William T. Vail (1819-1888) was born in Goshen, New York, and died in Detroit, Kansas. He attended the New York Hygeio-Therapeutic College. Vail ran Dr. Vail's Granite State Health Institute (a hydropathic institute using "Water Cure") in Hill, New Hampshire, from 1859-1870. He then relocated to Manhattan, Kansas, in 1870. In 1880, he moved to Greeley, Colorado, followed by Detroit, Kansas, in 1886. He was a member of the Congregational church. In June 1862, Mary Baker Eddy visited Vail's institute in Hill for about three months while experimenting with a variety of alternative treatments to cure her ailments.

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