The Golden Age of Medical Quackery

By: Peggy L Henderson

On my recent vacation, it was fun to buy a few potential research books that might come in handy for future historical western romances. From famous mountain men, to Indians, and Prostitution and women in medicine in the 1800’s, these books make for some interesting reading, regardless if I use any of the information contained within or not. 

One such book was filled with “granny medicines,” or medicine used during the time. Among the many chores women were charged with on the wagon trains, they were also responsible for the overall health of their family members. Their supplies contained not only ingredients for cooking supper, but also herbs and journals handed down through the generations with home remedies. Items such as juniper berries, garlic, and bitter root were used to treat anything from nausea to typhoid. These remedies were usually a combination of advice passed down through the generations, to superstition, to religious beliefs.  

Advise such as “rinse your mouth each morning with urine to preserve your teeth and prevent mouth odor,” or “mold scraped from cheese will heal open sores,” to “wrap a piece of bacon sprinkled in black pepper around your neck to cure a sore throat,” was common.

Some medicines, such as poultices or teas might have brought some relief, but most often they were of no use, and at worst, did more harm than good. 

The Missouri State Historical Society has compiled a list of frontier medicines, which shows that the 1800’s were truly the “golden age of quackery.” Here is a short sample:

-       The hot blood of chickens cures shingles

-       Carry a horse chestnut to ward of rheumatism

-       To remove warts, rub them with green walnuts, bacon rind, or chicken feet

-       Owl broth cures whooping cough

-       Warm brains of a freshly killed rabbit applied to a teething child’s gums will relieve the pain

-       Carry an onion in your pocket to prevent smallpox

-       Brandy and red pepper will cure cholera

-       Mashed snails and earthworms in water are good for dyptheria.

The list goes on, but you get the idea. 

Peggy L Henderson

Western Historical and Time Travel Romance

“Where Adventure Awaits and Love is Timeless”

Author of:

Yellowstone Romance Series

Teton Romance Trilogy

Second Chances Time Travel Romance Series

Blemished Brides Western Historical Romance Series

                

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Séances in the Old West

Yes, believe it or not séances were not uncommon in frontier days. In her article TRAIL’S END – Spiritualism: Talking to the dead in the Old West , Rosemary Fetter states, "In Denver, the topic was first mentioned in an 1866 Rocky Mountain News article reporting a lecture by a traveling spiritualist named Mrs. Briggs. Four years later, local believers founded the Colorado Association of Spiritualists, which held its first meeting in Golden."

Ms. Fetter mentions the fascination with psychic investigation and debunking popular in America during the 1870s. She quotes an article from the Denver Times describing a séance given by "Dr. and Mrs. Vail, who had been run out of Pueblo [Col.] a week earlier along with their cohorts, including 'a long-limbed, red-haired, big-footed Missourian, who was pressed into service to act Pawnee.'" The Vails were also thrown out of Denver after their phony performance.

Despite such incidents, in the latter half of the 19th century, many Americans and British. including Queen Victoria, strongly believed in spiritualism - the ability of mediums to talk to the dead. How did this craze begin? As a prank by two young girls.

During the winter of 1847-48, in the hamlet of Hydesville, N.Y., about 20 miles from Rochester, 15-year-old Maggie Fox and her younger sister Katy, plotted to scare their mother by creating sounds that echoed through their house at night. They tied strings to apples and rhythmically dropped them on the stairs to sound like footsteps. According to Maggie in an interview 40 years later, the sisters soon developed a method -- never fully explained -- of cracking the knuckles of their toes or snapping them like one would snap their fingers. They could do this in their stocking feet or even in their shoes. The sounds were loud enough to wake their parents.

