WEBVTT - The Shakers: America's Early Pharmacists 0:00:02.240 --> 0:00:06.559 Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership 0:00:06.600 --> 0:00:12.240 with iHeartRadio. Hey, before the show starts today, we have 0:00:12.320 --> 0:00:13.880 a little bit of fun news to share. 0:00:14.120 --> 0:00:15.040 We have had a secret. 0:00:15.680 --> 0:00:19.480 We have been working very diligently for the past many 0:00:19.560 --> 0:00:23.000 months on creating something that a lot of you have 0:00:23.040 --> 0:00:26.000 been asking for, and that is a book of cocktails 0:00:26.000 --> 0:00:28.760 and cocktails that are told right alongside the stories that 0:00:28.800 --> 0:00:29.760 we talk about. 0:00:29.680 --> 0:00:31.880 Plus additional ones that we have not talked about. 0:00:32.440 --> 0:00:35.320 That's right. This book is about half stories you have heard, 0:00:35.320 --> 0:00:40.360 although they've been abridged, alongside their cocktails and brand news 0:00:40.360 --> 0:00:43.479 stories that we are telling, and brand new cocktails that 0:00:43.520 --> 0:00:44.560 we have never had before. 0:00:45.240 --> 0:00:48.920 We are on pre order now so you can order 0:00:49.000 --> 0:00:51.120 up and wait for it to hit in October. 0:00:51.560 --> 0:00:54.280 That's right. It is going to be out on October fifteenth, 0:00:54.320 --> 0:00:56.480 and you can order it now just about anywhere books 0:00:56.480 --> 0:00:59.640 are sold. Check out your local bookstores and see if 0:00:59.640 --> 0:01:02.160 they're going to have it. All right, let's jump into 0:01:02.200 --> 0:01:06.000 the episode. 0:01:09.200 --> 0:01:12.840 They called themselves the United Society of True Believers in 0:01:12.959 --> 0:01:16.880 Christ's second appearing, a group commonly known to the rest 0:01:16.880 --> 0:01:21.399 of us as Shakers, founded in Manchester, England, in seventeen 0:01:21.440 --> 0:01:25.319 forty seven. They were and are a religious group resulting 0:01:25.319 --> 0:01:28.800 from the Protestant Reformation that led to new Christian denominations 0:01:28.880 --> 0:01:33.800 outside of the Catholic Church during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Today, 0:01:33.959 --> 0:01:37.880 they're probably best known for their handmade furniture, but we're 0:01:37.920 --> 0:01:41.160 not here to talk about those clean lines, tapered legs, 0:01:41.240 --> 0:01:47.040 and minimalist designs. Welcome to Criminalia. I'm Maria Tromarchy and 0:01:47.120 --> 0:01:48.000 I'm Holly Fry. 0:01:48.800 --> 0:01:52.040 The Shaker community has a faith that's a combination of 0:01:52.040 --> 0:01:55.240 belief systems that were part of the Society of Friends 0:01:55.320 --> 0:01:59.440 also known as Quakers and the French Commissards, with influence 0:01:59.480 --> 0:02:04.040 from other Protestant denominations. In seventeen seventy four, the Shakers 0:02:04.160 --> 0:02:08.480 emigrated from England to what was then Colonial America. Their 0:02:08.600 --> 0:02:13.639 arrival happened shortly before the American Revolutionary War began. Many 0:02:13.720 --> 0:02:17.400 initially settled in rural areas outside of Albany, New York. 0:02:17.960 --> 0:02:21.240 Of note was their settlement in New Lebanon, known to 0:02:21.320 --> 0:02:25.720 them as Mount Lebanon. Mount Lebanon was their largest community 0:02:25.800 --> 0:02:29.760 and became the base or motherhouse of the sect. At 0:02:29.760 --> 0:02:33.960 its peak, that community had six hundred members and hundreds 0:02:34.000 --> 0:02:38.000 of buildings that spread out over six thousand acres. As 0:02:38.040 --> 0:02:41.360 people moved west on the American frontier, over the years, 0:02:41.840 --> 0:02:46.239 more Shaker communities sprang up around the country. At their peak, 0:02:46.480 --> 0:02:49.680 considered to have been roughly between eighteen forty and eighteen 0:02:49.840 --> 0:02:54.200 ninety ish, there were twenty three, possibly twenty four villages 0:02:54.600 --> 0:02:59.080 in the United States. Today, there is only one active 0:02:59.160 --> 0:03:02.840 Shaker village remaining, near Sabbath Day Lake in central Maine, 0:03:03.200 --> 0:03:06.480 and as of twenty eighteen, there were just two members. 