On April 19, 1897, the American Osteopathic Association was formed. Dr. Andrew Still created the practice of osteopathic medicine. Dr. Still had helped found Baker University, the first four-year university in Kansas. He also served as hospital steward during the Civil War. When Dr. Still lost three of his children to spinal meningitis in 1864, he became dissatisfied with the crude medical methods of the day. At the time, many of the medicines, surgeries, and other treatments often caused more harm than good. Dangerous medicines and unsanitary surgical practices often led to more deaths than cures.