Dr. Gehring, the inn became a comfortable place to hide from the endless campaigning of his wife. But eventually, either willingly or by giving in, Gehring became the chairman of the board who could guide Mr. Bingham’s generosity into concrete growth of the academy campus.

Therefore, Dr. Gehring pulled off no small list of accomplishments during his adult life in Bethel. All that stands for today’s residents and visitors to see is his home which was his institution, his life’s castle.