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Archiver > ILEDWARD > 2001-06 > 0991935388


From: "Christopher D. Schroeder" <>
Subject: [ILEDWARD] Re: Richard Flower
Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2001 13:36:28 -0400
References: <NEBBJJBIOLFLEDPBBFBKAEPHCBAA.mkstone@together.net>


Dear Robert Webb,

The Richard Flower you are thinking of may be Dr. Richard C. Flower,
George's grandson, born in 1849. He was quite a character. Charismatic and
attractive, Dr. Flower preached, debated, and swindled his way through
Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, and Ohio before ending up on the East
Coast in Philadelphia, New York, Boston, and Richmond, VA. In Boston during
the 1880s he built what he billed as a magnificent health palace that
catered to wealthy, mostly female, clients who came to believe that Dr.
Flower could heal cancer and other diseases by touch. But by the 1900s, Dr.
Flower, a genius at marketing himself, became deeply involved in stock
swindles, working out of the Waldorf Astoria hotel. Around 1910 he became
embroiled in a scandal related to the suspicious death of the husband of a
wealthy socialite, and fled to Mexico and Canada before finally being caught
five years later, and sent to prison. At that point he was near 70 years of
age. After his capture, the New York Times discovered that Flower, a master
of disguise and escape, was wanted for murder in Pennsylvania (for a
suspicious death related to his unlicensed medical practice in
Philadelphia), and was sought by Richmond police for frauds committed there.

Best,

Chris Schroeder

----- Original Message -----
From: "Marcia and John Stone" <>
To: <>
Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2001 10:56 PM
Subject: RE: [ILEDWARD] Location of Vital Records


> The Richard Flower of whom I spoke was born in the 1760s I believe and was
a
> brewer and banker and farmer near Hertford, HRT, England. His son George
> Flower was co founder of the English settlement at Albion in 1818 (with
> Birkbeck), and Richard and his family came over to Albion with George. The
> senior Flowers waited in Kentucky, I believe, while son George and
laborers
> built him a nice house in Albion. He was not a preacher or debater.
Sorry.
>
> John Stone
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Robert L Webb [mailto:]
> Sent: Monday, June 04, 2001 10:01 PM
> To:
> Subject: Re: [ILEDWARD] Location of Vital Records
>
>
> Excuse me, I don't mean to intrude, but just wondered whether this
> Richard Flower was also known as "Dick" Flower who was a Christian church
> preacher and debater? There was one by that name who lived in that area.
> Robert
>


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