The times., 1901-06-16
AN OLD APoTHECARY SHOP.
No Customers Enter. But the Doors
Are Ever Open.
CFrom the Cincinnati Commercial Tribune)

(From the Cincinnati Commercial Tribune.)
/ Cincinnati can risbtfully boast of the
I Oldest drug store in the land the oldes K
practicing druggist, and the Oldest stock
/ of medicines.
/ They are all located together in a thor
oughfare traVeTSed every day by thou
sands, who seem to pass on in biSSful ig-
nOranC6 OF their presence. Inc store mas
no customers. though business is conduct
ed with a pUnCtuality that would SAVIOR of
reward. and hundreds of dollars worth OF
drugs stand waiting buyer. The trouble
is the druggist has been forgotten and hiS
wares are dead secrets TO the profession
upon which he depends for support
Way back in the days when the changes
of the moon played an important part in
the treatment of disease, and such RENE
dies as prepared human skulls. powdered
crabs eyes. and HqUatied pearls were still
remembered for their curative properties,
Jacob StuebeTt was conducting a drug
store at what Is now G5 Vine Street
His store was built of logs and his stock
of goods was pIucked from the hills sur
rounding him, for that section of the
country was then but little better than
a bowling wilderness.
Stuebert was born in Bavaria, Germany,
in 1920 In his bOyhoOd days he took up
the study of botany and became well
versed in the knowledge Of roots and
herbs. America was the EldOradO for
gratifying his ambition. When but eigh-
teen years of age he landed in New York,
after a three months journey across the
ocean. and looked about for work. None
Ciucinnaut where business was said to
De booming.
The day after his arrival here he Sc
cured employment with man named
Eachaus, who ran a drug store on what
is now the site of St Aavier's Church
one year and the boy became a man of
business and opened the store which
he now owns. This was in 1>i0, before
United States pharmacOpOeiaS were ever
dreamed of and State examinations be-
came a horrible nightmare.
There We're no chemicals then in use,
only roots and herbs. Doctors being
scarce, the sick could fight shy Of doc
tors bills and seek ont the druggist who.
with a meagre knowledge, would com
pound a concOctiOu to suit each individual
case. Stuebert fiourished. and in a few
years made money enough to buy the
property. At leisure moments he would
arm himself with pick and shovel and HE
himself TO the hills in search of new
drugs by and by his house became
crowded with the stuff. but customers did
not increase as rapidly as expected.
Then new methods came in vogue but
Stuehert refused To adopt them. and in the
march of time he was disJauccd. one
by one his old customers died OF and.
with the new-fangled drugs used by the
doctors, his business came to a StandStill.
and the once hourishnG druggist became
comparatively forgotten. So surely and
quietly has he passed out of action that
today the City Directory does not bear
his name or register his house as a place
of buSiueeSs-
He, however. hangs on and refuses TO
give up. claiming that he intends C0utiu-
uing a druggist till the end of his days
\ few years ago druggist on the hill
offered him $1,000 for his stand, but Stue-
bert refused TO vacate. Today he opens
and closes his store with regularity and
brushes UP his stock, which is more than
fifty years old, for the customers who
never come
The old man is in his eighty-drst year
and lives alone in room in the rear of
his store. Yesterday. while talking to a
Commercial Tribune reporter. he said
he could not understand why il is that all |
hS. al1 friends who had used his medi- |
cnes .-.e now dead and he is still left in
the arena hale and hearty JOlSinsly he |
exclaimed: Maybe it is because | never |
was much of a hand to take medicines.