Wizard of Oto
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STRANGE TALES SURROUND THE WIZARD OF OTO
Some called him the Wizard of Oto. Some called him the Oto doctor. But whatever people chose to call him, few knew anything about Omar Palmer. Where he came from, why he came to Oto, and how he obtained his medical knowledge remained a mystery. In the winter of 1933, Springfield Newspapers Inc. journalist Allen Oliver set out to Oto to find some answers in what would become a three part profile of Palmer and the throngs of people who sought his medical assistance.
The man known as Omar Palmer, for most believed it was not his real name, came to the community of Oto after suffering a nervous breakdown, giving up his possessions, and seeking solitude to camp and fish. He was so taken with Oto that he set up camp along a river near the town, only to have his camp washed away during a 1932 flood. After the flood, he moved in with W.B. Cox and his wife in Oto.
It was out of this residence that Palmer set up his medical practice and where, over the next year, the Oto doctor saw 4,700 patients. “The only thing I had in mind when I started out was to help someone who needed help,” Palmer told Oliver. “I make no charge, nor do I accept personal gifts of any kind. There is a community fund maintained to pay for medicine, which is donated to those who cannot pay for it. People can donate if they feel like it.”
Many people in the Oto community attested that Palmer’s healing abilities cured ailments that other doctors could not cure. Some wondered how much faith played into the cases. Others wondered whether Palmer had supernatural powers, rumors Palmer deeply disapproved of. Although he used mostly herbs and some drugs on his patients, his lack of a state medical license led to his arrest. Palmer was ultimately set free because the prosecution's witness failed to show, and Palmer returned to Oto to continue his practice.
“Perhaps some day Palmer will pick up and leave Oto as suddenly and as mysteriously as he came,” Oliver wrote, “But if the past is any indication of the future, it will be but a question of months until people will recall the Wizard of Oto and wonder what all the shouting was about.”
The image of Mr. Palmer accompanied an of the articles and was published in the Sunday News and Leader on December 17, 1933.
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