Painful as it is, we are again compelled to appear before the
public in defense of our character as citizens and business men.
The two letters referred to by L.S. Comstock (one of which
contained One Dollar only) _were both directed "Comstock & Co."
which letters we claim; and we repeat what we have before said, and
what we shall prove that no letter or letters from any source
directed to L.S. Comstock or Lucius S. Comstock have been taken or
obtained by either of us or any one in our employ_.
The public can judge whether a sense of "duty to the Post Office
Department and the community", induced our brother to make this
charge against us (which if proved would consign us to the
Penitentiary) and under the pretence of searching for letters,
which perhaps never existed; to send Police Officers to invade not
only our store, but our dwelling house, where not even the presence
of our aged Mother could protect from intrusion. These are the
means by which he has put himself
[Footnote 3: Receipts for these registrations were signed by the
prominent librarian, Charles Coffin Jewett, later to be superintendent
of the Boston Public Library for many years.]
[Illustration: FIGURE 2.--Wrapper for Oldridge's Balm of Columbia,
Comstock & Co., druggists.]
in possession of the _names of our customers; of our
correspondence_; and our private and business papers.
J.C. & GEO. WELLS COMSTOCK, firm of Comstock & Brother, No. 9 John
Street
Lucius, for his part, never deigned to recognize his opponents as
brothers but merely described them as "two young men who claim
relationship to me."
It was the position of J. Carlton and George that as they, equally with
Lucius, were heirs of the dissolved firm of Comstock & Co. Brothers,
they had as much right as Lucius to receive and open letters so
addressed. Moreover, since the predecessor firm of Comstock & Co. had
never been dissolved, J. Carlton also shared in any rights, claims, or
property of this firm. In a more personal vein, the brothers also
asserted in their brief that Lucius "is not on speaking terms with his
aged mother nor any one of his brothers or sisters, Nephews or Nieces,
or even of his Uncles or Aunts, embracing quite a large circle all of
whom have been estranged from him, either by personal difficulties with
him, or his improper conduct towards his brothers." Lucius, in turn, had
copies of his charges against his brothers, together with aspersions
against their character and their medicines, printed as circulars and
widely distributed to all present or former customers in the United
States and Canada.
Meanwhile the civil litigation respecting the division of the assets of
the old partnership, broken down into a welter of complaints and
countercomplaints, dragged on until 1852. No document reporting the
precise terms of the final settlement was discovered, although the
affair was obviously compromised on some basis, as the surviving records
do speak of a division of the stock in New York City and at St. Louis.
The original premises at 57 John Street were left in the possession of
Lucius. In this extensive litigation, J. Carlton and George were
represented by the law firm of Allen, Hudson & Campbell, whose bill for
$2,132 they refused to pay in full, so that they were, in turn, sued by
the Allen firm. Some of the lengthy evidence presented in this
collection suit enlightened further the previous contest with Lucius. He
was described as an extremely difficult person: "at one time the parties
came to blows--and G.W. gave the Dr. a black eye." The action by the
law firm to recover its fee was finally compromised by the payment of
$1,200 in January 1854.
The settlement of the affairs of Comstock & Co. Brothers failed to bring
peace between Lucius and the others. The rival successor firms continued
to bicker over sales territory and carried the battle out into the
countryside, each contending for the loyalty of former customers.
Letters and circulars attacking their opponents were widely distributed
by both parties. As late as December 1855, more than four years after
the event, Lucius was still complaining, in a series of printed
circulars, about the "robbery" of his mail from the post office,
although the case had been dismissed by the court.
But somehow the new firm of Comstock & Brother triumphed over Comstock &
Co., for in the summer of 1853 Lucius found it necessary to make an
assignment of all of his assets to his creditors. Thereafter he removed
his business from John Street to 45 Vesey Street, in the rear of St.
Paul's Churchyard, but although he put out impressive new handbills
describing his firm as "Wholesale Chemists, Druggists and Perfumers," he
apparently no longer prospered in the drug trade, for old New York City
directories show that he shortly turned his main energies to the
practice of law. Versatile as he was, Lucius entered the Union Army as a
surgeon during the Civil War, and upon his return he resumed his legal
career, continuing to his death in 1876. Aside from his role in the
Comstock medicine business, Lucius also rates a footnote in United
States political history as the foreman of the grand jury that indicted
Boss Tweed in 1872.
*A New Partnership Formed*
The two proprietors of Comstock & Brother at 9 John Street were the
brothers George Wells and J. Carlton Comstock. At the time of the events
just related, their nephew, William Henry Comstock, was an employee, but
not a partner, of the firm (he was the "clerk" who had removed the
controversial letters from the post office). This partnership was
terminated by the death on September 17, 1853, of J. Carlton Comstock,
the inventor of the veterinary medicines.
To continue the business, a new partnership, also under the name of
Comstock & Brother, comprising George Wells Comstock, William Henry
Comstock, and Baldwin L. Judson, was formed on October 1, 1853. Judson
was the husband of Eliza, a sister of Lucius and his brothers. George
contributed one half of the capital of the new firm and the other two,
one quarter each; however, exclusive possession of all trademarks,
recipes, and rights to the medicines was reserved to George. It is not
clear precisely when Judson entered the drug business or first became
associated with the Comstocks; there is some evidence that he had
previously been in business for himself, as several remedies were
registered by him prior to this time. Judson's Chemical Extract was
registered with the Smithsonian by the Comstock firm in 1851, but Dr.
Larzetti's Juno Cordial or Procreative Elixir had previously been
entered by Judson & Co. in 1844. A variant of the Juno Cordial label
also mentions Levi Judson (a father?) as Dr. Larzetti's only agent in
America.
Besides the "new" remedies, the Comstock firm--both Comstock firms--was
also selling all of the "old" patent medicines, most of them of British
origin. These included such items as Godfrey's Cordial, Bateman's
Pectoral Drops, Turlington's Balsam of Life, British Oil, and others.
The only strictly American product that could claim a venerability
somewhat approaching these was Samuel Lee's Bilious Pills, patented on
April 30, 1796.
Most of the more recent remedies probably had been originated by local
doctors or druggists, either upon experimentation or following old folk
remedies, and after enjoying some apparent success were adopted by drug
manufacturers. With rare exceptions, however, the names of the
discoverers never seem to have made their way into medical history.
[Illustration: FIGURE 3.--Original wrapper for Judson's Chemical Extract
of Cherry and Lungwort, printed about 1855.]
*Entrance of Dr. Morse's Indian Root Pills*
During the summer of 1855 the Comstock firm, now located at 50 Leonard
Street, was approached by one Andrew J. White, who represented himself
as the sole proprietor of Dr. Morse's Indian Root Pills and who had
previously manufactured them in his own business, conducted under the
name of A.B. Moore, at 225 Main Street, in Buffalo. Actually, White's
main connection with this business had been as a clerk, and he had been
taken in as a partner only recently. Nevertheless, the Comstocks
accepted his claims--carelessly, one must believe--and on August 10,
1855, signed a contract with White for the manufacture and distribution
of these pills.
The originator of these pills was Andrew B. Moore. This is clear from
several legal documents, including an injunction proceeding in behalf of
White and Moore in 1859, which reads in part as follows:
The defendant Moore always had an equal right with White to
manufacture the pills--and by the agreement of 21st June, 1858
Moore is (illegible) to his original right and the defendants are
manufacturing under Moore's original right....