0:03:08.360 --> 0:03:12.799 Shaker communities were founded in very rural areas. Those who 0:03:12.840 --> 0:03:16.400 lived inside these communities were known as believers, and those 0:03:16.480 --> 0:03:20.760 outside were called quote the world's people or people of 0:03:20.760 --> 0:03:24.320 the world. Shakers may have been far from the corruption 0:03:24.480 --> 0:03:26.680 of cities, as they would have called it, but they 0:03:26.680 --> 0:03:30.560 weren't out of touch with outsiders. They allowed those from 0:03:30.720 --> 0:03:33.359 the world to visit their communities and to observe their 0:03:33.360 --> 0:03:36.840 religious practices. Let's talk a little bit more about the 0:03:36.880 --> 0:03:39.400 Shakers to get a better understanding of who they were 0:03:39.840 --> 0:03:42.920 and are before we get into why the heck we're 0:03:42.920 --> 0:03:43.640 talking about them. 0:03:43.680 --> 0:03:48.440 To begin with, Shakers believed in communal living, and they 0:03:48.480 --> 0:03:52.880 believed in pacifism. They believed in the confession of one's sins. 0:03:53.640 --> 0:03:57.160 An important part of the Shaker community was the meeting house. 0:03:57.520 --> 0:04:01.720 It was the center of worship services, and Shaker ceremonies 0:04:01.800 --> 0:04:05.400 were known to include not just biblical readings, but they 0:04:05.440 --> 0:04:11.680 also had a physicality about them. There was spontaneous dancing, whirling, shaking, 0:04:11.840 --> 0:04:16.320 other ecstatic movements, all of which were expressions of spirituality. 0:04:16.400 --> 0:04:20.680 Often described as a physical way to shake off one's sins. 0:04:21.200 --> 0:04:24.480 It is how they became known to the world as Shakers. 0:04:25.240 --> 0:04:27.799 The Shaker faith was based on a belief of God 0:04:27.920 --> 0:04:31.039 and of living the best Christian life you could based 0:04:31.080 --> 0:04:34.279 on the Gospels of the Christian Bible. Part of the 0:04:34.279 --> 0:04:36.720 Shaker faith, too, was the idea that there was a 0:04:36.839 --> 0:04:40.360 duality of God, and this was represented as a masculine 0:04:40.360 --> 0:04:44.680 spirit embodied in Jesus Christ, along with a female element 0:04:44.760 --> 0:04:48.400 that manifested it in the spirit of Mother Anne. Mother 0:04:48.560 --> 0:04:52.080 Anne is important. She was a woman named Anne Lee 0:04:52.240 --> 0:04:55.240 who was the founder and leader of the Shaker religion. 0:04:55.800 --> 0:05:00.039 Mother Anne is responsible for the Shaker pilgrimage to America. 0:05:00.080 --> 0:05:04.159 She had quote a special manifestation of divine light, and 0:05:04.200 --> 0:05:07.240 it was her vision of quote a heavenly kingdom to 0:05:07.320 --> 0:05:11.800 come that directly defined Shaker culture and faith. As a 0:05:11.839 --> 0:05:14.640 result of this belief of a dual personality in God, 0:05:14.720 --> 0:05:20.240 Shakers actively practiced equality of the sexes. Everyone within the 0:05:20.320 --> 0:05:24.440 society was allowed opportunities in intellectual and artistic development. 0:05:25.480 --> 0:05:28.520 But talking about the Shakers does not mean just talking 0:05:28.560 --> 0:05:32.840 about their religion, because they were entrepreneurs. They were disciplined 0:05:32.880 --> 0:05:36.160 and hardworking, and they were also very innovative, a good 0:05:36.200 --> 0:05:39.919 combination of characteristics that helped them finance their communal lives 0:05:39.920 --> 0:05:43.960 in a few successful ways. So first, they were primarily 0:05:43.960 --> 0:05:48.760 an agricultural community and they sold their produce. Then as craftsmen, 0:05:48.880 --> 0:05:53.240 they also sold small manufacturers. We mentioned their well known 0:05:53.360 --> 0:05:57.520 Shaker style furniture earlier, but they also invented a variety 0:05:57.520 --> 0:06:00.799 of things, including the clothes pin and an early version 0:06:00.839 --> 0:06:04.679 of the washing machine, the rotary harrow, the circular saw, 0:06:05.040 --> 0:06:09.320 the flat broom, the pocket stereoscope, the steel pen nib, 0:06:09.440 --> 0:06:13.400 and the rotary oven. You know how when you go 0:06:13.560 --> 0:06:17.480 to your gardening center or even some big box stores 0:06:17.520 --> 0:06:20.560 you can buy seeds in packets. You can thank the 0:06:20.600 --> 0:06:24.159 Shakers for that packet advancement. Because if it hadn't been done, 0:06:24.360 --> 0:06:28.120 you would be buying seeds in bulk. Their