The Fox sisters, from left to right: Maggie, Katy & Leah; public domain

Mrs. Fox became convinced their house was haunted, and even though the girls hinted that it might be an April-fools joke, their mother didn't believe them. Word soon got around to their neighbors.. Maggie and Katy found themselves in a quandary. If they admitted their trickery, they would be punished and their family would be ridiculed. As the story of a ghost who spoke to the girls with the mysterious wrapping noises grew, news spread far and wide. The two were soon giving séances with the help of their older sister Leah, who believed in spiritual phenomena.

c.1853, the song Spirit Wrapping published; public domain

The Fox sisters and their promoters encountered harsh criticism from many quarters, but before long, other mediums and "spirit circles" sprang up around the country. By 1852 they existed in Boston, New York, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Cleveland, Chicago, Cincinnati, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., as well as in England and Europe. Various spiritual manifestations appeared, including table tipping, spirit music and dancing lights.

By 1854, spiritualists claimed to have from 1 to 2 million American followers.  In September 1855, Henry Raymond, founding editor of the New York Times, declared that Spiritualism had "an appeal that is wider, stronger and deeper than any philosophical or socialistic theory, since it appeals to the marvelous in man." He added, "In five years it has spread like wildfire over the continent so that there is scarcely a village without its mediums and its miracles. . . ."

Here are a few examples of Spiritualists in the west.

The Magnetic Society of New Orleans:
This was a society of mesmerists, many of whom became staunch believers in the spiritualist movement. One member, Joseph Barthet, edited the New Orleans-based Le Spiritualiste in the 1850s.

From address to American Association of Spiritualists, 1871:
"The Utah Spiritual Movement publicly commenced to work in October, 1869. From its earliest inception it has had innumerable difficulties to contend with in the way of fanaticism and priestly power."

Oregon State Spiritualist Society:
From Morning (Portland) Oregonian, April 7, 1888
"Spiritualistic Incorporation---Articles incorporating the Oregon State Spiritualist Society were filed with the county clerk yesterday by . . . the officers of the society. The objects of the corporation are to investigate and promulgate the religious and scientific truths of spiritualism . . ."

"A Review of the Progress of Spiritualism" by Julia Schlesinger, 1896:
The author begins this lengthy article saying, "The knowledge of, and belief in Spiritualism is quite general upon the Pacific Coast.  As far back as the year 1857 Spiritualism was openly advocated by some advanced thinkers in California. . . .In the city of San Francisco seances were held at the house of Russel Ellis on Sansome street, at the International Hotel, and also at the residence of J. P. Manrow, on Russian Hill, where the most remarkable manifestations occurred."

Sarah Winchester, 1865; public domain

One of the most famous, some would say eccentric, believers in spiritualism was Sarah Winchester, the widow of gun maker William Wirt Winchester. Her mansion, the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, California, was the scene of séances and grew to some 160 rooms, all because of what a Boston medium advised Sarah to do. More about that next month.

In case you're wondering what happened to the Fox sisters, both fell to drinking heavily. A year after Maggie admitted that spiritualism was a fraud, she recanted her confession, but she and Katy lost their believers. Katy died of alcoholism in July 1892, and Maggie in March 1893. 

Yet, spiritualism continues to this day with celebrity mediums claiming to channel the spirit world, New Age philosophies, hundreds of books, television shows and movies featuring conversations with the dead.

Oh, and one of my Texas Devlins characters happens to have a talent for seeing and speaking to the dead. Her name is Nora Taylor. She appears as a toddler in Dashing Irish, where she narrowly escapes death thanks to her empathic Uncle Tye. Later, in the epilogue of Dearest Irish, she shows her astonishing psychic gift.

Sources for this article:

http://coloradogambler.com/trails-end-spiritualism-talking-to-the-dead-in-the-old-west/

http://www.historynet.com/the-fox-sisters-spiritualisms-unlikely-founders.htm

http://www.iapsop.com/spirithistory/1851_magnetic_society_of_new_orleans.html

http://www.iapsop.com/spirithistory/1871_american_association_of_spiritualists.html

http://www.iapsop.com/spirithistory/oregon_state_spiritualists_association.html

http://www.iapsop.com/spirithistory/1896_california_spiritualism_history.html

 

You can find my books on my website: http://lynhorner.com OR on my Amazon author page: http://amzn.to/Y3aotC

Esther Morris, First Woman Judge in the United States by Sarah McNeal

Quite naturally, Esther Morris was a judge in the beautiful state of Wyoming back in 1870. But hers is not the story of a female looking to make a name for herself as an advocate for women’s suffrage. Nope, Esther spent 55 years of her life living the tame life in New York state and then Illinois as a milliner and a housewife. I know. It’s just not what one might think a woman who will be judge would be doing with her life, but these are the facts, ma’am. She and her second husband (don’t know what happened to the first one) moved to Wyoming Territory where her husband opened up a saloon in a gold mining camp in South Pass City in 1869. Doesn’t seem like the expected beginnings of a lady judge, does it? Well, hang on because I’m about to tell you the way it all came about.