The plaintiffs (the Comstocks) by their acts have disenabled Moore
from using _his own name_.... (emphasis in original).
[Illustration: FIGURE 4.--Label for Dr. Larzetti's Juno Cordial, 1844.]
[Illustration: FIGURE 5.--List of medicines offered by Comstock &
Brother (predecessor of the firm which later moved to Morristown) in
1854.]
In an undated form of contract, between Moore on the one part and George
Comstock, William H. Comstock, Judson, and White on the other part, the
parties agree, at Moore's option, either to sell all rights and interest
in Dr. Morse's Indian Root Pills to him, or to buy them from him, but in
the latter event he must covenant that "he will forever refrain from the
manufacture or sale of any medicine called Dr. Morse's Root Pills,
Moore's Indian Root Pills, or Morse's Pills, or Moore's Pills, or any
other name or designation similar to or resembling in any way either
thereof...."
In brief, there never was a Dr. Morse--other than Andrew B. Moore. And
the Comstocks never claimed any origin of the pills in legal documents,
other than their purchase from White. Subsequently, the company
fabricated a lengthy history of the discovery of the pills and even
pictured Dr. Morse with his "healthy, blooming family." This story was
printed in almanacs and in a wrapper accompanying every box of pills.
According to this version, "the famous and celebrated Dr. Morse," after
completing his education in medical science, traveled widely in Asia,
Africa, Europe, and North America, and spent three years among the
Indians of our western country, where he discovered the secret of the
Indian Root Pills. Returning from one of these journeys after a long
absence, he found his father apparently on his death bed. But let us
quote the story directly:
A number of years ago this good man was very sick. He had eight of
the most celebrated doctors to attend him both night and day. With
all their skill this good and pious gentleman grew worse, and
finally they gave him up, saying that it was impossible to cure him
and he would soon die ... In the afternoon he was taken with
shortness of breath and supposed to be dying. The neighbors were
sent for, the room soon filled, and many prayers were offered up
from the very hearts of these dear Christian people, that some
relief might be obtained for this good and pious man.
While these prayers were ascending like sweet incense to the throne
above, and every eye was bathed in tears, a rumbling noise was
heard in the distance, like a mighty chariot winding its way near,
when all at once a fine span of horses, before a beautiful coach,
stood before the door, out of which alighted a noble and
elegant-looking man. In a moment's time he entered the room, and
embraced the hand of his dear father and mother. She clasped her
arms around his neck and fainted away.
The Doctor, surprised to see his father so nearly gone, immediately
went to his coach, taking therefrom various plants and roots, which
he had learned from the Red Men of the forest as being good for all
diseases, and gave them to his father, and in about two hours
afterwards he was much relieved.... Two days afterwards he was much
better, and the third day he could walk about the room ...and now
we behold him a strong, active man, and in the bloom of health, and
at the age of ninety-five able to ride in one day thirty-five
miles, in order to spend his birthday with this celebrated Doctor,
his son.
The foregoing event was supposed to have occurred some years before
1847, as the elder Mr. Morse's ninety-fifth birthday referred to was
celebrated on November 20, 1847, when he was still hale and hearty. The
old gentleman was also said to be enormously wealthy, "with an income of
about five hundred thousand dollars annually, and the owner of a number
of fine, elegant ships, which sailed in different directions to every
part of the world." Dr. Morse, who was the first man to establish that
all diseases arise from the impurity of the blood, subsequently
discarded his regular practice of medicine and, as a boon to mankind,
devoted his entire energy to the manufacture of Dr. Morse's Indian Root
Pills.
[Illustration: FIGURE 6.-"A Short History of Dr. Morse's Father." A copy
was inserted in every box of the pills.]
This story, which was first disseminated as early as the late 1850s, was
an entire fabrication. Throughout the patent-medicine era it was the
common practice to ascribe an Indian, or at least some geographically
remote, origin to all of these nostrums and panaceas. In the words of
James Harvey Young, in his book on the Social History of Patent
Medicines:[4]
From the 1820's onward the Indian strode nobly through the American
patent-medicine wilderness. Hiawatha helped a hair restorative and
Pocahontas blessed a bitters. Dr. Fall spent twelve years with the
Creeks to discover why no Indian had ever perished of consumption.
Edwin Eastman found a blood syrup among the Comanches. Texas
Charlie discovered a Kickapoo cure-all, and Frank Cushing pried the
secret of a stomach renovator from the Zuni. (Frank, a famous
ethnologist, had gone West on a Smithsonian expedition.) Besides
these notable accretions to pharmacy, there were Modoc Oil,
Seminole Cough Balsam, Nez Perce Catarrh Snuff, and scores more,
all doubtless won for the use of white men by dint of great cunning
and valor.
[Footnote 4: Young, James Harvey, _The Toadstool Millionaires, A Social
History of Patent Medicines in America before Federal Regulation_.
Princeton University Press. 1961.]
Judson's Mountain Herb Pills, a companion product of the Indian Root
Pills, had an even more romantic origin--so remarkable, in fact, that
the story was embodied in a full-scale paperback novel published by B.L.
Judson & Co. in 1859. According to this book, the remedy was
discovered--or at least revealed to the world--by a famous adventurer,
Dr. Cunard. Dr. Cunard's career somehow bore a remarkable similarity to
that of Dr. Morse. He was also the scion of a wealthy family who spent
much time traveling throughout the world, and in this process becoming
fluent in no less than thirty languages. Eventually he encountered an
Aztec princess about to be tortured and sacrificed by Navajo Indians; he
interrupted this ceremony only to be captured himself, but by virtue of
successfully foretelling an eclipse (happily he had his almanac with
him) he won release for himself and the princess. Thereafter he led her
back to her home, in some remote part of Mexico, and lived among her
people for a year. As a boon for having saved the princess, he was given
possession of the ancient healing formula of the Aztecs. Upon returning
home Dr. Cunard, in an experience very similar to Dr. Morse's, found his
mother on her death bed, but he effected an instant cure by the use of
the miraculous herbs he had brought with him. The news spread, soon a
wide circle of neighbors was clamoring for this medicine, and in order
that all mankind might share in these benefits, Dr. Cunard graciously
conveyed the secret to B.L. Judson & Co.
These stories were told entirely straightforwardly, with the intention
of being believed. How widely they were actually accepted is difficult
to say. In retrospect it seems extremely curious that persons as
prominent, as successful, as wealthy as Dr. Morse and Dr. Cunard were
never seen or heard by the public, were never mentioned in the
newspapers, never ran for public office, their names never listed in any
directories, biographies or encyclopedias, and in fact they were not
noticed anywhere--except in the advertising material of Comstock & Co.
and B.L. Judson. Perhaps such credulity was not unusual in the 1850s,
before the advent of widely distributed newspapers and other means of
communication, but more than fifty years later, in the early years of
the present century, essentially the same version of the history of Dr.
Morse was still being printed in the Comstock almanacs.
