Bottles and ExtrasSummer 200460

A Proprietary

Baptism

The Life of

I.L. St John

By Joe Terry and Mark Steinmetz

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citizens. For example, if a little moreintense internal treatment was needed, healso had his Blood and Liver Pills.Similarly, his Fluid Extract of Buchu wasjust the thing if the sufferer had the bloat. In a malarial atmosphere such asexisted in Northwest Ohio, St John’sVegetable Ague Syrup was likely apopular item. The bottles were 7.5 inchestall, with mildly ornate indented panels.On one side was embossed “Dr. I.L. StJohn’s”, the middle was “Vegetable” andthe third was “Ague Syrup” [Figure 4,5]. While among the first of Isaac’sremedies, the earliest of them may havebeen paper labeled, as none have beenfound with a pontil. The pictured bottlesdate from the early 1870s. Isaac must have liked the bottle style,

For every story told, there arecountless more to be explored andportrayed. With this, the first full tellingof a truly remarkable man, there is nowone more brought to light. It is of a lifespanning nine decades, three wars, quitea few presidents, and somewhat close tothirty of his local fellows in the drugbusiness.

To say that Isaac L. St John was apioneer would in no way do justice to him.Tiffin, Ohio was in its infant stages, andbarely thirty years had passed since FortBall, the 1812 stronghold upon which thetown was built, had arisen on the muddybanks of the Sandusky River. The 1840swere a busy time for the town, and everyenterprising citizen was welcomed. The first thing the young druggistdiscovered was that unlike back east,where he originated, there were fewphysicians here. Without doctors, there

was little need for prescriptions. Peoplestill needed medicine, but without aguiding hand, they didn’t know what tobuy. Instead of bringing in supplies ofstock drugs and chemicals, an expensiveand tedious chore, Mr. St John chose adifferent approach. As it was, Tiffinalready had several drugstores to providethat service. This situation did not deter the youngman. He had a good grasp of hisprofession, and knew the profit potentialfor selling proprietary medicines. A full-blooded New Yorker, Isaac had served asapprentice to the great wholesale drugfirm of Hoadley, Phelps and Company inNew York City. Isaac started hisapprenticeship at age sixteen, some timeafter his family had moved to Morristown,New Jersey. With them he learned all therewas to know about drugs, compoundingand clerking. In 1837, at age nineteen and uponhaving fulfilled his commitments, hepulled up his roots and moved westwardto Cleveland. The small but growinglakeside town was open to newcomers andentrepreneurs, and was likely a good placeto be in business. Something must nothave suited him, for an additional fouryears found him journeying a little furtherwest. In a town named for Ohio’s firstgovernor, he hung up his shingle, andsettled in for good. Isaac’s initial advertisements appearedin the local paper, The Tiffin Gazette, onApril 21st, 1842. The first remedy soldunder his name was St John’s Anti-BiliousPills. He soon followed with moreremedies, catering to the needs of the local

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as identical to his Ague Syrup was onefor his “Cough and Consumption Syrup.”[Figure 6] The product was originallysold as just a “Cough Syrup” and came intwo sizes, one 6.5 inches tall and the otheran inch shorter. Many of these arepontiled, and all are eight-sided. Thesmaller bottles have a consistent spellingerror, in which the “R” of “syrup” wasleft unfinished, leaving the word “sypup”[Figure 2 (larger), 3 (smaller)]. Laterversions of the cough and consumptionsyrup were much smaller, and included a4.5 inch tall aqua one [Figure 12] fromthe late 1870s which incorporated theword “magnetic” in the title [Figure 17],as well as a larger capacity one in clear[Figure 13] from the 1880s and 1890s. Another popular article put up by Isaacwas his Nerve and Bone Liniment[Figures 8, 9, 10] a must for those achingjoints. The bottles were round, and wereidentical in appearance to many other

liniments of the day. The earliest can befound with an open pontil [Figure 8].Bottles were colored green/aqua for manyyears, finally being manufactured in clearduring the latter years. Their shapechanged only marginally over the yearsand bottles averaged about 3.5 inches inheight. A further medicine, a carminativebalsam, also dates fairly early as a fewpontiled versions are known, includingone with a label [Figure 14]. Newerversions can be found, nearly identical toits predecessors [Figure 15]. All areembossed “Dr. I.L. St John’s”“Carminative” “Balsam” on threeindented panels. The bottles are small, notaller than 4.5 inches. Mr. St John’s reliance on proprietarymedicines was evident from thebeginning. Other remedies were broughtin from back east, including, but by nomeans limited to, the following: Rev I.Covert’s Balm of Life, Dr. E. Humphrey’sVegetable Ointment, Dr. Starkweather’sHepatic Elixir, Dr. J. Newton’s JaundiceBitters, Dr. Libby’s Bitters, Dr. IsraelDelemeter’s Nerve and Bone RheumaticLiniment, James Slaughter’s StickingSalve and Wistar’s Balsam of WildCherry. Proprietary medicines were toalways play an important role in hisbusiness. Isaac put himself wholly into hiscalling and began a long career;punctuated by his honesty and ultimately,by his eccentricity. He was apparently nota sentimental sort, as he never married.Neither did he keep in close contact withfamily, who consisted of a sister and her

