Official Publication of the St. Lawrence County Historical Association January 1987 THE QUARTERLY - Official Publication of the St. Lawrence County Historical-Miation VOLUME XXXII . JANUARY 1987 NO. 1 Robert A. Wyant an& 3 The Thatcher Story Victoria Levitt Ralph E. Hill 12 Crossover Island: Winter Life John A. Baule 15 The SLCHA Archives This publication is made possible in part with publie fwub I from the New York State Council on the Arts. I ISSN 0558-1931 The Quarterly is published in Copyright St. Lawrence County Historical Association January. April, July and October 1987 each year by the St. Lawrence County Historical Association. Extra copies may be obtained from the History Center, P.O. Box 8, Canton, N.Y. 13617, at $2.00 plus 259 postage and handling. Cover: A treasure from the St. Lawrence County Historical Association Editorr Judith B. Ranlett archives, identified only as a Methodist Church. January 1987 3 The west side of Market Street in Potsdam about 1875, with H.D.Thatcher & Co. in the center in the building today occupied by Kinney Drugs. (Photograph courtesy of the Potsdam Public Museum) The Thatcher Story by Robert Wyant and Victoria Levitt In this initial segment of a two-part article, the authors trace the early life and business career of a fascinating figure in St. Lawrence County history. Just over one hundred years ago, a financial matters. The story of his life, Attucks, leader of the mob in the Potsdam druggist invented something from the founding of his drugstore to Boston Massacre. that contributed to the revolution of the his death in poverty, is an interesting One might surmise that Thatcher's dairy industry in the United States. one. elementary education took place in a The druggist was Dr. Hervey Thatcher; one-room country school near Newport. his invention was the glass milk bottle. Early Years and Education Legend suggests that he received his It was said, somewhat inaccurately, to 1835-1859 secondary education at academies in be the first glass milk bottle ever Hervey D. Thatcher was born at Newport, New London, and Washing- invented, and while there is room for Newport, New Hampshire, on Decem- ton, New Hampshire. Probably he did discussion of that point, it clearly was ber 28 in either 1835 or 1837. Sources attend the academy at Newport, but one of the earliest, and certainly the of information at Newport and at the records are missing. His name first of its kind to be widely manufac- Potsdam differ as to the year. Probably cannot be found in the records of Colby tured for use in this part of the he was born on the family farm located Academy at New London. Records of country. While Thatcher is most known near Newport on what is still identified the Tubbs Union Academy at Washing- for his milk bottle, he was a versatile as "Thatcher Hill." His parents were ton, New Hampshire, confirm that he man whose contributions were many Calvin and Hannah Meserve Thatcher. was a student there in 1853. and varied. He was an important His ancestry can be traced to colonial Local stories claim that Thatcher public figure with an inventive mind times: one of his great uncles, the Rev. arrived in New York at the age of and a public conscience but he was also Caleb Thatcher, officiated as pastor of seventeen. If this is true, he could have a man who had little talent for King's Chapel at the burial of Crispus been born in 1837, attended school at January 1987 Washington in 1853 and come to the Allopaths or doctors from bably it was in 1860 that he came to northern New York in 1854. It has also established medical schools be- Potsdam where he entered a partner- been said that he attended academies lieved in the heroic or massive ship with Luke Usher, a banker, and at Potsdam and Ogdensburg, but the dosage of synthetic medicines; the purchased Apothecary Hall, a Market records of the St. Lawrence Academy Eclectics or reform doctors be- Street drug store which had been at Potsdam and the Ogdensburg Free lieved in the moderate dosage of owned by Hunt and Laws. Under the Academy are missing for the critical natural (botanical) medicines; the Usher and Thatcher name. Apothecary years. In view of the fact that census Homeopaths, a spinoff from the Hall functioned as a wholesale and records indicate Thatcher's parents Eclectics, believed in the mini- retail establishment dealing in physi- had moved to a farm in the Town of mum dosage of mineral medicines. cians' supplies, patent medicines, gro- Stockholm, east of Potsdam, between Mr. Griggs describes the Eclectic eries and hardware. 