• • v v. ..;•• 

HISTORY 

of the 

COMSTOCK PATENT MEDICINE 

BUSINESS 

and Dr. Morse's Indian Root Pills 

by Robert B. Shaw 

MAY 2 61972 

/ HJDIKQW *n 

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION PRESS 

City of Washington 

1972 
SERIA L PUBLICATION S O F TH E SMITHSONIA N INSTITUTIO N 

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by the first Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. In his formal plan for the Institution, Joseph Henry articulated a program that included the following statement: 

"It is proposed to publish a series of reports, giving an account of the new discoveries 

in science, and of the changes made from year to year in all branches of knowledge." 

This keynote of basic research has been adhered to over the years in the issuance 

of thousands of titles in serial publications under the Smithsonian imprint, commencing with Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge in 1848 and continuing with 

the following active series: 

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Smithsonian Studies in History and Technology 

In these series, the Institution publishes original articles and monographs dealing 

with the research and collections of its several museums and offices and of professional 

colleagues at other institutions of learning. These papers report newly acquired facts, 

synoptic interpretations of data, or original theory in specialized fields. These publications are distributed by mailing lists to libraries, laboratories, and other interested 

institutions and specialists throughout the world. Individual copies may be obtained 

from the Smithsonian Institution Press as long as stocks are available. 

S. DILLON RIPLEY 

Secretary 

Smithsonian Institution 

INTERNATIONAL BOOK YEAR • 1972 
HISTORY 

of t IS 

COMSTOCK PATENT MEDICINE 

BUSINESS 

and Dr. Morse's Indian Root Pills 

by Robert E Shaw 

Associate Professor, Accounting and History 

Clarkson College of Technology 

Potsdam, N.Y. 

ISSUED 

mum 

SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY • NUMBER 22 

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION PRESS 

City of Washington 

1972 
COVER: Changing methods of packaging Comstock remedies over the years.—Lower left: 

Original packaging of the Indian Root Pills in oval veneer boxes. Lower center: The glass 

bottles and cardboard and tin boxes. Lower right: The modern packaging during the final 

years of domestic manufacture. Upper left: The Indian Root Pills as they ar e still 

being packaged and distributed in Australia. Upper center: Dr. Howard's Electric Blood 

Builder Pills. Upper right: Comstock's Dead Shot Worm Pellets. 

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data 

Shaw, Robert B., 1916— 

History of the Comstock patent medicine business and of Dr. Morse's Indian Root Pills. 

(Smithsonian studies in history and technology, no. 22) 

Bibliography: p. 

1. Comstock (W. H.) Company. I. Title. II. Series: Smithsonian Institution. Smithsonian 

studies in history and technology, no. 22. 

HD9666.9.C62S46 338.7'6'615886 76-39864 

Official publication date is handstamped in a limited number of initial copies and is recorded 

in the Institution's annual report, Smithsonian Year. 

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office 

Washington, D.C. 20402 - Price 65 cents (paper cover) 

Stock Number 4700-0204 
History of the 

Comstock Patent Medicine Business 

and of Dr. Morse's Indian Root Pills 

<-^p 

For nearly a century a conspicuous feature of 

the small riverside village of Morristown, in 

northern New York State, was the W. H. Comstock factory, better known as the home of the 

celebrated Dr. Morse's Indian Root Pills. This 

business never grew to be more than a modest 

undertaking in modern industrial terms, and 

amid the congestion of any large city its few 

buildings straddling a branch railroad and its 

work force of several dozens at most would have 

been little noticed, but in its rural setting the 

enterprise occupied a prominent role in the 

economic life of the community for over ninety 

years. Aside from the omnipresent forest and 

dairy industries, it represented the only manufacturing activity for miles around and was 

easily the largest single employer in its village, 

as well as the chief recipient and shipper of 

freight at the adjacent railroad station. For 

some years, early in the present century, the 

company supplied a primitive electric service to 

the community, and the Comstock Hotel, until 

it was destroyed by fire, served as the principal 

village hostelry. 

But the influence of this business was by no 

means strictly local. For decades thousands of 

boxes of pills and bottles of elixir, together with 

advertising circulars and almanacs in the millions, flowed out of this remote village to druggists in thousands of communities in the United 

States and Canada, in Latin America, and in the 

Orient. And Dr. Morse's Indian Root Pills and 

the other remedies must have been household 

names wherever people suffered aches and infirmities. Thus Morristown, notwithstanding its 

placid appearance, played an active role in commerce and industry throughout the colorful 

patent-medicine era. 

Today, the Indian Root Pill factory stands 

abandoned and forlorn—its decline and demise 

brought on by an age of more precise medical 

diagnoses and the more stringent enforcement 

of various food and drug acts. After abandonment, the factory was ransacked by vandals; and 

records, documents, wrappers, advertising circulars, pills awaiting packaging, and other 

effects were thrown down from the shelves and 

scattered over the floors. This made it impossible 

to recover and examine the records systematically. The former proprietors of the business, 

however, had for some reason—perhaps sheer 

inertia—apparently preserved all of their records for over a century, storing them in the loftlike attic over the packaging building. Despite 

their careless treatment, enough records were 

recovered to reconstruct most of the history of 

the Comstock enterprise and to cast new light 

upon the patent-medicine industry of the United 

States during its heyday. 

The Comstock business, of course, was far 

from unique. Hundreds of manufacturers of 

proprietary remedies fluourished during the 

1880s and 1890s—the Druggists' Directory for 

1895 lists approximately 1,500. The great majority of these factories were much smaller than 

Comstock; one suspects, in fact, that most of 

them were no more than backroom enterprises 

conducted by untrained, but ambitious, druggists who, with parttime help, mixed up some 

mysterious concoctions and contrived imaginative advertising schemes. A few of these businesses were considerably larger than Comstock. 
SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 

WILLIAM COMSTOCK 

New London, Conn. 

Daniel (died 1683) 

Samuel (1677-1757) 

Mountville, Conn. 

Christopher (born 1703) 

Lyme, Conn. 

Samuel (1747-1827) 

East Lyme, Conn. 

Samuel (1772-1840) 

Butternuts, N.Y. 

Edwin P. Lucius S. George W. 

(1799-1837) (1806-1876) (1820-1889 

William H. 

(1830-1919) 

Brockville, Ont. 

William Henry 

(1897-1959) 

Christopher (1635-1702) 

Daniel (1664-1694) 

Norwalk, Conn.) 

Daniel (1693-1782) 

Abel (born 1721 at Stratfield, Conn. 

died 1814 at Cooperstown, N.Y.) 

Daniel (1763-1828) 

Moved to Canada West 

Noah Bird (1790-1853) 

Henry Tompkins Paige 

(1820-1870) 

discoverer of Comstock Lode 

SAMUEL COMSTOCK (1747-1827) 

East Lyme, Conn. 

ESTHER LEE (1750-1839) 

Moses (1685-1766) 

Abijah (1721-1797) 

Samuel (1767-1819) 

Thomas Anthony (born 1812) 

Anthony (1844-1915) 

anti-vice crusader 

Samuel (1772-1840) 

Butternuts, N.Y. 

Elizabeth Perkins (1777-1861) 

Eliza 

(born 1796) 

B. L. Judson 

Edwin P. 

(1799-1837) 

William Henry 

(1830-1919) 

Moved to Brockville, Ont. 

William Henry 

("Young Bill") 

(1897-1959) 

Albert Lee 

(born 1802) 

Physician 

Lucius S. 

(1806-1876) 

John Lee (1787-1858) 

Hartford, Conn. 

Prominent physician, 

author and historian 

John C. 

(1819-1853) 

George Wells 

(1820-1889) 

George Carleton 

(1856-1929) 
NUMBER 2 2 

However, the Comstock company would seem to 

be typical of the more strongly established 

patent-medicine manufacturers, and therefore 

a closer examination of this particular enterprise should also illuminate its entire industry. 

The Origin of the Business 

The Indian Root Pill business was carried on 

during most of its existence by two members 

of the Comstock family—father and son—and 

because of unusual longevity, this control by 

two generations extended for over a century. 

The plant was also located in Morristown for 

approximately ninety years. The Indian Root 

Pills, however, were not actually originated by 

the Comstock family, nor were they discovered 

in Morristown. Rather, the business had its 

genesis in New York City, at a time when the 

city still consisted primarily of two- or threestory buildings and did not extend beyond the 

present 42nd Street. 

According to an affidavit written in 1851— 

and much of the history of the business is derived from documents prepared in connection 

with numerous lawsuits—the founder of the 

Comstock drug venture was Edwin Comstock, 

sometime in or before 1833. Edwin, along with 

the numerous other brothers who will shortly 

enter the picture, was a son of Samuel Comstock, of Butternuts, Otsego County, New York. 

Samuel, a fifth-generation descendant of William Comstock, one of the pioneer settlers of 

New London, Connecticut, and ancestor of most 

of the Comstocks in America, was born in East 

Lyme, Connecticut, a few years before the Revolution, but sometime after the birth of Edwin in 

1794 he moved to Otsego County, New York. 

Edwin, in 1828, moved to Batavia, New York, 

where his son, William Henry Comstock, was 

born on August 1, 1830. Within four or five 

years, however, Edwin repaired to New York 

City, where he established the extensive drug 

and medicine business that was to be carried on 

by members of his family for over a century. 

Just why Edwin performed this brief sojourn 

in Batavia, or where he made his initial entry 

into the drug trade, is not clear, although 

the rapid growth of his firm in New York City 

suggests that he had had previous experience in 

that field. It is a plausible surmise that he may 

have worked in Batavia in the drug store of Dr. 

Levant B. Cotes, which was destroyed in the 

village-wide fire of April 19, 1833; the termination of Edwin's career in Batavia might have 

been associated either with that disaster or with 

the death of his wife in 1831. 

The Comstocks also obviously had some medical tradition in their family. Samuel's younger 

brother, John Lee Comstock, was trained as a 

physician and served in that capacity during the 

War of 1812—although he was to gain greater 

prominence as a historian and natural philosopher. All five of Samuel's sons participated at 

least briefly in the drug trade, while two of them 

also had careers as medical doctors. A cousin of 

Edwin, Thomas Griswold Comstock (born 

1829), also became a prominent homeopathic 

physician and gynecologist in St. Louis.1 It 

might also be significant that the original home 

of the Comstock family, in Connecticut, was 

within a few miles of the scene of the discovery 

of the first patent medicine in America—Lee's 

"Bilious Pills"—by Dr. Samuel Lee (1744-

1805), of Windham, sometime prior to 1796.2 

This medicine enjoyed such a rapid success that 

it was soon being widely imitated, and the Comstocks could not have been unaware of its 

popularity. 

So it seems almost certain that Edwin was no 

longer a novice when he established his own 

drug business in New York City. Between 1833 

and 1837 he employed his brother, Lucius S. 

Comstock (born in 1806), as a clerk, and for the 

next fifteen years Lucius will figure very conspicuously in this story. He not merely appended 

the designation "M.D." to his name and claimed 

membership in the Medical Society of the City 

of New York, but also described himself as a 

Counsellor-at-Law. 

Edwin, the founder of the business, did not 

live long to enjoy its prosperity—or perhaps we 

should say that he was fortunate enough to pass 

away before it experienced its most severe vicis1

 National Cyclopedia of American Biography, VII: 

280. 

2

 The Comstock brothers' grandmother, Esther Lee, 

was apparently unrelated to Dr. Samuel Lee, the inventor of the Bilious Pills. 
SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 

^H-^vSS=£ ^SSa 

IL ^mMk^ti], ^&mvB i^Mm? fife 

§ fi|l ALSO A CURE FOR RHEUMATISM BURNS SOKES BRUISES 

i si 

I &. i 

j§fr*WY 

K Ottered tiecoriftng to not ol COHSHSS.AD.1KJ1 , by Comstock ~

 : ^s8 i 

JS^..T*t -

I iSmcjl (^B^Xr±ni^-;r2iiilTJ!ii 

l^lBr(^i^i3CtoiK> 

itft^^-0^,^% 

<£j^&^$Pj ; -S^S^ T 

J 

fYs£-Ai S^^i^ C 

FIGURE 1.—Original wrapper for Carltons Liniment, 1851. 

J-ijY^ ^ 

situdes and trials. After Edwin's death in 1837, 

Lucius continued the business in partnership 

with another brother, Albert Lee, under the 

style of Comstock & Co. Two more brothers, 

John Carlton (born 1819) and George Wells 

(born 1820), were employed as clerks. 

