Warner’s Safe Cure: The American Reformer (1884)

Masthead of The American Reformer (1884)

Having done this blog now for the last 3 1/2 years, I have found that I often go looking for one thing, but find something completely unexpected and oftentimes wonderful. Such is the case with The American Reformer. My initial research was to try and find out more about a fairly obscure Warner product called “Throatine”, which was produced in the early 1880′s and was the predecessor of the more well-known and equally rare Safe Asthma Cure/Remedy. I will save the particulars of Throatine for a subsequent post, but suffice it to say that I have yet to see a photograph of the product and no collector, that I am aware of, has an example of this product in their collection.  So, “rare” would be a gross understatement.

In any event, my search started with Google, which, in turn, directed me to a publication called The American Reformer. Thanks to Google, the masthead is displayed above. Like most, if not all, of you, I had never heard of The American Reformer. The publication is subtitled “A Journal of Reform” and was published from the Tribune Building in New York City and commanded an annual subscription price of one dollar.  My reading of excerpts of this publication revealed that it was essentially a newpaper devoted to the Temperance Movement with selected news and commentary devoted to the advancement of that movement.  For those of you who are still scratching your head, the Temperance Movement advocated the prohibition of alcoholic beverages and ultimately reached its high water mark with the adoption of the 18th Amendment making Prohibition the law of the land. It was later repealed by the 21st Amendment.

At this point, you are wondering what this has to do with Throatine. Well,  it seems that Mr. Warner took a liking to The American Reformer or perhaps thought that it would help him reach new customers. I mean, who needs alcohol when you have Safe Cure? The 1884 editions of the Reformer contain a series of terrific full page ads for Warner’s Safe Cure products, including the elusive Throatine. Given the size of the ads, one would suspect that Mr. Warner was one of the Reformer’s  best advertisers. Indeed, when Warner unveiled his new Safe Remedies Building in January, 1884, the Reformer devoted four and a half columns to the event under the headline “A Magnificent Business Block – Warner’s New Safe Remedy Building”. Clearly, they wanted to keep one of their top advertisers happy. The article appeared in the January 19, 1884 edition as follows:

The American Reformer - January 19, 1884

The article has no byline and it would not be difficult to imagine that it was generated as a press release by the Warner Safe Remedies Company. Perhaps the most interesting aspect is the detail provided on every aspect of the building. It is not short of praise for Mr. Warner. Indeed, in discussing his sagacity in erecting the new Safe Remedies Building on the site of the former Central Hudson Depot, the Reformer says:

Nothing was more logical, therefore, than that Mr. H. H. Warner should early secure the best location on [North St. Paul Street], and should plan to erect thereupon an edifice surpassing all of its neighbors in size and appearance, and in cost. It is the way of the man. He sees large opportunities as by telescope, while they are yet far off; he comprehends their promise with singular clearness; he acts with marvelous promptness and unfaltering decision.

The remainder of the article strikes a similar tone. The really amazing thing is that all of this appears in the pages of a temperance paper. In upcoming posts, I will feature some of the advertisements from the Reformer and discuss them in greater detail.

Warner’s Safe Cure: The Industries of the City of Rochester (Part I)

Let me start out by saying that Google has done us all a huge favor. Their project to scan the libraries of several great universities has provided a treasure trove of historical material at our finger tips. Thankfully, that includes publications about H. H. Warner and his Safe Cure. Thanks Google.

Having said that, I was delighted to stumble across a book published in 1888 by Hiram Sibley with the rather cumbersome title of “The Industries of the City of Rochester: A Resume of Her Past History and Progress, Together with a Condensed Summary of Her Industrial Advantages and Development and a  Series of Comprehensive Sketches of Her Representative Business Enterprises, Incorporating a Condensed History of the Chamber of Commerce.” So much for brevity. The work was published by Elstner Publishing Company in Rochester. By the by, you will recall  from my earlier Warner Chronology that H. H. Warner was elected as the first president of the Chamber in 1887 beating out that obscure camera inventor, George Eastman. By 1888, Warner was probably at the height of his patent medicine success and opening his short-lived Pressburg Office in Hungary. Not surprisingly, Industries included a section on H. H. Warner, which begs the question of whether this book was simply another piece of advertising. Well, I guess that is the business of any chamber of commerce.

