Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 38, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 January 1906 — WHO SHE WAS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

WHO SHE WAS

„ . , » : . \ .-**•«*» . • • * ' ' ' SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF LYDIA E. PINKHAM f *r And a True Story of How the Vegetable Compound Had Its Birth and How the “Panic of *73*’ Caused it to be Offered for Publip Sale in Drug Stores*

Tills remarkable woman, whose maiden name waa Estes, was born in Lynn, Mass.. February 9th, 1819, coming from a good old Quaker family. For some years she taught school, and became knbwn as a woman of an alert

and investigating mind, an earnest seeker after knowledge, and above ail, possessed of a wonderfully sympathetic nature. In 1843 she married Isaac Pinkham, a builder and real estate operator, and their early married life was marked by prosperity and happiness. -They had four children, three sons and , a daughter. In those good old fashioned days it was common for mothers to make their own home medicines from roots and herbs, nature’s own remedies—calling in a physician only in specially urgent cases. By tradition and experience many of them gained a wonderful knowledge of the curative properties of the various roots and herbs. Mrs. Pinkham took a great interest In the study of roots and herbs, their characteristics and power over disease. She maintained that just as nature so bountifully provides in the harvestfields and orchards vegetable foods of all kinds; so, if we but take the pains to find them, in the roots and herbs of the field there are remedies expressly designed to cure the various ills and weaknesses of the body, and it was her pleasure to search these out, and prepare simple and effective medicines for her own family and friends. Chief of these was a rare combination of the choicest medicinal roots and herbs found best adapted for the cure of the ills and weaknesses peculiar to the female sex, and Lydia E. Pinkham’s friends and neighbors learned that her compound relieved and cured *nd tt became quite popular among them. All this so far was done freely, without money aud without price, as a labor of love. But in 1873 the financial crisis struck Lynn. Its length and severity were too much for the large real estate interests of the Pinkham family, as this class of business suffered most from fearful depression, so when the Centennial year dawned it found their property swept away. Some other source of income had to be founds At this point Lydia E. Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound was made known to the world. The three sons and the daughter, With their mother, combined forces to

restore the family fortune. They argued that? the medicine vrbieh wm so good for their woman friends and neighbors was (squally good for the women of the whole world. ‘t * _ The Pinkhams had no money, and little credit. Their first laboratory was -the kitchen, where roots ana herbs ■ were steeped on the stove, gradually filling a gross of bottles. Then came the question of belling it, for always before they had given it away freely. They hired a job printer to run off some pamphlets setting forth the merits of the medi* cine, now called-Lydia E. Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound, and these were distributed by the Pinkham sons in Boston, New York, and Brooklyn. The wonderful curative properties of the medicine were, to a great extent, self-advertising, for whoever used it recommended others, and the da* mand gradually increased. In 1877, by combined efforts the fam* ily had saved enough money to com* mence newspaper advertising and from that time the growth and success of the enterprise were assured, until to* day Lydia E. Pinkham and her Vegetable! Compound have become hones* hdld words everywhere, and many tons of roots and herbs are used anno* ally in its manufacture.

Lydia E, Pinkham herself did not live to see the great success of this work, She passed to her reward year* ago, but not till she had provided means for continuing her work u effectively as she could have done IB herself. During her long and eventful expe rience she was ever methodical in her work and she was always careful topre* serve a record of every case thatesme to her attention. The case of every eWI woman who applied to her for advice—and there were thousands—received careful study, and the details, including symptoms, treatment and results were recorded for future reference, and to-day these records, together witk hundreds of thousands made since, are available to sick women the world over, and represent a vast collaboration of information regarding the treatment of woman’s ills, which sass authenticity and accuracy can hardly be equaled in any library in the world. - With Lydia E. Pinkham worked her daughter-in-law, the present lira. Pinkham. She was carefully instructed in all her hard-won knowledge, end for years she assisted her in her vmß correspondence. To her hands naturally fell th* direction of the work when its origin** i tor passed away. For nearly twratjfive years she has continued it, and nothing in the work shows when the first Lydia E. Pinkham dropped her pen, and the present Mrs. Pmkhaße, now the mqther of a large family, took it up. With women assistants, some aa capable as herself, the present lin, Pinkham continues this great work,and probably from the office of no other person have so many women beta advised how to regain health. Sick women, this advice is “Yours for Health* freely given if you only write to eak for it. Such is the history of Lydia E. Pink* ham’s Vegetable Compound; made from simple roots and herbs; the one great medicine for women’s ailmenta, and the fitting monument to the aohle woman whose name it bears.