L.C. Millard

The study of small town/small time patent medicine companies almost always leaves you shorthanded.  Usually you have information and no artifacts.  Sometimes it is an artifact and little info.  That's the case with L.C. Millard and his Magic Oil, aka The Great Pain Exterminator.

Here's the bottle.  Paper label only.  I have photos but have not actually seen the item in person.  The style looks late, probably 1910 or so.  But if you look closely you'll see a possible clue.....

And here's that clue.  I think it says Columbian E &F Co.  

Lindle C. Millard was born in Illinois in 1846.  After living there and in Iowa he came to Chippewa Falls circa 1885.  I have not found much about his occupation.  His obituary describes him as "A gentleman of exemplary habits.."  I think he began running a small time patent medicine company circa 1893.  That was the year of the great Columbian Exhibition in Chicago, which commemorated the 401st anniversary of Columbus discovering the new world.  The cryptic words above seem to hint at this event.

My usual source of information on small town doings is the local paper.  And with regard to Mr. Millard it has been slim pickings.  Starting in the early 90s there are periodic mentions of him being in various communities on business.  But it is often vague.  Here's an example from 1897 that caught my eye as he was apparently calling on the tiny hamlet that is near my "up north" cabin.

Regards how he got into the patent medicine trade, and what he did before that, I have only hints.  He may have been the L. Millard who worked in logging camps as a "scaler" in the late 1880s.  As you may have guessed, a scaler estimates the amount and therefor the value, of lumber in a load of cut trees.  This was actually a pretty important job.

In late 1891 L.C. Millard fell and was injured on what he claimed was a defective section of city sidewalk on Cedar Street.  He hurt his back, had to walk with a cane, and attempted to get the City of Chippewa Falls to pay him $5000 in compensation.  This was eventually denied.  Was this the event that took him "out of the woods" and into a more sedentary occupation?

Per the label on the above bottle this was Millard's home and place of business.  This modest dwelling, where he must have filled his bottles, is actually quite near my house.  

When L.C. Millard died in 1912 his obituary gives us just a little more....

The doings of his son Charles up in Alaska get frequent mention in local papers.  And there is a brief mention in July 1913 that his daughter Mrs. Wilson was carrying on her father's work as "..an agent for medicine...".  She was said to be making good and getting ready for a business trip up north.