Esther Morris 

(You'd think a milliner would wear a hat everywhere-just sayin')

Just so happens, that year a territorial representative from South Pass introduced a bill giving women the right to vote and hold public office. Now there’s a little hidden agenda in this move due to the fact that Wyoming needed some women. The Wyoming’s all male legislature approved the bill to attract women to the state. It was like putting out sugar water to attract humming birds. Wyoming was the first territory (eventually, state) in American history to empower women. The territorial governor, John Campbell, was one of the strongest backer of the new law. He was eager to take more actions toward the political power of women, so in 1870, Campbell began to search for women qualified and willing to be appointed as justices of the peace. Low and behold, Esther Morris became Campbell’s first and only successful appointment.

Though hailed by American suffragists because of her appointment as the first female judge, not only in America, but in the world, Esther didn’t seem to have been all that dedicated as an activist for women’s rights. She just happened to be in the right place at the right time, or so it seems. She was appointed to serve out the term of a man who resigned, and served only nine months as justice of the peace. She tried 26 cases with competence during her time as judge, but retired from her post in November 1870 and never sought public office again.

Later, when asked about the issue of women’s suffrage, Esther replied that women would do well to leave the matter in the hands of men. Though she supported women’s rights, she advocated a more gradual approach would be more successful. Like some of you, I was stunned to learn this little tidbit about her. You’d think she would’ve stood on a soap box after such an accomplishment encouraging other women to seek office. Disappointing, to say the least.

Esther Morris's Bronze Statue at the Capitol Building

Even so, regardless of her reluctance to be revered as an activist, Esther Morris has often been celebrated as an important symbol of women’s rights. I guess you have to start somewhere. In 1890, one of her sons began calling her the “mother of woman suffrage” in his Cheyenne newspaper. That just goes to show you the power of the pen—and suggestion. About twenty years after her death in 1902, a witness claimed that Morris had pushed for the introduction of the original bill granting women the right to vote, but of course, that was not what the evidence supports. But in the twists and turns of historical fact, the title of “first woman judge” has continued to be a symbol in the long battle of women’s rights in America. It’s a near fact anyway. Bronze statues at the United States Capitol and in Cheyenne still honor her memory. 

So if anyone ever asks you to take a position that would be a first in history, just say “yes.” And that’s the end of my lesson in how to make a political statement. Stay tuned for more adventures and historical markers.

All my Wilding family stories are based in the fictional town of Hazard, Wyoming--a state I fell in love with, but have only seen once when I went on a trip with my friends.  

Sarah J. McNeal is a multi-published author of several genres including time travel, paranormal, western and historical fiction. She is a retired ER and Critical Care nurse who lives in North Carolina with her four-legged children, Lily, the Golden Retriever and Liberty, the cat. Besides her devotion to writing, she also has a great love of music and plays several instruments including violin, bagpipes, guitar and harmonica. Her books and short stories may be found at Prairie Rose Publications and its imprints Painted Pony Books, and Fire Star Press. Some of her fantasy and paranormal books may also be found at Publishing by Rebecca Vickery and Victory Tales Press. She welcomes you to her website and social media:

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Singer Sewing Machines by Linda Hubalek

We think of pioneer women hand sewing all their clothing and bedding, but in 1851 Isaac Merritt Singer patented a sewing machine practical for home use. This changed everyone's sewing habits, and the time it took to make items. Not everyone could afford the first machines, but over time the price went down so more families could add one to their home.

The Singer company sold around 800 machines in 1853, but by 1876, they had sold over two million. I wonder how many machines were heading west in covered wagons to Kansas and beyond in the 1860-1870's. 