The partnership of Comstock & Co. between 

Lucius and Albert was terminated by a dispute 

between the two brothers in 1841, and Albert 

went his own way, taking up a career as a physician and living until 1876. Lucius next went into 

business with his mother-in-law, Anne Moore, 

from 1841 to 1846; after the dissolution of this 

firm, he formed a new partnership, also under 

the name of Comstock & Co., with his brother 

John (generally known as J. Carlton). This firm 

again employed as clerks George Wells Comstock 

and a nephew, William Henry, a son of Edwin. 

William Henry was to eventually become the 

founder of the business at Morristown. 

In March of 1849, still a new partnership was 

formed, comprising Lucius, J. Carlton, and 

George Wells, under the name of Comstock & 

Co. Brothers, although the existing partnership 

of Comstock & Co. was not formally terminated. 

Assets, inventories, and receivables in the 

process of collection were assigned by Comstock 

& Co. to Comstock & Co. Brothers. But before 

the end of 1849 the partners quarreled, Lucius 

fell out with his brothers, and after a period of 

dissension, the firm of Comstock & Co. Brothers 

was dissolved as of August 1,1850. On or about 

the same date J. Carlton and George Wells 

formed a new partnership, under the name of 

Comstock & Brother, doing business at 9 John 

Street in New York City, also taking their 

nephew, William Henry, as a clerk. Lucius continued in business at the old address of 57 John 

Street. As early as June 30, 1851, the new firm 

of Comstock & Brother registered the following 
NUMBER 2 2 

trade names

 3 with the Smithsonian Institution: 

Carlton's Liniment, a certain remedy for the 

Piles; Carlton's Celebrated Nerve and Bone 

Liniment for Horses; Carlton's Condition 

Powder for Horses and Cattle; Judson's Chemical Extract of Cherry and Lungwort. 

The repetition of his name suggests that J. 

Carlton was the principal inventor of his firm's 

remedies. 

Suits and Countersuits 

All of the foregoing changes in name and 

business organization must have been highly 

confusing to the wide array of agents and retail druggists over many states and the provinces of Canada with whom these several firms 

had been doing business. And when George 

Wells and J. Carlton split off from Lucius and 

established their own office down the street, it 

was not at all clear who really represented the 

original Comstock business, who had a right to 

collect the numerous accounts and notes still 

outstanding, and who owned the existing trade 

names and formulas. Dispute was inevitable under such circumstances, and it was aggravated 

by Lucius' irascible temper. Unfortunately for 

family harmony, these business difficulties also 

coincided with differences among the brothers 

over their father's will. Samuel had died in 1840, 

but his will was not probated until 1846; for 

some reason Lucius contested its terms. There 

had also been litigation over the estate of Edwin, the elder brother. 

With the inability of the two parties to reach 

friendly agreement, a lawsuit was initiated in 

June 1850 between Lucius on the one hand and 

J. Carlton and George Wells on the other for the 

apportionment of the property of Comstock & 

Co. Brothers, which was valued at about $25,000 

or $30,000. Subsequently, while this litigation 

was dragging on, Lucius found a more satisfying opportunity to press his quarrel against 

his brothers. This arose out of his belief that 

they were taking his mail out of the post office. 

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. 

On May 26, 1851, one of the New York newspapers, the Day Book, carried the following 

item: 

United States Marshal's Office—Complaint was made 

against J. Carlton Comstock and Geo. Wells Comstock, 

of No. 9 John Street, and a clerk in their employ, for 

taking letters from the Post Office, belonging to Dr. L. S. 

Comstock, of 57 in the same street. 

Dr. Comstock having missed a large number of letters, 

on inquiry at the Post Office it was suspected that they 

had been taken to No. 9 John Street. 

By an arrangement with the Postmaster and his assistants, several letters were then put in the Post Office, 

containing orders addressed to Dr. Comstock, at 57 John 

Street, for goods to be sent to various places in the city 

to be forwarded to the country. The letters were taken 

by the accused or their clerk, opened at No. 9, the money 

taken out and the articles sent as directed, accompanied by bills in the handwriting of Geo. Wells Comstock. Warrants were then issued by the U.S. Commissioner and Recorder Talmadge, and two of the accused 

found at home were arrested and a large number of letters belonging to Dr. C. found on the premises. J. C. 

Comstock has not yet been arrested. It is said he is out 

of the city. 

These two young men have for some months been 

trading sometimes under the name of "Comstock & 

Brother", and sometimes as "Judson & Co." at No. 9 

John Street. 

The same episode was also mentioned in the 

Express, the Commercial Advertiser, and the 

Tribune. In fact, a spirited debate in the "affair 

of the letters" was carried on in the pages of the 

press for a week. The brothers defended themselves in the following notice printed in the 

Morning Express for May 31: 

OBTAINING LETTERS 

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 
SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 

• 

C r?)U // t /I W_Yj ) DmmxtjfNeu );•,!, thrmh „MfiS.ll/TS 

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. 
NUMBER 2 2 

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 Cornstock, 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 approach451-822 0-72- 2 
SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 

ing 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. 

5* q 

,YI ;,? h 

FIGURE 3.—Original wrapper for Judson's Chemical Extract of 

Cherry and Lungwort, printed about 1855. 
NUMBER 2 2 

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). 

In an undated form of contract, between 

Moore on the one part and George Comstock, 

William H. Comstock, Judson, and White on the 

Entere d according to act of Congress in the 

yea r 1 8 i 1 1>\ Jlldso n ACo.in the Clerks office 

lof the iUsUaet court for the souther n district 

msmmm 

JDhulLiAEMTWa 

OR 

FROCREATTVE ELIXIR, 

A. certain remedy in all cases of lmpotency, 

Barrenness, Fluor Alb us. Difficult br painful 

Menstruation, Incontinence of Urine, an d all 

diseases amsing from debilitation of the sys 

-lem wher e an impulse or a restorativ e is 

re<ruired. 

CAUTION-This celebrated Medicine 

cannot bo (icnuilic unless the l'ae-simile signature 

of Judso n SCo. the only American agents is 

on the wrapper of each J*ottle thus— 

FIGURE 4.—Label for Dr. Larzetti's Juno Cordial, 1844. 
10 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 

JOBL «Z2 "WD" JC - Y3L 

COMSTOC K * BROTHE R 

80I.fi PK0FP.1ET0RS OF TI1E FOLLOWING 

LIS T OP 1 AKTIOLES . 

JUDSON'S CHERRY AND LUNGWORT, 

AZOR'S TURKISH BALM, for the Hair, 

AZOR'S TURKISH WINE. 

LARZETTI'S ACOUSTIC OIL. 

NERVE AND BONE LINIMENT, for Rheumatism. 

VICTORIA HAIR GLOSS. 

HONDURAS' SARSAPARILL A. 

HAYS1 LINIMENT. 

STRENGTHENING PLASTERS. 

DR. CHILTON'S FEVER AND AGUE 

PILLS. 

GROSS. 

DR. LARZETTI'S JUNO CORDIAL. 

ANTI-BILIOUS PILLS. 

KLINE'S TOOTH ACHE DROPS. 

JUDSON'S WORM TEA. 

VERMIFUGE. 

PAIN KILLER. 

CARLTON'S PILE LINIMENT. 

EAST INDIA HAIR DYE. 

AND ALL OF 

COMSTOCKS MEDICINES. 

O^j3?ltoxi.' ,©» IIEEOI^JS© &,XX<3L Cattl e ^Eoc3Lio±33LesCARLTON'S CONDITION POWDERS. 

CARLTON'S HEAVE POWDERS. 

CARLTON'S NERVE AND BONE LINIMENT. 

YOUATT'S GARGLING OIL. 

CARLTON'S FOUNDER AND HOOF 

OINTMENT. 

CARLTON'S RINGBONE CURE. 

FIGURE 5.—List of medicines offered by Comstock & Brother (predecessor 

of the firm which later moved to Morristown) in 1854. 

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 
NUMBER 2 2 11 

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. 

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 

A Short History of Dr. Morse's Father. 

ALSO SHOWINC HOW THIS WONDERFUL MEDICINE 

WAS BROUGHT INTO USE. 

1

 Young, James Harvey, The Toadstool Millionaires, A 

Social History of Patent Medicines in America before 

Federal Regulation. Princeton University Press. 1961. 

The old gentleman, who Is on a visit, having a Bible in his hand, as you 

see In the above plate; is a perfect likeness of the father of the celebrated 

Dr. Morse. You would not take him to be over CO or 65 years old But you 

will be surprised when told tha t this fine-looking old gentleman wa= 

ninety-five years old the 20th day of November, 1847. On the 19th day of 

the same month, he rode, and drove himself, thirty-five miles in order to 

spend the birthday of his ninety-fifth year with the doctor'and his interesting family. He is an extremely rich man, with an income of about 

five hundred thousand dollars, annually, and the owner of a number of 

fine, elegant ships, which sail in different directions to every part of the 

world 

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 skih this good and pious gentleman grew worse, and finally they 

gave him up, saying tha t it was impossible to cure him, and he would 

soon die. The next morning about nine o'clock in the forenoon he cullc-d 

his wife to his bedside, saying, "How painful it is to die, without seeing 

my son, our only child. Though I have spent large amounts of money to 

have him educated as a doctor, after which, to-have him thoroughlv understand the way to cure diseases, I persuaded him to travel in faf distant lands, among the savage and Indian tribes, as then he would learn 

their successful manner of curing diseases inj Nature's way, from plants 

and roots; the thought ofl my engaging him tip go, as I am about to die 

grieves me much. But tell my son when he returns, always to supply 

the wants of the poor." 

Here he stopped, being in great distress, but in a few minutes his pains 

ceased, after which he took a short' nap, being the first of any amount for 

several days. 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 immediately compounded then^Jiogether, and gave them to his 

father, and in about two hours afterwards he was much relieved. He 

pave him small doses every three or four hours, just to keep his bowels 

regular, and have them cleanse and purify his blood. Two days after 

he was much better, and the third day he could walk about the room. He 

has occasionally taken them ever since, 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 above astonishing cure was sounded in every ear, and re-echoed 

tnroughout the land as a most wonderful cure. Many afflicted with various diseases immediately applied for the Pills. So powerful in strengthening, and so wonderfully did they cure all their diseases, and so great 

was the call for the Pills, both far and near, tha t it was impossible for 

the Doctor alone to make them fast enough, as there was not a moment 

through the day, but there was, to say the least, eight or ten, sometimes 

upwards of thirty at the office to get these Pills. So sure were they to 

relieve the sick, and with so much success did they cure all manner of 

diseases, tha t he entirely laid aside his former way of practicing, and 

prescribed them for every complaint. 

FIGURE 6.—"A Short History of Dr. Morse's Father." 

A copy was inserted in every box of the pills. 

James Harvey Young, in his book on the Social 

History of Patent Medicines: * 

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. 
12 

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 

SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 

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 in-
NUMBER 2 2 13 

terests; 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 antecedants, 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. 

While manufacturing the pills in Buffalo, 

Moore had been packaging them under a yellow 

label bearing a pictorial representation of the 

FIGURE 7.—Wrapper for Dr. Morse's Indian Root Pills, 

A. J. White & Co., sole proprietor. 

i I & i 

YJ»*,'Vn' h^^S,'MAKK€ 
14 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 

A, B. MOORE, Proprietor 

^ - 2'1.1, M ATM S VIX K V. T ~~^Y 

£>— BUFFALO, M.T. — < 

Without iwiiose signature none 

+ can t>e genuine + 

• ->i y.-.' ',. .. . 

XWWHTEf c Console Proprietor fr^. 

Secured In-Law «mHV,.rr/.nie<l (jrurmw witHAf si^uafnre. 

(7 Priced(htts. 
NUMBER 2 2 15 

^mffimsm 

| CADA PILDORA CONTIENE 

ALOE S7J2 C 9 

MANDPAOORA 3.4*90 C9. 

CMII.E 2.4921 C 9 

OAMeOOIA I.99J7 C9 

JALAPA OJ»»» Ca 

AZUCAR P/ 

A7352 C4 

LAXANIE5 IT PURGANTE 

DOSiS: DE 

CUATP O PIL 

• VEASE EL F 

iNCLUSO." 

