Sometimes you get remembered for things other than what you'd predict.
H.W. Barker of Sparta Wisconsin turned out this swell looking patent medicine.
This one is so clean it is almost harder to read than usual. "H.W. BARKER'S COUGH REMEDY 50 cents".
Over his long life H.W. Barker did a lot of things. Born near Lacrosse, Wisconsin in 1860 he went over to Minnesota for a visit after his high school graduation and ended up staying 22 years. He taught school for a while before moving to Parker's Prairie where he apprenticed with a doctor and helped in a drug store. At that point in history that's all you needed to get a Pharmacy license, so he moved to Elbow Lake and started a drug store. There he ran for mayor and served as same for three terms. He became at least a passable fiddler, good enough to play at weddings. He married and had several children.
In 1902 he moved back to Wisconsin, specifically to Sparta. Presumably drawing upon his prior pharmacy experience he started producing medicines in a building behind his house. He had a modest degree of success, selling over an 8 state area and employing several salesmen.
Barker also returned to politics, serving as a Wisconsin state senator from 1907 to 1909.
After that he seems to have just carried on. An news article on the occasion of his 89th birthday in 1949 says that he was still making and selling his products, although by then he was down to a skin medicine and vanilla flavoring extract.
In 1950 he passed away. His obituary is largely a rehash of the article published the year before. I think it is interesting how it identifies him:
He appears to be a likeable old coot, whose great accomplishment in life was sponsoring a bill that required hotels to use nine foot long bedsheets! Hotel patrons with nice warm toes are an appreciative group.
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