It made me think of the sewing machines I’ve used in the past, and those that my ancestors used. As a youngster, I spent many hours sewing scrapes on my paternal grandmother's sewing machine, which looked like the illustration above.

I learned how to sew clothing on a 1940's model black Singer sewing machine. When my parents were first married, Dad brought a sick newborn calf into their farmhouse and told Mom if it lived, Mom could have the money from its eventual sale to buy whatever she wanted. She nursed the calf back to health and bought a sewing machine.

A few decades later Mom upgraded to a Singer Model 337. It was fun to do all kinds of “fancy” stitching on pillowcases and tea towels. We made almost all of our clothes on this machine through my school years.

Currently I use a Singer Graduate Model 714 I bought when our high school sold their sewing machines to buy new ones for the Home Ec. classroom. I googled it on the internet and it popped up as a “Vintage Sewing Machine” on Ebay—reminding me it was almost forty years ago when I bought it. Even though it is now considered old—it still works fine—so I’m happy with it.

I have my maternal great grandmother's sewing machine and I can imagine all the clothing she made for her eight children. Unfortunately, it's missing a few pieces so I can't use it, but I display it for the memories it provides.

Thanks for stopping by to enjoy today's Sweethearts of the West Blog.

Linda Hubalek

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Railroad Time

Reference:  Into the Modern Age:  The Adoption of Standard Time

critical enquiry.org/wo/2012/11/30/into-the-modern-age-the-adoption-of-standard-time

When conducting research on travel by train for my current WIP, A Touch of Irish Texas, I became bogged down in train schedules, distances between cities, and the amount of time it took to travel those distances. What a mess. It was discouraging for someone not familiar with time in the 1880s and 90s and who needed to get characters on a train in Boston bound for Monahans, Texas. So, here's what I learned. 

We've had mechanical time pieces for a long time, even as far back as the ancient world, however, the  time was never exact. Accuracy wasn't of such importance back in our earlier history as l  ife wasn't based on a time schedule. In areas where cities had public clocks, they were usually based on local mean time which was determined by the position of the sun at noon, "since each degree of longitudinal movement around the globe represents a difference of roughly 4 minutes on a solar-based time system. Under solar time, if was noon in Boston, it was 11:24 in Charleston, South Carolina, 11:36 in Washington, DC, 11:48 in New York City, and so forth."

On December 11, 1847, the United Kingdom adopted a single time zone. Railways in that country switched from local mean time to GMT (Greenwich Mean Time). "The UK had the advantage of covering only 8 degrees of longitude, so only one time zone was required." Communities the farthest away only needed to change their clocks one-half hour forward or backward. "By 1855, most of the country's public clocks were set to GMT."

The US had a much larger problem as it's territory stretched across 57 degrees of longitude and unlike the UK, the US lacked a well-known central city on which to base any national system of timekeeping.

Though railroads were not the prime motivating force behind adopting of a standard time, they did have problems. Timetables were based on known travel time and distance between stations which often led to accidents and delays. In the 1850s, schedules were managed with new technology—the telegraph—which allowed updates to be forwarded or notice of disabled trains.

In 1852, a writer for an industry journal recommended that New York City's time be adopted as "the first [or sole] meridian of railroad time." The concept didn't receive further discussion. "It was not until 1869, when Charles F Dowd presented a plan at a New York convention of trunk line (railway) operators, that some momentum toward adoption of a national railroad time began." He emphasized how confusing the time schedules could be for travelers. He proposed that Washington DC's local mean time be adopted to manage all national railroad travel. Each city could continue to use their local mean time for other purposes. The railroads lost interest and "felt any inconvenience and confusion to travelers wasn't their problem to solve."

Astronomers needed a universal time system for coordinating celestial observations. In 1875 Cleveland Abbe wrote of his difficulties when attempting to coordinate observations of an aurora borealis on April 7, 1874. He had recruited 100 observers in an attempt to determine the aurora's altitude about the earth. "The experiment failed because, as Abbe stated, 'the errors of the Observers' clocks and watches, and even of the standards of time used by them are generally not stated...so that the uncertainty of this vitally important matter will be found to throw obscurity upon some interesting features.'"

