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

Waclav Francis Severa must have been quite an entrepreneur. Joshua C. Michel and J.T. Higby may have been also, but I don't know that much about them. All three left scarce (76-150 known examples), amber square bottles embossed Stomach Bitters // // W.F. Severa, 10 1/2 inches tall, West India / Stomach Bitters // // St. Louis Mo., 8 3/4 inches tall, and J.T. Higby // Tonic Bitters // Milford Ct., 9 5/8 inches tall.
Severa was born in Czechoslovakia in 1853, and came to the United States at age 15, without money or a command of the English language. He borrowed money to go to Racine, Wisconsin, where he had relatives. There he learned the trade of trunk making. In 1876, he moved to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and after a year of trunk making, went to work as a drug store clerk in nearby Belle Plaine. He opened a drug store of his own in Cedar Rapids in 1880. Severa was very successful, and on June 4, 1895, was given a patent for certain medicines and toilet preparations. He put out 32 products including the stomach bitters, a balsam of life, lung balsam, female regulator, corn cure and hair tonic. The directions were given in English and Polish.

In 1901, the retail part of the business was sold and the company became the W.F. Severa Co., manufacturers of proprietary medicines. Severa conducted a printing office in connection with the drug business and printed his own circulars and almanacs, the latter numbering over one-half million copies in 1901. He was founder of the Bohemia American Savings Bank and held interests in and served as director of the Cedar Rapids Light and Power Co., the Merchants National Bank of Cedar Rapids, the Cedar Rapids and Iowa City Interurban Railway and the Cedar Rapids Life Insurance Co. Severa's only son Lumir, became Vice President of the Severa Co. in 1911. There were labeled only variants of the stomach bitters in later years.
Joshua C. Michel of St. Louis, Mo., was in the wholesale grocery business for several years with Mathew Moody. Michel put West India Stomach Bitter on the market in 1873 and obtained a patent on February 8, 1876. That year Michel dropped out of the grocery business and became a broker for the bitters and apparently some other West India medicines that I have no information about. West India Stomach Bitters was in drug catalogs from 1882 through 1902. There are 1 cent and 4 cent revenue stamps giving Moody, Michel and Co.

Proprietors, St. Louis, Mo., and 4 cent revenue stamps giving West India Manufacturing Co. Proprietors, St. Louis, Mo. There are also 2 extremely rare variants embossed West India / Stomach Bitters // // Moody Michel & Co / St Louis, 8 1/2 inches tall and West India Stomach / Bitters // // Moody Michel & Co / St Louis, 8 3/4 inches tall. Both are amber and square.

I.W. Earnest of San Antonio, Texas, patented several "West India" medicines in the 1880s including a sarsaparilla, balsam of horehound, liver elixir, skin cream and hair tonic, but there appears to be no relation to the West India Stomach Bitters.
Higby's Tonic Bitters, Milford Ct., was advertised in the 1883 Schieffelin Drug Catalog. The bottles were thought to be extremely rare until Charles B. Gardner of New London, Ct., got 150 in one lot from a picker in the early 1960s. That's supply and demand for you! I still like the pretty light amber of my bottle.

B --The Freemont Street Experience, a huge light show held every hour after sunset.

C --What's your poison? These collectors know. From left to right poison bottle collectors Steve Sacks, Richard Barry and Gary Perigan, seated is fruit jar guru Jerry McCann.

References:
1. Blasi, B.: A Bit About Balsams, 1974
2. McGuire, E.: Bottled Products and the U.S.
Patent Office, 1991
3. Ring, C. and Ham, W.C.: Bitters Bottles,
1998.
4. Watson, R.: Bitters Bottles, 1965.
5. Wilson, B. and B.: Nineteenth Century
Medicine In Glass, 1971.

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