*The Struggle for Control of the Indian Root Pills*
The agreement of August 10, 1855, between Andrew J. White and the
Comstocks established a partnership "for the purpose of manufacturing
and selling Dr. Morse's Indian Root Pills and for no other purpose," the
partners thereof being A.J. White as an individual and Comstock &
Brother as a firm. The new partnership was named A.J. White & Co., but
White contributed no money or property--nothing but the right to Dr.
Morse's Indian Root Pills. The Comstock firm supplied all of the
tangible assets, together with the use of their existing business
premises. In turn, Comstock was to receive three fourths and White one
fourth of the profits. In brief, the new firm, although bearing White's
name, was controlled by the Comstocks.
It is not clear why Moore, the originator of the pills, was not taken
into the new business or otherwise recognized in the agreement. As we
have seen, White claimed absolute ownership of Dr. Morse's Indian Root
Pills, but Moore evidently did not agree, for he continued to
manufacture and peddle his own pills, at the same time denouncing those
prepared by A.J. White & Co. under Comstock control as forgeries. Moore
had previously been in business in Buffalo, at 225 Main Street, under
his own name; an announcement in the 1854 Buffalo City Directory (the
_Commercial Advertiser_) describes his firm as successor both to C.C.
Bristol and to Moore, Liebetrut & Co. The same directory shows White as
merely a clerk at Moore's place of business, although he was made a
partner sometime during 1854.
Cyrenius C. Bristol, whose business Moore took over, had entered the
drug trade in 1832, initially in partnership with a Dr. G.E. Hayes. In
the drug field his best known preparation was Bristol's renowned
sarsaparilla, and he is credited with having originated the
patent-medicine almanac, along with other advertising innovations. The
patent-medicine business, however, represented merely one of his
wide-ranging interests; he was also a co-owner of vessels plying the
Great Lakes, a publisher, and a dabbler in such occult arts as
Mesmerism, Phrenology, and Morse's theory of the electric telegraph. In
1855 he appeared as the proprietor of the _Daily Republic_, and it was
perhaps his growing involvement in publishing that led him to turn his
drug business over to Moore.
While we know this much about Moore's antecedents, a very considerable
mystery remains. If Moore was the proprietor of his own apparently
prosperous drug and medicine business in Buffalo in 1854, with White as
one of his clerks, how did it happen that in the following year White
represented himself to the Comstocks as the sole owner of Dr. Morse's
(Moore's) Indian Root Pills? And Moore, although he initially disputed
this claim, left his own business in Buffalo and ultimately joined White
and the Comstocks, not even in the capacity of a partner, but merely as
an employee.
These events would seem, however, to date the origin of the Indian Root
Pills fairly closely. Moore was already manufacturing them in Buffalo
prior to White's initial agreement with the Comstocks, but as he did not
mention them by name in his _Commercial Advertiser_ announcement in
1854, it is a fair presumption that the pills were new at this time. But
they must have caught on very rapidly to induce the Comstocks to enter a
partnership with White, under his name, when he contributed only the
Indian Root Pills but no cash or other tangible assets.
[Illustration: FIGURE 7.--Wrapper for Dr. Morse's Indian Root Pills,
A.J. White & Co., sole proprietor.]
[Illustration: FIGURE 8.--Indian Root Pill labels: _a_, original used
by Moore, the originator of the pills; _b_, initial label used by A.J.
White & Co. under Comstock ownership, 1855-1857; _c_, revised label
adopted by Comstocks in June 1857 after Moore changed the color of his
label to blue; _d_, label adopted by Moore and White for selling in
competition with the Comstocks, 1859. Obviously printed from the same
plate as _c_, but with an additional signature just above the Indian on
horseback; _e_, new label adopted by the Comstocks after the departure
of Moore and White; _f_, label used in the final years of the business;
_g_, label, in Spanish, used in final years for export trade to Latin
America.]
While manufacturing the pills in Buffalo, Moore had been packaging them
under a yellow label bearing a pictorial representation of the British
coat-of-arms, flanked on one side by an Indian and on the other by a
figure probably supposed to represent a merchant or a sea captain. The
labels also described Moore as the proprietor, "without whose signature
none can be genuine." And after the formation of A.J. White & Co. and
the purported transfer of Dr. Morse's pills to it, Moore still continued
to sell the same medicine and to denounce the White-Comstock product as
spurious. The latter was packaged under a white label showing an Indian
warrior riding horseback and was signed "A.J. White & Co." While the
color was shortly changed to blue and the name of the proprietor several
times amended through the ensuing vicissitudes, the label otherwise
remained substantially unchanged for as long as the pills continued to
be manufactured, or for over 100 years.
The nuisance of Moore's independent manufacture of the pills was
temporarily eliminated when, on June 21, 1858, Moore was hired by A.J.
White & Co.[5] and abandoned competition with them. The Comstocks, in
employing him, insisted upon a formal, written agreement whereunder
Moore agreed to discontinue any manufacture or sale of the pills and to
assign all rights and title therein, together with any related
engravings, cuts, or designs, to A.J. White & Co. As previously stated,
the two Comstock brothers, Judson, and White had offered either to sell
the Indian Root Pill business in its entirety to Moore, or to buy it
from him. Moore's employment by A.J. White & Co. presumably followed his
election not to purchase and operate the business himself.
So far so good. The Comstocks' claim to the Indian Root Pills through
the 75 percent controlled A.J. White & Co. now seemed absolutely secure
and the disparagement of their products at an end. But new dissension
must have occurred, for on New Year's Day of 1859, without prior notice,
Moore and White absented themselves from the Comstock office, taking
with them as many of the books, accounts, records, and other assets of
A.J. White & Co. as they could carry. Forthwith they established a
business of their own, also under the name of A.J. White & Co., at 10
Courtlandt Street, where they resumed the manufacture and distribution
of Dr. Morse's Indian Root Pills, under a close facsimile of the label
already being used by the A.J. White-Comstock firm.
These events left the Comstocks in an embarrassing position. For over
three years they had been promoting the A.J. White trade name, but now
they could hardly keep a competitor from operating under his own name.
Their official attitude was that the old firm of A.J. White & Co. was
still in existence and controlled by the Comstocks. But shortly they
conceded this point tacitly when they introduced new labels for the
Indian Root Pills, under the name and signature of B. Lake Judson, and
advised that any accounts or correspondence with A.J. White & Co. still
outstanding should be directed to the new firm of Judson.
Obviously, this state of affairs was extremely confusing to all of the
customers. Judson traveled widely through the Canadian maritime
provinces and prevailed upon many merchants to disavow orders previously
given to the new A.J. White firm at 10 Courtlandt Street. On April 28,
1859, White and Moore, for their part, appointed one James Blakely of
Napanee, Canada West, to represent them in the territory between
Kingston and Hamilton "including all the back settlements," where he
should engage in the collection of all notes and receipts for the Indian
Root Pills and distribute new supplies to the merchants. On all
collections he was to receive 25 percent; new medicines were to be given
out without charge except for freight. In his letter accepting the
appointment, Blakely advised that:
I think the pills should be entered here so as to avoid part of the
enormous duty. 30% is too much to pay. I think there might be an
understanding so that it might be done with safety. Goods coming to
me should come by Oswego and from thence by Steamer to Millport. By
this route they would save the delay they would be subject to
coming by Kingston and avoid the scrutiny they would give them
there at the customhouse.
