1851. Schieffelin still appeared frequently in the order books up to the

1920s; during the final years McKesson & Robbins was by far the largest single domestic customer. A number of other firms--John L. Thompson Sons & Co. of Troy, N.Y.; T. Sisson & Co. of Hartford, Conn.; and Gilman Brothers of Boston, Mass.--appear both in the 1896 and the 1950 order books, although unfortunately the quantities taken had fallen from one or two gross at a shot in the earlier year to a mere quarter gross or a few dozen boxes by 1950. Toward the end, in the late 1950s, employment in the factory dropped to only three persons--J.M. Barney (foreman), Charles Pitcher, and Florence Cree--and they were only doing maintenance work and filling such few orders, mostly in quantities of a few dozen boxes only, that came to the factory unsolicited. Gone were the days of travelers scouring the back country, visiting country druggists, and pushing the pills, while simultaneously disparaging rival or "counterfeit" concoctions; gone were the days when the almanacs and other advertising circulars poured out of Morristown in the millions of copies; long since vanished were the sweeping claims of marvelous cures for every conceivable ailment. In these final days the Indian Root Pills, now packaged in a flat metal box with a sliding lid, were described modestly as the Handy Vegetable Laxative. And the ingredients were now printed on the box; nothing more was heard of Dr. Morse's remarkable discovery gleaned during his long sojourn with the Indians of the western plains. [Illustration: FIGURE 27.--The pill-mixing building, about 1928 (building torn down in 1971).] Although the records disclose nothing to this effect, it is a fair premise that the Comstock family often must have considered closing the Morristown plant after World War II and, more particularly, in the decade of the 1950s. Such inclinations may, however, have been countered by a willingness to let the plant run as long as a trickle of business continued and it did not fall too far short of covering expenses. The last few surviving employees were very elderly, and their jobs may have been regarded as a partial substitute for pensions. This view is evidenced by an injury report for George Clute, who suffered a fit of coughing while mixing pills in January 1941; he was then 77 years old and had been working in the factory for 34 years. The final paybooks show deductions for Social Security and unemployment insurance--specimens of vexatious red tape that the factory had avoided for most of its existence. The decision to close the Morristown factory was finally forced upon the family, on May 15, 1959, by the death of William Henry Comstock II--"Young Bill"--who had been president of the company since 1921. Like his father, "Young Bill" Comstock had been a prominent citizen of Brockville for many years, served a term as mayor--although he was defeated in a contest for a parliamentary seat--was also active in civic and social organizations, and achieved recognition as a sportsman and speedboat operator. [Illustration: FIGURE 28.--The packaging and office building at left, depot in center, and Comstock Hotel at right. Canadian shore and city of Brockville (location of another Comstock factory) in background.] The actual end of the business came in the spring of 1960. The frequency and size of orders had dropped sharply, although the names of many of the old customers still appeared, as well as individuals who would send one dollar for three boxes of the pills. These small shipments were usually mailed, rather than going by express or freight, as formerly. The very last two shipments, appropriately, were to old customers: One package of one-dozen boxes of pills on March 31, 1960, to Gilman Brothers of Boston, and two-dozen boxes to McKesson & Robbins at Mobile, Alabama, on April 11. And with this final consignment the factory closed its doors, concluding ninety-three years of continuous operation in the riverside village of Morristown. Very little of this story remains to be told. Mrs. Comstock became president of the company during its liquidation--and thus was a successor to her _father-in-law_, who had first entered the business as a clerk, _119 years earlier_, in 1841. The good will of the company and a few assets were sold to the Milburn Company of Scarborough, Ontario, but the Comstock business was terminated, and the long career of Dr. Morse's Indian Root Pills brought to a close. The few superannuated employees were assured of protection against all medical expenses, by the company or by the Comstock family, for the rest of their lives. A few years later the associated Canadian factory standing in the heart of Brockville was torn down; during its lifetime that community had grown up around it, from a village to a flourishing small city. The buildings in Morristown were sold to other parties and left to stand untenanted and forlorn for years. The upper (packaging) building, from which the records were recovered, remains in fair condition and may yet be renovated for some further use. The