BETHEL — A symposium sponsored by the Bethel Historical Society on the history of Dr. John G. Gehring’s nationally famous clinic for persons with nervous disorders will take place from 2 to 4 p.m. on Saturday, April 16, at the Dr. Moses Mason House exhibit hall, 14 Broad St.

Born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1857, John George Gehring was a medical doctor who began his professional career in his native city, but a few years later experienced some kind of “nervous breakdown.” Traveling to the southwestern United States to recover his health, he met a fascinating couple: George B. Farnsworth and his wife, the former Marian True, a Bethel native and the daughter of the beloved Gould Academy founder and historian Dr. Nathaniel Tuckerman True. They all returned to Boston, and the following year, George Farnsworth died. Mrs. Farnsworth married Dr. Gehring in 1888 and returned to her father’s old home (Dr. True having died the same year as her husband) at the end of Broad Street in Bethel.

The True homestead burned in 1896 and another stately home was built on the same site by the Gehrings later that year. It was also around this time that a clinic at the Gehrings’ Broad Street home was established. Dr. Gehring’s private treatment center soon developed a national reputation. Among the first clients (Gehring always referred to them as “guests”) were a number of Harvard University professors — so many, in fact, that Bethel was soon being recognized as “the resting place of Harvard University.” In later years, well-to-do people from New York society journeyed to Bethel, and they were soon followed by people from all over the world.

Author of “The Hope of the Variant” (1924) and the subject of Robert Herrick’s 1911 novel, “The Master of the Inn,” Dr. John George Gehring also included among his “guests” the poet and essayist Max Eastman, solar astronomer George Ellery Hale and the philanthropist William Bingham II. The Gehring Clinic continued to function until about 1926, when Dr. Gehring’s health began to decline.

During the afternoon symposium, a keynote address on Dr. Gehring’s work will be given by Benjamin Harris, professor of psychology at the University of New Hampshire. His presentation, which is supported, in part, by a grant from the Maine Humanities Council, will be followed by commentary from Bethel Historical Society Board President William D. Andrews and the society’s Associate Director, Stanley R. Howe, who is currently working on a biography of William Bingham II. Attendance at the Bethel Historical Society’s annual history symposium is free (donations welcomed) and open to all.

For more information, call 824-2908 or 800-824-2910 or visit [email protected].