[Footnote 5: Moore claimed later (his affidavit of November 22, 1859)
that he thought he was hired only by White personally, and did not
realize that A.J. White & Co. was controlled by the Comstocks.]
[Illustration: FIGURE 9.--"To Purchasers of Dr. Morse's Indian Root
Pills"--a warning by James Blakely, Canadian agent for A.J. White,
against the "counterfeit" pills manufactured by the Comstock firm.]
The great bulk of the notes and accounts which were assigned to Blakely
for collection were undoubtedly accounts originally established with the
old A.J. White & Co. and therefore in dispute with the Comstocks. But in
any case, Blakely went vigorously up and down his territory, frequently
crossing the paths of agents of the Comstocks, pushing the pills and
attempting to collect outstanding bills owed to A.J. White & Co. by
persuasion and threats. On July 2, 1860, he wrote that:
My sales have been pretty good. Comstock Pills are put in almost
every place, generally on commission at a low figure, but I get
them put aside in most cases and make actual sales so they will be
likely to get them back.
Meanwhile, back in New York City, the fight between the erstwhile
partners went on, mostly in the legal arena. On April 14, 1859, the
sheriff, at the instigation of the Comstocks, raided White's premises at
10 Courtlandt Street and seized the books, accounts, and correspondence
carried away by White and Moore on January 1. Simultaneously, the
Comstocks succeeded in having White and Moore arrested on a charge of
larceny "for stealing on last New Year's Day a large number of notes and
receipts," and in September White was arrested on a charge of forgery.
Since the alleged offense took place in Pennsylvania, he was extradited
back to that state. Neither the circumstances nor the disposition of
this case is known, but since White claimed the right to collect notes
issued by the old A.J. White & Co., it is probable that the charge arose
merely out of his endorsement of some disputed note. On this occasion
the Comstocks printed and distributed circulars which were headed:
"Andrew J. White, the pill man indicted for forgery," and thereunder
they printed the requisition of the governor of New York in response to
the request for extradition from Pennsylvania, in such a way as to
suggest that their side of the dispute had official sanction.
The Comstocks must also have discovered White's and Blakely's
arrangement for avoiding "scrutiny" of their goods shipped into Canada,
for on July 29 there was an acknowledgment by the Collector of Customs
of the Port of Queenston of certain information supplied by George Wells
Comstock, William Henry Comstock, and Baldwin L. Judson on goods being
"smuggled into this province."
While the principal case between the Comstocks and White and Moore was
scheduled for trial in December 1860, no documents which report its
outcome were discovered. However, it is a fair surmise that the rival
parties finally realized that they were spending a great deal of energy
and money to little avail, injuring each other's business in the process
and tarnishing the reputation of the Indian Root Pills regardless of
ownership. In any case, a final settlement of this protracted
controversy was announced on March 26, 1861, when White and Moore
relinquished all claims and demands arising out of the sale of Dr.
Morse's Indian Root Pills prior to January 1, 1859.
[Illustration: FIGURE 10.--As one episode in the contest between the
Comstocks and White and Moore for control of the Indian Root Pills, the
Comstocks succeeded in having White indicted for forgery and briefly
lodged in jail.]
Since no copy of this agreement was found, we do not know what
inducement was offered to Moore and White. However, hundreds of
announcements of the settlement, directed "To the debtors of the late
firm of A.J. WHITE & CO." were printed, advising that
The controversy and the difficulties between the members of the old
firm of A.J. White & Co. of No. 50 Leonard Street, New York, being
ended, we hereby notify all parties to whom MORSE'S INDIAN ROOT
PILLS were sent or delivered prior to January 1, 1859, and all
parties holding for collection or otherwise, any of said claims or
demands for said Pills, that we the undersigned have forever
relinquished, and have now no claim, right, title or interest in
said debts or claims, and authorize the use of the names of said
firm whenever necessary in recovering, collecting and settling such
debts and claims.
The announcement was signed by Andrew J. White and Andrew B. Moore.
This should have been the end of this wearisome affair, but it was not.
It soon appeared that Moore had violated this agreement by concealing a
number of accounts, together with a quantity of pills, circulars,
labels, and a set of plates, and, in the words of Comstock's complaint,
transferred them "to James Blakely, an irresponsible person in Canada
West." And Blakely evidently continued to collect such accounts for the
benefit of himself and Moore. However, the Comstocks also entered the
scene of strife, and sometime during the summer of 1862 William Henry
Comstock, then traveling in Ontario, collected a note in the amount of
$7.50 in favor of A.J. White & Co., as he had every right to do, but
endorsed it "James Blakely for A.J. White & Co." Blakely, when he
learned of this, charged Comstock with forgery; Comstock in turn charged
Blakely with libel. Comstock probably defended his somewhat questionable
endorsement by the agreement of March 26 of the previous year; in any
event the case was dismissed by a Justice of the Peace in Ottawa without
comment. In New York City, on November 25, the Comstocks had Moore
arrested again, with White at this time testifying in their support.
There was also an attempt to prosecute Blakely in Canada; his defense
was that he had bought the disputed accounts and notes from Moore on
March 11, 1861--a few days before the agreement with the Comstocks--and
that his ownership of these notes was thereafter absolute and he was no
longer working as an agent for Moore.
This controversy was still in the courts as late as April of 1864, and
its final outcome is not known. But in any case, aside only from Moore's
and Blakely's attempts to collect certain outstanding accounts and to
dispose of stock still in their hands, the agreement of March 26, 1861,
left the Comstocks in full and undisputed possession of Dr. Morse's
Indian Root Pills. White thereafter continued in the patent-medicine
business in New York City on his own; his firm was still active as
recently as 1914. The subsequent history of Moore is unknown.
*The Brothers Part Company*
One would imagine that the three partners of Comstock & Brother would
have been exhausted by litigation and would be eager to work amicably
together for years. But such was not to be the case. The recovered
records give notice of a lawsuit (1866) between George Comstock on the
one hand and William H. Comstock and Judson on the other. No other
documents relating to this case were found, and thus the precise issue
is not known, or how it was finally settled. However, it was obviously a
prelude to the dissolution of the old firm.
Letters and documents from the several years preceding this event
suggest that Judson had become more prominent in the business, and that
he and William H. Comstock had gradually been drawing closer together,
perhaps in opposition to George. Judson, although a partner of Comstock
& Brother, also operated under his own name at 50 Leonard Street and had
originated several of the medicines himself. It is not clear whether the
old firm of Comstock & Brother was formally dissolved, but after 1864
insurance policies and other documents referred to the premises as
"Comstock & Judson." In 1863 the federal internal revenue license in
connection with the new "temporary" Civil War tax on the manufacturing
of drugs[6] was issued simply to B.L. Judson & Co., now located, with
the Comstocks, at 106 Franklin Street.
[Footnote 6: The "temporary" tax placed upon drug manufacture as a
revenue measure during the Civil War remained in effect until 1883.]
[Illustration: FIGURE 11.--This announcement, sent to all customers of
the Indian Root Pills, marked the final termination of the long dispute
between two firms, both named A.J. White & Co., and both of whom claimed
ownership of the pills.]
