Lakewood Lore

There's nothing long lost about this Dr. Livingstone

Should I, I pondered as I sat on a straight-backed chair in the waiting room of Dr. Chester L. Livingstone, 82-year-old Lakewood chiropractor and mechanotherapist.

Should I, when he emerges, repeat one of history's most repeated greetings; namely, "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?"

I did, and he smiled, his eyes twinkling and his white hair shimmering.

Yes, he'd heard this classic cliche many times during his 56 years in Lakewood. Furthermore, he revealed that, surprisingly enough, he actually was related to the long-lost exlorer and missionary Dr. David Livingstone (1813-1873), whom New York Herald journalist Henry Stanley finally found and so greeted in East Africa in 1871 after a wearying search through arid veldt and steamy jungle in what was then known as "The Darkest Continent."

"My dad, who was from Motherwell in the Glasgow area of Scotland, told me we were related, but I don't remember him telling me how," the Lakewood practitioner explained. The celebrated Livingstone was born only a few miles from Motherwell in the town of Blantyre.

Our trim local Livingstone opened his office in a brick building at Madison and Mars in Lakewood in 1935 and has been practicing at this same location ever since.

The doctor is proud of his Lakewood tenure and clientele.

"I've gone through 14 landlords in this building and am now treating the third generation of some of my patients," he said.

He used to take care of many of Lakewood's early police and fire officers, including the late Leonard B. Miller, who joined the police force in 1913 and served as chief for a long time, beginning in 1921.

"When I first came to Lakewood, I was warned by friends that I was getting into a community where the residents didn't pay their bills," he recalled.

"But that wasn't the case," he quickly added. "Lakewood has always had a nice, hardworking class of respectable people."

He misses the Madison streetcars that once provided three-minute service during rush hours and used to stop in front of his office. He also mourns the diminishing of sidewalk pedestrian traffic.

He denies any plans to retire and prays daily for the good health and strength to continue his career.

Through the years, Dr. Livingstone has treated numerous young athletes for football injuries. He blames parents. "To reflect in the glory, many fathers, who couldn't make it themselves, push their sons to play," he observed.

Our octogenarian chiropractor has had side ventures during his lifetime. He claims to have been the first to produce an organic plant-growing compost, which he sold in transparent polyethylene bags, another first. The product was called "Humex" and was originally displayed at Cleveland Flower Show in the early '40s.

Also, he was a long-time licensed pilot who, during World War II, flew small planes for the Civil Air Patrol.

"Eat moderately and lead a simple life" is the good doctor's advice for health and happiness.

"There's too much overdoing," he lamented. "A person should know his limitations and pace himself.

"There are too many weekend athletes--too many middle-aged men hurting themselves at picnics by suddenly taking up baseball after not having played for years."

The doctor was born on Cleveland's lower West Side. He moved to Spokane Avenue in the Old Brooklyn neighborhood in 1915 and has lived in the same house there ever since.

He attended Cleveland's long-gone Lincoln High, Fenn College and Metropolitan Chiropractic College. He wed twice and was married to his second wife for 36 years before her death seven years ago. He has four sons, one daughter and 12 grandchildren.

This article appeared in the Lakewood Sun Post September 12, 1991. Reprinted with permission.

[Note: Dr. Livingstone died in 1994. His obituary appeared in the Cleveland Plain Dealer November 15, 1994, p. B9.]

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