S^^^w^^ffiin^ 

NO SON LEQIT1MAS SI NO LLE VAN LA FIRMA DE 

FIGURE 8.—Indian Root Pill labels: a, original used by 

Moore, the originator of the pills; 6, initial label used 

by A. J. White & Co. under Comstock ownership, 1855-

1857; c, revised label adopted by Comstocks in Jun e 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; /, label used in the final years of the business; 

g, label, in Spanish, used in final years for export trade 

to Latin America. 

FABRICAOO EN U.S.A . 

451-822 O - 72 
16 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 

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 WhiteComstock 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 

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. 

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 at> 

titude 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. 

The great bulk of the notes and accounts 

which were assigned to Blakely for collection 

were undoubtedly accounts originally estab-
NUMBER 2 2 17 

T O PURCHASER S 

DR. MORSE'S 

&3e on youz aua'id aaaindt a coivntr.'e'/cit o/oul 0ic/x 

fuit ufi /y (oomdtocn, <T Sffltctnet, fatiaaj SB. ^£. 

J/aaton ex' (JC.J iv//o ale one ana t/ie aamc concent. 

tj/ie dame Sia'iticd- ate ttyinsf to //.aim, c// /addon <* 

frovm <Jca, and <sfwou,?itain troffsG 8nUu. 

*J ilia- c/i.anae tn i/tc /iim of vjomatoe/i <yT Oo., ia- intended to deceive you. " '^tXX'lXXt iff tlXtlXX." 

U/ie Vcunteiieit SrMj. Stave ctii etc/ rria/iAct on 

t/ie?n, vat on tr/c injide loitcuiai yea wilt find t/ie name 

ojf 6t7. Jz.. sfudjo?i. Uney aie aiao niuc/t. tmatfez t/tan 

t/ie genuine. 

tS&tc genuine Q/)z. t/P&ozae d Jt'ndian &k>';ct (y"Md 

ate now fait u/t in C/teei Gnatave-d o/jlacfc ^La/eld; oz 

ijt SuU u/i in &j/ae rria/ifcid /tare two c/lanataica- ct 

«4. f . *fPi/!.te £ <&,. One in 03Lc Jnd and t/u 

cptia om in rr/iitc. 

Une ae7tuine mes't ve oCtamid at all titma /y a/iAi//= 

out uenczaC\yvaent /oz loanada oz at ociz z/f/icc /0 

vomtiandt utzect t/few t/otte %itu. 

A, J. WHITE & Co. 

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. 

lished 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. 
18 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 

ANDREW J. WHITE, THE PILL MAN INDICTED FOB FORG-ERY. 

•-•-» 

0©FI @F MQU1S1T10H GBANTXB IIQOY. MOBGAJR. 

STATE OF NEW-YORK, 

EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 

EDWIN D. MORGAN, GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF NEW-YORK. 

To either of the Sheriffs of the County of New- York : 

And the Sheriffs, Constables, and other Peace Officers of the several Counties in the said State 

22FttCrC«l#, It has been represented to me by the GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF PENNSYLNIA, that a certain ANDREW J. WHITE stands charged with the crime of FORGERY, committed in 

the County of Wayne, in said State, and that he fled from Justice in that State, and has taken refuge in 

the State of New-York ; and the said Govenor of Pennsylvania having, in pursuance of the Constitution and Laws of the United States demanded of me, that I shall cause the said Andrew J. White to 

be arrested and delivered to William Turner, who is authorized to receive him into his custody and 

convey him back to the said State of Pennsylvania. 

£ltlft 8J2PHCJC0&S,* The said representation and demand is accompanied by Copy of Indictment, and an affidavit which ARE CERTIFIED AS AUTHENTIC BY THE SAID GOVERNOR OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

You ARE THEREFORE required to arrest and secure the said ANDREW J. WHITE , wherever he 

may be found within the State, and to deliver him into the Custody of said William Turner, to be 

taken back to the State from which he fled, pursuant to said requisition. 

*£?ty*l' Given under my hand dnd ihr. Prim/ Seal of the State, at the City of 

fM^m- Albany, this 28th day ofSqtt'cmler in the Year of our Lord one 

1

~^>$ifte thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine. 

'^S ^ E. D. MORGAN. 

GEORGE BLISS, JR., Private Secretary, 

Iu pursuance of the above, Sheriff Turner succeeded in catching the fellow and conveyed his 

prisoner to Wayne County Jail. 

Grand Larceny. A<idr<!W 3. White an d Asilrew li. Moar e held for trial. Th e Morse's Fill* 

c aw slaE3 progressing. 

The charge of grand larceny made by Mr. GEO. W. COMSTOCK, before Judge OSBORNE, against 

ANDREW J. WHIT E and ANDREW B. MOORE, for stealing, on last New Year's day, a large number 

of notes and receipts taken for Dr. Monk's Indian Root Pills, having been thoroughly investigated by 

Judge OSBORNE, he has held WHIT E and MOORE for trial at the Court of General Sessions. The 

strenuous efforts made by these men to get released, and Vaa four hours' speech of their learned Counsel did not avail them. 

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. 
NUMBER 2 2 19 

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 

0

 The "temporary" tax placed upon drug manufacture 

as a revenue measure during the Civil War remained 

in effect until 1883. 
20 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 

/£**£r *£ +**&*• MORSE'S INDIAN ROOT PILLS ***** «**$£ *z> «£&*,/? 

•>i -^ y^etiss.i??'?/. /,j/f /(f-yyy •stiirf rear 4?c?47i!t?<f Ae/rfe-J^af jS&ii) c^/e/r^ZifJi 

e>; f/Yie-?*&£<?-t?y •e?*?.?^' i>// i/eze^f *>&g-t*44<* -€*4 f/tg-mYmf/Q **W </rifri / •eww, j&ie&y &cr 

,/Xe •£t*ir/af<?<&q?'&t^i!9 /eeri'ic /&£**'&£ •/•fde*Q-C(6t-£<f/i-t»e/: m&urf -/i-eg<t*-e ^ttte-z* 440 ^fae^art 

St*//>/, /e//e -e>i •g-ttPet 

J? 

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/fs <feM%&44& .sre/r/ r/e &/ r-ei/e/ ctresjita. 

ANDREW J. WHITE, 

ANDREW B. MOORE. 

s^ v 

XT'-

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g/tai'tna do/a, a/dtaueel ana icunautd/ieet. a/l iu/m, /t//c 

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'i!/i//d. uwtcU wcte aneo//ec/eo/ on/ //te 30//i aau of Gwcaic/i /c90/, vote wwi 

eadc e/euvei /node en ycttP nanefd, oi me fiiocecad of mem /o /ne vcaiei oJ //ltd j 

eie/ei, ana omtge'^y * ff , /YiYY O , ">T7^ 0 &~z< , 

/MU.t*£f/L&/W t**^ ZvTfl/s 

GAeu* / y/ot.ttd Jzfadfiec/fmm, <M,l4} Grty>t'/f2, f£6f. 

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. 
NUMBER 2 2 21 

simply to B. L. Judson & Co., now located, with 

the Comstocks, at 106 Franklin Street. 

During this period Judson and William 

Henry Comstock became interested in a coffeeroasting 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 backwoods." 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, 

7

 National Cyclopedia of American Biography, IV: 500. 
22 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 

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 

Arkansa s 

Connecticut . 

Delaware ...... 

D.C 

Florida 

Georgia 

Illinois 

Indiana 

Iowa 

Kansas Ter.. . 

Kentucky 

Louisiana 

Maine 

Maryland 

Massachusetts 

Minnesota Ter 

Mississippi .. . 

Missouri 

12 

1 

3 

5 

1 

5 

15 

415 

298 

179 

1 

21 

7 

2 

21 

5 

6 

8 

32 

Michigan 

New York State. 

New York City. . 

New Jersey 

New Hampshire 

North Carolina 

Ohio 

Pennsylvania . 

Rhode Island 

South Carolina. . 

Tennessee 

Texas 

Virginia 

Wisconsin 

New Brunswick . 

Nova Scotia 

Canada East 

(Quebec) 

Canada West 

194 

88 

3 

212 

1 

9 

179 

192 

2 

5 

21 

1 

30 

303 

15 

19 

7 

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. 

We now find the Comstock business established at Brockville. Exactly why a second plant 
NUMBER 2 2 23 

6

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(a) J 

^J IP ¥Iflf#llfI | 

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sitoll i 

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FIGURE 12.—Label for Victoria Hair Gloss, Comstock & Brother, 1855. 

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 transporta451-822 O - 72 - 4 
24 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 

tion 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 selfproclaimed 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 habitforming 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. 

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 
NUMBER 2 2 25 

FIGURE 13.—Comstock factory buildings, about 1900. 

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PANACEA 

FIGURE 14.—Wrapper for Longley's Great Western Panacea. 
26 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 

1878, after eleven years in this village, the Cornstock factory was not yet important enough to 

obtain mention in Everts' comprehensive History of St. Laivrence 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 commonplace 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 

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. 

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 
NUMBER 2 2 27 

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. 

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. 

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, 

FIGURE 15.—The village of Morristown from the waterfront. Railroad depot, 

Comstock Hotel, and pill-factory buildings located left of center. 
28 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 

1 mm 

3 

^Wi 

FIGURE 16.—Depot, Comstock Hotel, and factory buildings (at right), about 1910. 

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. 

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 
NUMBER 2 2 29 

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 tha t upon the healthy activity of 

the sexual apparatus depend the mental and physical 

well-being of every person come to adult years. It is 

tha t 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 ar e 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 ar e 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. 

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, 

FIGURE 17.—Card used in advertising Kingsland's 

Chlorinated Tablets. 

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 patentmedicine business, its most difficult and essential 

function was selling—or what the Comstocks 
30 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 

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 patentmedicine 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. 

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 
NUMBER 2 2 31 

4 0 <&tM in etner <&fyad)td. 

ftmtocfrait, &het &ic gwflc M$tcfen*Mt$mu 

Sn biefen tpitlcn lijuncn mir bem <f>ublihim em Slrgneimittel 

barbieten, bae fid) toon alien anbcrit Stvjnctrtoffen gciugltd) nntcr> 

fcbeibet. Dbfcbon lebiglicb au8 eiiifacbeit ^ftangeu unb Srautern 

bargeftcUt, mtrft c6 gleicb. gaubetauftranteuiiD gefdjWadjte Stonftitntioueu unb rottet ben Sranfljcitsftoff ntit ber SBurjcl auS, 

gletdjnne bte ©onne, bie ben finftereu SDiorajlen cntftiegen, ben 

ylebel gcrftrcut unb mit il;reu crwarmenbett ©trablen bie Srbe 

erleudjtet. 

Das fouoeriinc ijetCmtttcf. 

Seferl biite bid), ton ben unerjattlidjen tfraflen ber Srautbett 

bid; erfajfen gu laffeii, beim ift bies einmal gefdjebett, fo fdjUigt 

fie bicfelben immcr tiefer em, bis gulefct bie falte£>aub be6 ©obe8 

bid? in etit friifj^ctti^eS ©rab gerrt. ©d;iUtcle jebe 2lnh>anbelung 

ber SSermeiftuug unb ©offuuugsloftgfeii, bie fo Ijaufig ben 

lorperlid; Seibenbcn befd;letd;en, toon SDir. Sir ftelten bie toon 

b e r © on u e q e b o r e n e $ f ianj e in ben SBeretd) eities 

Seben. Sic eiqcntbilmlidje ftormber $ranfbeit tihnmert unS nid;t. 

SMeUrfiKbe ober ber lU-fprung jebergranH;eit Iiegt inunreiuem 

SJlute, unb biefe <j3ttleitburd;iaufen, tnitbem SBIuteftd; mifd;enb, 

nlle bie »erfd;iebenei» $anale ber Sungcu, be8 2Kagen« unb anbe* 

rcr, baS Sebett bebtngenber Drgane; auf ibrem Sattfe fud)en fie 

bte giftigen ©tofte auf, erfaffen fie unb ftofjen btefclben auS bem 

fiovper au§. ©o reidjen ciittge vocnige ©aben bicfer 'ptu'en bin, 

oaS 5l3lut gu reinigeit, unb bie ftolge ift, bag jiebe #rantyeit, in 

u-efdjer $orm fie immcr aufgetrcten fein mag, aufl;ort unb toer» 

fdjuuitbet. ©leicbtoie bie bervlid;en ©trat;leu ber anfgebenben 

©oune tteraiitaffen, bag bcr2Korgentb.au guerji in ©eflalt cities 

'JfrbeM fid; erlpcbt, bis bie gliibenber tterbenben ©trablen biefen 

burdpriugen unb auf einmal nidjts mobr ton ibm jufeben ift, 

fo reinig t b a 8 23 t u t , unb bie Sranfyeit lueidjt gleid; 

bem STJrrjjcntban. 