During this period Judson and William Henry Comstock became interested
in a coffee-roasting and spice-grinding business, operated under the
name of Central Mills, and located in the Harlem Railroad Building at
the corner of Centre and White Streets. Possibly George objected to his
partners spreading their energies over a second business; in any case,
dissension must have arisen over some matter. On April 1, 1866, balance
sheets were drawn up separately for B.L. Judson & Co. and Comstock &
Judson; the former showed a net worth of $48,527.56 against only
$5,066.70 for the latter. Both of these firms had a common bookkeeper,
E. Kingsland, but the relationship between the firms is not known.
On April 25, Judson and William H. Comstock sold their coffee-roasting
business to one Alexander Chegwidden, taking a mortgage on the specific
assets, which included, besides roasters and other machinery, a horse
and wagon. But if this had been a factor in the controversy among the
partners, the sale failed to end it, for we find that on December 21,
1866, George W. obtained an injunction against William Henry and Judson
restraining them from collecting or receiving any accounts due the
partnership of B.L. Judson & Co., transferring or disposing of any of
its assets, and continuing business under that name or using any of its
trademarks. Unfortunately, we have no information as to the details of
this case or the terms of settlement, but we do find that on February 1,
1867, the law firm of Townsend, Dyett & Morrison rendered a bill for
$538.85 to B.L. Judson and William H. Comstock for "Supervising and
engrossing two copies of agreement with George W. Comstock on
settlement" and for representing the two parties named in several
actions and cross actions with George.
This settlement, whatever its precise character may have been, obviously
marked the termination of the old partnership--or, more properly, the
series of successor partnerships--that had been carried on by various of
the Comstock brothers for over thirty years. William Henry, the former
clerk and junior partner--although also the son of the founder--was now
going it alone. Before this time he had already transferred the main
center of his activities to Canada, and he must have been contemplating
the removal of the business out of New York City.
After this parting of the ways, George W. Comstock was associated with
several machinery businesses in New York City, up until his death in
1889. During the Draft Riots of 1863 he had played an active role in
protecting refugees from the Colored orphanage on 43rd Street, who
sought asylum in his house at 136 West 34th Street.[7]
*Dr. Morse's Pills Move to Morristown*
In April 1867, the home of Dr. Morse's Indian Root Pills and of the
other proprietary remedies was transferred from New York City to
Morristown, a village of 300 inhabitants on the bank of the St. Lawrence
River in northern New York State. This was not, however, the initial
move into this area; three or four years earlier William H. Comstock had
taken over an existing business in Brockville, Ontario, directly across
the river. No specific information as to why the business was
established here has been found, but the surrounding circumstances
provide some very good presumptions.
The bulk of the Comstocks' business was always carried on in rural
areas--in "the back-woods." Specifically, the best sales territory
consisted of the Middle West--what was then regarded as "The West"--of
the United States and of Canada West, i.e., the present province of
Ontario. A surviving ledger of all of the customers of Comstock &
Brother in 1857 supplies a complete geographic distribution. Although
New Jersey and Pennsylvania were fairly well represented, accounts in
New York State were sparse, and those in New England negligible. And
despite considerable travel by the partners or agents in the Maritime
Provinces, no very substantial business was ever developed there. The
real lively sales territory consisted of the six states of Ohio,
Indiana,
[Footnote 7: _National Cyclopedia of American Biography_, IV:500.]
Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Iowa, which accounted for over two
thirds of all domestic sales, while Canada West contributed over 90
percent of Canadian sales. More regular customers were to be found in
Canada West--a relatively compact territory--than any other single state
or province. The number of customers of Comstock & Brother in 1857 by
states and provinces follows:
Alabama 12
Arkansas 1
Connecticut 3
Delaware 5
D.C. 1
Florida 5
Georgia 15
Illinois 415
Indiana 298
Iowa 179
Kansas Ter. 1
Kentucky 21
Louisiana 7
Maine 2
Maryland 21
Massachusetts 5
Minnesota Ter. 6
Mississippi 8
Missouri 32
Michigan 194
New York State 88
New York City 3
New Jersey 212
New Hampshire 1
North Carolina 9
Ohio 179
Pennsylvania 192
Rhode Island 2
South Carolina 5
Tennessee 21
Texas 1
Virginia 30
Wisconsin 303
New Brunswick 15
Nova Scotia 19
Canada East (Quebec) 7
Canada West 434
Total United States 2,277
Total Canada 475
The concentration of this market and its considerable distance from New
York City at a time when transportation conditions were still relatively
primitive must have created many problems in distribution. Moreover, the
serious threat to the important Canadian market imposed by White and
Moore, although eventually settled by compromise, must have emphasized
the vulnerability of this territory to competition.
It was also probable that the office in lower Manhattan--at 106 Franklin
Street after May 20, 1862--was found to be increasingly congested and
inconvenient as a site for mixing pills and tonics, bottling, labeling,
packaging and shipping them, and keeping all of the records for a large
number of individual small accounts. A removal of the manufacturing part
of the business to more commodious quarters, adjacent to transportation
routes, must have been urgent.
But why move to as remote a place as Morristown, New York, beyond the
then still wild Adirondacks? It is obvious that this location was
selected because the company already had an office and some facilities
in Brockville, Canada West.
William H. Comstock must have first become established at Brockville,
after extensive peregrinations through Canada West, around 1859 or 1860.
During the dispute between A.J. White and Comstock & Judson, Blakely,
the aggressive Canadian agent, had written to White, on September 1,
1859, that he had heard from "Mr. Allen Turner of Brockville" that the
Comstocks were already manufacturing Dr. Morse's Indian Root Pills at
St. Catherines. Evidently the Comstocks thought of several possible
locations, for on July 2 of the following year Blakely advised his
principals that the Comstocks were now manufacturing their pills in
Brockville. Two years later, in November 1862, when Blakely sued William
H. Comstock for the forgery of a note, the defendant was then described
in the legal papers as "one Wm. Henry Comstock of the town of Brockville
Druggist." And in July 1865, Comstock was writing from Brockville to E.
Kingsland, the bookkeeper in New York City, telling him to put
Brenner--the bearer of the letter--"in the mill." Comstock had
apparently taken over an existing business in Brockville, as receipts
for medicines delivered by him describe him as "Successor to A.N.
M'Donald & Co." Dr. McKenzie's Worm Tablets also seem to have come into
the Comstock business with this acquisition.
This did not mean a final move to Brockville for William H. Comstock;
for several years he must have gone back and forth and was still active
in New York City as a partner of his brother and of Judson. We have seen
that he subsequently went into partnership with Judson in the purchase
of the coffee-roasting business. In December 1866, he was a defendant in
the lawsuit initiated by his brother George, when he was still
apparently active in the New York City business. Nevertheless, he
apparently shifted the center of his activities to the Brockville area
about 1860, relinquishing primary responsibility for affairs in New York
City to his brother and to Judson.
[Illustration: FIGURE 12.--Label for Victoria Hair Gloss, Comstock &
Brother, 1855.]