most successful 0:06:28.120 --> 0:06:30.880 business didn't come from their tables and chairs or the 0:06:30.920 --> 0:06:34.520 clothes pin, though, it came from their knowledge of herbs 0:06:34.600 --> 0:06:38.719 and their practice of botanical medicine. And this is why 0:06:38.760 --> 0:06:39.960 we are talking about them. 0:06:40.560 --> 0:06:44.159 Herbal medicines are those with active ingredients from plants or 0:06:44.480 --> 0:06:49.000 parts of plants, such as leaves, roots, seeds, flowers. But 0:06:49.320 --> 0:06:52.279 as we know from other stories during this snake oil season, 0:06:52.800 --> 0:06:56.920 being a and this is an air quote natural remedy 0:06:57.440 --> 0:07:02.039 doesn't necessarily mean it's a safe remedy. But there's nothing 0:07:02.080 --> 0:07:05.240 at all snake oily about Shaker remedies, only that they 0:07:05.240 --> 0:07:08.320 were unfortunately selling them. At the same time shady patent 0:07:08.360 --> 0:07:12.400 medicines were in high demand. The medicinal herbs they sold 0:07:12.480 --> 0:07:16.800 to the people of the world turned them into respected healers. 0:07:18.240 --> 0:07:21.200 They didn't start out as herbal healers, though at least 0:07:21.240 --> 0:07:26.000 not outside of their communities. Shaker medical practice was let's 0:07:26.200 --> 0:07:31.000 call it quite eclectic. Early Shakers relied on faith healing 0:07:31.200 --> 0:07:34.880 and would only consult a non Shaker doctor's advice if 0:07:35.040 --> 0:07:38.320 there was a case of severe injury or illness. They 0:07:38.400 --> 0:07:42.000 tried treating illnesses with what was known as electric medicine, 0:07:42.040 --> 0:07:45.600 which is it's what it sounds like, the application of 0:07:45.640 --> 0:07:49.080 electric shocks in an effort to relieve pain and hopefully 0:07:49.120 --> 0:07:53.240 produce cures. They also became practitioners of a variety of 0:07:53.280 --> 0:07:56.520 treatments that were known as water cures, such as soaking 0:07:56.560 --> 0:08:01.400 in mineral springs. Mainly, their focus was on prevention, though, 0:08:01.680 --> 0:08:05.880 and that included maintaining good health through hard work, exercise, 0:08:06.000 --> 0:08:09.000 and rest, plus three meals a day and little to 0:08:09.080 --> 0:08:14.080 no use of alcohol or tobacco. They practiced calisthenic workouts 0:08:14.080 --> 0:08:17.840 to improve their health. They built well ventilated homes, and 0:08:18.000 --> 0:08:21.600 they separated the sick from the healthy in infirmaries or 0:08:21.640 --> 0:08:22.280 sick rooms. 0:08:23.000 --> 0:08:27.600 Shaker interest in herbalism started very simply because they didn't 0:08:27.640 --> 0:08:31.760 rely on imported teas or conventional medicines. They had to 0:08:31.800 --> 0:08:35.120 make their own. They became practitioners of what is now 0:08:35.160 --> 0:08:40.960 called naturopathic medicine, which emphasizes both disease prevention and the 0:08:41.000 --> 0:08:44.280 self healing process through the use of natural therapies such 0:08:44.320 --> 0:08:48.320 as preparations derived from you guessed it, herbs and other 0:08:48.480 --> 0:08:52.800 natural plant materials. Galen Beal and Mary Rose Boswell in 0:08:52.840 --> 0:08:57.040 their book Earth Shall Blossom, Shaker Herbs and gardening declared, 0:08:57.240 --> 0:09:00.559 and we're paraphrasing here a bit, the sh Bakers were 0:09:00.600 --> 0:09:04.880 the first herbalists next to indigenous Americans, who held all 0:09:04.920 --> 0:09:08.199 the medicinal knowledge of our native plant species in America. 0:09:09.080 --> 0:09:12.679 Now that's a bold statement. So before we delve into that, 0:09:12.720 --> 0:09:14.960 we're going to take a break forward from our sponsors, 0:09:14.960 --> 0:09:16.800 and when we're back, we'll see if they can live 0:09:16.880 --> 0:09:17.280 up to it. 0:09:29.880 --> 0:09:33.600 Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's talk a little about Shaker 0:09:33.679 --> 0:09:37.920 agriculture and how their botanical knowledge turned every person into 0:09:37.960 --> 0:09:38.920 their own physician. 