Winslow and his Wonder Worker

With a handful of exceptions the patent medicine era of the 19th and early 20th century is one of robust, exuberant growth....and rapid decline.  Medical science invented things that actually worked.  The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 made it illegal to have secret ingredients and outlandish claims.  So there is no shortage of tales involving Success and Decline.  George Winslow is one of these.

George F. Winslow was born in Boston in 1859.  The family moved west to Rockford Illinois in 1861, where George eventually apprenticed in a drug store.  He moved to Eau Claire Wisconsin in 1882, clerking for an early druggist named Kinnear.  A few years later he set up his own store and by the mid 1880's had branched out, adding medicine manufacturing to his retail business.  An early product - and one that would probably not pass muster with the Food Drug Act - was his Wonder Worker.

At this point in history the northern half of Wisconsin was still covered with timber, and every winter an army of lumberjacks would head north to live in camps and cut it down.  Winslow saw opportunity there and tailored his business to this market.  He called his product line "Camp Remedies".  The came packed in special wooden chests to be shipped north, not only to Wisconsin but also Minnesota, Michigan and Washington Territory.  He also published a "newspaper" called The Camp News.  Sadly no surviving copy has come my way, but one would assume it had more testimonials than actual news.

A couple more Winslow products.  This example is actually so clean that it is hard to photograph.

And of course, medicines were made for Man or Beast.  After 1906 the word Cure was specifically banned in any advertising for human medicines.

 Life was pretty good for Winslow.  He built this swell house, still standing, in Eau Claire.  He added a side line - selling wallpaper - that sounds boring but as it turns out was a good hedge against his main line of merchandise not doing well.  The newspaper suggests that he had a theatrical group of some sort in the early 90's although whether the Winslow Medicine Company did classic Medicine Shows out on the road or were a less interesting amateur theatrical society in not clear.  It's frustrating when the newspaper just assumes you know such things already.  He married the daughter of a lumber baron/mill owner.

Sometimes things work out, sometimes they don't.  As the 20th Century got going the patent medicine industry waned.  Winslow was mostly selling wall paper.  The heiress gave him the boot in 1911, alleging cruel and unusual treatment.  She closed off most of the mansion and set up a bedroom on the main floor.  Winslow's 1940 obituary mentions that he had resided at "The Elks Club" for many years.  Most such places had a bar and I can imagine George down there every night boring his fellow Elks with tales of his promising life turned bad......