Prominently featured in the article is the Warner Remedies Building, having been opened four years earlier in 1884. This is a particularly good engraving of the Warner Building and I have fixed it as a permanent image on this blog. In fairness to Mr. Warner, this book is by no means a fluff piece just for his enterprise, but is, rather, an amazing catalog of Rochester businesses and industries. Any student of Rochester history would want to leaf through a copy of this book, which is apparently available in a reprinted version.

There are several interesting portions of the section on Warner Safe Remedies.  It provides us with the layout of the building:

The above building, which is located on North St. Paul  st., Nos. 60, 62, 64, 66, 68, 70 and 72, has a floor capacity of four and one-quarter acres, the basement being used for storage purposes of bottles and materials, the first floor being the general offices and shipping room; second floor, mailing room with packing room for  the Yeast department; third floor, packing and bottling room for the Safe Remedies; fifth floor, drying floor for the Yeast department; sixth floor, laboratory; seventh floor, laboratory; eighth floor, general storage rooms.

Now, before you accuse me of leaving out  mention of the fourth floor, it was omitted from the text. Not sure if that was a typo or if the operations of the fourth floor were not for public dissemination. Who knows? In any event, this book helps us gain a little more insight into the operations of Hulbert Harrington Warner.

 

Warner’s Safe Remedies Building: Living History

If you are a Warner’s Safe Cure collector, you owe it to yourself to visit the center of the Warner universe, Rochester,  New York.  I did so in 2001 and have written about it before in this blog.  During my visit, Jack Stecher and I were able to go into the building, but found that much of the space was carved up into commercial uses and undoubtedly bore little resemblence to the hustle and bustle of the patent medicine business that flourished there in the late-19th Century. Nevertheless, the fact that this wonderful piece of Victorian architecture was still standing for us to admire was no small thing. Rochester has lost more than its fair share of wonderful buildings to the wrecking ball, including other structures associated with H. H. Warner, such as his mansion and the Warner Observatory.

I was delighed recently to find that the Warner’s Safe Remedies Building has found yet another adaptive reuse in the form of the  H. H. Warner Lofts. Although I had not been back to the building to tour these new residential spaces, they appear to make wonderful use of  unique architecture of this building and will hopefully ensure that it lasts for many more years.

Best of all, the developers of this project have been mindful of the significance of the building’s history and its progenitor and have included photos of Warner’s Safe almanacs and trade cards on their website. I say “Bravo” to the H. H. Warner Lofts. If I lived in Rochester,  I might be considering a new address.

Warner’s Safe Cure: Eureka Spund Apparatus Company

Just when you think you have a handle on H. H. Warner, something else turns up that surprises you about the extent of his business involvement. I have recounted his initial business success with fireproof safes and his phenomenal success in the patent medicine business. This is contrasted with his failures in various mining ventures. It appears that Warner also had his fingers in other businesses, to wit the Eureka Spund Apparatus Company of Rochester.

This letter came from Jack Stecher’s collection and is a real gem. Now, I have no idea what the Eureka Spund Apparatus Company made, but the letter suggests that it has something to do with the brewing industry. The letterhead lists H. H. Warner as President and Albert S. Sidelow as Secretary. Perhaps as important as Warner’s name was the watermark on the letterhead, the Warner’s Safe Remedies Building (also known as the Warner’s Safe Yeast Company Building). Warner’s name and building on the letterhead were undoubtedly intended to convey the message that Eureka Spund had good standing, effectively an endorsement. This letter was sent out in 1890 as the Warner empire was reaching its zenith. Warner had served as the first president of the Rochester Chamber of Commerce in 1887. Warner knew the importance of leveraging his patent medicine prowess and Eureka Spund is a perfect example.

