James R. Drain

JAMES R. DRAIN, doctor of chiropractic, has developed a large field for his professional services at Russell, and has given that community a well appointed and capably managed sanitarium. Doctor Drain is one of the most prominent chiropractors in Kansas. According to Doctor Palmer "Chiropractic is a drugless health science of the cause of so-called dis-ease, and the art of adjusting the human spine when its segments are out of natural alignment, so that mental impulse can transmit naturally through the nerves to provide normal health function to every organ and part of the body.

"It is a system of adjusting that includes the use of nothing but the bare hands to locate a subluxated joint and effect its replacement to normal position by a peculiar move, made in particular direction, with a technical degree of speed and force.

"Chiropractors assume that in consequence of malposition vertebral segments the openings between the vertebrae, through which the spinal nerves pass, are affected, that in this way the nerves are impinged; and that such compression is the cause of the majority of all dis-eases. This condition is called 'subluxation' of the vertebral unit, which means that the articular surfaces of these bony units are more or less out of alignment. To realign these bones the Chiropractor uses nothing but his bare hands to deliver a particular thrust, thus releasing the pressure of harder substances from the nerve trunks to restore normal nerve tension to individual nerve fibres.

"The science of chiropractic resulted from the long study of the cause of dis-ease by D. D. Palmer, who by adjusting the vertebra of one of his patients with the object in view of relieving him of his deafness, discovered the principles of the science, which he later formed into a distinct system of adjusting, and still later named Chiropractic. Now (1915), twenty years after this discovery, there are seven thousand chiropractors, approximately one-half million people daily taking adjustments, and a legion already made well through adjustments, to bear testimony to the virtue of the discovery and justify its continued practice. Its principles are not developed or evolved from any known medical, manual or mental health science or their practice. They were discovered as unknown elements and formulated into a distinct system which is called by a distinct name, Chiropractic."

While Doctor Drain represents a pioneer Kansas family he was born during a temporary residence of his parents at Kendrick, Idaho, May 10, 1891. He is of old American stock. His forefathers came from Scotland and were early settlers in Kentucky. His grandfather, Joseph Drain, spent his life in Kentucky, was a farmer and fought on the Union side during the Civil war. He died at Garnetsville, Kentucky, in 1867. James H. Drain, father of Doctor Drain, was born in Garnetsville, Kentucky, in 1861. In 1878, at the age of seventeen, he came west and settled in Reno County, Kansas. For a time he carried the mail from Pretty Prairie to Nickerson. In 1880, removing to Scott County, he became increasingly identified as a rancher and had large cattle and livestock interests in Scott, Logan and Gove counties. In 1916, retiring, he moved to Healy, where he now resides. He is a republican, a Mason, and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. James H. Drain married Nettie Riddle, who was born in Indiana in 1871 and died in Scott City, Kansas, in 1912. Their children were: William, on the home ranch in Scott county; Dr. James R.; Versa, wife of Herman Ryan, a farmer and stockman in Logan County; Lorena, wife of George Albin, a railroad man at Greenville, Texas; Nora, who married J. Disney, a farmer at Fullerton, Nebraska; and Madge, who died at the age of eight years. Mr. Drain married again November 14, 1918, Mrs. M. J. Harrington, of Healy, Kansas, then becoming his wife.

James R. Drain grew up in Kansas, attended the rural schools in Scott and Logan counties, and high school at Scott City. For eighteen months he was a student in a business college in Kansas City, and then entered the Palmer School of Chiropractors at Davenport, Iowa, where after two years he graduated with the degree D. C. in September, 1912. In the same year he began practice at Scott City and in May, 1917, came to Russell, where he has found abundant opportunity for his professional service. He bought in 1917 a fine modern brick building which he has made into a splendid hospital for the accommodation of twenty patients, and it is one of the institutions of which the community of Russell is especially proud. The hospital is located a block from the new high school. Doctor Drain served three years as a member of the board of directors of the Kansas Chiropractors' Association, and is a member of the Universal Chiropractors' Association. He is an independent voter, a Methodist, and is affiliated with Anthem Lodge No. 284, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, at Scott City, and with Russell Chapter, Royal Arch Masons.

In March, 1913, at Scott City, Doctor Drain married Miss Marguerite Halsey, daughter of J. W. and Nettie Halsey, now residing at Plains, Colorado. Her father is a farmer. Mrs. Drain comes of a noted English family. Doctor and Mrs. Drain had three children: Nettie, who died in infancy; Palmera, born June 30, 1915; and James Cecil, born October 5, 1918.