The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1906-01-18
WHO SHE WAS
SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF LYDIA E. PINKHAM
And a True Story of How the Vegetable Compound
Had Its Birth and How the '.Panic of '73" Caused
it to be Offered for Public Sale in Drug Stores.

restore the family fortune. They
argued that the medicine which was
SO good for their woman friends and
neighbors was equally good for the
women of the whole world.
The Pinkhams had no money and
little credit. Their first laboratory
was the kitchen, where roots and
herbs were stepped on the stove,
Then came the question of selling
it, for always before they lad given
it away freely. They hired a job
printer to run off some pamphlets
setting forth the merits of the medi.
cine, now called Lydia e. Pinkham's
Vegetable Compound, and these were
distributed by the Pinkham sons in
Boston, New York and Brooklyn.
The wonderful curative properties OF
the medicine were, to a great extent,
self-advertising, for whoever used 1t
recommended it to others, and the de-
mand gradually increased.
In 1877, by combined efforts, the fam
lily had saved enough money to com-
mence newspaper advertising and from
that time the growth and success Of
the enterprise were assured, until to-
day Lidia E. Pinkham and her Vege-
table Compound have become house
hold words everywhere, and many
tons of roots and herbs are used annu-
ally in its manufacture.
Lydia E. Pinkham herself did not
live to see the great success Of this
work. She passed to her reward years
ago, but not until she had provided
means for continuing her work as
effectively as she could have done it
herself.
During her long and eventful expe-
rience she was ever methodical in her
work and she was always careful to
preserve a record Of every case that
came to her attention. The case Of ev.
cry sick woman that applied to her for
advice-and there were thousands
received careful study, and the details,
including symptoms, treatment and re-
suits, were recorded for future refer
ence, and to-day these records, togeth-
er with hundreds of thousands made
since, are available to sick women the
world over, and represent a vast col
liberation of information regarding
the treatment of women's ills, which
for authenticity and accuracy can
hardly be equaled in any library in the
world.
With Lydia E. Pinkham worked her
daughter-in-law, the present Mrs.
Pinkham. She was carefully instructed
in all her hard-won knowledge, and
for years she assisted her in her vast
correspondence.
To her hands naturally fell the
direction of the work when its origina.
tor passed away. For nearly twenty
five years she has continued 1t, and
nothing in the work shows when the
first Lydia E. Pinkham dropped her
pen, and the present Mrs. Pinkham,
now the mother of a large family, took
1t up. With woman assistants, some as
capable as herself, the present Mrs.
Pinkham continues this great work,
and probably from the office of no other
person have SO many women been ad.
vised how to regain health. Sick wo-
men, this advice is Yours for Health'
freely given if you only write to ask
for It.
Such is the history of Lydia E. Pink.
hams Vegetable Compound; made
from simple roots and herbs; the one
great medicine for women's ailments,
and the fitting monument to the noble
woman whose name it bears.