descendants; nor with past friends. Itseems likely that he evoked little emotionwhen, in 1849, his former employers werebought out. His one devotion was hisbusiness, and his business was makingand selling medicines. He was so absorbedby his commitment that he never evenbothered with a house, instead living athis store, regardless of its location. The earliest Tiffin storefront heoccupied was a wooden frame structureon Washington Street, down close to theriver. By 1873, when the city directoriesstarted listing numeric addresses, his was54 S. Washington, located betweenMarket and Perry Street, on the west side.Proof of this surfaced in 1980, when anearthen ramp at the rear of the buildingwas removed. Buried within werenumerous bottles, many broken, butalmost all of them embossed with “I.L. StJohn”. It would appear that his businessas a druggist took a back seat tomedicines. Not a single embossedprescription bottle was found among theshards, and to this day, no knownembossed druggist bottle has been foundwith St John’s name on it. By 1878, he had removed to the cornerof Washington and Madison streets,farther south of his previous location andon the opposite side. Here he continuedthe production of his preparations.Perhaps the most famous and prolificremedy was “Doctor I.L. St John’sMagnetic Oil”. The cure, formulated in1868, rode the wave of magnetism’spopularity. The bottles proclaimed “CuresRheumatism, Neuralgia, and Headache”right in the glass and came in two sizes.

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It was probably around this time that thecough and consumption syrup became“magnetic”. The “magnetic” part waseventually dropped on that remedy, butwas retained until the end on the bottlesof oil. As the years went on, the medicinesretained a popular following, but only ina limited area. In 1877, Isaac hired Dr.Jacob Bridinger, a bona fide physician,as both promoter and traveling salesman.Jacob traversed Ohio, Indiana, andMichigan touting Isaac’s line ofpreparations. This made them both goodmoney, and gave Dr. Bridinger a steadyline of work for over twenty years. In1885, the good doctor’s son, Frank, washired on as drug clerk for Isaac’s store. As business grew, there were otheravenues to explore for expanding themarket share for St John remedies. Anoutlet on the east coast was sought outand found, in the name of McKesson andRobbins. So it was that packaging andadvertising in the 1890s now had a Tiffinaddress, and a New York City address of91 Fulton Street. In addition to the oldstandbys, there were other medicines tobe sold. There was a Great Rejuvenator, aCompound Syrup Sarsaparilla, anEruptive Ointment, a Magnetic Salve, hisGreat American Pile Cure, SweeneyMixture, Worm Syrup and St John’sMixture (for skin ailments). There werealso a few veterinary products; PoultryPowders [Figure 18], a Cough and HeaveCure, Cure for Foot Rot in Sheep,Condition Powders as well as a BugPoison. He even manufactured and soldEureka Hair Dye, for the vanity crowd.

By the time of this expansion, age wascreeping up on ole Isaac. His body wasfailing and his eyesight was nearly gone.He was in his eighth decade and with nofamily, there was no one to carry on thelegacy he had created. His only confidantswere the Bridingers, so it seemed naturalto sell over to them. Frank found his nowtwenty years of service repaid by the offerof the drugstore, along with the line ofpreparations. He became owner of bothstore and remedies with one constraint.Isaac would be allowed to continue livingat the store, and the store would bepromoted as the St John Drug Store. Theseconditions were willingly met. Mr. St John continued life as he hadbeen for many years. He daily walked tothe Empire Hotel, where he took hismeals. Every day he made his way to andfrom the drugstore, undoubtedly reflectingat times how the town had changed. Hisdaylight hours were spent in thedrugstore, which, while having passedfrom his possession, still retained hisname. He had a comfortable, well wornchair in the back of the store which washis, and there he sat, watching thecomings and goings of the customers,giving a wave or advice as needwarranted, and occasionally regalinglisteners with tales of days gone by. Isaac L. St John passed away on April7, 1908. He left no immediate family, justa few distant relatives. To them went anestate worth some $50,000. His exact ageat the time of his death was unknown, asin his later years he refused to divulge thatinformation, not even to the official censustakers.

His death took from the town one ofits oldest citizens; a man who had seenthirty other druggists pass through hisbeloved town, whose medicines found aplace in many a home, and who hadbecome an icon, albeit an eccentric one,of what it took to survive the years. FrankBridinger found following in thosefootsteps very difficult. He tried, however,and kept the store going until 1927, whenit was closed. He manufactured the StJohn remedies for his first few years ofbusiness, but it would seem that hisattention was more closely focused on hislocal clientele, and the preparations fellto the wayside, likely before 1915. One unusual item of note - there is atleast one, albeit damaged, pontiled inkthat is embossed “I.L. St John & Co”. Itwas recovered from the Detroit Rivermany years ago, and suffers a crack and asmall hole. Like the cough syrups, it iseight-sided. Little in the way of any othershas surfaced, so if any readers know ofany, I would appreciate hearing about it.

I would like to offer many thanks toMark Steinmetz and Mike Wagner, bothof Tiffin, Ohio, who graciously opened uptheir collections for this article. Both areold hometown friends of mine who collectlocal bottles and ephemera. The authorhas St John bottles, but not in the numberand quality of their collections. Withouttheir assistance, this article would havebeen lacking a great deal in the way ofvisual accompaniments.

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