We now find the Comstock business established at Brockville. Exactly why
a second plant was built at Morristown, right across the river, is again
a matter for conjecture. It is a fair assumption, however, that customs
duties or other restraints may have interfered with the ability of the
Canadian plant to supply the United States market. Thus, facilities on
the other side of the border, but still close enough to be under common
management, must have become essential. In an era of water
transportation, Morristown was a convenient place from which to supply
the important middle western territory. Ogdensburg was the eastern
terminus of lake boats, and several lines provided daily service between
that point and Buffalo. The railroad had already reached Ogdensburg
(although not yet Morristown) so that rail transportation was also
convenient. And the farms of St. Lawrence County could certainly be
counted upon to supply such labor as was necessary for the rather simple
tasks of mixing pills and elixirs and packaging them. Finally, the two
plants were directly across the river from each other--connection was
made by a ferry which on the New York side docked almost on the Comstock
property--so that both could easily be supervised by a single manager.
In fact, if it had not been for the unusual circumstance that they were
located in two different countries, they could really have been
considered as no more than separate buildings constituting a single
plant.
Surviving receipts for various goods and services show that the move to
Morristown was carried out in March or April of 1867. Although the
Morristown undertaking was obviously regarded as a continuation of the
New York business, it was operated by William Henry Comstock as the sole
proprietor for many years, and the terms of any settlement or subsequent
relationship with Judson are unknown. A "Judson Pill Co." was
subsequently established at Morristown, but this was no more than a
mailing address for one department of the Comstock business. What
happened to Judson as an individual is a mystery; like Moore, he quietly
disappears from our story.
It is also puzzling that no record of the transfer of land to Mr.
Comstock upon the first establishment of the pill factory in Morristown
in 1867 can be found. The earliest deed discovered in the St. Lawrence
County records shows the transfer of waterfront property to William
Henry Comstock "of Brockville, Ontario," from members of the Chapman
family, in March 1876. Additional adjoining land was also acquired in
1877 and 1882.
*The Golden Era*
With the establishment of the Comstock patent-medicine business at
Morristown in 1867, this enterprise may be said to have reached
maturity. Over thirty years had passed since William Henry's father had
established its earliest predecessor in lower Manhattan. Possession of
Dr. Morse's Indian Root Pills was now unchallenged, and this and the
other leading brand names were recognized widely in country drug stores
and farmhouses over one third of a continent. No longer did the
medicines have to be mixed, bottled, and packaged in cramped and dingy
quarters above a city shop; spacious buildings in an uncongested country
village were now being used. No further relocations would be necessary,
as operations exceeded their capacity, or as landlords might elect to
raise rents; the pill factory was to remain on the same site for the
following ninety years. And the bitter struggles for control, perhaps
acerbated because of the family relationship among the partners, were
now a thing of the past. William H. Comstock was in exclusive control,
and he was to retain this position, first as sole proprietor and later
as president, for the remainder of his long life.
The patent-medicine business as a whole was also entering, just at this
time, upon its golden era--the fifty-year span between the Civil War and
World War I. Improved transportation, wider circulation of newspapers
and periodicals, and cheaper and better bottles all enabled the
manufacturers of the proprietary remedies to expand distribution--the
enactment and enforcement of federal drug laws was still more than a
generation in the future. So patent medicines flourished; in hundreds of
cities and villages over the land enterprising self-proclaimed druggists
devised a livelihood for themselves by mixing some powders into pills or
bottling some secret elixir--normally containing a high alcoholic
content or some other habit-forming element--created some kind of a
legend about this concoction, and sold the nostrum as the infallible
cure for a wide variety of human (and animal) ailments. And many
conservative old ladies, each one of them a pillar of the church and an
uncompromising foe of liquor, cherished their favorite remedies to
provide comfort during the long winter evenings. But of these myriads of
patent-medicine manufacturers, only a scant few achieved the size, the
recognition, and wide distribution of Dr. Morse's Indian Root Pills and
the other leading Comstock remedies.
[Illustration: FIGURE 13.--Comstock factory buildings, about 1900.]
[Illustration: FIGURE 14.--Wrapper for Longley's Great Western Panacea.]
Of course, the continued growth of the business was a gradual process;
it did not come all at once with the move to Morristown. Even in 1878,
after eleven years in this village, the Comstock factory was not yet
important enough to obtain mention in Everts' comprehensive _History of
St. Lawrence County_.[8] But, as we have seen, additional land was
purchased in 1877 and 1882, obviously bespeaking an expansion of the
enterprise. In 1885, according to a time book, the pill factory
regularly employed about thirty persons, plus a few others on an
occasional basis.
Mr. Comstock, from his residence across the river in Brockville, was the
manager of the business; however, the operations were under the
immediate charge of E. Kingsland, former chief clerk of the Judson and
Comstock offices in New York City, who was brought up to Morristown as
superintendent of the factory. E. Kingsland was a cousin of Edward A.
Kingsland, one of the leading stationers in New York City, and
presumably because of this relationship, Kingsland supplied a large part
of Comstock's stationery requirements for many years. Kingsland in
Morristown retired from the plant in 1885 and was succeeded by Robert G.
Nicolson, who had been a foreman for a number of years. Nicolson, a
native of Glasgow, Scotland, was brought to America as a child, first
lived at Brockville, and then came to Morristown as foreman in the pill
factory shortly after it was established. He was succeeded as
superintendent by his own son, Robert Jr., early in the present century.
The great majority of the employees of the pill factory were women--or,
more properly, girls--in an era when it was not yet common-place for
members of the fair sex to leave the shelter of their homes for paid
employment. The wage rates during the 1870s, 1880s and 1890s were $3 to
$5 a week for girls and $7 to $12 a week for men; the last-named amount
was an acceptable rate at that time for a permanent and experienced
adult man. The factory management of this era was joyously unaware of
minimum wages, fair employment laws, social security, antidiscrimination
requirements, fair trade, food and drug acts, income taxes, and the
remaining panoply of legal restrictions that harass the modern
businessman. Since only a few scattered payroll records have been
recovered, Comstock's maximum employment during the Morristown period is
not known, or just when it was reached. In a brief sketch of the Indian
Root Pill business, however, Mrs. Doris Planty, former Morristown town
historian, mentions a work force of from "40 to 50" around the turn of
the century.
In 1875, twenty years after its original projection, the Utica & Black
River Railroad finally came through the village, bisecting the Comstock
property with a right-of-way thirty-six feet wide and dividing it
thereafter into a "lower shop," where the pills and tonics were made,
and the "upper shop," where the medicines were packaged and clerical
duties performed. The superintendent and his family lived above the
upper shop in an apartment; it was in the spacious attic above this
apartment that the records of the business, in a scattered and ransacked
condition, were found. Inasmuch as the first recorded sale of land to
Comstock occurred in March 1876, almost simultaneously with the arrival
of the railroad, it is a fair surmise that the second building was put
up about this time.
The coming of the railroad also put a station almost at the doorstep of
the factory, and thereafter many shipments came and went by rail. The
company's huge volume of mailings, often ten or fifteen bags a day, was
also delivered directly to the trains, without going through the local
post office. For some years, however, heavy shipments, including coal
for the factory's boilers, continued to come by ship. The Brockville
ferry also operated from a dock immediately adjacent to the railroad
station; one end of the station was occupied by the United States
Customs House.
Almost from the time of its arrival in Morristown, the Black River
Railroad operated a daily through Wagner Palace Sleeping Car from New
York City via Utica and Carthage, and service over the same route was
continued by the New York Central after it took over the North Country
railroads in 1891. This meant that Mr. Comstock, when he had business in
New York City, could linger in his factory until the evening train
paused at the station to load the afternoon's outpouring of pills and
almanacs, swing aboard the waiting Pullman, and ensconce himself
comfortably in his berth, to awaken in the morning within the cavernous
precincts of Grand Central Station--an ease and convenience of travel
which residents of the North Country in the 1970s cannot help but envy.