©ie £anptpflange , ouS ber biefe ^piUen bereitet werben, 

toirft alternate, benn erffcnS f orfdjt fie tiarf) bem ©iije ber firanfc* 

beit bis a:i bie £ianptIebcuequcQe, bent S3lute, unb bairn reinigt 

fie btefeS ton alien ungefunben Stcffcn. ©ie gttxite ^flange ift 

fd)roei§tretbcnb, fie off net bie^orcn bet §aut uttb bilft ber 9tatur 

bie garieren ©beile ber tterbcrbheben ©teffe ou8 ber Sonflitntion 

ausfaeiben. ©ie brttte ift cine ben 2ln«n>urf beforbcrnbe ^flange, 

weldje bie ^uaoiige ju ben Sttngen bffnet unb fett mad)t unb baburebbie ^teren erleirbtert unb getraftigt werbcu, n?eld>e eben fo 

angeft ocbelt, eine grc§e SKcnge Unreinig!etten, bie ouf onberfi 

Seije nidjt batten auS bem Slute auSgeldnctcn ttcrbeii voinicn, 

burd) baufigeS unb reid)lid)e3 §arntaffen cntiernen. Ste f unite 

^flange ene'lieb ift cin fogenannteS (Satbcrlticon, ciu aHgenietnefl 

SReinicjuiiflfimittel, baS beit aiibern ^ngtcbieugieu in bet ClHtreiniqunq'beiftcbtunb insbefonbere bie roberen unrcnicii eto^e, 

bie auf a'nberm 2Bege nicbt abgefoubert lucrben {ouneu, burdj bte 

©eoarme abfttbrt , , ti c 

*)r. Swnarb bo^ ^"t-

 as«*n btete (Vabre lan^ «"ipmenbct, unb 

2)ie eublofcn SBcitbcr unb roeiten ^ratrien im ©iiben unb 2Bc-

{ten unferes SanbeS SDcrben»onbilioienSran!beiteninjeber %om\ 

beimgejudjt. ©tets bilben gewiffe 3up"be ber 2nft bte ©run>» 

llrfarbe, benn biefe Joirb burd) bie giftigen uub tobbrtngenben 

Siiufte unb SDttaSmate, tt>e!cbe ben ©iimpfen unb uiebrigeu 

2)iarfd?KinbCru eutfteigen, tocrborbeu. S)ic 2imgen bringeu bie 

oerpeftete 2uft mit bem ©lutein Serii&ruua,, bieieSmirb batnrd) 

unrein, reagirt attj bie Scber unb ftort unb »erb.inbert tie guuf* 

iioneu biejeS tv>td;tigcuCirgaiteS: es trcten SJerbaunngfilo * 

figt'eit, 35 e r ft o p f it it g , 23 e cbjelfteb er, ©alien * 

f t'e b er , g a I I i cb t e $ o 111, bilii5{e 9iubr, 5)wrdj = 

fall , aubcre gieber , K. etn, iwbt felteit Bou eitteni 

©cbmerggefiible in ber Scbcrgcgcnb unterbalb bem IDiagen 

begleitet. 

Scr immcr bon irgcnb cinem bieier ©Pmptomcbefalien loirb, 

fotltc uidjt Borfciuincu, fid; icbnell nad) ^tnberungS* unb ^eilmiN 

tcln umjiifebcu. (S3 gibt aCerbingS nttr febr tveitig Slvgneimittel, 

meldje gur §eilung ber Svanfbciten geeignet fmb; allfitt 3ubfon'8 

©cbiroSETautcriptllcn, lebiglicb. auS ^(laitgcn UHD Uvcutcrn bar* 

geftellt, bteten eut fidjcreS unb gubcrlaffiqeS £eilmittel gegen bie 

genamttcu Seiben bar, benn fie rotrleu auf bie §aitpt(ebeuSquctle, 

ba8 SSlut, fotnie auf ben SDiagen, bie ©ebarme unb alle tuiajtigen 

Organe beS SorperS, unb ceintgen, flaren, ftarfen unb fiaftigen 

biefclbeu auf eine fo aoCftaubige unb uufeblbave 2Seife, bafj die 

firantbeit fetnen Jpaltpunft niebr finben fann, fonbern etligft bte 

gludjt crgretfen mufj. ©vet bis fiiuf Ipttlcn taglid) nor ©djlafen* 

geben geiiommen, retdjen fyin, uminiurger gcit jebeuber©e* 

funbbcit fcbablidjen ©toff bollftSitbig aus bent Seibe gu treiben 

uub ben ^orper loieber in jeiueit novmalen 3ufiaub gu bringen. 

"Wen KJirti u)d)l xicrfdumcn, 

ben laftigen §uflcn gu Ib'fen? Sebett 27torgeu, 'roenn ber baran 

Scibenbe fid; auS bem 93ette erbebt, qiia.lt ii)n bcrfelbe, unb mirb 

bei ber gcringften ©rfiiltuug nod; um'8 ©oppelte befttger. 2Ber 

Su immer fein magft, meiu ^reuub, laff' ©icb bci 3" t roartieu, 

id; ratbc ©it's; lafj ja nidit bte evftcn SrantbeitSfomptome unbe< 

ad)tet vjoritbergeben; jefet ift 8 nod) 3 e'

1

 Sinbalt gu tbun unfe> 

cine bollfta'itbige§eifung bcs crften ©tjmptomcs etner fd>rectlid;en 

iirantbeit, eiuer ©cigcl ber 2Jienjd;beit, ber 

Srfjfoinbstttjjt 

ju bcroirten. 

©ie ^iaupturfad;e bicfer Sranlbcit ift unreineS 53Iut, baS bei 

feinem ©itrdjgange bind; bte SJungen feine Unretnigtetten in bie 

Siiftjellen bevfelben ablagcrt. 3m 3?erlaufe gefeQeu fidj nod) toerfdiiebcne anbere Unreiuigteiten unb frcmbe ©toffe bagu, mclcb.e 

bie Sungen nicbt auegmrerfeu im ©tanbe finb. 2Kau mug baber 

ba8 SBliit reintgen. tt-obuvd; bem wcttern 3uffnffe toon ©ift ©in* 

bait getbauvoirb, ber reine uub flare SebeitSftrom fid; entfaltct 

unb bon felbft bie fdjablidjen ©toffe aufloft unb abfiib.rt. 

Elw* *•'* "*'"-t tooitjDcn $itle» «-"-— whenb obqr foo?* * 

FIGURE 18.—German circular for Judson's Mountain Herb Pills. 

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 
32 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 

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 lifesaving 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 

Bowel Complaints 

Coughs 

Colds 

Chest Diseases 

Costiveness 

Dyspepsia 

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 eightinch 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: 

JANUARY 

THE GREAT FEMALE MEDICINE 

The functional irregularities peculiar to the weaker 

sex, are invariably corrected without pain or inconvenience by the use of Judson's Mountain Herb Pills. 

They are the safest and surest medicine for all the 

diseases incidental to females of all ages, and more 

especially so in this climate. 

Ladies who wish to enjoy health should always have 

these Pills. No one who ever uses them once will ever 

allow herself to be without them. They remove all obstructions, purify the blood and give to the skin that 

beautiful, clear and healthful look so greatly admired 

in a beautiful and healthy woman. At certain periods 

these Pills are an indispensable companion. From one to 

four should be taken each day, until relief is obtained. 

A few doses occasionally, will keep the system healthy, 

and the blood so pure, that diseases cannot enter the 

body. 

MARCH 

DISEASES OP THE CHEST AND LUNGS 

These diseases are too well known to require any 

description. How many thousands are every year carried to the silent grave by that dread scourge Consumption, which always commences with a slight cough. Keep 
NUMBER 2 2 33 

FIGURE 19.—Card used in advertising Judson's Mountain 

Herb Pills. 

the blood pure and healthy by taking a few doses of 

JUDSON'S MOUNTAIN HERB PILLS each week, and 

disease of any kind is impossible. Consumption and lung 

difficulties always arise from particles of corrupt matter deposited in the air cells by bad blood. Purify tha t 

stream of life and it will soon carry off and destroy the 

poisonous matter; and like a crystal river flowing 

through a desert, will bring with it and leave throughout the body the elements of health and strength. As the 

river leaving the elements of fertility in its course, causes 

the before barren waste to bloom with flowers and fruit, 

so pure blood causes the frame to rejoice in strength and 

health, and bloom with unfading beauty. 

Any person who read the notices for both 

medicines carefully might have noticed with 

some surprise that the Mountain Herb Pills and 

the Indian Root Pills were somehow often 

recommended for many of the same diseases. In 

fact, the Mountain Herb Pills and the Indian 

Root Pills used identical text in explaining their 

effect upon several disagreeable conditions. 

Always prominent in this advertising were reminders of our fragile mortality and warnings, 

if proper medication were neglected, of an untimely consignment to the silent grave. 

Unfortunately, newspapers in the South had 

been utilized extensively just on the eve of the 

Civil War, and it undoubtedly proved impossible 

to supply customers in that region during the 

ensuing conflict. However, other advertising 

was given a military flavor and tied in with the 

war, as witness the following (for 1865) : 

GENERAL ORDERS—No. 1 

Headquarters 

Department of this Continent and adjacent Islands 

Pursuant to Division and Brigade orders issued by 

8,000 Field Officers, "On the Spot", where they ar e stationed. All Skedadlers, Deserters, Skulkers, and all 

others—sick, wounded and cripples—who have foresaken the cause of General Health, shall immediately 

report to one of the aforesaid officers nearest the point 

where the delinquent may be at the time this order is 

made known to him, and purchase one box of 

JUDSON' S 

MOUNTAI N HER B PILL S 

and pay the regulation price therefor. All who comply 

with the terms of this order, will receive a free pardon 

for past offences, and be restored to the Grand Army of 

General Health. 

By order 

Dr. Judson, 

Ad j utant- General 

A. GOOD HEALTH 

Lieutenant-General 

Sold by all dealers. 

Twenty years later, when the Civil War had 

passed out of recent memory and Confederate 

currency was presumably becoming a curiosity, 

Comstock printed facsimiles of $20 Confederate 

bills,0 with testimonials and advertisements 

upon the reverse side; it can be assumed that 

these had enough historical interest to circulate widely and attract attention, although each 

possessor must have felt a twinge of disappointment upon realizing that his bill was not genuine but merely an advertising gimmick. 

0

 These facsimile bills were registered as a trademark 

at the United States Patent Office. In his registration 

application, Mr. Comstock described himself as a citizen 

of the United States, residing a t Morristown, N.Y.— 

although he had served three terms as mayor of Brockville, Ontario, prior to this time. 
34 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 

Back in the 1850s, the Comstock Company in 

lower Manhattan had an advertising agent, one 

Silas B. Force, whose correspondence by some 

unexplained happenstance was also deposited 

in the loft of the Indian Root Pill building in 

Morristown, even though he was not an exclusive agent and served other clients besides the 

Comstocks. One of these was Dr. Uncas Brant, 

for whom Force had the following announcement printed in numerous papers: 

AN OLD INDIAN DOCTOR WHO HAD made his 

fortune and retired from business, will spend the remainder of his days in curing tha t dreadful disease— 

CONSUMPTION—FREE OF CHARGE: his earnest 

desire being to communicate to the world his remedies 

tha t have proved successful in more than 3,000 cases. 

He requires each applicant to send him a minute description of the symptoms, with two Stamps (6 cts) to pay 

the return letter, in which he will return his advice 

prescription, with directions for preparing the medicines &c. 

The Old Doctor hopes tha t those afflicted will not, on 

account of delicacy, refrain from consulting him because 

he makes No Charge. His sole object in advertising is to 

do all the good he can, before he dies. He feels tha t he is 

justly celebrated for cure of Consumption, Asthma, 

Bronchitis, Nervous Affections, Coughs, Colds, &c. 