1850 and 1860, it seems likely that Medical College as an "average-to-good By the 1860s some drug stores had Thatcher came to Northern New York medical school." There was no regula- become "variety" shops, and Thatcher's with his parents. Nevertheless, pre- tion of medical schools or of the business was not the least behind the vious accounts of his arrival in New medical profession before the Civil times. An advertisement in The Cowier York do not mention it. Census records War, and there were several medical and Freeman, March 18, 1864, lists, in suggest that Thatcher's uncle, Warren colleges in Cincinnati at the time, addition to the expected medical sup- Thatcher, had settled on a farm in the ranging, in Mr. Griggs's words, from plies and patent medicines, paints, Stockholm area earlier in the nine- "quack diploma mills to sincere legiti- meerschaums, window and picture teenth century. mate schools." Unlike today's medical glass, combs "in almost every variety" In order to earn money for further students, those in Dr. Thatcher's time and "Brushes. Tooth and nail from the education, the future Dr. Thatcher were largely self-taught. Attendance cheapest American to the finest im- taught school briefly in Canton. Next, requirements varied from a period of ported." A more personal ad ran on he went to New York City where he weeks to a period of years. According May 8,1879: "H.D. Thatcher would say worked for a year at a drug store on to Mr. Griggs, as late as 1901 Harvard that he has just received a new stock of Broadway. The Thatcher legend sug- Medical School required only two years the celebrated Universal Pile Pills and gests that Ewen McIntyre, who had of undergraduate study and one year of would advise all those troubled with graduated from the College of Phar- graduate study for a degree in medi- the piles to give these pills a faithful macy of the City of New York in 1847 cine. trial. Don't forget the name," Ap- and later served as that college's At the Eclectic Medical College parently Dr. Thatcher learned early to president from 1877 to 1890, was Hervey Thatcher was exposed to do things right. An item from the May instrumental in providing Thatcher courses, professors and textbooks 14, 1862 edition of the Courier de- with that employment. It has also been dealing with chemistry, pharmacy, clared, "Usher and Thatcher have said that Thatcher worked briefly in toxicolocy, materia medica, and, recently received a very large assort- the pharmaceutical business in Ken- possibily of greatest significance, ment of drugs and medicines and tucky and that he had had some "medical botany." The history and everything else in their line. Dr. association with E. R. Squibb, founder records of the college have been well Thatcher devotes his entire time and of the Squibb pharmaceutical firm. preserved by the Lloyd Library which attention to the business, is a capital During the years 1855-1858, Dr. Squibb serves as a reference center for the druggist, and people can purchase started a small laboratory in Kentucky study and history of pharmacology. from him with the confidence of which produced pharmaceutical sup- Thatcher probably spent no more than getting what they call for." Having plies for the U.S. Navy. Possibly two years at the college. During his thus gilded the lily, the reporter added, Thatcher met Dr. Squibb in Kentucky vacations he may have worked for "Read their advertisement in another at that time. It must have been during Squibb's pharmaceutical firm, gaining column." this period that Thatcher began his experience he would later put to good Not surprisingly, Thatcher's drug studies at the Eclectic Medical College use. store was also noted for its ice cream in Cincinnati, from which he received soda fountain. The St. Lawrence Herald his MD degree in 1859. The Drug Store Years 1860-1895 for August 15, 1890, reported "The It would seem that Thatcher's choice After his graduation Dr. Thatcher large crowds that gather around of the Eclectic Medical College, returned to Canton in 1859 to establish Thatcher's soda fountain is good whether by accident or deliberate his first drug store. It was there that evidence that Thatcher draws the best intention, prepared him well for a long he first had to practice what he had soda water in town." An advertisement career as Potsdam's leading druggist. learned in medical school. It seems on June 19, 1891, declared, "Thatcher's The college was associated with the there was an explosion in a quarry at ice cream is not surpassed in this or eclectic movement in medicine which Morley, and a boy with a badly injured any other company. Have you tried was led by some prominent and com- leg was brought to Canton on a cart. it? . .Ten cents a glass: without ice petent doctors who were "thoroughly The best village doctors examined the cream, five cents." dissatisfied with the current medical injury and recommended amputation, In 1865 Dr.