William Henry Harrison Gore, a descendant of the earliest white settlers of Sheshequin, was a lifelong Universalist and a member of both the Athens and Sheshequin congregations.  He served in many roles in the Sheshequin congregation in the 1880s and 1890s, including Clerk, Trustee, and Sunday School Superintendent.  When he moved to Athens in 1894, he quickly became active in that congregation.  He was the Clerk for ten years.  In 1909, he made a large financial contribution toward the construction of the addition on the east side of the sanctuary (where our Social Room is today).

Harrison Gore was born in Sheshequin in 1835.  He attended the Athens and Towanda Academies.  When he was 19 years old, he went to Towanda to work in a drug store.

In April, 1861, after the attack on Fort Sumter, Gore answered the call to arms.  He enlisted in the Union army as a Captain and was later promoted to Major.  He was in many of the major battles of the Civil War in Maryland and Virginia, as well as Gettysburg.

After the war, Gore ran a drug store in Towanda for a few years before returning to the family farm in Sheshequin.  He and his wife moved to Athens in 1894.

In January, 1894, Gore and another Civil War veteran, William Brown, purchased the “Bedal Gold Cure Institute” in Athens.  The institute, which had been founded in April, 1892, was a residential treatment center for addictions to alcohol, morphine, and opium.  It was originally located at the corner of Elmira and Main streets in downtown Athens.

The first “gold cure” method for treating addictions was developed in Nebraska in 1879 by Dr. Leslie E. Keeley.  The “cure” involved daily injections of a solution of “gold bichloride” (no such compound exists!) and a variety of other substances.  Even though the science behind the gold cure was questionable, the treatment was apparently very successful.  By the 1890s every state and nearly every county had a Keeley Institute.

Similar operations were started by other entrepreneurs, including Dr. Marshall D. Bedal, who was also in Nebraska.  The Athens institute was affiliated with Bedal.

Bedal opened his clinic in Blair, Nebraska, in November, 1891, and, as with Keeley, Bedal “franchises” spread quickly across the country.  The Athens franchise was among the earliest; one of its founders, an Athens resident, had learned about it from his brother, who lived in Blair.

Gore and Brown had both gone through the gold treatment before they bought the Athens Institute in 1894.  Brown had been wounded during his service – his right eye had been hit by a musket ball.  He may have been addicted to morphine.  I don’t know what Gore’s addiction was; as far as I know he had not been wounded in the war.

Gore and Brown moved the Institute from its original location to the building that is now the Lowery Funeral Home at 225 South Main.

After about three and a half years, Gore and Brown ended their partnership.  Brown continued to treat alcohol and opium addictions.  Gore started a morphine addiction treatment in a house on South St.

I’m not sure how long Gore’s business lasted – probably not more than a few years.  Brown operated his Gold Cure clinic at 225 South Main until at least 1910.  He died in 1918.

W. H. H. Gore was active in the Athens Universalist church until about 1910.  In 1911 he and his wife began spending winters at their daughter’s home in Buffalo, NY (!!).  Gore died in Buffalo in 1922.  He and his wife are buried in the Sheshequin cemetery.