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RICHARD M. JOHNSON, M.D.
Vol. 3, p. 1031-1032

While Doctor Johnson, who is proprietor of the Oklahoma Naturopath
Institute, possesses the degree of the regular doctor of medicine,
and was himself a medical practitioner many years ago, he became
convinced early in his professional career that the administration of
medicine in the usual sense for the cure of disease was subject to
many errors and dangers that he could no longer conscientiously
follow out his chosen vocation. From the beginning he had made a
close study of the curative principles contained in natural agencies
and became convinced that nature, if allowed a free hand, would
effect a greater proportion of successful cures than all the
poisonous drugs in the pharmacopeia. Thus as a result of study,
observation and experiment, Doctor Johnson finally took his present
stand as a naturopath, a curative science which insists upon the use
of nature's own remedies in the treatment of all human diseases. He
has done probably more than any other individual to perfect this
science, and the Oklahoma Naturopath Institute has in consequence
gained wide recognition and is an institution of which Oklahoma City
and the state are properly proud. The institute is located in the
Herskowitz Building at Oklahoma City.

Born in Indiana, November 10, 1855, Richard M. Johnson is the son of
Jonas and Mary (PRICE) Johnson. The Johnson family originated in
North Carolina, where they were firm adherents of the Quaker faith
and consequently opposed to the institution of slavery, on which
account they left the South and became pioneer settlers in Indiana.
In Indiana both the grandfathers of Doctor Johnson assisted in
organizing and operating the underground railway of slavery days.
Jonas Johnson and wife were both natives of Indiana, and the former
was a farmer. During the war he went out with the Sixty-ninth Indiana
Regiment, and while participating in Grant's campaign against
Vicksburg was the first man to be killed in the battle of Port
Gibson. Thus Doctor Johnson was only a child when his father was
slain as a sacrifice to the Union cause, and from an early age he has
been dependent upon his own resources. He attended the public schools
of Indiana and in 1878 was graduated M.D. from the Missouri College
of Medicine. After several years of practice he abandoned the
profession for the reason that the more he became familiar with the
conventional and accepted methods of medical practice the more he
disliked it. Other lines of business engaged his attention for
several years, and at the same time he took up and pursued privately
the study of the relief of mankind without recourse to the knife and
drugs. Subsequently he studied osteopathy, graduated from that course
in 1898, and in 1901 completed a course in German naturopathy,
followed by similar attainments in the science of electro-
therapeutics, chiropractic, food science and kindred other drugless
methods. During a period of nearly thirty years Doctor Johnson has
received twenty-seven diplomas, two of them being honorary degrees,
and he is a master of electro-therapeutics and of somopathy.

Doctor Johnson practically originated the science of naturopathy
after he came to Oklahoma City in 1901, and has not only practiced
that science for the past ten years but has been engaged in teaching
it to others. Naturopathy is as old as the world. It means going back
to nature to correct the ailments of mankind by use of natural
remedies. The science as perfected by Doctor Johnson means the
elimination of all errors and the teaching by comparative methods of
the proper uses of food such as nature supplies, without recourse to
drugs or poisons. Emphasis is placed upon the natural way of living
and in a word naturopathy is the science, art and philosophy of
removing the cause of disease with methods which are in harmony with
the laws of nature, employing water, herbs, light, heat, cold, air
and food, each of these elements being applied as may be indicated
for individual cases.

Since the organization of the Naturopath Institute it has had a
flourishing growth and has performed a valuable service. In addition
to Doctor Johnson from three to five assistants are employed all the
time, with an average of from 100 to 150 patients treated daily. He
has a drugless sanitarium at 801 East Fifth Street, and there treats
all conditions of so-called incurable troubles. The College of
Naturopathy maintains a thirty-month course and not only graduates
its students in naturopathy but also with degrees in mechano-therapy,
chiropractic, physio-medico and electro-therapy, and also in
aristophagy, which as the name indicates means to eating of the best
and most perfect foods.

In 1882 Doctor Johnson married Miss Rosa WATKINS of Ohio. They are
the parents of two sons, Charles and Wister Johnson. Doctor Johnson
resides at 801 East Fifth Street, Oklahoma City.

Typed for OKGenWeb by Kathy Bridges, August 1999.