Blooming Grove Sun, August 16, 1889 - page 2
by Tim Campbell · first published 1 August 2018 · his original post
This is the 2nd available partial page of the Blooming Grove Sun issued on Friday August 16, 1889. On this page may be found the following - (see my notes following) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Large advertisement for H. COHEN and BROTHER, WHOLESALE and RETAIL GROCERS
Large advertisement for MRS. S.S. HARRIS, "INVENTOR OF A SMALL PROFIT CASH SYSTEM", "LACES AND TRIMMINGS OF EVERY DESCRIPTION"
Large advertisement for WELCH and BRITTAIN, BLACKSMITH AND WOOD WORKMEN. W.L. WELCH, B.C. BRITTAIN, horse shoeing and woodwork, satisfaction guaranteed
Large advertisement for MR. T.H. BUTCHER, experienced wood worker. Remodeling of old buggies and wagons, and painting in first class order. New buggy tops. Satisfaction guaranteed.
A series of classified "one liner" type advertisements including the following businesses -
A.S. HENRY's (Dry Goods Store), men's hats, ladies' shoes, boots
GRIMES and YOUNG (Dry Goods), grain sacks, does cotton bagging
H. COHEN and BRO (wholesale and retail grocer)
D.S. WELCH and SON - Tasteless Chill Tonic (Grove's Tasteless Chill Tonic), Syrup of Quinine, Dr. Thurman's Lone Star Catarrh Cure, Chamberlain's Eye and Skin Ointment, Dr. Thurmond's Lone Star Blood Syrup
CACTERINE - Four out of five have Catarrh (This medicine was developed by Dr. W. Robinson of Dresden and bottled at Waco. Was supposed to cure catarrh.)
MAT YOUNG (groceries)
J.KAYLOR - property improvements, contractor and builder
E.C. CHAMBERS - call on him if you want anything on wheels
FURNITURE STORE - received line of hat and coat racks
J.T. SCARBOROUGH - Residence for sale on Second Street
E.W. BLACKSHEAR and CO - F.T. Chas of Alvarado had Catarrh, used Cacterine 7 months and gained 35 pounds. Dr J.P. McLeubon of Calvert was deaf for 14 years with no relief until he used Cacterine. A.W. Hord of Troy, Tx was deaf but threw away his ear trumpet after using Cacterine for three weeks.
FOR SALE - two desirable business lots fronting railroad. Apply at office of Blooming Grove Sun
CACTERINE MEDICINE COMPANY has increased its facilities.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MY NOTES -
"H. COHEN and BRO" are sons of Louis Cohen of Corsicana, a Hebrew merchant in that town. With the coming of the railroad to Blooming Grove, the Cohens sought to capitalize on the thriving growth and put in another branch of the Corsicana location, with young Henry "Hash" Cohen as the main proprietor. Times were good in August of 1889 and the Cohens were running nice large ads in the papers and bought the first bale of cotton in Blooming Grove, which was no small feat, as there was always stiff competition among local vendors to garner this honor at auction. However, in February of 1891, Hash eloped to Tennessee with Katie Pruitt, a "southern belle" from Corsicana, daughter of a prominent bank director by the name of George Pruitt. Since the Cohens were Hebrews and the Pruitts were Methodists, the marriage was quite a scandal. Perhaps the local Grovian population boycotted the Cohen store, or maybe the marriage was such a distraction to young Cohen that he did not take care of his business. Cohen had borrowed money from a local fellow by the name of J.D. Stokes, and could not pay it back. Cohen and his brother-in-law, a Mr. Levy, began to liquidate the store in Blooming Grove. Stokes filed for and won an injunction to keep them from dissolving the business. Hash got himself in trouble again when he borrowed money from First National Bank in Corsicana and pledged cotton he had not yet paid the farmer's for. Grimes and Young (see below) bought the farmer's interest and a lawsuit ensued. By 1893 the Cohen's store in Blooming Grove was no more.
"MRS. S. S. HARRIS" - Apparently a Mrs. Harris felt that she had discovered the concept of the "five and dime" store. She was selling millenery, fabrics, etc. among other items. I have not been able to gather much information about her. She may have been of some relation to early Blooming Grove banker Robert Lawson Harris.
"WELCH and BRITTAIN, BLACKSMITHING AND WOODWORKING" - W.L. Welch is WINSTON LAFAYETTE WELCH (see photo attached). He was born in Lawrence, Mississippi. His father, Wiley Welch died when he was 17 and he came to Texas to seek his fortune. By 1880 he was living as an apprentice to a blacksmith near what is now Navarro Mills. In 1884 he married a girl from Corsicana by the name of Lula Steadman. By 1889 he was plying the trade on his own and had gone into business with B.C. Brittain in Blooming Grove under the name of "Welch and Brittain". By 1900 he had moved on, and had a blacksmith shop in Burleson, Texas, and by 1920 had finally settled in Sulphur, Oklahoma, where he passed away in 1931 at the age of 78. I have not been able to locate information about B.C. BRITTAIN, the wood worker in this business venture.
"MR. T.H. BUTCHER" is TILLMAN HOWARD BUTCHER (1862-1936) (see photo attached). He was born in Salt Creek, Indiana in 1862. As of 1880 at age 18 he was still there, farming with his siblings after their parents had both passed away. By the late 1880s he had gone to Blooming Grove, Texas where the local folks took a liking to him and where he would remain for the rest of his life, working as a wagon maker/repairer, a blacksmith, and as a lawman. He was the city marshal in Blooming Grove for some 20 years. He was twice married with multiple children by both marriages. He is interred at Rose Hill Cemetery in Blooming Grove.
