Still was born in Lee County, Virginia in 1828 (†1917). Following in his father's footsteps, he became a physician and practiced medicine for the first twenty years. During the American Civil War (1861-1865) he worked as a Unionist in a field hospital.
After the Civil War, Dr. Still lost three of his children to meningitis. Disillusioned that the medicine of that time could not save his children, he devoted 30 years of his life to finding other ways to treat diseases.
In 1874, Dr. Still announced a new field of medicine that he called "osteopathy." His concept was already presented as an addition to existing conventional medicine. Not as an alternative system or a replacement for existing medicine. From 1880 onwards, he continued to research osteopathy and tried to teach the new methodology to others. On November 1, 1892, the American School of Osteopathy was opened. Today, this school is known as AT Still University.
One of the first students of the American School of Osteopathy is also the man who brought osteopathy to Europe: John Martin Littlejohn (1865-1947). In poor health, he emigrated to America in 1892, where he turned to Dr. Still for treatment. This brought him a rapid recovery, which made a great impression on him. He enrolled at the American School of Osteopathy and began training as an osteopath.
In 1913 Littlejohn moved back to the United Kingdom and founded the British School of Osteopathy in 1917. Osteopathy came to the European mainland from England, first via France in the 1950s and later conquering the rest of Europe. In 1985 the first osteopathy training course started in the Netherlands.