I googled “Eureka Spund” and came up empty. Jack speculates that it was short-lived and may have fallen victim to Warner’s financial collapse in 1893. Unlike the Eureka Spund Apparatus Company, the recipient of the letter, the Eberhardt & Ober Brewing Company, is not lost to history and was apparently a significant Pennsylvania brewer. Indeed, Penn State University has a collection of Eberhardt & Ober records  between 1882 and 1906.

If you have any information on Eureka Spund, please let me know and I will supplement this post.  Also, I would welcome any other examples of Warner letterhead that markets products other than patent medicine.

Warner’s Safe Cure: A Chronology

I thought I would take a shot at creating a time line that summaries the significant events in the existence of the Warner’s Safe Cure Company and its founder, H. H. Warner. I’m sure that I will miss something and welcome any suggestions. This will likely be a work in progress, but here goes:

• 1842    Hulbert Harrington Warner born near Syracuse, New York in a small town called Warners, which was named after his grandfather, Seth, who had moved there in 1807 from Stockbridge, Massachusetts.

• 1864     Warner marries Martha L. Keeney, a prominent young woman from Skaneateles, New York. Like Warner, she was born in 1842, but died suddenly in 1871. The marriage produced no children. 

 

• 1865    Warner avoided service in the Union Army in the Civil War. He moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan where he and a partner were engaged in the stove and hardware business.

• 1870     Returned to New York and settled in Rochester as a dealer in fire and burglar proof safes. He was a dealer for the predecessor of the Mosler Safe Company of Cincinnati, Ohio. (See New York Daily Graphic, May 10, 1888; Rochester Union & Advertiser, April 27, 1883).

• 1872     Warner marries Emily Olive Stoddard (born 1847 in Michigan). It appears that this second marriage produced one child, a daughter, Maud. It also appears that Emily predeceased Warner.

• 1879     Following his recovery from Bright’s Disease, Warner purchases the rights to Dr. Charles Craig’s Kidney Cure and promptly begins to market it as Warner’s Safe Kidney & Liver Cure. In addition, he offers four other products: Safe Pills, Safe Nervine,  Safe Bitters and Safe Diabetes Cure. The company operates initially out of a building on Exhange Street in downtown Rochester.

• 1879     Warner is introduced to “Doctor” Lewis Swift, who was by vocation a partner in a hardware store and by avocation an astronomer who has discovered several comets. It was rumored that Swift was leaving Rochester, because he believed his talents were not sufficiently appreciated.

• 1882     Warner opens his Toronto Office and offers his cures in the 3-Cities bottles.

• 1883     Warner opens his London Office and begins offering his cures in a spectacular array of colored bottles.

• 1883     The Warner Observatory is completed and fitted out by January at a cost to Warner of $100,000. It boasts a 16″ telescope that was 22 feet long donated by the citizens of Rochester. It becomes a focal point of much of Warner’s advertising.

• 1884     The Warner’s Safe Remedies Building is opened on Warner’s 42nd birthday in January on St. Paul’s Avenue in Rochester. The iron front building was also marketed as the Warner’s Safe Yeast Building and in its eight stories housed Warner’s manufacturing, shipping and marketing operations. The fascade is graced with the monograms “W” and fitted out with first class details. The building remains today as the last vestige of Warner’s patent medicine empire.

 

• 1885     Warner adds his Safe Rheumatic Cure, Animal Cure and Safe Throatine to his product line. In addition, he introduces his Tippecanoe Bitters in two grades, “The Best” and “XXX” and phases out his Safe Bitters.

• 1887     Warner introduces his Log Cabin Remedies line of products, which included Log Cabin Sarsaparilla, Log Cabin Hops & Buchu Remedy, Log Cabin Cough and Consumption Remedy, Log Cabin Extract, Log Cabin Rose Cream, Log Cabin Hair Tonic, Log Cabin Plasters and Log Cabin Liver Pills.

 

• 1887     Warner opens his Frankfurt, Germany and Melbourne, Australia Office expanding his patent medicine empire onto three continents.