The daily sleeping car through Morristown to and from New York City
survived as long as the railroad itself, into the early 1960s, thus
outlasting both of the Comstocks--father and son.
[Footnotes 8: Or perhaps Mr. Comstock merely failed to pay for an
engraved plate and to order a book; these county histories were
apparently very largely written and edited with an eye to their
subscribers.]
The pills were originally mixed by hand. In the summer of 1880 the
factory installed a steam engine and belt-driven pill-mixing machinery.
At least one rotary pill machine was purchased from England, from J.W.
Pindar, and delivered to Comstock at a total cost (including ocean
freight) of £19-10-9--about $100. One minor unsolved mystery is that a
bill for a second, identical machine made out to A.J. White--with whom
Comstock had not been associated for twenty years--is filed among the
Comstock records; it can only be surmised that at this time Comstock and
White were again on good terms, the memories of lawsuits, arrests, and
prosecutions long since forgotten, and Comstock either ordered a machine
in behalf of White or perhaps agreed to take one off his hands. At the
time of this expansion, certain outbuildings and a dock for the
unloading of coal were erected adjoining the lower building. During 1881
an underwater telegraph cable was laid between Morristown and
Brockville, allowing immediate communication between the two Comstock
factories.
With the advent of the electrical age, around the turn of the century,
the Comstock factory also installed a generator to supply lighting, the
first in the locality to introduce this amenity. The wires were also
extended to the four or five company-owned houses in the village, and
then to other houses, so that the company functioned as a miniature
public utility. Its electric lines in the village were eventually sold
to the Central New York Power Corporation and incorporated into that
system. Steam heat was also supplied to the railroad station and the
customs house, and the company pumped water out of the river to the
water tower on the hill above Pine Hill Cemetery, following the
installation of the public water system.
In 1908, Comstock built a large hotel across the street from the upper
factory; sitting part way up the hill and surrounded by a wide veranda,
it represented a conspicuous feature in the village and dominated the
waterfront scene until its destruction by fire in 1925. The Comstock
family, in 1910, also built a town hall and social center for the
village. Adjacent to the lower shop a large boathouse was erected to
shelter Mr. Comstock's yacht, the _Maga Doma_, a familiar sight on the
river for many years.
[Illustration: FIGURE 15.--The village of Morristown from the waterfront.
Railroad depot, Comstock Hotel, and pill-factory buildings located left
of center.]
In any large city, of course, a factory employing, at most, forty or
fifty workers would have passed unnoticed, and its owner could hardly
expect to wield any great social or political influence. In a remote
village like Morristown, things are quite different; a regular employer
of forty persons creates a considerable economic impact. For two
generations the Indian Root Pill factory supplied jobs, in an area where
they were always scarce, and at a time when the old forest and dairy
industries were already beginning to decline. But the recital of its
close associations with the village makes it clear that the pill factory
was more than a mere employer; for ninety years it provided a spirit
that animated Morristown, pioneered in the introduction of utilities and
certain social services, linked the village directly with the great
outside world of drug stores and hypochondriacs, and distinguished it
sharply from other, languishing St. Lawrence County villages. One may
wonder whether Dr. Morse's Indian Root Pills really did anyone any good.
They certainly did heap many benefits upon all citizens of Morristown.
[Illustration: FIGURE 16.--Depot, Comstock Hotel, and factory buildings
(at right), about 1910.]
While there was only a single Comstock medicine business, operated as a
sole proprietorship until 1902, Comstock found it convenient to maintain
several dummy companies--really no more than mailing addresses--for some
years after the move to the North. Thus, in Morristown was to be found,
at least in business and postal directories, besides the Comstock
company itself, two other proprietary manufacturers: Judson Pill Co. and
E. Kingsland & Co.
The Judson Pill Co. preserved the name of Comstock's former partner,
while use of the name E. Kingsland perhaps flattered the vanity of the
former chief clerk and later plant superintendent. The major Kingsland
product was Chlorinated Tablets, a sure cure for coughs, colds,
hoarseness, bronchial irritation, influenza, diphtheria, croup, sore
throat and all throat diseases; these were especially recommended by Dr.
MacKenzie, Senior Physician in the Hospital for Diseases of the Throat
(was there any such hospital?) in London, England. The Kingsland pills
were also popularized under the name of Little Pink Granules.
Over on the Canadian side of the river, where another plant
approximately the same size as the Morristown facilities was in
operation, the Comstock Company had assimilated the Dr. Howard Medicine
Co. Dr. Howard's leading remedies were his Seven Spices for all
Digestive Disorders and the Blood Builder for Brain and Body. The
latter, in the form of pills, was prescribed as a positive cure for a
wide array of ailments, but like many other patent medicines of the
era, it was hinted that it had a particularly beneficial effect upon
sexual vitality.
They have an especial action (through the blood) upon the SEXUAL
ORGANS of both Men and Women. It is a well recognized fact that
upon the healthy activity of the sexual apparatus depend the mental
and physical well-being of every person come to adult years. It is
that which gives the rosy blush to the cheek, and the soft light to
the eye of the maiden. The elastic step, the ringing laugh, and the
strong right arm of the youth, own the same mainspring. How soon do
irregularities rob the face of color, the eye of brightness!
Everyone knows this. The blood becomes impoverished, the victim
PALE. This pallor of the skin is often the outward mark of the
trouble within. But to the sufferer there arise a host of symptoms,
chiefest among which are loss of physical and nervous energy. Then
Dr. Howard's BLOOD BUILDER steps into the breach and holds the
fort. The impoverished Blood is enriched. The shattered nervous
forces are restored. Vigor returns. Youth is recalled. Decay
routed. The bloom of health again mantles the faded cheek.
Improvement follows a few days' use of the pills; while permanent
benefit and cure can only reasonably be expected when sufficient
have been taken to enrich the Blood.
Before the Blood Builder pills were taken, all their users were advised
to have their bowels thoroughly cleansed by a laxative medicine and,
happily, the company also made an excellent preparation for this
purpose--Dr. Howard's Golden Grains. While the good doctor was modern
enough--the circular quoted from was printed in the 1890s--to recognize
the importance of the healthy activity of the sexual apparatus, such a
suggestion should not be carried too far--so we find that the pills were
also unrivaled for building up systems shattered by debauchery,
excesses, self-abuse or disease. Along with the pills themselves was
recommended a somewhat hardy regimen, including fresh air, adequate
sleep, avoidance of lascivious thoughts, and bathing the private parts
and buttocks twice daily in ice-cold water.
[Illustration: FIGURE 17.--Card used in advertising Kingsland's
Chlorinated Tablets.]
A few years after their initial introduction, Dr. Howard's Blood Builder
Pills somehow became "electric"--this word surrounded by jagged arrows
prominently featured on the outer wrapper--although the character of the
improvement which added this new quality was not explained anywhere. The
literature accompanying these remedies explained that "in the evening of
an active, earnest and successful life, and in order that the public at
large might participate in the benefit of his discoveries," Dr. Howard
graciously imparted to the proprietors the composition, methods of
preparation, and modes of using these medicines. In other words, he was
obviously a public benefactor of the same stamp as Dr. Morse and Dr.