A.S. HENRY (See photo attached) is ADOLPHUS SAMUEL HENRY, born 1858 in Cherokee County, Texas. He and his little brother Charles F. Henry opened a dry goods store in old Gradyville prior to 1880. These boys had come to Gradyville from Cherokee County, Texas to seek their fortune. By 1889 it appears Charles may have gone back to Rusk County and A.S. was operating the dry goods store alone and presumably had relocated the store in the new town one mile to the north. He was the son of Patrick and Amanda Henry of Cherokee County. From 1893 to 1895, A.S. HENRY represented Blooming Grove and Navarro County as state representative in the 23rd Texas Legislature. He lived in Arlington, Texas for many years after leaving Blooming Grove where he passed away in 1945.
GRIMES and YOUNG were local bankers who were making money on the side by trading cotton. "GRIMES", I believe, was SAMUEL WOFFORD GRIMES who was Blooming Grove's first bank president, and "YOUNG" was MATHEW YOUNG who was also in the banking business. They got entangled in a lawsuit with the COHENS, aforementioned, which went all the way to the Texas Court of Appeals. It seems that Henry Cohen took in cotton from numerous farmers without paying them, and then pledged the cotton against loans from First National Bank of Corsicana, then didn't pay either one back. Grimes and Young stepped in and bought the farmers' interest in the cotton and prosecuted the case against the Cohens, while the Cohens countersued Grimes and Young. Eight full pages describing this case may be found in Texas court records.
D.S. WELCH is DARIUS SCOTT WELCH, born 1834 in Dallas County, Alabama. He was a veteran of the Confederacy, serving in the Mississippi 27th Cavalry. He appears to have been running a drug store or apothecary in 1889. Later he appeared on the 1900 census of Blooming Grove with his occupation being a "bill collector". He died in Blooming Grove in 1909 at the age of 74. In the apothecary he was obviously selling a wide variety of "patent" medicines.
GROVE'S TASTELESS CHILL TONIC (photo attached) was developed and mass produced by Edwin Wiley Grove of Tennessee. It made him a millionaire and brought him national fame. The base ingredient was quinine. I began collecting old bottles when I was about 14 and one of the first old cork top bottles I dug up around Blooming Grove was Grove's Tasteless Chill Tonic. I remember bringing it home and washing it and showing it to my mother, Edith Elizabeth Ewing Campbell who promptly made a hideous face and said that it was the worst thing she ever tasted and that her parents had forced her to take it when she got sick as a kid.
DR. THURMAN'S LONE STAR CATARRH CURE and DR. THURMAN's LONE STAR BLOOD SYRUP - First, an education on CATARRH. It is not nearly as bad as it sounds. Catarrh was basically excessive discharge of mucus from the nose, throat, sinuses, and inflammation of mucus menbranes. Secondly, you might note that the medicines you buy these days do not bear the terms "CURE" or "REMEDY". These terms were outlawed by the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906. But before that, anything you wanted to label your medicine in order to facilitate sales was fine and dandy. I believe Dr. Thurman's products were primarily bottled in plain bottles with paper labels. Therefore when one of the bottles is excavated it is not identifiable. With respect to the BLOOD SYRUP, this was an apparent attempt to positively effect one's blood to make them healthier. Remember that in 1889 we were less than 100 years from some of the nation's best doctors bleeding George Washington to death trying to cure him of what was probably something akin to strep throat.
CHAMBERLAIN'S EYE AND SKIN OINTMENT - the Chamberlain's company put out many, many brands of medicine. I dug up an old aqua bottle in Blooming Grove which was embossed "Chamberlain's Colic, Cholera, and Diarhea Remedy". See photo attached.
CACTERINE - this medicine, I believe, was developed by Dr. W. Robinson of Dresden, 5 miles to the south of Blooming Grove. (See photo of Cacterine bottle). The bottle in the photo is labeled as being produced in Waco. At some point Cacterine's headquarters were in New York in later years. Perhaps the Robinsons sold the rights.
J. KAYLOR - There were Kaylor (also spelled Kahler, Kahlor, and other ways) families in Rosebud, Texas and others living around North Texas who were mostly railroad workers. Many were German immigrants. Some of the older houses around Blooming Grove have unusual framing patterns visible when you strip them down to the bones. I have heard these methods may have been used by Germanic carpenters but have not investigated. I have not been able to identify this particular fellow.
E.C. CHAMBERS - I believe this must be Judge Edward Coke Chambers who lived in Limestone County at Thornton, Texas a little later in life, where he was a school teacher. Apparently he dabbled in the sale of "anything with wheels" for a time in his life. I am not positive of this identification, but the Judge is the only E.C. Chambers I've been able to locate in Texas at this time period.
J.T. SCARBOROUGH - this is THOMAS JACKSON SCARBOROUGH, born in Natchitoches, Louisiana in 1837, who was living in Blooming Grove with his family and his aged father, THOMAS SCARBOROUGH SR. as of 1880. By 1900 he and his family had moved to Greer County, Oklahoma, where he served as postmaster and where he passed away in 1919.
E. W. BLACKSHEAR and Co appears to have been running a drug store / apothecary in Blooming Grove in 1889. I have yet to find much if any information on this fellow. I found an Elijah W. Blackshear who died in 1887 in Robinson, Texas, two years before this ad came out.