• 1888     Warner delivers his inaugeral address as president of the Rochester Chamber of Commerce in January.  Warner had been elected president in 1887 winning out over George Eastman, the owner of a little known camera company. Warner is perhaps at the peak of his prosperity with business failure and bankruptcy looming on the horizon.

• 1888     Warner opens his Pressburg, Hungary Office, which remains open only two years. Bottles from the Pressburg Office are particularly prized by collectors because of their rarity.

 

• 1891     Warner opens his Kreuzlingen, Switzerland and Dundein, New Zealand Offices. No Warner bottles embossed Kreuzlingen have ever surfaced. The bottles from the Dundein Office have become known as 4-Cities bottles because they bear the names of four of Warner’s offices at the time: Rochester, London, Toronto and Melbourne.

• 1893     In what would become known as the Panic of 1893, the American securities market crashed in February. Warner was overextended and when his creditors began to call his loans, he scrambled to raise cash. Warner’s longtime business partner, Arthur G. Yates, was unable to cover all of Warner’s debt. Warner was left to travel the country trying to offer his shares in H. H. Warner & Co. Ltd. as collateral for his debts. While some creditors accepted the shares, others did not, and Warner was forced into bankruptcy  on May 8. He lost his mansion on East Avenue, his Observatory, his yacht, his retreat on Warner Island in the St. Lawrence River and, most importantly, his reputation.

 

• 1917     Christina de Martinez Warner (born 1878 in Mexico) was never officially married to  Warner, but apparently resided with him and served as an officer to the Nuera Remedy Company in Minneapolis in the 1930′s to early 1940′s. She resided at his address of 1311 Blaisdell Avenue in Minneapolis between 1917 and 1948.

• 1923     Warner dies in Minneapolis having never regained the economic prominence he enjoyed when the the Warner’s Safe Remedies Company was at its peak. To his credit, he never quit trying to reestablish his former renown. Warner is buried next to his first wife, Martha, in her family’s plot at Lakeview Cemetary in Skaneateles, New York.

• 1929     The Warner Mansion on East Avenue in Rochester is razed to make way for a parking lot.

Warner’s Safe Advertising: Trade Cards

Perhaps one of the most impressive things about the Warner’s Safe empire is that he had such presence in the marketplace. In future posts, I want to focus on his array of inducements to buy his products; however, for now, I will start with the simple. Like most merchants of the day, Warner distributed an untold number of trade cards depicting his products usually along with a caricatured Victorian scene on the front and some bit of wisdom on the reverse. Trade cards were the direct mail of their day and whole websites are devoted to collecting them.

Most of Warner’s trade cards were designed to sell his Safe Cure and his Safe Yeast and most are generally available to interested collectors on eBay or at shows and range in price from $5 – $20. The exception would clearly be the Battle of Tippecanoe cards that fetch well in excess of that price, if you can find them. On occasion, you will see someone attempting to sell the front or back cover of a Warner’s Safe almanac as a trade card. Whether intentionally or merely as the result of ignorance, such offerings are dishonest. Not only are these clippings not trade cards, they are scraps of a damaged almanac or pamphlet. So, caveat emptor.

Warner’s Safe trade cards are a great addition to any Warner’s collection, because they illustrate a part of what made Warner successful in his business. That is, the ability to reach into the homes of Victorian America and convince them that his products were essential to a life well-lived.

Warner’s Safe Yeast

I think it’s safe to say that most of us associate yeast with baking bread or some other culinary endeavor and not with medicine. Although I have no figures to back this up, I would venture to say that second only to advertising related to his Safe Cure, Warner featured his Safe Yeast, which, according to him possessed medicinal qualities. Mike Seeliger has opined that Safe Yeast was Warner’s largest seller.

