OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE ST. LAWRENCE COUNTY HISTORICAL,ASSOCIATION LAYING OUT A TOWN.-AFTEX HARRYFENN. January 1971 official Publication Of The St. Lawr ence County Historical Association ASSOCUTION OFFICERS CONTENTS JANUARY 1971 VOL. XVI NO. I Predmt EDWARD J. BLANIDLAN Unun page First Vice President DR. MORSE'S INDIAN R~TPILLS 3 VWCK amTENDEN by Robert B. Sh Rop*O- Second Vice Presidmt mm K. SMxTn MADAME DE STA~L 5 Patrdam First Lady Landowner by Eugene Hatch Trewer DONALD A. Blmmr canton STONE WIND MILLS by Jack Brozvn 6 Assistmt TV~~(YIC* EDITH L. COBTA canton EARLY TAVERNS AND ROADS by Kate Humphrey 7 THE TROUT LAKE STORY by Leah Noble g Membership Secret- YR9. W. B. FLEETHAM D~P~YB~ I Heyday in Russel1 PEARLS OF GREAT PRICE Promotitm 12-13 Eva- AIL- POETICAL PORTRAITS RW Star Lake by Rev. C. Sh special Gifts MRS. EDWARD BIONDI canton Memories Are The Lasting Things by Abigail Cole Nomimtiorrr Janivcer Proverbs LAWRENCE a. BOVARD OOd-url I Yorku Clubs MRS. JOBEW WRILNE(M COMMUNICATIONS IN NICHOLVILLE I4 RLfhvlu by Anna M. Cole PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE 15 LETTER FROM EDITOR 15 THE QUARTERLY Edilw LEE MERRILL MARTIN, Editoricrl 15 MARY K BIONDI Assistant Editor . MARGARET 0- ANNUAL MEETING, OCT. 10 16 ADVISORY BOARD Rltmdl ~ul"p"J- canton CRACKER BARREL 17-18 Dan C. McConnlck Marma FhnM StarL Oowerneur THE QUARTERLY is published OUR MEMBERS WRITE 20 in January, April, July and October each year by the St Lawrence Coun- ty Historical Association, Editorial SEPTEMBER TOUR 22 Office, Box 43, Canton EXTRA COPIES may be obtained COVER SKETCH from Mrs. Edward Biondi, St. Law- Laying out a town was the primary work in our county. rence County Historian's Office, Box The surveyor and his instruments were important. A dis- 8, County Building, Canton, N. Y., at play is now at the History Center in Canton. See story of $1.00 each. Ph : 315-386-4581 our first feminine landowner, page five. pa00 Thra summary history Dr. Morse's Indian Root Pills BY ROBERT B. SHAW The home of Dr. Morse's Indian Root Pills, more pre- cisely known as the W.H. Comstock proprietary medicine factory, stood for over 90 years in the small riverside village of Morristown, in St Lawrence County, on the ex- treme northern border of New York State. For three gen- erations village life was closely identified with the pill factory, the munificence of Mr. Comstock provided many local benefits, including the first primitive electric utility service, and pills, elixirs and almanacks poured out from this remote location to cover half of the world. However, this business did not begin in Morristown. Rather, it was established some 30 years earlier in New York City - then still a small metropolis of two and three-story buildings not extending further north than the present 42nd Street One or two years prior to 1833 Edwin Comstock, a native of Otsego County, moved to the City and established a patent medicine business. Prior to his death in 1837, Edwin em- ployed- - his brother, Lucius S. Comstock (born in 1805). Lucius, who appears to have been both a lawyer and a med- ical doctor as well as a druggist, then took another brother, tain Herb pills, owed a remarkably similar origin, the Albert, into partnership with him, while the firm engaged secret having been obtained from an Aztec Chief by the two more brothers, John Carlton porn 1818) and George accomplished Dr. Cunard, who returned home just in time Wells (born 1820) as clerks. to heal his dying mother.) This business was be however* recurring A complicated struggle for control of the Indian Root dissensions among the brothers. The partnership between pills then ensued; Moore at first manufactured them in op Lucius and Albert was terminated in 1841, Lucius was position to the Comstocks, then he came to New York city next in business with his mother-in-law for a few years, and briefly joined the Comstocks until, in 1859, he and White until he formed a new parmership, Comstock & Co.0 with decamped on New Yeares Day, taking as many of the Corn- John Carlton, in 18%. The new firm again employed George stocks* records, plates and labels as thqr could with them. as a as a Henry Again complicated legal maneuvers, charges and counter- a 'On of in 1830) was charges, criminal and civil actions ensued. until finally, eventually to become the founder of the plant at Morris- in March 1861, White and Moore all claims to town and the sole head of the enterprise for over 50 years. ~r.Morse's Indian Root pills to the Comstocks. In 1849 the brothers quarreled, and J. Carlton and George This should have been the end of litigation, and one would Wells formed a new firm, Comstock and Brother, taking young hope that the three remaining parmers might henceforth work William Henry ~iththem as their clerk. The new firm man- together amicably - but such was not to be the case, for we ufacmred and sold most of the same medicines as the old find that a new dispute broke out in 1866. The precise issue firm - and a dispute inevitably arose as to the rights to the is not clear, but the outcome was that William H. Comstock medicines and to orders coming through the mail. Lucius broke off from the others, moved his plant to StLawrence even went so far as to have his brothers and nephew arrested County, and continued the business as a sole proprietor. for taking his mail from the post office - a case that was George Comstock, thereafter operated some kind of a machinery discussed prominently in the newspapers although finally business in New York City, up until his death in 1889. Lucius, dismissed in the courts. Civil litigation between the erst- who had previously severed relations with his brothers, re- while partners was not concluded without fisticuffs, during sumed a legal career, interrupted by his service as a sur- which "the Dr." - Lucius - received a black eye. geon during the Civil War, and deserves at least a footnote Brother John Carlton Comstock, originator of many of in U.S. political history as foreman of the grand jury that the medicines, died during 1853, and a successor partner- indicted Boss Tweed in 1872. White established his own ship, also known as Comstock and Brother, was formed, patent medicine business, that was still in existence up into consisting of George Wells Comstock, William Henry and the early years of the present century. Baldwin L. Judson, Baldwin L. Judson At sometime during 1855 this firm was although he apparently collaborated with William Henry in approached by Andrew J. White, of Buffalo, who represented the move to Morristown and bequeathed his name to several himself as sole proprietor of Dr. Morse's Indian Root Pills, of the medicines, somehow unaccountably disappeared and was already being manufactured by A.B. Moore and Co., in Buffalo. heard from no more. ~lthoughit subsequently became clear that white's claim to William Henry Comstock, now at age 37 the sole owner this medicine was extremely dubious, the Comstocks swallowed of the business, concentrated all operations in the remote his story, made an agreement with him, and proceeded to riverside village of Morristown. The reasons for this relo- manufacture and distribute these pills. cation may be surmised. By this time the plant in lower Dr. Morse's Indian Root Pills had actually been originated Ma*attan must have become extremely cramped for the in Buffalo a few years prior to this time by one &B. Moore; of pills, bottling of elixirs and keeping of records. Moore was the closest approximation to a real Dr. Morse, The bulk of retail business was being done in our "west" - although subsequently a fictional character of that name the present "Middle West" and ill "Canada West" the present and a romantic history were concocted to provide a myth province of Ontario* had already been traveling; about the Indian origin of the pills, %.Morse was represented exfensivel~ in Canada West, established many contacts there, as an extremely talented young medical practitioner, who took over a small drug firm in Brockville, Ontario, and had spent many years in travel in remote parts of the world married a Canadian girl in 1864. Thus, it was natural to until he finally wrested the secret of these pills from the Indians establish the new factory at Morristown, directly across the of our western plains. Then, he returned home just in time river from Brockville. At this time a public ferry crossed the to discover his aged father on his death bed and effect a mir- river, docking on the American side almost at the doorstep aculous cure - and thereafter he graciously conferred the of the pill factory. A plant of approfimately equal size was secret of the pills upon the public, through the agency of the built in the heart of Brockville, and thereafter the Comstock Comstock company. (A companion product, Judson's Moun- enterprise possessed a kind of dual nationality. Mr. Comstock p.pe F- DR. MORSE'S ROOT PILLS (Continued from Page 3) resided in Brockville and assumed Canadian citizenship - plant, provided the first local electric and water service, although when it was necessary for legal purposes he did not and donated a public hall to the village. On the Canadian side hesitate to avow himself a resident of Morristown and citizen he Was equally prominent as a public figureand philanthropist of the United States even years later, after he had served Although he lived well into the automobile age he always terms both as mayor of Brockville and a member of the Can- preferred his carriage and fine horses, and his large steam adian ~arliament.