0:09:41.360 --> 0:09:45.600 To Shakers, gardening was spiritual work, and their gardening tenets 0:09:45.640 --> 0:09:50.600 included such things as, quote, keep learning, nurture the soil, 0:09:51.000 --> 0:09:56.280 know your plants, work faithfully, and care for your tools. Really, 0:09:56.400 --> 0:09:59.760 that's good advice for all gardeners. A Shaker garden was 0:09:59.800 --> 0:10:03.160 all so quote the index of the owner's mind, and 0:10:03.320 --> 0:10:06.040 herbs growing in a Shaker garden were planted in neat 0:10:06.120 --> 0:10:10.319 rows in square beds, usually delineated by some form of enclosure, 0:10:10.440 --> 0:10:12.959 such as a low stone wall or brick edging. 0:10:14.120 --> 0:10:18.319 Shaker herbs were plentiful. Most were rarely used in food, 0:10:18.400 --> 0:10:23.680 though with the exception of five thyme, sweet marjoram, savory, sage, 0:10:23.760 --> 0:10:29.080 and parsley. They began selling surpluses of those five pantry 0:10:29.120 --> 0:10:32.920 friendly herbs, along with what they considered medicinal herbs like 0:10:33.360 --> 0:10:43.160 bee balm, sweet basil, lavender, fennel, dill, coriander, lemon balm, rosemary, belladonna, poppies, horehound, valerian. 0:10:43.880 --> 0:10:46.080 I'm gonna stop there because the list is really long 0:10:46.120 --> 0:10:48.880 and it goes on for quite a while. Most of 0:10:48.920 --> 0:10:52.480 the herbs they produced had therapeutic properties, such as being 0:10:52.520 --> 0:10:57.440 a diuretic or a stimulant, narcotic, emetic, or astringent. In 0:10:57.440 --> 0:11:02.120 his well respected eighteen twenty eight manual Medical Flora, botanist 0:11:02.200 --> 0:11:06.559 and natural scientists Constantine Ruffanesque claimed the Shakers had the 0:11:06.679 --> 0:11:10.360 quote best medical gardens in the United States. 0:11:11.280 --> 0:11:15.040 Shaker men, known as brothers, generally were in charge of 0:11:15.080 --> 0:11:19.920 cultivating the herbs. Shaker women known as sisters, along with children, 0:11:20.400 --> 0:11:23.760 gathered these herbs in addition to dozens of other species 0:11:23.760 --> 0:11:27.240 from the surrounding forests in what they referred to as 0:11:27.320 --> 0:11:31.040 the herb House. The brothers dried and pressed these herbs 0:11:31.080 --> 0:11:35.480 preparing them for oils, tinctures, extracts, and powders. First, they 0:11:35.520 --> 0:11:38.240 sold herbs to the general public, but they soon also 0:11:38.400 --> 0:11:41.720 sold the botanical medicines they made for their own communities 0:11:42.120 --> 0:11:46.320 to nearby physicians and druggists. The Shaker products were becoming 0:11:46.400 --> 0:11:50.120 known as high quality, and from about eighteen twenty to 0:11:50.800 --> 0:11:54.280 the twentieth century, Shakers made and then sold dried herbs 0:11:54.280 --> 0:11:56.920 and their botanical medicines to the world. 0:11:58.640 --> 0:12:03.600 Knowledge of the healae or poisonous properties of plants, mineral salts, 0:12:03.600 --> 0:12:07.199 and herbs is certainly far older than Shaker medical practices. 0:12:07.960 --> 0:12:12.080 Ancient Egyptians recorded their knowledge of illnesses and botanical cures, 0:12:12.080 --> 0:12:17.439 and the Ebers Papyrus, dating back to fifteen fifty BCE. Hippocrates, 0:12:17.520 --> 0:12:21.040 known as the father of medicine, classified herbs into essential 0:12:21.120 --> 0:12:24.439 qualities and categorized as many as three hundred to four 0:12:24.520 --> 0:12:31.360 hundred plants. Aristotle also compiled a list of medicinal plants. Diascorides, 0:12:31.480 --> 0:12:35.080 a Roman army physician, wrote De Materia Medica, a five 0:12:35.200 --> 0:12:39.080 volume work describing the preparation of about one thousand simple 0:12:39.120 --> 0:12:43.520 remedies using about five hundred different plants. So herbal medicine 0:12:43.600 --> 0:12:44.760 is hardly. 0:12:44.440 --> 0:12:51.160 New to many people. Botanicals seemed far less harmful than 0:12:51.240 --> 0:12:56.520 methods used by traditional doctors, like bleeding or ingesting mercury. 0:12:57.320 --> 0:13:00.839 Health problems that concerned Americans in the nineteenth century were 0:13:01.320 --> 0:13:03.640 for the most part different from those we have to 0:13:03.640 --> 0:13:07.200 deal with today, So things like burns or falls, or 0:13:07.240 --> 0:13:11.800 any accidental injuries were often crippling. You were vulnerable to 0:13:12.040 --> 0:13:15.200 colds and flu because they could develop into pneumonia, which 0:13:15.320 --> 0:13:21.400 was a potential death sentence. Contagious diseases such as tuberculosis, smallpox, 0:13:21.600 --> 0:13:26.280 scarlet fever, yellow fever, and cholera were life threatening. Even 0:13:26.400 --> 0:13:29.240 a simple cut or food poisoning had the potential to 0:13:29.240 --> 0:13:32.520 become fatal. For those who lived in rural areas, the 0:13:32.559 --> 0:13:36.880 Shakers provided solutions that made quote every man his own physician. 