History of the Comstock Patent Medicine Business and Dr. Morse's Indian Root PillsShaw, Robert B.
History
History of the Comstock Patent Medicine Business and Dr. Morse's Indian Root Pills
Shaw, Robert B.
Patent medicines -- United States; W.H. Comstock Co.
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 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*
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account