In 1880, Abbe corresponded with Stanford Fleming, a Canadian railway engineer who expressed the need for a universal world time. The two men called  for an international convention to discuss the issue which troubled not only the railroads but other forms of trade such as steamships and other companies.

Discussion continued, papers were written, but no real progress was made until April 1883 when William F Allen wrote an article for the General Time Convention. "He stated that "We should settle this question among ourselves, and not entrust it to the invite wisdom of the...State legislatures."

"Meetings in 1883 formalized the system of meridians, then know as Standard Railway Time, each exactly one hour apart, that formed the basis for Standard Time. By happy coincidence, the proposed eastern meridian of Allen's system coincided within 6 seconds of GMT, which was 5 hours away. This reinforced Allen's belief that Greenwich time should be adopted as a world standard."

The new system was formally implemented on November 18, 1883 and almost universally adopted with a year. "New Yorkers set their clocks back four minutes, Chicagoans stopped theirs for nine minutes. Those in Philadelphia, New Orleans, and Denver did nothing since they were located at the base meridian for their time zone."

"In 1918, the US formally adopted Standard Time and abolished all local timekeeping."

Thank you for stopping by Sweethearts of the West. Please leave a comment and I promise to respond. Next month I'm blogging about "Buying a Watch in 1880."

Happy Reading and Writing!

Linda
www.lindalaroque.com

'Dinner in Hades': Outlaws' Last Words

Bad boys of the Old West—they’re endlessly fascinating. Why is that? Maybe it’s because they lived such bold, flash-in-the-pan lives, as untamed as the land they roamed. Some have become such mythic figures, it’s difficult to tell fact from fiction. True or not, their legends live on…and in some cases, so do the last or near-last words that—in a strange, sad way—defined their short, reckless lives.

Bits and pieces like the ones below bring real-life villains to life and sometimes provide insight into the men behind the myths. Still, I often find myself wondering “who were these guys?” Had I been a contemporary, would I have seen the same life historians recorded? Or would the real person have been astoundingly different from what we think we know 100 years later?

All of the outlaws below had parents, grandparents, siblings. Some had wives and children. One, Deacon Jim Miller (also known as Killer Jim Miller) was a pillar of his community…when he wasn’t eliminating someone for money.

As an author of historical fiction, part of my job is to entertain, but I believe there’s another, equally important part, as well: getting the facts straight—or at least trying to hide the wrinkles. Of course, fiction isn’t fact, and no fiction author worth his or her salt lets facts get in the way of a good story. Nevertheless, studying the past and the kinds of people about whom we write is almost a sacred trust for many of us who write historical fiction. Only by familiarizing ourselves with the larger-than-life and the mundane can we give any authority or verisimilitude to the fictional lives we create.

As the writerly saying goes, “Even the villain is the hero of his own life story.” Maybe that’s why I spend so much time researching bad boys…and why the heroes in my stories so often are outlaws, even the ones who wear badges. After all, somebody has to tell the villains’ life stories, right?

Wild Bill Longley

“I deserve this fate. It is a debt I owe for my wild, reckless life.”
—Wild Bill Longley, outlaw and mean-tempered bully, age 27. Hanged in Giddings, Texas, Oct. 11, 1878, for the murder of a childhood friend.

Tom O'Folliard

“Aw, go to Hell you long-legged son-of-a-bitch.”
—Tom O’Folliard, rustler and best friend of Billy the Kid, age 22. Spoken to Sheriff Pat Garrett shortly after Garrett mortally wounded him during a manhunt near Fort Sumner, New Mexico, Dec. 19, 1880.

Billy the Kid

 “I’m not afraid to die like a man fighting, but I would not like to be killed like a dog unarmed.”
—Billy the Kid, hired gun, age 21, in a March 1879 letter to New Mexico Governor Lew Wallace. Shot to death by Sheriff Pat Garrett at Fort Sumner, New Mexico, July 14, 1881.










“Can’t you hurry this up a bit? I hear they eat dinner in Hades at twelve sharp, and I don’t aim to be late.”
—Black Jack Ketchum, train robber, age 37. Decapitated during hanging for train robbery, Clayton, New Mexico, April 26, 1901.