0:13:38.520 --> 0:13:42.080 By the eighteen twenties, many Shaker communities were also making 0:13:42.120 --> 0:13:45.360 herbal treatments that had been developed and promoted by a 0:13:45.400 --> 0:13:50.120 self trained doctor and entrepreneur named Samuel Thompson. Samuel was 0:13:50.160 --> 0:13:53.800 schooled in herbalism growing up in New Hampshire. His story 0:13:53.920 --> 0:13:56.480 is that he learned from a widow in his town who, 0:13:56.920 --> 0:14:00.360 it was said learned about healing herbs from the endigenous 0:14:00.440 --> 0:14:05.040 people of the area. One of Thompson's biographers, John S. 0:14:05.160 --> 0:14:09.560 Holler Junior, wrote, quote, this itinerant people's doctor promised to 0:14:09.640 --> 0:14:13.959 release patients from the tyranny of regular physicians by offering 0:14:14.080 --> 0:14:17.680 cheap and kindly medicines from their own field and gardens. 0:14:18.559 --> 0:14:21.040 That seems very much in line with the work of 0:14:21.080 --> 0:14:24.840 the Shakers, except there's always a little problem, isn't there, 0:14:24.880 --> 0:14:26.240 And we're gonna get to that. 0:14:27.800 --> 0:14:31.320 Two plants, lobilia, which was once known as Indian tobacco, 0:14:31.440 --> 0:14:35.880 and capsicum, which is cayenne pepper, were, according to Samuel, 0:14:36.080 --> 0:14:41.640 the building blocks of his Thomsonian system. So very simply explained, 0:14:42.240 --> 0:14:45.840 Thompson believed through his own observations that in life there 0:14:45.880 --> 0:14:49.320 is heat, and in death there is cold. He treated 0:14:49.360 --> 0:14:53.760 patients with lobilia, which is an emetic it induces vomiting, 0:14:54.120 --> 0:14:57.080 and then followed up with doses of capsicumb to restore 0:14:57.120 --> 0:15:00.640 the body's natural heat. So an example of a Tomsonian 0:15:00.720 --> 0:15:04.680 cure read as quote cure with hot water and doses 0:15:04.720 --> 0:15:09.600 of number six. It sounds mysterious, but number six refers 0:15:09.640 --> 0:15:13.240 to a product called Thompson's compound tincture of myrrh and 0:15:13.320 --> 0:15:17.720 capsicum or rheumatic drops, which along with herbs, was prepared 0:15:17.760 --> 0:15:21.640 with wine or brandy. It was a really powerful antiseptic 0:15:21.760 --> 0:15:25.200 and was usually prescribed to relieve pain and prevent gangreen 0:15:25.400 --> 0:15:26.200 or necrosis. 0:15:27.840 --> 0:15:31.560 The Shakers, being in the herbal medicine business themselves, could 0:15:31.600 --> 0:15:36.720 have easily formulated any of Thompson's six basic medicines, and 0:15:36.760 --> 0:15:41.720 there is evidence that they did produce at least two. Thompson, though, 0:15:41.880 --> 0:15:44.640 was not especially thrilled that the Shakers were using his 0:15:44.840 --> 0:15:48.520 remedies because now his dispensary in New York City was 0:15:48.560 --> 0:15:53.720 in direct competition with them and their excellent reputation, so 0:15:54.240 --> 0:15:58.600 he sued the Harvard Shaker's trustee, brother Joseah Winchester, for 0:15:58.760 --> 0:16:02.800 ten thousand dollars. Here it could be argued that the 0:16:02.840 --> 0:16:08.560 Shakers did dip a toe into a little patent medicine chicanery. Basically, 0:16:08.640 --> 0:16:12.280 they just changed the labels. Shakers at Mount Lebanon had 0:16:12.280 --> 0:16:16.040 added his Thompson's Spice Bitters and Thompson's Hot Drops or 0:16:16.160 --> 0:16:19.720 number six to their product line, and to fix the 0:16:19.760 --> 0:16:24.680 confusion slash problem, they intentionally misspelled Thompson's name on the 0:16:24.680 --> 0:16:28.280 spice bitters after the lawsuit, when it came to the 0:16:28.280 --> 0:16:31.600 hot drops, they just left his name off altogether. So 0:16:31.760 --> 0:16:35.120 if it sounds like Thompson had a solid case and 0:16:35.240 --> 0:16:39.320 like the Shakers were skirting the issue, surprised, they were not, 0:16:39.880 --> 0:16:43.160 and he did not. It turns out either he had forgotten, 0:16:43.720 --> 0:16:45.880 or he didn't realize, or maybe he hoped they had 0:16:45.920 --> 0:16:49.960 forgotten that on behalf of the Shakers, brother Hooseah, had 0:16:50.080 --> 0:16:54.960 legally purchased Thompson's patten a few years earlier, in eighteen seventeen. 