Warner’s Safe Yeast hit the market in  about 1885. It was packaged initially in a cylindrical container in a large and small size. After April 1, 1890, the packaging changed to square container. The product retailed for 10 cents per package. Unfortunately for collectors, the Safe Yeast product was packaged in a cardboard container rather than glass bottles, which accounts for the relative rarity of Safe Yeast containers available. I have attached an image of an invoice for the purchase of Safe Yeast dated May 28, 1887. The description of the product is worthy of note:

1 Case containing 1 doz. boxes large size and 1/2 doz. boxes small size of Warner’s Safe Yeast. Each case also contains sample packages of two (2) cakes each for free distribution for all of which we make no charge. Future supplies of Warner’s Safe Yeast can be obtained from any Wholesale Grocer in cases of 3 doz. boxes of both large and small sizes at $1.75 and $1.00 per case, respectively.

Warner’s Safe Yeast Co.

Officially, Safe Yeast was manufactured and distributed by the Waner’s Safe Yeast Company, which, conveniently, was located in the same building as the Warner’s Safe Cure business. However, some advertising refers to the building as the Warner’s Safe Yeast Building.

Warner was clearly a pioneer in the “proof of purchase” marketing business. Depending on which ad your read, cutting out and sending 10 front package covers featuring the safe and 10 two cent stamps or 15 top covers plus the same postage entitled the sender to a copy of the Warner’s Safe Cookbook that included 500 pages of the “choicest recipes, all tested and tried by experts, who pronounce them the ‘best’”. The Warner’s Safe Cookbook went through a number of editions and many survive to this day, demonstrating the popularity of the promotion.

The Warner’s Safe Cure Building Revisited 2001

In April, 2001, I had occasion to travel to Rochester for the Genesee Valley Bottle Show and to participate in perhaps the best Warner’s Safe Cure display ever assembled (which will be the subject of a future post). While there, I visited with Jack Stecher and he kindly took me into downtown Rochester to visit the great remaining landmark of H. H. Warner, his Safe Cure Building. My visit was about 117 years after the structure opened on Warner’s birthday in January, 1884.

Believe me, the pictures and engravings do not do this building justice. It is an icon of a prosperous time in Rochester’s history and its details are those reminiscent of a medieval cathedral. The iron work is spectacular and the building is emblazened with “W”‘s, just in case you forget who built it. Although it is wonderful that the building has survived into the 21st Century, its space has been subdivided into smaller commercial parcels. Jack and I were able to walk around parts of the building and among my photos is an interior picture looking out some of the arched windows. One can only imagine such a room lined with cases of Safe Cure as employees scurry about filling orders and sending out almanacs and free samples.

If you find yourself in Rochester, take the time to visit this historic landmark on St. Paul Street.  Appropriately enough, it is now called “Warner Place.”

The Warner’s Safe Cure Building

In 1883, Warner embarked on the construction of a new manufacturing facility befitting the patent medicine empire that he was creating. The details of the new Romanesque building on St. Paul Street were published by the Rochester Union and Advertiser and recounted by Atwater. Its eight stories enclosed some four acres of floor space with brick arches and iron joists to support the floors. The exterior featured cast iron fronts emblazened with ”W”‘s and large panels of plate glass. The interior details included hard maple floors, two hydraulic elevators and electric lighting throughout.  The new building was to cost $250,000 (about $5.3 Million today) and was to be completed in nine months. It was the tallest building in Rochester. The construction was not without controversy, but it was ultimately completed and opened on Warner’s forty-second birthday in January, 1884.

The first floor housed the Warner business office, including Mr. Warner’s panelled office and the shipping department. The second floor was home to the advertising and publishing departments managed by H. L. Ensign. The third floor was occupied by the mailing department, which distributed millions of pieces of promotional material each year.  On the fourth floor was the bottling works and on the fifth, the laboratory. The remaining floors were used for storage. It was estimated that it was possible to manufacture 7,000 gallons of medicine daily. That quantity would fill 56,000 bottles, which would retail for $70,000.

Thereafter, the building graced much of Warner’s advertising, including his almanacs and tradecards. It became a symbol of the Safe Cure empire. The quality of its construction no doubt accounts for its continued existence as an architectural feature of downtown Rochester. When I visited Rochester in 2001, Jack Stecher kindly guided me on a visit to the building. It was a pilgrimage of sorts to the historic heart of Warner’s universe.