Address 

DOCT. UNCA S BRANT 

Box 3531, P.O., New York 

This type of an apparently free diagnosis of 

medical ills, prompted solely by the benevolence 

of some elderly or retired person, was a familiar 

petty swindle around the middle of the last 

century. The newspapers carried many such announcements from retired clergymen, old nurses, 

or Indian doctors, frequently persons who had 

themselves triumphed over dread diseases and 

had discovered the best remedies only after years 

of search and suffering, always offering to communicate the secret of recovery to any fellow 

sufferer. The victim would receive in reply a 

recipe for the proper medicine, always with the 

advice that great care must be taken to prepare 

it exactly as directed, and with the further advice that if the ingredients should not prove to 

be conveniently available the benevolent old doctor or retired clergyman could provide them 

for a trifling sum. Invariably, the afflicted patient would discover that the ingredients specified were obscure ones, not kept by one druggist 

in a hundred and unknown to most of them. 

Thus, he would be obliged, if he persisted in the 

recommended cure, to send his money to the 

kindly old benefactor. Frequently, he would receive no further reply or, at best, would receive 

some concoction costing only a few cents to compound. The scheme was all the safer as it was 

carried on exclusively by mail, and the swindler 

would usually conclude each undertaking under 

any given name before investigation could be 

initiated. 

Besides participating in such schemes, Force 

apparently devoted a large part of his energy 

in collecting accounts due him or, in turn, in 

being dunned by and seeking to postpone payment to newspapers with whom he was delinquent in making settlement. 

Other forms of advertising employed over the 

years included finely engraved labels, circulars 

and handbills, printed blotters, small billboards, 

fans, premiums sent in return for labels, a concise—very concise—reference dictionary, and 

trade cards of various sorts. One trade card 

closely resembled a railroad pass; this was in the 

1880s when railroad passes were highly prized 

and every substantial citizen aspired to own 

one. Thus, almost everyone would have felt some 

pride in carrying what might pass, at a glance, 

as a genuine pass on the K.C.L.R.R.; although 

it was signed only by "Good Health" as the general agent, entitled the bearer merely to ride 

on foot or horseback and was actually an advertisement of Kingsland's Chlorinated Tablets. 

Another card played somewhat delicately but 

still unmistakably on the Indian Root Pills' 

capacity to restore male virility. This card pictured a fashionably dressed tomcat, complete 

with high collar, cane and derby, sitting somewhat disconsolately on a fence as the crescent 

moon rose behind him, with these reflections: 

How terribly lonesome I feel! How queer, 

To be sitting alone, with nobody near, 

Oh, how I wish Maria was here, 

Mon dieu! 

The thought of it fills me with horrible doubt, 

I should smile, I should blush, I should wail, 

I should shout, 

Just suppose some fellow has cut me out! 

Me out! 

And undernearth the lesson is given: 

Dr. Morse's Indian Root Pills 

The Best Family Pill in use 
NUMBER 2 2 35 

-

/V,^^Y 

<.••*•'•' WBm ~9ShwMciHP 

o> 

THE BEARER WHENEVER YOU MEET HIM, 

Until January'/<¥<94-. 

'/////;// conditions ondac/cofthis. 

&rzr/M^/f// G.r/fpr. ^LAUOxJjjMiqii Siipl 

FIGURE 20.—A trade card advertising Kingsland's Chlorinated Tablets, 

which closely resembled a railroad pass. 

Testimonials submitted voluntarily by happy 

users of the pills were always widely featured 

in the almanacs, newspaper advertisements, and 

handbills. Although the easy concoction of the 

stories about Dr. Morse and Dr. Cunard might 

suggest that there would have been no hesitation 

in fabricating these testimonials, it is probable 

that they were genuine; at least, many have survived in the letters scattered over the floor of 

the Indian Root Pill factory. In some cases one 

might feel that the testimonials were lacking 

in entire good faith, for many of them were submitted by dealers desiring lenient credit or other 

favors. Witness, for example, the following from 

B. Mollohan of Mt. Pleasant, Webster County, 

West Va., on April 16,1879: 

Pleas find here enclosed Two Dollars & 50 cts $2 50 cts 

for which pleas place to my credit and return receipt 

to me for same. I cant praise your Dr Morse pill two 

high never before in all my recolection has there bin a 

meddison here that has given such general satisfaction. 

I hope the pills will always retain their high standing 

and never bee counterfeited. .. . I could sell any amt 

Pills allmost if money was not so scarce. I have to let 

some out on credit to the Sick and Poor & wait some 

time though I am accountable to you for all I reed & 

will pay you as fast as I sell & collect. . . I have about 

one Doz Box on hand. 

Mollohan's complaint about the shortage of 

money and the long delay in collecting many 

accounts reflected a condition that prevailed 

throughout the nineteenth century. Money was 

scarce, and the economy of many rural communities was still based largely on the barter 

system, so that it was very difficult for farmers 

to generate cash for store goods. Consequently, 

country storekeepers had to be generous in extending credit, and, in turn, manufacturers and 

jobbers had to be lenient in enforcing collection. 

Not all of the storekeepers could write as 

neatly and clearly as Mollohan. The following 

letter, quoted in full, from Thomas Cathey of 

Enfield, Illinois, on January 23,1880, not merely 

presented a problem relating to the company's 

policy of awarding exclusive territories but offered considerable difficulty in deciphering: 

mr CumStock der ser i thaut i Wod rite yo 

u a few lineS to inform you that i was the fir 

St agent for you pills in thiS Setlement but th 

as iS Several agent round her and tha ar interfer 

With mee eSpeSly William a StavSon he liveS her 

at enfield he Wanted mee to giv him one of you Sur 

klerS So he Wod be agent but i Wodent let hi 

m hav hit an he rote to you i SupoSe an haS got a 

Suplye of pillS an ar aruning a gant mee he iS Sell 

ing them at 20 centS a box i Want you to St 

op him if you pleeS 

mr CumStock i Sent you too dollars the 21 p 

leeS Credet my a Count With hit mr. Cumsto 

Ck i Want you to Send mee Sum of you pam 

pletS i Want you to Send mee right of three tow 

nShipS aS i am Working up a good trad her i wan 
36 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 

t indin Cree an enfteld an Carnie tonnShipS rite 

Son aS poSSible an let me know whether you will let 

me have thoSe townShipS or not for my territory 

i Sold a box of pillS to melven willSon his gir 

1 She haS the ChilS for three yer and he tride eve 

n thang he cood her wan nothing never dun her 

eny good one box of you pills brok them on hei 

tha a r the beSt pillS i ever Saw in 

my life tha a r the beSt medeSon for the ChillS 

i ever Saw an rumiteS i am giting 

up a good trad i Wan t you to Send me Sum of 

you pampletS i want you to Stop theSe oth 

er agentS tha t iS botheran me an oblige you 

rite Son. 

enfield 

White Co. 

illS 

thomaS Cathey 

Sadly, we do not know how the company handled Mr. Cathey's request for sole representation in three Illinois townships. 

After the pills achieved wide recognition and 

other methods of publicity, chiefly the almanacs, 

were well established, newspaper advertising 

was terminated. An invitation to agents (about 

1885) declared that 

For some years past they have not been advertised in 

newspapers, they being filled with sensational advertisements of quack nostrums got up for no other purpose 

than catch-penny articles .. . 

The Indian Root Pills obviously claimed a 

more lofty stature than other, common proprietary remedies. The exclusive representation 

scheme was also a partial substitution for newspaper advertising; the company was aggressive 

in soliciting additional agents—aiming at one in 

every town and village—and then in encouraging them to push the pills by offering prizes 

such as watches, jewelry, and table utensils.1" 

What were the ingredients of the Indian Root 

Pills and the other Comstock preparations? 

Originally, the formulas for the various remedies were regarded as closely held secrets, divulged only to proprietors and partners—and 

not even to all of them—and certainly never 

revealed to the purchasers. But despite this 

10

 In connection with this offer the pills were priced to 

agents at $2 per dozen boxes—$24 per gross—and were 

to be retailed at $3 per dozen—250 per box. Other agreements, however, probably intended for more substantial 

dealers, specified a price of $16 per gross for the Indian 

Root Pills. 

FIGURE 21.—Cover for booklet used as a circular 

desci'ibing the Indian Root Pills. 

secrecy, charges of counterfeiting and imitating popular preparations were widespread. In 

many cases, the alleged counterfeits were probably genuine—to the extent that either of these 

terms has meaning—for it was a recurrent practice for junior partners and clerks at one drug 

house to branch off on their own, taking some 

of the secrets with them—just as Andrew B. 

White left Moore and joined the Comstocks, 

bringing the Indian Root Pills with him. 

In the latter years, under the rules of the Federal Food and Drug Act, the ingredients were 

required to be listed on the package; thus we 

know that the Indian Root Pills, in the 1930s 

and 1940s, contained aloes, mandrake, gamboge, 

jalap, and cayenne pepper. 
NUMBER 2 2 37 

Aloe is a tropical plant of which the best 

known medicinal varieties come from Socotra 

and Zanzibar; those received by the Comstock 

factory were generally described as Cape (of 

Good Hope) Aloe. The juice Aloes is extracted 

from the leaves of this plant and since antiquity 

has been regarded as a valuable drug, particularly for its laxative and vermifuge properties. 

Mandrake has always been reputed to have 

aphrodisiac qualities. Gamboge is a large tree 

native to Ceylon and Southeast Asia, which produces a resinous gum, more commonly used by 

painters as a coloring material, but also sometimes employed in medicine as a cathartic. Jalap 

is a flowering plant which grows only at high 

altitudes in Mexico, and its root produces an 

extract with a powerful purgative effect. All of 

these ingredients possessed one especial feature 

highly prized by the patent-medicine manufacturers of the nineteenth century, i.e., they were 

derived from esoteric plants found only in 

geographically remote locations. One does find 

it rather remarkable, however, that the native 

Indian chiefs who confided the secrets of these 

remedies to Dr. Morse and Dr. Cunard were so 

familiar with drugs originating in Asia and 

Africa.11 The Indians may very well have been 

acquainted with the properties of jalap, native 

to this continent, but the romantic circumstances of its discovery, early in the last century 

seem considerably overdrawn, as the medicinal 

properties of jalap were generally recognized in 

England as early as 1600. 

Whether the formula for the Indian Root Pills 

had been constant since their "discovery"—as 

all advertising of the company implied—we have 

no way of knowing for sure. However, the comn

 Actually, the formula for the Indian Root Pills 

would seem to have corresponded closely with tha t for 

"Indian Cathartic Pills" given in Dr. Chase's Recipes, 

published in 1866. These were described as follows: 

Aloes and gamboge, of each 1 oz.; mandrake and 

blood-root, with gum myrrh, of each

 xk oz.; gum 

camphor and cayenne, of each 1% drs.; ginger, 4 oz.; 

all finely pulverized and thoroughly mixed, with thick 

mucilage (made by putting a little wate r upon equal 

quantities of gum arabic and gum tragacanth) into 

pill mass; then formed into common sized pills. Dose: 

Two to four pills, according to the robustness of the 

patient. 

pany's book of trade receipts for the 1860s shows 

the recurring purchase of large quantities of 

these five drugs, which suggests that the ingredients did remain substantially unchanged 

for over a century. For other remedies manufactured by the company, the ingredients purchased included: 

Anise Seed 

Black Antimony 

Calomel 

Camphor 

Gum Arabic 

Gum Asphaltum 

Gum Tragacanth 

Hemlock Oil 

Horehound 

Laudanum 

Licorice Root 

Magnolia Wate r 

Muriatic Acid 

Saltpetre 

Sienna Oil 

Sulphur 

Wormseed 

It is not known where the calomel (mercurous chloride) and some of the other harsher 

ingredients were used—certainly not in the 

Indian Root Pills or the Mountain Herb Worm 

Tea—for the company frequently incorporated 

warnings against the use of calomel in its advertising and even promised rewards to persons 

proving that any of its preparations contained 

calomel. 

Less active ingredients used to supply bulk 

and flavor included alcohol, turpentine, sugar, 

corn starch, linseed meal, rosin, tallow, and 

white glue. Very large quantities of sugar were 

used, for we find that Comstock was buying one 

250-pound barrel of sugar from C. B. Herriman 

in Ogdensburg approximately once a month. In 

the patent-medicine business it was necessary, 

of course, that the pills and tonics must be palatable, neutralizing the unpleasant flavor of 

some of the active ingredients; therefore large 

quantities of sugar and of pleasant-tasting herbs 

were required. It was also desirable, for 

obvious reasons, to incorporate some stimulant 

or habit-forming element into the various 

preparations. 