0:16:55.600 --> 0:16:58.960 The Shakers could make any of his basic medicines, and 0:16:59.040 --> 0:17:01.000 it was in their lead right to do so. 0:17:02.040 --> 0:17:06.560 Thompson may have felt it was all about Thompson, but 0:17:06.640 --> 0:17:09.679 the Shaker medicine business was much bigger than him and 0:17:09.720 --> 0:17:13.960 his patented potions. His products were a very small part 0:17:14.040 --> 0:17:18.120 of their offerings. By eighteen fifty one, Mount Lebanon's product 0:17:18.160 --> 0:17:22.200 catalog listed three hundred and fifty six medicinal herbs, four 0:17:22.280 --> 0:17:26.280 culinary herbs, plus one hundred and eighty one fluid extracts. 0:17:26.400 --> 0:17:31.160 And that's just a sampling from just one catalog at 0:17:31.160 --> 0:17:34.320 that time, which was the peak of their botanical medicine business. 0:17:34.760 --> 0:17:39.000 That community was producing one hundred thousand pounds of dried 0:17:39.040 --> 0:17:43.720 herbs and several thousand pounds of extracts each year. Thompson's 0:17:43.800 --> 0:17:47.919 spice bitters and hot drops were inconsequential. 0:17:48.520 --> 0:17:52.280 In the Enfield, New Hampshire community. Shakers listed roughly one 0:17:52.400 --> 0:17:55.600 hundred and fifty different types of herbs for sale to 0:17:55.720 --> 0:17:58.520 the people of the world and focused on the production 0:17:58.680 --> 0:18:02.639 of their own medicines, and that production continued into the 0:18:02.720 --> 0:18:06.520 early twentieth century, even after the passage of the nineteen 0:18:06.520 --> 0:18:09.240 oh six Pure Food and Drug Act, which, as we've 0:18:09.240 --> 0:18:13.280 seen this season, was the end of many proprietary medicines. 0:18:14.000 --> 0:18:16.600 But if you weren't lying in your advertising and your 0:18:16.800 --> 0:18:21.560 ingredients were legit, that act was not targeting you. Herbal 0:18:21.600 --> 0:18:25.679 medicine itself was not a crime. Shakers were not selling 0:18:25.720 --> 0:18:29.000 bottles of ethanol with labeling claiming that their products were 0:18:29.080 --> 0:18:29.760 cure alls. 0:18:30.240 --> 0:18:32.880 The Shakers were astute and used their knowledge of herbs 0:18:32.880 --> 0:18:35.919 and botanical medicine to capitalize on the growing trend of 0:18:35.960 --> 0:18:40.119 patent medicine, and in a really refreshing change from our 0:18:40.160 --> 0:18:44.040 other stories this season, they weren't the bad guy and 0:18:44.119 --> 0:18:46.560 in doing so, became one of the leading names in 0:18:46.600 --> 0:18:51.160 the early history of pharmaceutical manufacturing. They weren't peddling quackery. 0:18:51.840 --> 0:18:53.800 But on that note, we're going to take a break 0:18:53.840 --> 0:18:56.240 for a word from our sponsors, so when we return, 0:18:56.560 --> 0:19:00.040 we'll talk about how they maintained their enviable reputation and 0:19:00.320 --> 0:19:03.919 in the face of the inevitable counterfeiters. 0:19:15.640 --> 0:19:19.440 Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's talk about how the Shaker 0:19:19.480 --> 0:19:22.840 patent medicine business worked and how it differed from the 0:19:22.840 --> 0:19:26.240 snake oil manufacturing that was happening concurrently. 0:19:27.280 --> 0:19:30.239 The Shakers, to be clear on this, were running a 0:19:30.320 --> 0:19:35.080 cooperative operation and they were dependent upon relationships with commercial 0:19:35.240 --> 0:19:39.359 entities of the world. The Shakers grew plants and made 0:19:39.400 --> 0:19:43.159 medicines from the resulting plant extracts, but the packaging piece, 0:19:43.840 --> 0:19:48.280 like the bottles, the boxes, the paper inserts, those were 0:19:48.280 --> 0:19:53.280 commercially produced outside of Shaker communities. The Shakers then bottled 0:19:53.280 --> 0:19:56.840 their medicines, packaged their products, and sent batches to distributors. 