Pusey Heald was born on April 28, 1838, in New Castle County, Delaware, to Jacob and Sarah Heald. His father was a farmer who owned $7,000 of real estate by 1870. His parents were Quakers who supported temperance, women’s rights, and emancipation. He probably grew up and attended school in New Castle County, and his mother died in 1846.
By 1860, Heald was working as a teacher in Middletown, Delaware. He, too, was a Quaker, and he supported the temperance movement and the vegetarian movement. He graduated from the New York Therapeutic Medical College in March 1863, and he wrote his thesis on “The Hygienic Physician.” He earned a living as a physician, and he served as secretary of the U.S. Army General Hospital in Wilmington during the Civil War.
In July 1863, he witnessed the New York City Draft Riots, which he described as a “reign of terror.” The rioters, he reported, had “attacked the drafting offices—burned them, drove off & beated the officers—then began to sack & burn the stores & houses of persons obnoxious to them—Republicans.” They also “burned the colored children’s orphan asylum” and murdered several “poor colored men.” He concluded that “Neither life nor property are safe now & it will become worse till they [the rioters] are whipped.”
His name was drawn in the August 1863 draft, but he apparently remained a civilian. As he explained in his draft registration records, he had suffered from a “sore leg” for the past twelve years.
He married Mary Homer York on March 3, 1868. She was also a physician, and the couple established the Healds’ Hygeian Home in Wilmington in January 1871. Their “large water cure establishment” offered “Sun Baths [and] Swedish Movements,” and a “Hygienic diet [of] the choicest fresh and canned fruits and vegetables.” His wife “devote[d] especial attention to lady patients, giving them the benefit of kindly sympathy as well as of experience and skill.”
By 1880, the couple employed at least eight white domestic servants. His wife died on December 31, 1885, and he closed down Healds’ Hygeian Home soon afterward. He married Laura Spear on April 19, 1888. Their son Bancroft was born around 1896. He retired in the early 1900s and moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Laura died in 1927, and he died in Melrose, Massachusetts, on August 1, 1928.