Cunard--although by the final years of the century, the old story about
the long absence from home, the extended travels in remote lands, and
the sudden discovery of some remarkable native remedy would probably
have sounded a trifle implausible.
*Putting the Pills Through*
Given the characteristics of the patent-medicine business, its most
difficult and essential function was selling--or what the Comstocks and
their representatives frequently described in their letters as "putting
the pills through." During the full century within which Dr. Morse's
Indian Root Pills and their companion remedies were distributed widely
over North America and, later, over the entire world, almost every form
of advertising and publicity was utilized. And it is a strong
presumption that the total costs of printing and publicity were much
larger than those of manufacture and packaging.
Initially, the selling was done largely by "travelers" calling directly
upon druggists and merchants, especially those in rural communities. All
of the Comstock brothers, with the exception perhaps of Lucius, seem to
have traveled a large part of their time, covering the country from the
Maritime Provinces to the Mississippi Valley, and from Ontario--or
Canada West--to the Gulf. Their letters to the "home office" show that
they were frequently absent for extended periods, visiting points which
at the very dawn of the railroad era, in the 1840s and 1850s, must have
been remote indeed. In the surviving letters we find occasional
references to lame horses and other vicissitudes of travel, and one can
also imagine the rigors of primitive trains, lake and river steamers,
stagecoaches, and rented carriages, not to mention ill-prepared meals
and dingy hotel rooms.
Judson seems to have handled Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. J. Carlton
Comstock, who died in 1853, covered the South and in fact maintained a
residence in New Orleans; prior to the opening of the railroads, this
city was also a point of entry for much of the West. George Wells
Comstock made several extensive tours of the West, while William Henry
spent much of his time in Canada West and, as we have seen, lived in
Brockville after 1860. Andrew J. White spent most of his time traveling
after he joined the firm in 1855; Moore also covered Canada West
intensively, briefly for the Comstocks and then in opposition to them.
Besides the partners themselves, the several successor Comstock firms
had numerous agents and representatives. As early as 1851, during the
dispute between Lucius and his brothers, it was stated in a legal brief
that the partnership included, besides its manufacturing house in New
York City, several hundred agencies and depots throughout every state
and county in the Union. This assertion may have stretched the truth a
bit, as most of the agents must have handled other products as well, but
the distribution system for the pills was undoubtedly well organized and
widely extended. Several full-time agents did work exclusively for the
Comstocks; these included Henry S. Grew of St. John's, Canada East, who
said he had traveled 20,000 miles in three years prior to 1853, and
Willard P. Morse in the Middle West, whose signature is still extant on
numerous shipping documents.
While personal salemanship always must have been most effective in
pushing the pills--and also useful in the allied task of collecting
delinquent accounts--as the business grew the territory was far too vast
to be covered by travelers, and so advertising was also used heavily.
Hardly any method was neglected, but emphasis was always placed upon two
media: almanacs and country newspapers.
Millions of the almanacs poured out of the small Morristown railroad
station. In the early years of the present century, for which the record
has been found, from July until the following April shipments of
almanacs usually ran well in excess of one million per month. At various
times they were also printed in Spanish and in German; the Spanish
version was for export, but the German was intended primarily for our
own "native" Germans in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and elsewhere
throughout the Middle West.
Around the turn of the century, the patent-medicine almanac was so
common that one could walk into any drug store and pick up three or four
of them. Credit for the origination of the free patent-medicine almanac
has been ascribed to Cyrenius C. Bristol, founder of the firm which
Moore later took over and therefore an indirect predecessor of the
Indian Root Pills. Whether or not this is strictly accurate, it is known
that Bristol's Sarsaparilla Almanac was being printed as early as 1843
and by 1848 had expanded into an edition of 64 pages.
[Illustration: FIGURE 18.--German circular for Judson's Mountain Herb
Pills.]
The Comstocks were almost as early. The first date they printed almanacs
is not known, but by 1853 it was a regular practice, for the order book
of that year shows that large batches of almanacs, frequently 500
copies, were routinely enclosed with every substantial order. Over their
entire history it is quite reasonable that somewhere in the vicinity of
one billion almanacs must have been distributed by the Comstock Company
and its predecessors. As a matter of fact, back in the 1850s there was
not merely a Comstock but also a Judson almanac. One version of the
latter was the "Rescue of Tula," which recounted Dr. Cunard's rescue of
the Aztec princess and his reward in the form of the secret of the
Mountain Herb Pills. In the 1880s, Morse's Indian Root Pill almanac was
a 34-page pamphlet, about two thirds filled with advertising and
testimonials--including the familiar story of the illness of Dr. Morse's
father and the dramatic return of his son with the life-saving
herbs--but also containing calendars, astronomical data, and some homely
good advice. Odd corners were filled with jokes, of which the following
was a typical specimen:
"Pa," said a lad to his father, "I have often read of people poor
but honest; why don't they sometimes say, 'rich but honest'"?
"Tut, tut, my son, nobody would believe them," answered the father.
Before 1900 the detailed story of the discovery of Dr. Morse's pills was
abridged to a brief summary, and during the 1920s this tale was
abandoned altogether, although until the end the principal ingredients
were still identified as natural herbs and roots used as a remedy by the
Indians. In more recent years the character and purpose of Dr. Morse's
pills also changed substantially. As recently as 1918, years after the
passage of the Federal Food and Drug Act of 1906, they were still being
recommended as a cure for:
Biliousness
Dyspepsia
Constipation
Sick Headache
Scrofula
Kidney Disease
Liver Complaint
Jaundice
Piles
Dysentery
Colds
Boils
Malarial Fever
Flatulency
Foul Breath
Eczema
Gravel
Worms
Female Complaints
Rheumatism
Neuralgia
La Grippe
Palpitation
Nervousness
Further, two entire pages were taken in the almanac to explain how, on
the authority of "the celebrated Prof. La Roche of Paris," appendicitis
could be cured by the pills without resort to the surgeon's knife.
Besides the almanacs, almost every known form of advertising in the
preradio era was employed. Announcements were inserted in
newspapers--apparently mostly rural newspapers--all over the country;
the two remedies pushed most intensively were the Indian Root Pills and
Judson's Mountain Herb Worm Tea. The latter always bore a true likeness
of Tezuco, the Aztec chief who had originally conferred the secret of
the medicine upon Dr. Cunard. Besides the Mountain Herb Worm Tea, there
were also Mountain Herb Pills; it is not clear how the pills differed
from the tea, but they were recommended primarily as a remedy for
Diarrhoea Dropsy Debility Fever and Ague Female Complaints Headaches
Indigestion Influenza Inflammation Inward Weakness Liver Complaints
Lowness of Spirits Piles Stone and Gravel Secondary Symptoms
with particular stress upon their value as a "great female medicine."
Besides the major advertisement of the pills, consisting of an
eight-inch column to be printed in each issue of the paper, smaller
announcements were provided, to be inserted according to a specified
monthly schedule among the editorial matter on the inside pages. Sample
monthly announcements from the Judson Mountain Herb Pills contract used
in 1860 were: