28 May-June 2007 Bottles and Extras

Cincinnati, then apprenticed in medicine The Peruna Story: to a Dr. Shackelford of Medway, Ohio. Hartman subsequently entered the Medical School of Cleveland from which he was Strumming That Old Catarrh graduated. He began a medical practice, By Jack Sullivan first in Tipp City, Ohio, and then in Pennsylvania. In 1859 he married Sallie Catarrh. Today it is defined Brubaker Hartman [Figure 1]. His Martzell and eventually they had a son and sometimes as bronchitis, sometimes cure was called “Peruna” (he daughter. About 1890, after many years as as an excess of mucus. There once preferred PE-RU-NA) and bottle a practicing and apparently respected was an Ohio physician who defined diggers all over America have physician and surgeon, Dr. Hartman moved catarrh any way he wanted, unearthed thousands of them. to Columbus, Ohio. Giving up his propounded a cure for it, made Dr. Hartman was born in profession, he began to concoct and sell a millions in sales, and then Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, to series of remedies. Among them were “La- occasioned a law to regulate quack German-Swiss farmers. He left cu-pia,” a self-described blood thinner, and medicines. The doctor was Samuel Figure 1 home at 15 to go to school in “Ma-na-lin” for biliousness. But Dr.

Figure 2

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Figure 15 Figure 12

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Figure 2: Hall’s Catarrh Cure bottle. Figure 3: Ely’s Cream Balm box and bottle Figure 4: Early Peruna ad Figure 7: Peruna blob top bottle Figure 12: Peruna crate Figure 15: Boxed set of Peruna Bottles and Extras May-June 2007 29

Hartman stuck it rich when he redefined to keep his small staff busy. catarrh. The Super Salesman Arrives Catarrh — Source of Disease Then an order landed on Dr. Hartman’s When the doctor began his campaign desk for a train carload of Peruna from a against catarrh, a number of remedies patent medicine wholesaler in Waco, . already were being sold, among them Dr. His name was Frederick W. Schumacher. Sykes Sure Cure for Catarrh, Hall’s Cure Hartman put his staff on overtime to fill for Catarrh [Figure 2], and Ely’s Cream the request and then hopped the same train Figure 6: The Peruna Administration Bldg. Balm Universal Cure for Catarrh [Figure with the goods to meet this benefactor in a full lunch, the nostrum brought millions 3]. Hartman’s particular genius was in Texas. It was an historic ride for both to Dr. Hartman. He built an enormous defining catarrh as the root cause of Hartman and Peruna. facility for his Peruna Drug Manufacturing virtually all known diseases. For Hartman Born in 1863, Schumacher had Company, covering two blocks adjacent to — and his advertising — pneumonia was emigrated to the U.S. from Germany when downtown Columbus and featuring a catarrh of the lungs, so was tuberculosis. he was about nine years old, settling in spacious administration building [Figure Cancer sores were catarrh of the mouth; Waco. A bright and industrious youth, he 6]. The doctor moved into a mansion in appendicitis, catarrh of the appendix; got an education, spending some time at Columbus and purchased a huge tract of chronic indigestion, catarrh of the stomach; in Waco. Soon he was land south of the city for an experimental mumps, catarrh of the glands; Bright’s earning a comfortable living as a druggist farm. It employed dozens of workers, many disease, catarrh of the kidneys. Peruna, he before changing careers to become a of whom lived on site. He built a fancy said, would cure them all, even yellow nostrum salesman. Hartman immediately combined hotel and sanitarium in fever, another form of catarrh. The good recognized the younger man as a marketing downtown Columbus, where the Peruna doctor’s confidence in his product appeared genius, hired him on the spot to run flowed copiously to residents. His hotel to be boundless. He wrote a 32-page booklet Peruna’s advertising, and eventually made featured a Grand Ballroom where the elite entitled: “Peruna Cures Catarrh the World him vice president of the firm. of Columbus regularly came to dine and Over.” Shown here is an ad showing two Schumacher courted the doctor’s daughter, dance. comely ladies presenting the Peruna bottle. Maribel, and in 1895 married her in Despite being common fare from bottle The paper wrapping cites the many and a splashy Columbus wedding. digs, Peruna bottles of any era are not sundry catarrhs conquered by Peruna Under Schumacher’s guidance, Peruna highly collected since they tend to be clear [Figure 4]. advertising exploded, appearing in glass with little embossing except the At a time when many politicians found magazines and newspapers from coast to designation “Dr. S. B. H. & Co.” on the it prudent to be born in a log cabin, Dr. coast and even overseas. In time the base [Figure 7]. The containers came with Hartman claimed that his remedy had first company was spending in excess of $1 paper wraps that described the “medicine” been invented in such a rustic structure. million annually on ads. Testimonials and the wonders it could perform, but those His almanacs of later years featured his became a major element in merchandising labels were highly vulnerable to destruction “laboratories.” [Figure 5] As shown here, the quack medicine. Politicians, Army and and fully complete specimens are rare. the first is captioned “Where Peruna First Navy brass, and members of the clergy all With intact labels they continue to be sought Was Made.” The second scene shows a seemed eager to attest to the wonders of by collectors of cures. modest two-story frame building with the Peruna. At one point the company ran an Dr. Hartman’s success in “curing” simple sign, “Peruna” over the front ad listing 50 members of Congress who catarrh spawned a host of Peruna imitators, entrance and is designated the “Second were “voting its anti-catarrhal ticket.” many in his home state of Ohio. In Peruna Laboratory.” Scene 3 shows The firm also took pains to gather Cleveland, Horace Bowen marketed his significant growth. The structure now is favorable comments from common folk. A Bowen Catarrh Cure. Toledo had its Echo three stories and brick, with three Mrs. Halleck of Antwerp, Ohio, was quoted Catarrh Cure, Piqua its Rose Catarrh Cure chimneys, all belching smoke. Things in the Dec. 13, 1902, Mansfield News [Figure 8], and Columbus, Dr. Beebe’s might have stalled right there. It was the saying: “My daughter, Allie, after taking early 1990s and Dr. Hartman is reported to three bottles of your Peruna is entirely cured have been struggling to get enough orders of catarrh of the head of two years.” A testimonial from the Newark, O., Advocate of Feb. 8, 1907, declared: “About three months ago I commenced to take Peruna...and I am now entirely cured of that troublesome disease. Your medicine is surely a blessing.”

Peruna - America’s Best Seller Within a fairly short time, Peruna became the largest selling proprietary medicine in the United States. Costing Figure 5: First three Hartman “Laboratories” $1 a bottle at a time when 25 cents bought Figure 8: Rose Catarrh bottle 30 May-June 2007 Bottles and Extras

Catarrh and Asthma Cure. But these virtually all of one article to debunking outfits were mainly local in their sales; in Peruna. Adams also subjected the nostrum the first half of the 1900s Peruna continued to a chemical test. He found that a bottle to be the national best seller. contained 1/2 pint of 90% proof spirits, 1.5 pints of water, a flavor cube and a little A Shocking Admission! burned sugar for color. The cost to Dr. But the catarrh curing business was Hartman was at most 18 cents. Adams also about to experience a major setback. Enter reported that the U.S. Bureau of Indian Samuel Hopkins Adams Affairs already had banned the sale of [Figure 9]. Adams was born Peruna on Native American reservations in Dunkirk, New York, and because the tonic was 28% alcohol. graduated from Hamilton College in 1891. From 1891 Congress Takes Action to 1900, he was a reporter for That Colliers article, perhaps more than the New York Sun and then any of the others, spurred Congress to pass Figure 11: Ad for Ka-Tar-No joined McClure’s Magazine, Figure 9 the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906. Dr. Many Peruna addicts failed to get the where he gained a reputation as a Hartman’s startling admissions were cited message and there ensued great rumblings muckraker for his articles on the conditions by proponents on the Floor of the House of of intestines all across America. Sales of public health in the United States. In Representatives and U.S. Senate, and plummeted. One patent medicine 1904, when he was only 34, he was quoted widely in newspapers of the day. wholesaler told Adams, “Peruna is commissioned by the editors of Colliers The new law created the Food and Drug nowhere. We used to get a carload, even Magazine to write a series of 11 expose Administration (FDA) as a watchdog for two carloads a month. Now we hardly articles on the patent medicine industry the public health. It also radically changed handle a carload in a year.” Faced with called “The Great American Fraud” what the patent medicine industry could do disaster, Hartman and Schumacher decided [Figure 10]. Adams was a highly skilled, and say. Some firms went out of business; to revive the old Peruna formula, call it thorough and energetic reporter. Instead of others survived by changing the name of Ka-Tar-No, merchandise it as a alcoholic assembling material from what others had their potion from “cure” to “remedy.” beverage and sell it over the bar. [Figure written, he set out to do original research. Peruna was among the survivors. It 11] Never popular with the saloon crowd, He wrote Hartman asking if the Peruna modified its claims. Faced with being taxed Ka-Tar-No Tonic quickly faded from view. Doctor would grant him an interview. To as a purely alcoholic beverage, Dr. Hartman his amazement, Hartman agreed and accepted a U.S. Government mandate in Dr. Hartman Succumbs Hopkins hopped a train to Columbus. 1906 that something with a detectable Acclaimed in contemporary accounts as Despite describing Hartman as a medicinal effect be an ingredient in Peruna. one of the leading citizens and employers “renegade physician,” the writer found the As Adams later put it: “The Internal of Columbus, Dr. Hartman became known doctor to be genial and welcoming, even Revenue authorities bade Old Doc Hartman for his civic-minded and philanthropic though Hopkins had warned him that any to put some real medicine in his drink or activities. In 1911, at the behest of daughter information he provided might be used in to open a bar.” The doctor chose to add Maribel, he built an elegant theater in a critical way. During their extended substantial amounts of senna and downtown Columbus and called it “The discussion Hartman freely admitted to blackthorn bark, both of them cathartics. Hartman.” His huge farm became a tourist Adams that Peruna did not cure anything. He also reduced the alcoholic content of destination. The millionaire quack was There are no such things as cures, he told a Peruna from 28 to 18 percent. To warn his tramping over his fields during a flabbergasted Adams. Rather, he said of several million customers of the change, snowstorm in 1912 when, at the age of 82, his clientele: “They see my advertising. the doctor published a booklet in which he he caught pneumonia and shortly thereafter They read the testimonials. They are purported to be “shocked beyond all died. There is no evidence he was doctored convinced. They have faith in Peruna. It measure” to be accused of trafficking in with his own medicine, despite his earlier gives them a gentle stimulant, and so they liquor and claimed that he was acceding to claim that PE-RU-NA cured pneumonia as get well.” customer requests to give Peruna “slight “catarrh of the lungs.” Moreover, he died It was an astounding admission and laxative effects.” He recommended it even without ever disclosing why he was so open Hopkins made the most of it, devoting for children. about his medical fakery to Hopkins, revelations that helped change his industry forever. Two years after Hartman’s death, Samuel Hopkins Adams published “The Clarion,’ a novel in which a principal character, an out-and-out charlatan called Dr. Andre Surtaine, is patterned after the Columbus doctor. The fictional Surtaine has made millions from a “sure cure” for most diseases called “Certina.” At one Figure 10: “Great American Fraud” logo point in the novel, Surtaine confesses, Bottles and Extras May-June 2007 31

“Most diseases cure themselves. Medicine this form of merchandising that the just fighting colds, now the nostrum boasted isn’t much good. Doctors don’t know a American Medical Association formally, of “three way action.” It claimed to great deal. Now, if a patent medicine braces but unsuccessfully, asked that the broadcast combine an iron tonic, an expectorant and a patient up and gives him courage, that is industry ban Peruna ads. The AMA claimed a stomach soother. [Figure 15] all that can be done.” Although these that the nostrum was keeping sick people Nevertheless, other patent medicines comments are similar to those Hartman from seeing their doctor. By this time, eventually supplanted it in popularity. made to Adams in 1905, the book offers no however, Peruna had toned down its claims. Peruna was withdrawn from the market further clue to the motive behind the real Gone was any reference to catarrh. Now sometime during the 1940s. Schumacher doctor’s candor to a reporter. the tonic was “The Great New Cold- and Dr. Hartman’s daughter divorced, but Meanwhile at the Peruna factory, his Fighter,” with ingredients that purported he continued to live in their Columbus son-in-law succeeded Hartman. Well to build up resistance to the sniffles. mansion along with a butler and a cook. known in Columbus as an energetic and Underlining Peruna’s identity with Ever the entrepreneur, Schumacher made canny businessman, Fred Schumacher in radio and Prohibition, students at Southern another fortune in Canadian gold, and at 1904 had been elected president of the city’s Methodist University his death in 1957, left an estate of $50 Board of Trade. Clearly he was an ideal early in the 1930s million to the Columbus Gallery of Fine candidate to take the helm of the Peruna adopted as their Arts. A town is named for him in Ontario, Drug Manufacturing Company during this a ditty Canada. difficult period. Under his leadership the to the tune of Samuel Hopkins became a well-known fortunes of Peruna revived although the “Comin’ ‘Round and highly popular American writer and nostrum never regained its status as the the Mountain” novelist. But his fame today rests largely nation’s top seller. The quack medicine that went like on his expose of the patent medicine got boosts from two sources: Prohibition this: She’ll be industry and its role in the creation of the and radio. loaded with FDA. Hopkins died in 1958 at the Peruna when she Figure 14 advanced age of 87, benefited, one suspects, Peruna: “Prohibition Tonic” comes, She’ll be loaded with Peruna when by never having medicated with Peruna. As states went “dry,” Peruna continued she comes, She’ll be loaded with Peruna, to be sold over the counter. In Maine, for Yes, loaded with Peruna, She’ll be loaded ************* example, which early (1851) prohibited with Peruna when she comes!” Even today liquor, Peruna was a popular tonic. People the school mascot, a black , is Note: This article was compiled from a named their children after it. The company named “Peruna.” [Figure 14] variety of sources, including the Internet. made no real effort to disguise Peruna’s Most important was Samuel Hopkins spirituous nature. Shown here is a shipping The End of the Story Adams’ 1905 series of articles, later a book, crate that clearly states the contents at 18% With Repeal, Peruna’s appeal to the called The Great American Fraud. Others alcohol — twice the alcoholic content of a drinking public faded. Its formula was were The Golden Age of Quackery by glass of wine and, by any count, a stiff drink changed once again to bolster sales. No Stewart H. Holbrook (1959) and The [Figure 12]. During National Prohibition, longer devoted to the plague of catarrh or Toadstool Millionaires by James Harvey Peruna came to be known generally as Young (1961). Figures 6 and 15 are “Prohibition Tonic.” Nevertheless the courtesy of the Ohio Exploration Society. company continued to gain endorsements Portions of this article have previously from clergymen, including an Episcopal appeared in The Ohio Swirl, the newsletter bishop of Baltimore. It also placed ads in of the Ohio Bottle Club. church bulletins that claimed Peruna was recommended by: “An Indefatigable and Lifelong Worker in the Temperance Cause.” Jack Sullivan Radio gave another boost to Peruna. 4300 Ivanhoe Place The medium provided regional and even Alexandria, VA 22304 national exposure to dozens of country [email protected] music groups and an opportunity for Peruna to advertise over the airwaves. It appears that at least 24 groups at 18 stations nationwide and from Mexican “border radio” daily were broadcasting Peruna’s message to rural and urban Americans alike. Shown here [Figure 13] is the first Peruna Family Song Book, issued in 1937. On the cover (from top) are Pappy Cheshire and His Gang from KMOX in St. Louis, the Cumberland Ridge Runners from WJJD in Chicago and The Pickard Family from XERA, Villa Acuna, Mexico. So potent was Figure 13: Peruna Song Book