Paul Minor

Delving Into Yester~Year

Local historian and writer Paul Miner takes items from The Republican’s Yester-Year column to develop an interesting, informative and often humorous article.

To the Editor: Drowsing in the library on a rainswept day, I read Brownsburg’s canning factory in

October 1896 was churning out 18,000 cans of tomatoes a day. I remembered green tomatoes can be electrified to make a battery, and that they possess slight diamagnetism properties as well.

Few likely knew that back then, so “electric” and “magnetic” described things that were neither when sly marketers decided both words were sufficiently intriguing to reel in credulous customers.

Bald people who had abandoned hope in 1850 for luxurious manes were urged to get the Magnetic Hair Restorer and Invigorator from the Empire Company in New York.

Glabrous Advertiser readers surely hitched horse and drove to Danville, inconspicuously asking who around the Square had the stuff.

Agents in Danville and Springtown sold Dr. W. Swan’s Magnetic and Vegetable Purifying Pills in 1851. Swan’s cleansed the liver, stomach and bowels without purging or vomiting.

I found no further reference to “magnetic” until 1877 when Dr. J. Clark, one of “nature’s own magnetic healers,” lectured two nights in Clayton on physiology and “the magnetic touch.” A local doctor, “who had observations with him privately, reports him thin.” A mystifying San Francisco medium in 1880 “surmised” her powers arose from “certain physical peculiarities, in the shape of “magnetic endowments,” enabling spirits to “express themselves.”

Seven years pass before another magnetic mention. This time, it’s Magnetic Insoles for relief from rheumatism, cold feet and bad circulation, price $1, please include shoe size.

Those insoles were “the most powerful made in the world” and afforded relief within three minutes.

The Magnetic Appliance Company of Chicago manufactured the miraculous devices, along with Magnetic Kidney Belts for gentlemen.

The belts would “positively cure” pain in the back, head or limbs; nervous and general debility, and lumbago; rheumatism, paralysis and neuralgia; sciatica, kidney diseases and torpid liver.

They remedied something I’m uncomfortable mentioning, impotency, heart disease, dyspepsia, indigestion, hernia or rupture, piles, and more.

Together with the insoles, cost was $10. I’d spend that – and more –even if I didn’t suffer from all those conditions. Waist size needed.

Both were warranted to cure that thing I can’t mention, and impotency, in one year or money back.

Ladies could order an Abdominal Belt and Magnetic Foot Batteries for conditions I can’t disclose for fear of being indiscreet, but about which Magnetic Appliance wanted “full particulars,” for only $10, six-month trial guaranteed money back. These devices were worn over the underclothing and held their power “forever.”

Keeter & Company on the Square’s west side sold six bars of Magnetic Soap for 25 cents in mid-1888. That quarter would buy seven bars of Every Day Soap. Old potatoes were $1 per bushel. A nickel bought a pound of prunes.

Mrs. M.C. Thayer of downtown Indianapolis treated all diseases using water and Dr. Thacher’s magnetic shields in 1890. The miraculous “hydro-magnetism” cured chronic rheumatism and neuralgia in a few days.

Dropsy, hernia, spinal difficulties, hip trouble and “all deformities of children” were cured with Magnetic Shields, along with nervous trouble, palsy, paralysis, epilepsy and chronic dyspepsia. Heart disease was cured in 99 out of 100 cases.

A “very fleshy” Indianapolis woman suffering from rheumatism claimed both cure and eight-inch waistline loss. A bedridden Shelbyville man beset with rheumatism and blood poisoning was not only cured but gained “50 pounds of flesh in four months.”

Mrs. Thayer cured boils, carbuncles and felon fingers at no charge. She convened consultations at Mrs. Daggy’s place in Danville.

In 1902, readers sent a stamp or 10 cents to The Investigator, Box 7X, Willow Mill, Illinois. In return, they would learn about hypnotism and magnetic healing, “no fake.” This was a 30-day offer, so don’t send anything now.

Defiance Starch which housewives “must have” for the laundry was unequalled; Magnetic Starch Manufacturing of Omaha produced it. A 16-ounce package not requiring cooking cost a dime.

G.W. Sharp handled the “full line” of Professor Long’s Celebrated Magnetic Combs in 1903. These wondrous combs, which I think were made of an aluminum alloy, removed dandruff, stopped hair loss, and cured headaches.

Sharp was county agent for the Mound City Dish Washer. The device was a large lidded pot equipped with a crank on top. Filled with dirty dishes, water and detergent, and cranked for five minutes, the gadget rendered everything inside clean and undamaged. I’d buy one. Paul Miner Lizton