| Bakkum Chiropractic Clinic and Hospital Waukon |
Bakkum Chiropractic Clinic and Hospital,
ca 1938
~photo contributed by Gloria Payne
Bakkum Hospital (1936-1950).
The number of chiropractic facilities offering inpatient care
peaked in the period between World Wars I and II. Little
information is available about the vast majority of these
facilities. One of them was the Bakkum Chiropractic Clinic and
Hospital in Waukon, Iowa. The proprietor was Roy C. Bakkum, DC;
he and his wife, Jessie H. Bakkum, DC, opened their 30-bed
facility in 1936. Patients received hole-in-one chiropractic
adjustments, rest, and nursing care at this facility. Dr Roy
Bakkum not only envisioned chiropractors as true primary
caregivers but also implemented that vision to the best of his
ability. He saw chiropractic as the principal type of health care
that the vast majority of people should receive, even as
inpatients; instead of being the usual and customary type of
hospital care, pharmaceutical and surgical intervention would be
called on only as needed. Mainly because of economic pressures,
the Bakkums' facility closed in 1950. The Bakkum Chiropractic
Clinic and Hosptial may have been fairly typical of the small
chiropractic facilities that offered in-patient care. Most of
them closed in the post-World War II period, mostly due to
economic difficulties. Dr. Roy Bakkum not only had the vision of
chiropractors as true primary care-givers, but tried to implement
that vision to the best of his ability. He saw the chiropractic
adjustment as the main therapeutic intervention that the vast
majority of people should receive, even as in-patients. Radical
allopathic or surgical intervention would have only been called
upon as needed, rather than being the usual and customary primary
care that is currently the norm.
~source: PubMed; U.S. Department of Health & Human Services,
National Institutes of Health www.pubmed.gov ; excerpt of the
article published in Journal of Manipulative and
Physiological Therapeutics, Volume 24, Issue 1, Pages 34-43.
___________________
Dr. Roy Conrad Allen Bakkum
(June 10, 1903 - December 3, 1979) and his wife Dr.
Jessie Hardwick (Hubbard) Bakkum (January 24, 1905 - May
10, 1984), are buried in Old West Paint Creek cemetery. They had
two children, Delores Anne (Mrs. John Nolan) and Robert J. who
was also a chiropractor.
~source: Allamakee County, Iowa Burial Grounds, 1845-1988,
by Dale Woodmansee, 1986 and the obituary of Robert J. Bakkum.
___________________
Roy C. Bakkum, Chiropractor, b.
Allamakee Co., Iowa, June 10, 1903; son of H.R. Bakkum and Carrie
M. Larson; educated Allamakee Co; Waukon HS; Valder Business
College, Decorah; Palmer School of Chiropractic, Davenport, DC
1927; married Jessie Hubbard, June 6, 1928, Nashua; son Robert
J.; daughter Delores Anne. 1927-28, assistant in Wisc Gen
Chiropractic Hospital, Prairie du Chien Wisc; 1928-30,
chiropractor partner of Dr Booke, Waukon; 1929-30, assistant in
Clear View Sanitorium for Nervous & Mental cases, Pasadena
California, off, Brooke & Bakkum, Lansing; 1934,
chiropractor, Waukon; 1936, built new 23 room hospital and clinic
building, Waukon, operated since, was 1st general chiropractic
hospital in Iowa; member legislative committee of Chiropractic
Society of Iowa; Iowa State chairman of Fountain Head
Chiropractic Hospital Assn; Chiropractic Society of Iowa, com
member; Natl Rifle Assn member; Kiwanis, member and chairman
Underprivileged Child committee; Lutheran Church; Republican;
hobbies - hunting, fishing. Office 21 E. Maine; residence
Waukon.
~source: The Iowa Press Association's Who's Who in Iowa, a
Biographical Record of Iowa's Leaders in Business, Professional
and Public Life; Pub. by Iowa Press Association, Des Moines,
Iowa; 1940
~transcribed by Mona Knight