 “Killing men is my specialty. I look at it as a business proposition, and I think I have a corner on the market.”
—Tom Horn, Pinkerton detective turned assassin, one day shy of 43. Hanged in Cheyenne, Wyoming, Nov. 20, 1903, for the murder of a 14-year-old boy.







“Let the record show I’ve killed 51 men. Let ’er rip.”
—“Deacon Jim” Miller, age 42, professional assassin. Lynched in Ada, Oklahoma, April 19, 1909, for the contract killing of a former U.S. marshal.










“I love it [the bandit life]. It is wild with adventure.”
—Henry Starr, age 53, to a reporter shortly before he was shot to death during an attempted bank robbery in Harrison, Arkansas, 1921.


Image credits
Black Jack Ketchum: University of New Mexico
Tom Horn at the Cheyenne Jail, 1902: Wyoming State Archives
Henry Starr: University of Arkansas, Little Rock

A Texan to the bone, Kathleen Rice Adams spends her days chasing news stories and her nights and weekends shooting it out with Wild West desperados. Leave the upstanding, law-abiding heroes to other folks. In Kathleen’s stories, even the good guys wear black hats.

Her short novella “The Second-Best Ranger in Texas” won the coveted Peacemaker Award for Best Western Short Fiction. Her novel Prodigal Gun won the EPIC Award for Historical Romance and is the only novel-length western historical romance ever nominated for a Peacemaker.

Visit Kathleen’s hideout on the web at KathleenRiceAdams.com, or connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and/or Pinterest.

Galveston, Texas: A City with a History

There are so many cities and towns in Texas that own a piece of my heart. Galveston is but one of them. My first trip to the island was in 1965 when I was a junior at Sam Houston High School. I was a member of Vocational Industrial Training of America, and our class went there to participate at the State Conference.

Galveston Arial View

You can imagine the fun we had with our first major trip away from home. I think there were eight of us along with our teacher, Mr. Kenneth Pickett, one other teacher I think, and my mother as chaperone. If memory serves, I think my younger brother tagged along, too. We stayed on Seawall Boulevard just across the street from the Gulf of Mexico and the beach.

Galveston Beach

Galveston Beach

The Flagship Hotel

A main attraction for many years was the Flagship Hotel which was built out on a pier into the Gulf. We stayed there once when our kids were small. Unfortunately, it didn't survive Hurricane Ike in 2008.

Pleasure Pier Present Day

Now they've built a Pleasure Pier with rides and games for tourists.

I'm currently writing another book set in Galveston And I've discovered there were earlier places on the beach for fun and games called The Pavilion, Murdoch's Pavilion, Bath Houses, many of which were destroyed either by fire or hurricanes.

The Electric Pavilion 1883

Before the 1900 Hurricane, Galveston was so lush and plush, it was thought of as the Wall Street of the South. Galvestonians liked to call their city the Coney Island of the South. The devastating Hurricane changed all that.

Over six thousand souls were lost on September 8th and 9th, 1900. The island was lost. In order to prevent this devastation from happening again, the people of Galveston built a seawall. Construction began in 1902 and the initial segment completed in 1904. From 1904 to 1963 the wall was extended from 3.3 miles to over 10 miles long. 

After Hurricane Alicia in 1983, the Corp of Engineers estimated that  $100 million in damage was avoided because of the Seawall.

My characters, Faith and Joe, are not the first that I've put through the trials and tribulations of severe storms. Joe's father and step-mother, Ian and Matelyn O'Donnell Benning struggled to survive during the 1875 Galveston Hurricane, in my book, Matelyn and the Texas Ranger. Joe and Faith will have to deal with the aftermath of the 1900 Hurricane, sometimes referred to as Isaac's Storm, and we'll see how they do.

I have an e-book of Matelyn and the Texas Ranger for one commenter, so if you'd like to read about Joe's family before his book comes out this summer, talk to me. Don't leave me lonely down here all by myself.  =D

Thanks for stopping by,

Carra

 Amazon Author Page