In 1833, Leonard Trask was a 28-year-old farmer in the Oxford County town of Peru, raising a family with his wife, Eunice, when he was thrown off his horse, landing on his neck. He survived, though he reportedly had to crawl many miles back home due to the remoteness of the area and the severity of his injury.
That accident caused a chain of events that resulted in Trask becoming known across the state and, eventually, the country, as a medical curiosity. Over the next several decades, Trask’s head and neck began to separate from his back, causing curvature of the spine and his head to bend down into his chest. By the time he was 40 years old, his head was lower than his shoulders, and was largely immobilized.
A short book Trask published in 1860, the year before his death at age 55, titled “A Brief Historical Sketch of the Life and Sufferings of Leonard Trask, the Wonderful Invalid,” made headlines when Trask himself traveled to New York City to promote it. The sight of Trask, who initially appeared to have a head located in the center of his chest, frightened some, and caused morbid curiosity in others.
Trask’s book also became an important publication in medical history, as it was the first documented case of the disease that caused Trask’s shocking deformity: ankylosing spondylitis, a type of arthritis that causes inflammation of joints in the spine. In Trask’s era, it was neither named nor studied, but by the end of the 19th century, ankylosing spondylitis was a diagnosable disease that is now treatable, though it has no cure.
Trask’s life prior to his accident was not unlike many hardy Mainers in the early 1800s. He was born in the Oxford County town of Hartford, and worked as a farmhand all his life. After his first accident occurred in 1833, he recovered enough to work again, though over the next seven years his head slowly began to curve downward.
In 1840, the unlucky Trask suffered another fall — this time into a load of hay, breaking his collarbone and four ribs. This began to more quickly exacerbate the problem, and according to an account published by the Peru Historical Society, at one point Trask heard a loud snapping sound, which Trask said was his head and neck disconnecting entirely from his spine.
Before his accident, Trask stood 6’1” and weighed around 200 pounds. By 1857, he stood 4’11”, and weighed just 134 pounds.
Trask saw countless doctors over the years, none of whom knew how to treat the condition he had, as it was not yet part of the medical lexicon. They reportedly tried everything from stretching out his body, to blood-letting with leeches — something doctors back then thought would cure just about everything.
By the 1850s, Trask was unable to perform farm work and had to turn to other methods to make money. His appearance was unnerving for the general public, however, and scared away customers when he tried to sell homemade products. He was approached by circus showmen to join their crew as part of their freak show, but Trask turned them down — he wanted to preserve his last remaining dignity.
He made a small amount of money selling his book, “The Wonderful Invalid,” which was co-written with a man named Sumner Newell. But by 1861, Trask was having difficulty breathing and eating as his head was being pushed ever further down into his chest. He died on April 13, 1861, and was buried in Oldham Cemetery in Peru.
Over the next few decades doctors and scientists rediscovered Trask’s memoirs, and by the 1890s realized that it was actually the first-ever published description in the U.S. of ankylosing spondylitis. Though it’s incurable, there are many treatments to improve symptoms and pain, including medications, physical therapy and surgery.
And besides its importance in medical history, “The Wonderful Invalid” is a surprisingly candid read. It includes anecdotes about how Trask actually accomplished things when he was unable to move his head or see anything above chest level, and his determination to continue to live and work freely, despite his disability.