0:19:57.920 --> 0:20:02.199 Shaker communities also sold earth in bulk to drug wholesalers, 0:20:02.400 --> 0:20:06.679 some even internationally. For instance, in the eighteen forties, Shaker 0:20:06.720 --> 0:20:10.800 communities found themselves shipping thousands of pounds of dried plant 0:20:10.840 --> 0:20:14.879 material and thousands of bottles of prepared medicines, which men 0:20:15.119 --> 0:20:19.880 They also found themselves needing bigger production facilities. They were 0:20:19.960 --> 0:20:25.359 leaders in patent medicines, selling compounds like Shaker Cherry Pectoral Syrup, 0:20:25.800 --> 0:20:31.520 Shaker Syrup Number One, Doctor Corbett's Renovating Bidders, Norwood's Tincture 0:20:31.600 --> 0:20:36.240 of Veritrim, Verdae, Mother, Siegal's Curative Syrup, and many other 0:20:36.359 --> 0:20:41.080 medicines branded with the Shaker name. Shaker tamer Laxative, which 0:20:41.119 --> 0:20:44.960 was a mix of tamarind, prunes, cassio, barque, henbane, and 0:20:45.040 --> 0:20:48.560 winter green, was one of Sabbath Day Lake Community's more 0:20:48.640 --> 0:20:53.119 successful products. By the late nineteenth century, Shakers had a 0:20:53.160 --> 0:20:56.879 reputation as quote America's pharmacists. 0:20:56.920 --> 0:21:01.119 And like other popular and successful patent medicine manufacturers, the 0:21:01.160 --> 0:21:05.399 Shakers found their products were the target of counterfeitters. It 0:21:05.440 --> 0:21:08.960 isn't clear when a product called Shaker's Blood Syrup was 0:21:09.000 --> 0:21:13.280 first produced or marketed, but the Shakers became aware of it, 0:21:13.480 --> 0:21:17.000 likely in the summer of eighteen eighty four. A poster 0:21:17.200 --> 0:21:19.719 printed in black and red shows an illustration of two 0:21:19.800 --> 0:21:23.200 Shaker's sisters standing on either side of a Shaker brother. 0:21:24.080 --> 0:21:30.520 The text reads quote, Shaker's blood Syrup cures completely scrofula cancer, rheumatism, 0:21:30.720 --> 0:21:35.120 qatar ulcers, and skin and blood diseases of every description. 0:21:36.280 --> 0:21:39.800 The medicine, however, was not made by Shakers, and their 0:21:39.840 --> 0:21:44.440 society had not authorized the use of their name or image. 0:21:44.480 --> 0:21:48.640 The fake syrup bore, though an extraordinary resemblance to Mother 0:21:48.720 --> 0:21:53.160 Siegel's Curative Syrup, a product manufactured embottled by the Shakers 0:21:53.160 --> 0:21:57.200 and distributed by Andrew Judson White's company AJ White Limited. 0:21:58.000 --> 0:22:00.960 It was intended to relieve indigestion, not to be a 0:22:01.040 --> 0:22:03.320 cure all, and it was one of the most popular 0:22:03.359 --> 0:22:07.639 herbal medicines in the United States and internationally. According to 0:22:07.720 --> 0:22:12.040 records kept by the Shakers, beginning around eighteen seventy nine 0:22:12.200 --> 0:22:15.480 or so, batches of it had begun shipping to then 0:22:15.760 --> 0:22:19.520 far flung locations, including India and Australia. 0:22:21.160 --> 0:22:24.399 By October of eighteen eighty four, the matter started to 0:22:24.440 --> 0:22:29.360 gain national interest. On October second, a newspaper notice stated quote, 0:22:29.520 --> 0:22:32.800 A dispatch from Montreal says that the Shaker Society at 0:22:32.840 --> 0:22:36.879 New Lebanon is about to institute proceedings against Smith Brothers 0:22:36.960 --> 0:22:41.840 and Company, Montreal for fifty thousand dollars damages for infringement 0:22:41.880 --> 0:22:45.400 of a patent. It is claimed that the defendants illegally 0:22:45.480 --> 0:22:49.920 manufactured and sold syrups bearing the name of Shaker Blood Syrups, 0:22:50.160 --> 0:22:53.199 the trademark of which they had patented at Ottawa on 0:22:53.359 --> 0:22:55.679 stating that they were the first to make use of it, 0:22:56.040 --> 0:22:58.720 while in truth it was the property of the United 0:22:58.800 --> 0:23:03.080 Society of Shakers. A month later, on November fourteenth, the 0:23:03.160 --> 0:23:07.240 National Druggist, published in Saint Louis, stated quote, Smith Brothers 0:23:07.240 --> 0:23:10.800 and Company of Montreal, a concern of recent origin who 0:23:10.840 --> 0:23:14.800 started the manufacture of Shaker's blood syrup, have failed and 0:23:14.920 --> 0:23:18.960 one of the partners is reported missing. The Shaker community 0:23:19.040 --> 0:23:22.320 has recently issued an action against the firm to restrain 0:23:22.400 --> 0:23:25.680 it from using their name, etc. In connection with such 0:23:25.720 --> 0:23:27.600 preparations made in Montreal. 