A register of incoming shipments for the year 

1905 shows that the factory was still receiving 

large quantities of aloes, gamboge, mandrake, 

jalap, and pepper. One new ingredient being 

used at this time was talc, some of which 

originated at Gouverneur, within a few miles 

of the pill manufactory, but more of it was 

described as "German talc." The same register 

gives the formulas for three of the company's 

other preparations. One of these, the Nerve & 
38 SMITHSONIAN STUDD2S IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 

Bone Liniment, was simply compounded of four 

elements: 

3 gal. Turpentine 

2 qts. Linseed Oil 

2 lbs. Hemlock 

2 lbs. Concentrated Amonia. 

The formula for the Condition Powders (for 

horses and livestock) was far more complex, 

consisting of: 

4 lbs. Sulphur 

4 lbs. Saltpetre 

4 lbs. Black Antimony 

4 lbs. Feongreek Seed 

8 lbs. Oil Meal 

1 % oz. Arsenic 

2 oz. Tart Antimony 

6 lbs. Powdered Rosin 

2 lbs. Salt 

2 lbs. Ashes 

4 lbs. Brand (Bran-?). 

The name of the third preparation was not 

given, but the ingredients were: 

1 oz. Dry White Lead 

1 oz. Oxide of Zinc 

y2 oz. Precipitated Chalk 

3 oz. Glycerine 

Add 1 lb. Glue. 

Originally, Comstock and its predecessor firms 

marketed a large number of remedies. In 1854, 

Comstock & Company—then controlled by LuCOMSTOCK & COMPANY , 

WHOLESALE CHEMISTS, DRUGGISTS AND PERFUMERS, 

No. 45 VESEY STREET, 

Directly in rear of St. Paul's Church Yard, and one Mock from Broadway, 

Will sell always of the first quality, and at as low prices as can be had of any house in the United States, all kinds of 

Colognes mrtr ^erfameru, fianblierrljitf $ Me t IJwfomerj, Jrajs, IPeuirines, ftfyeminds* 

SHAVING SOAPS, &c. &c. 

The following Catalogue embraces a portion only of our assortment of Medicines ; and special pains will be taken to fill all orders in 

a perfectly satisfactory manner, 80 that there shall be no breakage or other cause of complaint—feeling assured that, by strict attention, 

punctuality, &c. all who favor us with a trial, will be induced to come again.—Every Article is warranted genuine. 

Wholesale, 

per dozen. 

*01dridge's Balm ot Columbia, Nos. 1 and 2,.. .$8 a 4 00 

•George's Honduras Sarsaparilla, 8 00 

Milk of Roses 2 a 4 00 

•East India Hair Dye, colors the hair & not the skin, 8 00 

* Acoustic Oil, for deafness 0 00 

•Vermifuge-, Comstock's, 1 25 

"* Bartholomew's Expectorant Syrup, Nos. 1 & 2, 8 a 4 00 

Chlorine and Orris Tooth Wa<*h 3 00 

"Carlton's Specific Cure for Ringbone, Spavin, 

Windgalls. &c 4 00 

.Tudkin's Ointment 2 00 

Indelible Ink, superior, 2 00 

" " without preparation 1 50 

Marshall's Snuff 2 50 

*Dr. Sphon's Head Ache Remedy, Nos. 1 ar:d 2, 8 a 4 00 

Retail, 

each. 

50 a $1 00 

1 00 

50 

1 00 

1 00 

25 

50 a 1 00 

50 

50 

25 

38 

25 

37 

50 a 1 00 

Wholesale, Retail, 

per dozen. each. 

Tooth Ache Drops $2 00 25 

St. Catherine's Mineral Water 4 00 50 

Itch Ointment, various 2 00 25 

Vegetable Pulmonary Balsam, 4 00 50 

•Kline's Tooth Drops 2 00 25 

Soothing Syrup , 4 a S 00 50 a 1 00 

•Carlton's Nerve and Bone Liniment, for Horses, 2 00 37 

•Condition Powders, for Horses, 2 50 37 

Preston Smelling Salts, 1 50 25 

Pose Ointment,.. 4 00 50 

*B*mplan'n Remedy, 8,00 1 00 

Writing Sand, in papers. I) 50 

•Carlton's Founder Ointment, for noises, 4 00 • 50 

Calcined Carbon and Charcoal, , 2 00 21 

Poor Man's Plaster, 0 50 ] •» 

FIGURE 22.—A partial list of remedies offered for sale by Lucius Comstock in 1854, 

shortly after the separation of the old company into the rival firms of Comstock & Co. 

and Comstock & Brother. 
NUMBER 2 2 39 

cius Comstock—listed nearly forty of its own 

preparations for sale, namely: 

Oldridge's Balm of Columbia 

George's Honduras Sarsaparilla 

East India Hair Dye, colors the hair and not the skin 

Acoustic Oil, for deafness 

Vermifuge 

Bartholomew's Expectorant Syrup 

Carlton's Specific Cure for Ringbone, Spavin and Windgalls 

Dr. Sphon's Head Ache Remedy 

Dr. Connol's Gonorrhea Mixture 

Mother's Relief 

Nipple Salve 

Roach and Bed Bug Bane 

Spread Plasters 

Judson's Cherry and Lungwort 

Azor's Turkish Balm, for the Toilet and Hair 

Carlton's Condition Powder, for Horses and Cattle 

Connel's Pain Extractor 

Western Indian Panaceas 

Hunter's Pulmonary Balsam 

Linn's Pills and Bitters 

Oil of Tannin, for Leather 

Nerve & Bone Liniment (Hewe's) 

Nerve & Bone Liniment (Comstock's) 

Indian Vegetable Elixir 

Hay's Liniment for Piles 

Tooth Ache Drops 

Kline Tooth Drops 

Carlton's Nerve and Bone Liniment, for Horses 

Condition Powders, for Horses 

Pain Killer 

Lin's Spread Plasters 

Carlton's Liniment for the Piles, warranted to cure 

Dr. Mc Nair's Acoustic Oil, for Deafness 

Dr. Larzetti's Acoustic Oil, for Deafness 

Salt Rheum Cure 

Azor's Turkish Wine 

Dr. Larzetti's Juno Cordial, or Procreative Elixir 

British Heave Powders 

All of the foregoing were medicines for which 

Lucius claimed to be the sole proprietor— 

although it is improbable that he manufactured 

all of them: several of them were probably identical preparations under different labels. In addition to these, he offered a larger list of medicines 

as a dealer. Brother J. Carlton Comstock must 

have been the main originator of medicines 

within the firm; he seems to have specialized 

largely in veterinary remedies, although the liniment for the piles also stood to his credit. 

Despite Lucius' claim to sole proprietorship of 

these remedies, the departing brothers also manufactured and sold most of the identical items, 

adding two or three additional preparations, 

such as Dr. Chilton's Fever and Ague Pills and 

Youatt's Gargling Oil (for animals). Aside from 

J. Carlton Comstock and Judson, the originators of most of the other preparations are 

cloaked in mystery; most of them were probably 

entirely fictitious. Admittedly, William Youatt 

(1776-1847), for whom several of the animal 

remedies were named, was an actual British 

veterinarian and his prescriptions were probably genuine, but whether he authorized their 

DEAFNESS. 

DE. LARZETTI'S 

ACOUSTI C Oil, . 

THOSE DEAF FROM INFANCY often jreceive 

m a most miraculous manner their hearing when 

thej least expect it, by some trifling accident or 

event, which 6hows them how easily they might 

have much sooner had their hearing, and saved 

themselves and their friends the PAIN of conversing 

in a loud tone, without pleasure, or of being neglected and shunned, to avoid that distress which is felt 

mutually by the deaf person and his hearsr*. How 

sacred a duty, therefore, it is that we use all nece* 

«ary means to remove such an affliction, and enjoj 

the social qualities implanted in our natures 1 T V 

1AR OIL 

has the effect so to relieve the tension, and bring into 

use the natural action of the parts, so as to restore 

the hearing when lost or impaired This is proved 

by so many and well-known cases, that, where 

known, it needs no praise. The great wish of tha 

proprietor is, that each may speak to others of its 

uncommon virtues, till sufferers may KNO W, and 

be relieved and restored by its use. This will bo 

•ione in all cases of recent 

and many of long standing. 

A I X DEA F PERSONS 

should use this Oil 1 It will relieve %t once, or if 

DEAFNESS 

is just commencing, will remove the cause and check 

the progress. Those who have been long deaf should 

continue its application a few weeks, to hear well. 

The flask has full directions for use attached to it. 

AVOID ANY IMITATION'S. 

The true nroy be known by my signature on th« 

Sard attached to the Flask. 

Caution.—Ask for LARZETTI'S ACOUSTI C 

U1L, and take no other 

FIGURE 23.—Dr. McNair's and Dr. Larzetti's acoustic 

oil apparently were identical in every respect. Labels 

and directions, with the difference only of the doctors' 

names, were quite obviously printed from the same type. 
40 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 

sale by proprietary manufacturers or was himself rewarded in any way are questions for 

speculation. The versatile Dr. Larzetti seems to 

have experimented both with impotency and 

deafness, but his ear oil—a number of specimens 

of which were still on hand in the abandoned 

factory—was identical in every respect with Dr. 

McNair's oil, as the labels and directions, aside 

only from the names of the doctors, were exactly 

the same for both preparations. In fact, some 

careless printer had even made up a batch of 

circulars headed "Dr. Mc Nair's Acoustic Oil" 

but concluding with the admonition, "Ask for 

Larzetti's Acoustic Oil and take no other." Presumably simple Americans who were distrustful of foreigners would take Mc Nair's oil, but 

more sophisticated persons, aware of the accomplishments of doctors in Rome and Vienna, 

might prefer Larzetti's preparation. 

As the century moved along, the Comstock 

factory at Morristown reduced the number of 

remedies it manufactured, and concentrated on 

the ones that were most successful, which included, besides the Indian Root Pills, Judson's 

Mountain Herb Pills, Judson's Worm Tea, Carlton's Condition Powders, Carlton's Nerve & 

Bone Liniment, and Kingsland's Chlorinated 

Tablets. At some undisclosed point, Carlton's 

Nerve & Bone Liniment for Horses, originally 

registered with the Smithsonian Institution on 

June 30, 1851, ceased to be a medicine for animals and became one for humans. And sometime 

around 1920 the Judson name disappeared, the 

worm medicine thereafter was superseded by 

Comstock's Worm Pellets. Long before this, Judson had been transposed into somewhat of a 

mythical character—"old Dr. Judson"—who 

had devised the Dead Shot Worm Candy on the 

basis of seventy years' medical experience. 

During the final years of the Comstock business in Morristown, in the 1930s, 1940s, and 

1950s, only three items were manufactured and 

sold: the Indian Root Pills, the Dead Shot Worm 

Pellets and Comstock's N & B Liniment.12 The 

worm pellets had been devised by Mrs. Hill, "an 

u

 However, additional items were manufactured by 

the Dr. Howard Medicine Co., affiliated with the Comstock factory in Brockville. Also, during World War II 

the company accepted an Army contract for the manufacture and packaging of foot powder. 

old English nurse of various and extended experience in the foundling hospitals of Great 

Britain." 

Besides its chemicals and herbs, the Comstock 

factory was a heavy consumer of pillboxes and 

bottles. While the company advertised, in its 

latter years, that "our pills are packaged in 

metal containers—not in cheap wooden boxes," 

they were, in fact, packaged for many decades in 

small oval boxes made of a thin wooden veneer. 

These were manufactured by Ira L. Quay of 

East Berne, New York, at a price of 120 per 

gross. The pill factory often must have been a 

little slow in paying, for Quay was invariably 

prodding for prompt remittance, as in this letter of December 25, 1868: 

Mr Wm h comstock 

Dear sir we have sent you one tierce & 3 cases of pill 

boxes wich we want you to send us a check for as soon 

as you git this for we have to pay it the first of next 

month & must have the money if you want eney moure 

boxes we will send them & wait for the money till the 

first of april youres truly 

Quay & Champion 

Quay continued to supply the boxes for at least 

fifteen years, during which his need for prompt 

payment never diminished. Comstock also 

bought large quantities of bottles, corks, packing boxes, and wrappers. Throughout the company's long existence, however, more frequent 

payments were made to printers and stationers—for the heavy flow of almanacs, handbills, labels, trade cards, direction sheets, and 

billheads—than for all the drugs and packaging 

materials. In the success achieved by the Indian 

Root Pills, the printing press was just as important a contributor as the pill-mixing machine. 

