​​’Miracle cures’ were made in Warren County

How to go

What: “It Cures Like Magic: The Fads and Frauds of the Golden Age of Patent Medicine Quackery” Lunch and Learn lecture by collector and author Dennis Dalton

When: 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday, May 21

Where: Warren County History Center, 105 S. Broadway, Lebanon, OH 45036

Cost: $20 for catered lunch

More info/reservations: Call 513-932-1817

A sip of Brown’s Iron Biters or a touch of Dr. Anderson’s Gastric Neutralizer for indigestion, an application of Ayer’s Hair Vigor to fight grays, or a cocaine drop to tame a toothache — miracle cures like these were once manufactured and distributed in Warren County.

“The patent medicine industry in Warren County was significant. Medicines were manufactured in Lebanon, Waynesville, Franklin, Harveysburg. There were over a half dozen medicines made in Waynesville alone from 1849 to 1900,” said Dennis E. Dalton, author of the book “Waynesville and Wayne Township,” as well as a history researcher, lecturer and storyteller.

Dalton will give a presentation called “It Cures Like Magic: The Fads and Frauds of the Golden Age of Patent Medicine Quackery” on Wednesday, May 21, as part of the Warren County Historical Society’s Lunch and Learn series.

“The audience will be able to learn about how desperate people were for medicines during an age when professional doctors were not easily accessible and one had to depend on themselves for cures,” he said. “Also it will make us realize how gullible we have always been and why the old saying about a sucker being born every minute (came to be). Most importantly, (attendees) will learn that patent medicine shows were popular entertainment, which was also important at a time when most people, especially rural citizens, didn’t have access to affordable entertainment.”

Nineteenth century America witnessed a boom in the patent medicine industry. Despite the implications of the name, these medicines were not patented but rather secret formulas and unproven remedies sold directly to the public as medical cures. Some patent medicines did very little harm; others actually delivered their promised results, albeit often with very dangerous ingredients; and still others were poisons.

The Waynesville native said there are many contemporary versions of patent medicines sold today.

Dalton will display and discuss the supposed curative properties of patent medicine potions and bottles from his personal collection, many of which originated in Warren County.

“I got interested in patent medicines as a result of stories told me by my great-grandfather, Elijah M. Casey, who never went to a doctor in his life, took the Black Draught to ward off sickness, never was sick a day in his life and died at age 101,” he said. “Then I found a Dalton’s Sarsaparilla bottle (used for syphilis, eczema, psoriasis, arthritis, herpes and leprosy) at Bob and Sue Gilbert’s Bottleworks Antiques Shop in Waynesville. Then I found a Dr. Anderson’s gastric neutralizer bottle there. Dr. Anderson’s was made and bottled in Waynesville and sold from an office in Cincinnati. I caught the patent medicine bottle collector fever for which no patent medicine will cure.”