James Rork Revisited - Badger Liniment and other Tales

Way back in 2011 I put up a brief post on a certain James E. Rork and his rather eye catching bottles full of "Rork's Badger Liniment".  Since then more sources of information have become available so I felt a revisit was in order.  It also seems a good story on which to base another historic geocache.  First of course, the artifact that draws us to the quirky tale of Mr. Rork.

James Rork was born in 1828 to Irish immigrant parents who had moved to New York.  Of his early life I can say no more, but he moved to rural Dunn County Wisconsin circa 1860.  He turns up in local history for the first time in 1862 where he seems to have helped set off the comical "Indian Scare" that gripped Eau Claire in August of that year.  At that time the Sioux, or as they would prefer to be called Dakota, were involved in a violent uprising against settlers over in  Minnesota.  When smoke was sighted a mile west of the Rork farmstead (supposedly from a vat of soap boiling over) Rork rode into town to sound the alarm.

In many ways James Rork lived the life of a typical pioneer farmer.  He married a woman named Sarah.  They had 9 children together.  He was involved in local politics.  He raised and apparently treated horses, becoming enough of an expert to serve as a judge of same at the Dunn County Fair.  He built a grist mill.  "Missionary and Temperance" meetings were held at his house.  Rork was a busy guy.  From the 1880's a moment when he stood still long enough for a picture:

I think I see a fun loving twinkle in those eyes.  But perhaps something else as well.  Because his life was not without hard times.  Those nine children?  The newspaper was often reporting one or more of them being ill.  Diptheria.  "..prostrate with billious fever".  Why in one single local news column it was reported that Jimmy Rork had erysipelas of the face and that his brother Seth had been injured playing with a cap gun and might lose the sight in one eye.

Even the joyful moments had their dark side.  In March of 1879 it was mentioned that the Rork family had new twins.  There must have been something earlier about another set of twins in the area because the correspondent mused "Is it possible that Elk Creek water is the cause of all this, as Mrs. Grant used to say..."   Five weeks later it was announced that one of the twins had died.*  And even in June Mrs. Rork was said to be "slowly recovering". 

Rork was at least a local figure of prominence.  The bridge over Elk creek at his homestead was called "Rork bridge" long after his death.  And I suspect the nearby school house also had a nick name.  From the Dunn County News:  "Several boys trapped skunks under the Rork school house on Saturday March 10, and as a result school had to be closed on Monday."

Sometimes early settlers of an area are long remembered, their names living on through generations.  Sometimes not.  James E. Rork died in 1900, his wife in 1905.  One of his older children, Cora died in 1906, of pneumonia.  I'm not surprised, she was often reported ill over the years.  At that point the newspaper mentioned that several of her brothers were living on the old homestead, but it seems much of the family had scattered.  Grace, a school teacher, presumably into the anonymity of a married name.  Two of the brothers Earnest and the possibly one-eyed Seth set off for Montana in 1892 to find their fortunes.  Brother Ralph may have joined them, as he fell off a horse to his death there in 1904.  At that time he was said to leave behind 5 brothers and 3 sisters.  Several of them I have had no luck tracing.

Oh, and the patent medicine business.  It remains the great oddity of James Rork's life.  He seems to have had no formal training in medical matters unless you count mention of him sometimes being called to treat horses.  Maybe the liniment was of the "For Man or Beast" variety.  If so it was likely harmless stuff, unlike the opioid filled nostrums taken internally and liberally in that era.

The bottle design was copyrighted in 1893, a reasonable starting point for the venture.  This is backed up by the following 1893 ad:  

I've always suspected that Badger Liniment was put up in association with a local druggist and this seems to establish a link between Rork and Will C. Johnson of Eau Claire.  Confusingly a later ad - one that gives the official name of Badger Liniment - is placed by a different pharmacist, a man named Playter, also of Eau Claire.  Perhaps the brand was transferred from one establishment to another.  It may have survived as late as 1905, out living its creator.

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* It is not my intent to dive into the particulars of the Rork family tree, but my count of siblings suggests that the report of the girl twin dying may have been in error.  This seems likely to be the often ill Cora, who lived long enough to marry, have two children and move out West like so many of her siblings.