The Final Years 

When William Henry Comstock, Sr., moved 

the Indian Root Pill business to Morristown, in 

1867, he was—at age 37—at least approaching 

middle life. Yet he was still to remain alive, 

healthy, and in direct charge of the medicine 

business for more than half a century longer. 

And the golden era of the patent-medicine business may be said to have coincided very closely 

with Mr. Comstock's active career—from about 

1848 to 1919. 
NUMBER 2 2 41 

THE MEDICATED 

CANDY 

The specific medicine for the treatment oi worm infection. Positively eliminate* Stomach (Round or Maw) Worms 

end Pin (Thread and Seat) Worms. Unfailing in 

action, yet entirely harmless to the digestive system, 

•ven if no worms are present. Made under the 

direct supervision of the proprietors for over 50 

year*. At your druggist or by mail on receipt of— 

Price 50c. 

THE POWERFUL 

COUNTERIRRITANT 

The powerful, concentrated liniment for the relief 

of muscular pains, bruises, strains and the like. 

Unexcelled for the relief of chest colds. Provides 

welcome temporary relief to sufferers from rheumatic pains, neuralgia, lumbago and similar ailments. Both -warming and soothing in action. Nowavailable at the reduced price of 50c per large bottle. Will be sent postpaid if your druggist does not 

stock it. 

THE TIME PROVEN 

VEGETABLE LAXATIVE 

The preferred remedy for constipation and attendant ills. Mild and gentle in action. Efficiently flushes 

and cleanses the intestinal tract. Stimulates the digestive organs. Made entirely of pure roots and 

herbs to a doctor's prescription. Contains no harsh 

minerals or synthetic drugs. A natural medicine in 

daily use in thousands of homes. Backed by over 

50 years of satisfaction. Price only 25c. Buy it at 

your druggist's or postpaid by mail from W. H. 

Com/.tock Co., Ltd., Morristown, N. Y. 

The above illustration shows the three COMSTOCK products: 

DR. MORSE'S INDIAN ROOT PILLS 

COMSTOCK'S DEAD SHOT WORM PELLETS 

COMSTOCK'S N. & B. LINIMENT 

in the packages as you should receive from your druggist when purchasing any of them. The name 

"COMSTOCK" is your guarantee of purity; as these remedies have been on the market for over fifty years. 

"WORMS" 

Few people realize how prevalent worms are in the human body, and the damage tha t they can do. We have 

prepared three special treatises entitled: "Worms—Their Danger in Children and Adults," "Worms—Their 

Danger in Animals" and "Worms—Furthe r Information." These three treatises will be sent to you FREE, 

if you will write to us at the address below, and we are sure they will be of interest. 

COMSTOCK'S N. &. B. LINIMENT, is considered a family necessity in many 

homes in the United States. 

FIGURE 24.—In its final years the Comstock factory discontinued most of its old remedies 

and concentrated upon the three most successful: Comstock's Dead Shot Worm Pellets, 

Comstock's N. & B. Liniment, and Dr. Morse's Indian Root Pills. 
42 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 

While no schedule of sales, net income, or 

financial results are available, the fragmentary 

records make it obvious that the business continued to flourish beyond World War I, and long 

after the passage of the first Food and Drug 

Act:—in 1906. The almanacs were still printed 

as recently as 1938; while the labels and other 

advertising matter abandoned their ornate 

nineteenth-century style and assumed a distinctly modern aspect—to the extent of introducing comic-style picture stories, featuring the 

small boy who lacked energy to make the little 

league baseball team (he had worms), and the 

girl who lacked male admirers because of pimples on her face (she suffered from irregular 

elimination). Sales volume of the Morristown 

factory, however, apparently did reach a peak 

early in the present century—perhaps around 

1910—and began a more rapid decline during 

the 1920s. During this same period the geographical character of the market shifted significantly; as domestic orders dropped off, a 

very substantial foreign business, particularly 

in Latin America, sprang up. While this did not 

compensate fully for the loss of domestic sales, 

it did provide a heavy volume that undoubtedly 

prolonged the life of the Indian Root Pill factory by several decades. 

William Henry Comstock, Sr., who first came 

to Brockville in 1860, at a time when the struggle 

with White for the control of the pills was still 

in progress, married a Canadian girl, Josephine 

Elliot, in 1864; by this marriage he had one son, 

Edwin, who lived only to the age of 28. In 1893 

Comstock married, for a second time, Miss Alice 

J. Gates, and it is a favorable testimony to the 

efficacy of some of his own virility medicines 

that at age 67 he sired another son, William 

Henry Comstock II (or "Young Bill") on July 4, 

1897. In the meanwhile, the elder Comstock had 

become one of the most prominent citizens of 

Brockville, which he served three terms as 

mayor and once represented in the Canadian 

parliament. Besides his medicine factories on 

both sides of the river, he was active in other 

business and civic organizations, helped to promote the Brockville, Westport & Northwestern 

Railway, and was highly regarded as a philanthropist. Although he lived well into the automobile age, he always preferred his carriage, 

and acquired a reputation as a connoisseur and 

breeder of horses. As remarked earlier, his 

steam yacht was also a familiar sight in the 

upper reaches of the St. Lawrence River. 

The medicine business in Morristown was 

operated as a sole proprietorship by Comstock 

from the establishment here in 1867 up until 

1902, when it was succeeded by W. H. Comstock 

Co., Ltd., a Canadian corporation. St. Lawrence 

County deeds record the transfer of the property—still preserving the 36-foot strip for the 

railroad—from personal to corporate ownership at that time. 

Comstock—the same callow youth who had 

been charged with rifling Lucius' mail in the 

primitive New York City of 1851—came to the 

end of his long life in 1919. He was succeeded 

immediately by his son, William Henry II, who 

had only recently returned from military service 

during World War I. According to Mrs. Planty, 

former Morristown historian, "Young Bill" had 

been active in the business before the war and 

was making an inspection of the company's depots in the Orient, in the summer of 1914, when 

he was stranded in China by the cancellation of 

transpacific shipping services and was therefore 

obliged to cross China and Russia by the Transiberian Railway. This story, however, strains 

credulity a trifle, as the journey would have 

brought him closer to the scene of conflict at that 

time, and he was, in any event, only 17 years 

old when these events are supposed to have 

occurred. 

The decline of the patent-medicine business 

was ascribed by Stewart Holbrook in his Golden 

Age of Quackery to three main factors: the Pure 

Food and Drug Acts; the automobile; and higher 

standards of public education. All of these were, 

of course, strongly in evidence by the 1920s, 

when William Henry Comstock II was beginning 

his career as the head of the Indian Root Pill 

enterprise. Nevertheless, the Morristown plant 

was still conducting a very respectable business 

at this time and was to continue for some four 

decades longer. The Comstock enterprise never 

seemed to have been much embarrassed by 

the muckraking attacks that surrounded the passage of the Federal Food and Drug Act of 1906. 

Aside from the enforcement of these measures 

by the energetic Harvey Wiley, the two most 
NUMBER 2 2 43 

FIGURE 25.—Comstock packaging building (upper floor used as residence for manager— 

note laundry) at left, hotel at right. Ferry slip directly ahead. About 1915. 

effective private assaults upon the patentmedicine trade probably were the exposures by 

Samuel Hopkins Adams in a series of articles in 

Collier's magazine in 1905-1906, under the title, 

"The Great American Fraud," and the two 

volumes entitled, Nostrums and Quackery, embodying reprints of numerous articles in the 

Journal of the American Medical Association 

over a period of years. Both sources named 

names fearlessly and described consequences 

bluntly. But the Comstock remedies, either because they may have been deemed harmless, or 

because the company's location in a small village 

in a remote corner of the country enabled it to 

escape unfriendly attention, seemed to have enwDr. William's Pink Pills, also headquartered in 

Brockville, were not so fortunate, as they were mentioned disparagingly in both the Collier's and American 

Medical Association articles. Among numerous proprietary manufacturers who protested, blustered, or 

threatened legal action against Collier's, the Dr. Williams Co. was one of only two who actually instituted 

a libel suit. 

joyed relative immunity from these attacks. At 

least, none of the Comstock remedies was mentioned by name.13

 To be sure, these preparations—or at least those destined for consumption within the United States—had to comply 

with the new drug laws, to publish their ingredients, and over a period of time to reduce 

sharply the extensive list of conditions which 

they were supposed to cure. Nevertheless, it 

seems probable that the general change in public 

attitudes rather than any direct consequences of 

legislative enforcement caused the eventual 

demise of the Dr. Morse's Indian Root Pills. 

Foreign business began to assume considerable importance after 1900; shipments from 

Morristown to the West Indies and Latin America were heavy, and the company also listed 

branches (perhaps no more than warehouses or 

agencies) in London, Hongkong, and Sydney, 

Australia. Certain of the order books picked up 

out of the litter on the floor of the abandoned 

factory give a suggestion of sales volume since 

1900: 
44 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 

SALES OF DR. MORSE'S INDIAN ROOT PILLS 

gross 

1900 

1910 

1920 

1930 

1941 

Domestic 

_ 

5,975 

3,243 

-

316 

Foreign 

-

~ 

-

1,893 

-

Total 

6,238 

-

-

-

-

Estimated 

Dollar 

Amount 

100, 000 

96, 000 

52, 000 

30, 000 

5,000 

The foregoing data show sales of the Indian 

Root Pills only; this was by far the most important product, but the factory was also selling 

Worm Pellets, Judson's Pills (up to 1920), and 

N & B Liniment. Also, this tabulation excludes 

sales in quantities less than one gross, and there 

were actually many such smaller orders. Only 

physical shipments were shown in the records 

recovered, and the dollar volume is the author's 

computation at $16 per gross, the price which 

prevailed for many years. Through 1900 there 

was only a single order book; beginning prior 

to 1910, separate domestic and foreign order 

books were introduced, but most of them have 

been lost. On the assumption that there was a 

fair volume of foreign sales in 1910, total sales 

must have continued to climb through the decade 

then ending, but by 1920 domestic sales—and 

probably total sales—had dropped materially. 

The number of employees, apparently about 

forty at the peak of the business, had dropped to 

thirteen according to the 1915 paybook but recovered slightly to sixteen in 1922. These fragmentary data suggest that the Morristown 

branch of the Comstock enterprise probably 

never grossed much over $100,000, but in an era 

when $12 or $15 represented a good weekly wage 

and the clutching grasp of the income-tax collector was still unknown, this was more than 

adequate to support the proprietor in comfort 

and to number him among the more influential 

citizens of the district. It is not known how 

Morristown sales compared with those of the 

Brockville factory, but it may be assumed that 

the company utilized its "dual nationality" to 

the utmost advantage, to benefit from favorable 

tariff laws and minimize the restrictions of both 

countries. The Morristown plant supplied the 

lucrative Latin American trade, while during 

the era of Imperial preference, Brockville must 

have handled the English, Oriental, and Australian business. 

For many decades—from 1900 at least up 

into the 1930s—a number of very large shipments, normally 100 gross or more in single 

orders, were made to Gilpin, Langdon & Co., 

Baltimore, and to Columbia Warehouse Co. in 

St. Louis, important regional distributors. 

Athletes and Sportsmen — Before your hot shower have a rub 

down with Comstock's <AF«*8 Liniment—it will give a pleasant and 

stimulating effect on the skin, and help keep the muscles from stiffening and as an aid in relieving sore muscles—athletes find Comstock's -

very satisfactory. 

You will find many uses for Comstock's <*P«i8 Liniment. 

For- children or people with tender skins mix Comstock's Jfr+S 

Liniment with olive oil or mineral oil. 

For sale at all druggists. If unable to obtain write us direct. 

The W. H. Comstock Co., Ltd. 

Morristown, New York Brockville. Ontario 

Apply 

COMSTOCK'S 

oY^S LINIMENT 

To Relieve Discomfort of Pain 

from Muscular Aches, Sprains, 

Bruises, Etc. 