lower (pill-mixing) building, after standing derelict and at the point of collapse for many years, was finally torn down in 1971. The hotel, a large water tank behind the factory, and the combination depot and customs house have all vanished from the scene. The shed where the Comstocks kept their yacht has been maintained and still shelters several boats, but the ferry slip just below the factory steps is now abandoned, and no longer do vessels ply back and forth across the river to connect Morristown and Brockville. The railroad only survived the passing of the factory by a year or two and is now memorialized by no more than a line of decaying ties. The main highway leading westward from Ogdensburg toward the Thousand Islands area has been straightened and rerouted to avoid Morristown, so that now only the straying or misguided traveler will enter the village. If he does enter he will find a pleasant community, scenically located on a small bay of the St. Lawrence River, commanding an enticing view of the Canadian shore, and rising in several stages above the lower level, where the factory once stood; but it is a somnolent village. No longer do river packet steamers call at the sagging pier, no longer do trains thread their way between the factory buildings and chug to a halt at the adjacent station. No longer do hope-giving pills and elixirs, or almanacs and circulars in the millions, pour out of Morristown destined for country drugstores and lonely farmhouses over half a continent. Only memories persist around the empty ferry slip, the vanished railroad station, and the abandoned factory buildings--for so many years the home of the distinguished Dr. Morse's Indian Root Pills. *Bibliography* The principal source of information for this history of the Comstock medicine business comprises the records, letters, documents, and advertising matter found in the abandoned pill-factory building at Morristown, New York. Supplemental information was obtained from biographies, local and county histories, old city directories, genealogies, back files of newspapers, and materials from the office of the St. Lawrence County Historian, at the courthouse, Canton, New York. Two standard histories of the patent-medicine era in America are: Holbrook, Stewart H. _Golden Age of Quackery._ New York City: Macmillan Co. 1959. Young, J.H. _The Toadstool Millionaires, A Social History of Patent Medicines in America Before Federal Regulation._ Princeton University Press. 1961. Early in the present century, during the "exposure" of the patent-medicine industry, two principal critical works also were published, each highly specific and naming names fearlessly: Adams, Samuel Hopkins. _The Great American Fraud._ Serially in _Collier's_ Magazine in 1905-1906. (Reprinted in book form, 1906.) American Medical Association. _Nostrums and Quackery._ Chicago: American Medical Association Press. (Reprints from the _Journal of the American Medical Association_: volume I, 1911; volume II, 1921; volume III, 1936.) Recently two books have appeared, which are largely pictorial, essentially uncritical, and strive mainly to recapture the colorfulness and ingenuity of patent-medicine advertising. Carson, Gerald. _One for a Man, Two for a Horse._ 128 pages. New York City: Doubleday and Co. 1961. Hechtlinger, Adelaide. _The Great Patent Medicine Era._ New York City: Grosset and Dunlap. 1970. A highly recommended source of information on the very early history of patent medicines in America is: Griffenhagen, George B., and James Harvey Young. Old English Patent Medicines in America. _United States National Museum Bulletin 218, Contributions from the Museum of History and Technology_, paper 10: 155-183 1959. DR. MORSE'S PILLS LIVE ON Although the original Comstock enterprise has been dissolved and all of its undertakings in North America terminated, as has been related herein, Dr. Morse's Indian Root Pills and Comstock's Worm Tablets are still being manufactured and sold--by the W.H. Comstock Company Pty. Ltd., in Australia. This concern, originally a subsidiary of the Canadian company, is headed by the former branch manager for the Comstocks, who acquired the rights for Australia and the Orient following the dissolution of the Brockville company. Distribution is also carried out from this source into New Zealand, Singapore, and Hong Kong. Packaging and directions are now modern, the pills being described as "The Overnight Laxative with the Tonic Action," but a reproduction of the old label and the facsimile signature of William Henry Comstock, Sr., are still being portrayed. Thus, the Indian Root Pills have been manufactured continuously for at least 115 years and the Comstock business, through the original and successor firms, has survived for nearly 140 years. *** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF THE COMSTOCK PATENT MEDICINE BUSINESS AND DR. MORSE'S INDIAN ROOT PILLS *** Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will be renamed. Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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