0:23:29.080 --> 0:23:32.720 About two months later, on January twenty seventh, the Office 0:23:32.720 --> 0:23:36.080 of AJ White Limited, recall they were the distributor of 0:23:36.119 --> 0:23:41.040 Shaker medicines, announced quote as soon as the blood syrup 0:23:41.200 --> 0:23:44.360 came to the knowledge of the Shakers, proceedings at law 0:23:44.400 --> 0:23:47.879 were taken by the Shakers, charging the Smith Brothers firm 0:23:48.000 --> 0:23:52.320 with fraudulently using and stating without authorization in their pamphlets 0:23:52.840 --> 0:23:57.440 that this medicine was prepared by the Shakers. Shortly after 0:23:57.480 --> 0:24:00.600 this action was taken, the firm in question became solvent. 0:24:01.240 --> 0:24:04.920 On the twenty fourth January eighteen eighty five, Smith Brothers 0:24:05.000 --> 0:24:08.000 signed an agreement in which was contained, among other things, 0:24:08.320 --> 0:24:12.800 the following and whereas the said Smith Brothers now admit 0:24:12.960 --> 0:24:15.760 that they have no right to the said trademark or 0:24:15.800 --> 0:24:19.920 to sell medicines as Shaker preparations, and that the said 0:24:19.920 --> 0:24:23.199 action of the Shaker Society as taken against us for 0:24:23.240 --> 0:24:27.679 the cancelation thereof is well founded. The Shakers, upon this 0:24:27.760 --> 0:24:31.760 agreement being signed, withdrew their action against Smith Brothers. 0:24:33.160 --> 0:24:37.320 Although they won that action, the Shaker's herbal medicine business 0:24:37.480 --> 0:24:42.320 was already on the decline. They had rightfully avoided punitive 0:24:42.359 --> 0:24:45.160 measures from the Pure Food and Drug Act, but they 0:24:45.200 --> 0:24:49.200 couldn't escape the rise of the Industrial Revolution. After the 0:24:49.280 --> 0:24:53.600 American Civil War, dozens of new and large and largely 0:24:53.680 --> 0:24:59.479 funded corporations entered the medicine manufacturing market, and pharmaceutical production 0:24:59.600 --> 0:25:04.160 began to move away from botanicals. Their products and production 0:25:04.280 --> 0:25:08.600 practices just could not compete with cheaper, factory made items. 0:25:09.480 --> 0:25:13.480 After nineteen hundred, many Shaker herb houses had been demolished. 0:25:13.840 --> 0:25:18.160 Norwood's tincture, though, was produced continually from roughly the eighteen 0:25:18.240 --> 0:25:22.439 fifties until sometime in the nineteen thirties, making it one of, 0:25:22.720 --> 0:25:26.920 if not the last preparation sold by the Shakers, who 0:25:27.160 --> 0:25:31.040 may have been the most legitimate patent medicine manufacturers in 0:25:31.119 --> 0:25:33.879 a time that we have seen a lot of snake 0:25:33.920 --> 0:25:35.040 oil salesmanship. 0:25:35.520 --> 0:25:38.159 It's amazing how long they were able to last during 0:25:38.200 --> 0:25:40.600 that patent medicine time frame. 0:25:41.160 --> 0:25:45.280 I agree, and with that, are you ready for a 0:25:45.320 --> 0:25:47.240 little something that might cure what ails you? 0:25:47.640 --> 0:25:49.080 Yes? But not Tomsnian. 0:25:49.160 --> 0:25:52.760 Please, it's not Tomsnian, although we will say the name 0:25:52.800 --> 0:26:02.480 tom at one point to our recording this. Maria sent 0:26:02.560 --> 0:26:05.920 me a number of recipes for various Shaker beverages to peruse, 0:26:06.600 --> 0:26:09.639 things like ginger aid, which sounds amazing, But some of 0:26:09.680 --> 0:26:12.240 them included an ingredient that also came up in the 0:26:12.280 --> 0:26:15.919 episode that I love, and that is lemon balm. And 0:26:16.000 --> 0:26:18.280 it just so happens that I have been growing lemon 0:26:18.320 --> 0:26:21.760 balm this year. My crop is doing very well, so 0:26:21.800 --> 0:26:24.240 I was ready for this, but I've been looking for 0:26:24.280 --> 0:26:26.600 a good reason to use it in a beverage for 0:26:26.640 --> 0:26:29.320 the show. A lot of these also use ginger ale, 0:26:29.359 --> 0:26:31.760 which is also a big favorite of mine. But I 0:26:31.840 --> 0:26:34.960 was also struck by this idea of making people their 0:26:35.000 --> 0:26:38.800 own physician, which came up in the episode. Although I 0:26:38.880 --> 0:26:40.840