FIGURE 26.—In its final years the Comstock advertising assumed a modern guise. Depicted 

here is the N. & B. Liniment (originally registered with the Smithsonian as Carlton's 

Celebrated Nerve and Bone Liniment for horses, in 1851). 
NUMBER 2 2 45 

Many substantial orders were also received from 

legitimate drug houses, such as Lehn & Fink; 

Schieffelin & Co.; Smith, Kline & French; and 

McKesson & Robbins. Curiously, A. J. White & 

Co. of New York City also appears in the order 

book, around 1900, as an occasional purchaser. 

Among the foreign orders received in 1930 the 

United Fruit Company was, by a wide margin, 

the largest single customer. 

Pills destined for the Latin American market 

were packaged alternatively in "glass" or "tin," 

and were also labeled "Spanish" or "English," as 

the purchasers might direct. Spanish language 

almanacs and other advertising matter were 

generally inserted in the foreign parcels, along 

with many copies of "tapes"—the advertisements of the worm pills conspicuously illustrated with a horrifying picture of an enormous 

tapeworm. 

Sales volume began to decline more precipitously in the 1930s, and the Morristown factory 

was no longer working even close to capacity. 

The domestic order book for 1941 shows sales 

of the Indian Root Pills, in quantities of one 

gross or more, of only 316 gross. The Royal 

Drug Co. of Chicago gave one single order for 44 

gross, and Myers Bros. Drug Co. of St. Louis 

bought 25 gross in one shot, but otherwise orders 

in excess of five gross were rare, and those for 

one gross alone—or for one half gross, one 

fourth gross, or one sixth gross—were far 

more common. The number of orders was still 

substantial, and the packing and mailing clerks 

must have been kept fairly busy, but they were 

working hard for a sharply reduced total volume. Some stimulus was provided for the factory during the war years by a military contract 

for foot powder, but the decline became even 

more precipitous after the conflict. The Comstock Hotel was destroyed by fire in 1925, never 

to be rebuilt. And by the late 1940s the oncebusy railroad bisecting the factory property— 

the old Utica & Black River—had deteriorated to 

one lonely train crawling over its track in each 

direction, on weekdays only, but still carrying a 

New York City sleeping car. The 1950 order 

book reveals a business that had withered away 

to almost nothing. Once again, as in 1900, both 

foreign and domestic sales were recorded in a 

single book, but now foreign sales greatly outstripped the domestic. In fact, a mere 18 gross 

of the pills were sold—in quantities of one gross 

or more—in the domestic market in that year, 

contrasting sadly with nearly 6,000 gross in 

1910. Even the Henry P. Gilpin Co. of Baltimore, 

which at one time had been ordering 100 gross 

or more every month or six weeks, took only a 

meager four gross during the entire year. There 

were a large number of very small shipments— 

such as four boxes of pills here, or a bottle of 

liniment there—but these did not aggregate 

very much and gave the appearance of merely 

accommodating individual customers who could 

no longer find their favorite remedies in their 

own local drug stores. 

The foreign business—chiefly in the West 

Indies, Puerto Rico, and South America—was 

still fairly substantial in 1950, amounting to 579 

gross of the Indian Root Pills, but this was far 

from compensating for the virtual disappearance of the domestic market. At the old price of 

$16 per gross—which may no longer have been 

correct in 1950—the Morristown factory could 

not have taken in a great deal more than 

$10,000—hardly enough to justify its continued 

operation. In any case, it was obviously only the 

foreign business that kept the plant operating as 

long as it did; without that it would probably 

have closed its doors 20 years earlier. 

A number of customers were, however, faithful to the Comstock Company for very many 

years. Schieffelin & Co. and McKesson & Robbins were both important customers way back 

in the 1840s, and their favor had been an object 

of dispute in the split between Lucius and the 

other brothers in 1851. Schieffelin still appeared 

frequently in the order books up to the 1920s; 

during the final years McKesson & Robbins was 

by far the largest single domestic customer. A 

number of other firms—John L. Thompson Sons 

& Co. of Troy, N.Y.; T. Sisson & Co. of Hartford, 

Conn.; and Gilman Brothers of Boston, Mass.— 

appear both in the 1896 and the 1950 order 

books, although unfortunately the quantities 

taken had fallen from one or two gross at a shot 

in the earlier year to a mere quarter gross or a 

few dozen boxes by 1950. 

Toward the end, in the late 1950s, employment in the factory dropped to only three 

persons—J. M. Barney (foreman), Charles 
46 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 

FIGURE 27.—The pill-mixing building, about 1928 (building torn down in 1971), 

Pitcher, and Florence Cree—and they were only 

doing maintenance work and filling such few 

orders, mostly in quantities of a few dozen boxes 

only, that came to the factory unsolicited. Gone 

were the days of travelers scouring the back 

country, visiting country druggists, and pushing the pills, while simultaneously disparaging 

rival or "counterfeit" concoctions; gone were the 

days when the almanacs and other advertising 

circulars poured out of Morristown in the millions of copies; long since vanished were the 

sweeping claims of marvelous cures for every 

conceivable ailment. In these final days the Indian Root Pills, now packaged in a flat metal 

box with a sliding lid, were described modestly 

as the Handy Vegetable Laxative. And the ingredients were now printed on the box; nothing 

more was heard of Dr. Morse's remarkable discovery gleaned during his long sojourn with the 

Indians of the western plains. 

Although the records disclose nothing to this 

effect, it is a fair premise that the Comstock 

family often must have considered closing the 

Morristown plant after World War II and, more 

particularly, in the decade of the 1950s. Such 

inclinations may, however, have been countered 

by a willingness to let the plant run as long as 

a trickle of business continued and it did not 

fall too far short of covering expenses. The last 

few surviving employees were very elderly, and 

their jobs may have been regarded as a partial 

substitute for pensions. This view is evidenced 

by an injury report for George Clute, who 

suffered a fit of coughing while mixing pills in 

January 1941; he was then 77 years old and had 

been working in the factory for 34 years. The 

final paybooks show deductions for Social Security and unemployment insurance—specimens 

of vexatious red tape that the factory had 

avoided for most of its existence. 

The decision to close the Morristown factory 

was finally forced upon the family, on May 15, 

1959, by the death of William Henry Comstock 

II—"Young Bill"—who had been president of 
NUMBER 2 2 47 

FIGURE 28.—The packaging and office building at left, depot in center, and Comstock 

Hotel a t right. Canadian shore and city of Brockville (location of another Comstock 

factory) in background. 

the company since 1921. Like his father, "Young 

Bill" Comstock had been a prominent citizen of 

Brockville for many years, served a term as 

mayor—although he was defeated in a contest 

for a parliamentary seat—was also active in 

civic and social organizations, and achieved recognition as a sportsman and speedboat operator. 

The actual end of the business came in the 

spring of 1960. The frequency and size of orders 

had dropped sharply, although the names of 

many of the old customers still appeared, as well 

as individuals who would send one dollar for 

three boxes of the pills. These small shipments 

were usually mailed, rather than going by express or freight, as formerly. The very last two 

shipments, appropriately, were to old customers : One package of one-dozen boxes of pills on 

March 31, 1960, to Gilman Brothers of Boston, 

and two-dozen boxes to McKesson & Robbins at 

Mobile, Alabama, on April 11. And with this 

final consignment the factory closed its doors, 

concluding ninety-three years of continuous 

operation in the riverside village of Morristown. 

Very little of this story remains to be told. 

Mrs. Comstock became president of the company 

during its liquidation—and thus was a successor 

to her father-in-law, who had first entered the 

business as a clerk, 119 years earlier, in 1841. 

The good will of the company and a few assets 

were sold to the Milburn Company of Scarborough, Ontario, but the Comstock business was 

terminated, and the long career of Dr. Morse's 

Indian Root Pills brought to a close. The few 

superannuated employees were assured of protection against all medical expenses, by the 

company or by the Comstock family, for the 

rest of their lives. A few years later the associated Canadian factory standing in the heart 

of Brockville was torn down; during its lifetime 

that community had grown up around it, from 

a village to a flourishing small city. The buildings in Morristown were sold to other parties 

and left to stand untenanted and forlorn for 

years. The upper (packaging) building, from 

which the records were recovered, remains in 

fair condition and may yet be renovated for some 
48 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 

further use. The lower (pill-mixing) building, 

after standing derelict and at the point of collapse for many years, was finally torn down in 

1971. The hotel, a large water tank behind the 

factory, and the combination depot and customs 

house have all vanished from the scene. The shed 

where the Comstocks kept their yacht has been 

maintained and still shelters several boats, but 

the ferry slip just below the factory steps is 

now abandoned, and no longer do vessels ply 

back and forth across the river to connect Morristown and Brockville. The railroad only survived the passing of the factory by a year or 

two and is now memorialized by no more than 

a line of decaying ties. The main highway leading westward from Ogdensburg toward the 

Thousand Islands area has been straightened 

and rerouted to avoid Morristown, so that now 

only the straying or misguided traveler will 

enter the village. If he does enter he will find a 

pleasant community, scenically located on a 

small bay of the St. Lawrence River, commanding an enticing view of the Canadian shore, and 

rising in several stages above the lower level, 

where the factory once stood; but it is a somnolent village. No longer do river packet steamers 

call at the sagging pier, no longer do trains 

thread their way between the factory buildings 

and chug to a halt at the adjacent station. No 

longer do hope-giving pills and elixirs, or almanacs and circulars in the millions, pour out 

of Morristown destined for country drugstores 

and lonely farmhouses over half a continent. 

Only memories persist around the empty ferry 

slip, the vanished railroad station, and the 

abandoned factory buildings—for so many years 

the home of the distinguished Dr. Morse's Indian Root Pills. 

Bibliography 

The principal source of information for this 

history of the Comstock medicine business comprises the records, letters, documents, and advertising matter found in the abandoned pillfactory building at Morristown, New York. 

Supplemental information was obtained from 

biographies, local and county histories, old city 

directories, genealogies, back files of newspapers, and materials from the office of the St. 

Lawrence County Historian, at the courthouse, 

Canton, New York. 

Two standard histories of the patent-medicine 

era in America are: 

Holbrook, Stewart H. Golden Age of Quackery. 

New York City: Macmillan Co. 1959. 

Young, J. H. The Toadstool Millionaires, A 

Social History of Patent Medicines in America 

Before Federal Regulation. Princeton University Press. 1961. 

Early in the present century, during the "exposure" of the patent-medicine industry, two 

principal critical works also were published, 

each highly specific and naming names fearlessly : 

Adams, Samuel Hopkins. The Great American 

Fraud. Serially in Collier's Magazine in 1905-

1906. (Reprinted in book form, 1906.) 

American Medical Association. Nostrums and 

Quackery. Chicago: American Medical Association Press. (Reprints from the Journal 

of the American Medical Association: volume 

1,1911; volume II, 1921; volume III, 1936.) 

Recently two books have appeared, which are 

largely pictorial, essentially uncritical, and 

strive mainly to recapture the colorfulness and 

ingenuity of patent-medicine advertising. 

Carson, Gerald. One for a Man, Two for a Horse. 

128 pages. New York City: Doubleday and 

Co. 1961. 

Hechtlinger, Adelaide. The Great Patent Medicine Era. New York City: Grosset and Dunlap. 1970. 

A highly recommended source of information 

on the very early history of patent medicines in 

America is: 

Griffenhagen, George B., and James Harvey 

Young. Old English Patent Medicines in 

America. United States National Museum 

Bulletin 218, Contributions from the Museum 

of History and Technology, paper 10:155-

183.1959. 
DR. MORSE'S PILLS LIVE ON 

Although the original Comstock enterprise has been dissolved and all of its undertakings in North America terminated, as 

has been related herein, Dr. Morse's Indian 

Root Pills and Comstock's Worm Tablets 

are still being manufactured and sold—by 

the W. H. Comstock Company Pty. Ltd., in 

Australia. This concern, originally a subsidiary of the Canadian company, is headed 

by the former branch manager for the 

Comstocks, who acquired the rights for 

Australia and the Orient following the di&-

solution of the Brockville company. Distribution is also carried out from this 

source into New Zealand, Singapore, and 

Hong Kong. Packaging and directions are 

now modern, the pills being described as 

"The Overnight Laxative with the Tonic 

Action," but a reproduction of the old label 

and the facsimile signature of William 

Henry Comstock, Sr., are still being portrayed. Thus, the Indian Root Pills have 

been manufactured continuously for at 

least 115 years and the Comstock business, 

through the original and successor firms, 

has survived for nearly 140 years. 

U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1972 O - 451-B22