Weltmer Institute (1897-1930)

Located in Nevada, Missouri, the Weltmer Institute was a place of healing through a doctrine known as "weltmerism" that blended faith with science. At its peak, the institute employed many in the area and also provided services via mail. The institute was established by Sidney A. Weltmer in 1897, and he purchased the seventeen-room mansion which was built in 1886. After the Institute closed around 1930, it was a remodeled funeral home before being demolished in 2004. Although it is no longer standing, the Weltmer Institute was a foundational piece of the history of Nevada. Weltmer had many supporters who believed in his use of "electromagnetic healing" which used the power of suggestion and hypnosis, as well as many who believed he was a con man.

Sidney Abram Weltmer was born July 7, 1858, in Wooster, Ohio and died December 6, 1930, in Nevada, Missouri. He was primarily self-educated, including a stint at a medical library where he was an apprentice. At nineteen, Weltmer became a preacher in Sedalia, Missouri. Weltmer married Mary Genoa Stone in 1879, and together they had five children Ernest, Silas W., Stella, Tracy, and Beulah. By 1895, he had become interested in mesmerism, magnetism, and healing. 

Weltmerism was a kind of electromagnetic healing that used the power of suggestion and hypnosis. Although many people had used mesmerism/magnetism before Weltmer, he wanted to be able to combine healing with religion. Weltmer partnered with J.H. Kelly, and together, they decided to create a permanent healing location in the southwestern town and growing railway hub in Nevada in 1897. Before that, they traveled and worked in multiple towns.

In Nevada, they had worked out of a few buildings before choosing the seventeen-room mansion one block south of the corner of Ash and Cherry. The mansion was built in 1886 by railroad contractor Frank P. Anderson. At its peak, the Weltmer Institute employed over a hundred stenographers and typewriters to handle mail and correspondence. The number of patients being treated in person and by mail created a boon for Nevada. Extra trains were added to Nevada to allow for the influx of travelers, and, in 1901, the Nevada post office was upgraded to first-class status. 

The rapid growth of the Weltmer Institute led to attention and criticism by both doctors and ministers. One Bishop wrote an article about the Results of Divine Healing, which was published in 1899. Weltmer and Kelly filed suit for libel against the Bishop for the negative press the article caused, which reached the Supreme Court of Missouri. During this period, however, a fraud order was issued and all mail to the Institute was suspended.

Besides the questions of fraud, the Weltmer Institute faced problems with some of its patients. In 1917, Lewis Thompson was being treated when he managed to get his hands on a gun and killed one man and injured two more before being caught by the police. During the incident, Thompson made his way to the Institute, where he fired upon the janitor, John Cooper, and one of the "healers" a man known as Professor Crone. Because of Thompson’s illness, he was declared “incurably insane” and therefore unaccountable for the murder of two men and the injury of one. 

The Weltmer Institute of Suggestive Therapeutics was active for thirty years before eventually being abandoned following the death of Sidney A. Weltmer. Weltmer’s son Ernest tried to continue the work from the family home. A few years after the Institute was closed, the building was purchased by Marsh Eichinger to be remodeled into a funeral home. The remodel included removing the entire third floor, and removing part of the west wing, and redesigning the front. By 2004, the plan was to demolish the building and replace it with a video rental store. The aging structure was never placed on the National Register and was demolished.

"Aging building rich in local history", Vernon County Historical Society, Aug 18, 2004,

Sterett, Betty. Scenes from the Past (of Nevada, Missouri). Nevada, MO: Vernon County Historical Society/Bushwhacker Museum, 2002, 272-276.

“Thompson Taken to Iowa Asylum: Man Responsible for Two Deaths in Nevada Declared Incurably Insane,” The Weekly Post (Nevada, MO), May 18, 1917.

“A Woman, Mentally Ill, Tried to Shoot Prof. J. O. Crone,” The Nevada Daily Mail (Nevada, MO), November 1, 1926.