Antique Medicine Bottles Dr Cannon's Medicine Chest

ANOTHER "PATENT MEDICINE ARTICLE" FROM THE PAGES OF

ANTIQUE BOTTLE AND GLASS COLLECTOR MAGAZINE

THE MAGAZINE OF THE ANTIQUE BOTTLE COLLECTING HOBBY

antique bottles THE MEDICINE CHEST --- BY DR. RICHARD CANNON old bottles

Many 19^th century patent medicine proprietors with several products chose to have their bottles all look about the same. Not so with H.H. Warner, who had the attractive amber Safe, Log Cabin, and Tippecanoe types. Oliver Crook, Donald Kennedy, and Joseph H. Schenck also “spiced” their bottles with a little variety in shape to liven up their common aqua color.

Dr. Crook's / Compound // // Syrup Of / Poke Root, 7 1/2 inches tall and Dr. Crook's // // Wine of Tar, 8 7/8 inches tall, are both square, but the neck band, depressed panels, and smaller size make the Poke Root look much different

from the Wine or Tar. Both have smooth bases, but there is a rare pontiled aqua rectangular bottle, 9 inches tall, embossed O. Crook, M.D. // Vegetable / Extract // Dayton, Ohio, which may have been the forerunner of the Syrup of Poke Root. Crook's Vegetable S-PH-L-S Remedy was advertised in the Buffalo Daily Courier on July 22, 1865, and may have been put out in the Vegetable Extract bottle.

I pictured the wooden shipping box stamped One Doz. / Dr. Crook's / Compound / Syrup of / Poke Root / Depot / Dayton, O., and gave some information about the root and fruit of poke weed in Medicine Chest, June 1995.

Oliver Crook, 1818-1873, was useless on his father's farm, but in his teens, he became apprenticed to a physician, and vicariously read almost everything in the doctor's library. Crook practiced medicine in Dayton, Ohio, from 1856 through 1867. Oliver Crook and Company was founded in 1867 as proprietors of Wine Of Tar and Dayton patent safety bridle bit (for horses?) at 239 1/2 Third Street. The Syrup Of Poke Root was advertised as early as 1871, and by then they were at 168-174 Water Street. In 1873, they were at 302-318 W. Water St., and Andrew and William E. Gump, William H. Rouzer and Daniel H. Eichelberger were listed as members of the firm. After Dr. Crook's death, Andrew Gump became president and Wm. E. Gump became secretary and treasurer. In 1875, the business was sold to S.N., Smith and Co., Smith with John D. Park. Park was in the drug business in Cincinnati, and was closely associated with Demas Barns of New York City.

I have a labeled Dr. Crook's Compound Syrup of Poke Root, which reads “For the Cure of Cancer, Scrofula in any form, Tumors, Diseases of the Eyes, Liver, Skin or Blood, Rheumatic pains in Bones, Syphilis, Broken Down Constitution, Mercurial Diseases, Scald-Head Tetter, Pimples, Body Blotches, Ulcers, Gum Sores or any Diseases arising from an impurity of the Blood”. Oliver Crook & Co., Dayton, Ohio is printed at the bottom of the label.

Crook's Wine of Tar was for Consumption, Inflammation of the Lungs, Coughs, Colds, Core Throat and Breast, Bronchitis, Asthma, Croup, Diphtheria, Whooping Cough, Dyspepsia, Liver Complaint, Weak Stomach, Gravel, Diseases of the Kidneys and Bladder, Nervous Debility, Female Irregularities, etc., etc.

Dr. Kennedy's // Rheumatic / Dissolvent // Roxbury, Mass., 8 7/8 inches tall and Dr. Kennedy's // Prairie Weed // Roxbury, Mass., 8 1/4 inches tall, are both rectangular, but look very different due to rounding of the shoulders of the former, and squaring of the latter. Also, the lips are different. Other Kennedy products came in the more usual round shoulder types, except the Hair Grower, which is similar to the Prairie Weed. At least four Kennedy medicines had pontils: Medical Discovery, Rheumatic Liniment, Scrofula Ointment, and Salt Rheum Ointment. I own a 2 1/8 inch tall round jar variant embossed Kennedy's / Salt Rheum Ointment; there is also a rarer 3 1/2 inch cylindrical example. Salt Rheum was a term for eczema and other chronic skin diseases.

Donald Kennedy began about 1848, in Roxbury, a suburb south of Boston, with a practice, and soon, a medicine manufacturing business at 284 Warren. The Medical Discovery and Dandruff Cleanser made hair grow; he changed the name to Kennedy's Hair Grower. I am not aware of pontiled embossed examples of Dandruff Cleanser or Hair Grower.

In 1877, George G. Kennedy, apparently Donald's son, is first mentioned in city directories.

Prairie Weed was introduced in1878m and sold well. It was for bronchitis, asthma, pneumonia, pleurisy, whooping cough, erysipelas, dropsy, etc., but especially for consumption (pulmonary tuberculosis). It came from a weed “accidentally discovered and providentially used”. “Its ingredients are all grown on the prairies of the Western States”. The Kennedy's pointed out that consumption was ten times more prevalent in Main than New Mexico. It was also stated that good food, good air, good drainage, warm clothes, and a happy home, were needed. That holds for all diseases, I would say.

The business was subsequently removed to 120 Warren, and continued to be listed for many years. There is no evidence that these Kennedys were kin of John F. Kennedy.

Schenck's // Seaweed // Tonic, square, 9 1/2 inches tall and Schenck's // // Pulmonic // // Syrup // // Phila. On 4 of 8 sides, 7 1/8 inches tall, don't look like “kin folks” at all. Both come with pontils, and one variant of the Seaweed Tonic has an oval depression for a pill box on the rear panel.

Dr. Joseph H. Schenck suffered from a pulmonic disease as a young man. Somehow, while a tailor in Trenton, N.J., he was helped by a concoction of Chamomile, worm-wood, catnip, essence of tansy, hyssop, hops, hoarhound, comfrey, senega, gum Arabic, licorice, elecampane, Indian turnip, lemon juice, brandy, and water. In 1836, he named it Pulmonic Syrup, and began to produce it. Among the conditions that it was recommended for was “clergyman's sore throat”, a terror to ministers, attorneys, and other people who talked too much. He stirred up a barrel of Seaweed Tonic with 19.5% alcohol, and soon he was on his way to a “fortune”. Schenck's “palace of marble” was constructed at No. 15 North Sixth Street in Philadelphia. Later, he turned the business over to Joseph Jr., so he could develop a 300-acre show place and cruise about in his steam yacht. “Schenck's Mandrake Pills (another early product) are required in nearly every case of Consumption; for the appetite should be restored as soon as possible, in order to get the Pulmonic Syrup to act as an expectorant, to relieve the lungs of mucous and matter. The Seaweed Tonic will restore the appetite as soon as the Mandrake Pills cleanse the stomach, even when the bowels are regular, and often in diarrhea.”.

J.H. Schenck & Son were still advertising the Syrup in 1942, and it was continued through 1948, by Plough Sales Corp., Memphis, Tenn.

When Drs. Crook, Kennedy, and Schenck met Saint Peter at the gates of Heaven, he welcomed them to come on through. A physician who had been in managed care was recently told by Saint Peter that he could pass on through, but that he could stay only three days....

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Dr. Crook's Trade-Mark and label.	Dr. Donald Kennedy