In our previous post, #6, we saw how the settlers learned to
rely on each other for survival creating a feeling of family amongst the
valley’s residents; a feeling that continues on, for many, into today.
However, neighbors didn’t just go out of their way to
look out for each other, help each other, they did even more! Drums neighbors shared what they had with
each other, shared their bounty, strength and their knowledge. Useful
information was always being passed back and forth. What follows are a few
examples I found in the box of “Drum Papers”. My assumption is that these were
written by an ancestor for someone else or by someone else and given to an
ancestor. Of course, they may have been copied out of a newspaper or magazine
but then, why not just cut it out instead of copy?
Need cement? Here’s a suggestion that was offered by a
neighbor in the early 1900’s for some “Homemade Cement”: “Rx Take two parts of sand, 2 parts of coal ashes, and
one part of wheat flour. Mix with just enough water to form a putty-like mass.
In 12 hours after used it will be as hard as stone.”
If it is glue that is needed, George Balliet suggested
his recipe for “How to make a good glue” to his neighbors of the 1920’s: Rx Take
a tablespoonful of cooking gelatin and dissolve in two to two and a half
teaspoonful of boiling water. Boil for a few seconds and add a little sugar
while still hot. (signed) Geo. Balliet”
Break a dish? A remedy offered around 1923 was this
“China and Glass Cement”: ¼ pint milk add ¼ pint of vinegar - whites of two
small eggs - sifting in it a sufficent quantity of lime to form a thick paste.”
This note ends with, “Try it!”
Illness and bodily complaints were quite common, and everyone
seemed to have a remedy for whatever it was that ailed you! From the 1920’s,
here is a way one could “clence” old sores. “Rx Take Iodine and Benzene. Mix
together. Clence with sterlized absorbent cotton – to finish the cleaning and
leave the wound in germ free condition use a mixture of 1/3 Iodine and 2/3
alcohol.”
Jacob Santee must have had a bad cough in 1907, or maybe
his tax collector did! Found on the back of Jacob’s “Triennial Assessment
Notice” for 1907 is this recipe: “A Superior Cough Medicine. Mix 1 pint of
granulated sugar with ½ pint of warm water and stir for 2 minutes. Put 2½ oz of
Pinex (50 cents worth) in a pint bottle; then add the sugar syrup. Take a
teaspoonful every one, two, or three hours or as you see fit. This is a sure
remedy. Try it.”
“Pinex” used to be available from most drug stores. Its
active ingredient was Paracetamol, also known as Acetaminophen; the active
ingredient in pain medicines of today such as Tylenol. This remedy was actually
a rather common one although the ingredient quantities varied, and some people
used honey instead of sugar. 
Even commercial enterprises got in on the “remedy act”. This
cough remedy recipe was found on a 1.5” x 1” rectangle cut from the back of a
“Not-a-Seed Raisins” box: “Raisin Cough Medicine. Take three tablespoons whole
flaxseed add 1 pint Not-a-Seed Raisins, chop the raisins and put them into the
flaxseed. Add three pints water and cook down to a quart. Squeeze the juice of
a large lemon in the same and sweeten to taste. This is excellent for a cough
medicine.”
Speaking of pain, here are two that lots of people
complain about, even still today – Rheumatism and Lumbago! Rheumatism is the
result of inflammation of the joints and muscles. It is usually caused by
arthritis. Lumbago is a real pain in the back, specifically in the muscles and
joints of the lower back! There are numerous causes for both of these pains
but, frankly, if you suffer from either, you don’t care what caused it, you
just want it to go away.
Perhaps George Balliet has come to the rescue. This
remedy is written on the same paper as George Balliet’s recipe for glue so he
may have written this one as well. “For Rheumatism
and Lumbago Rx one pint vinegar, one pint turpentine and yolk of 2 eggs. Put in
bottle shake well. Put on back or put on red flannel and apply to back.” That’s
a remedy that needs to be read completely before using it. That is NOT a
mixture one wants to take internally!
There was even something in the pile of papers that was
for the dogs! A note signed “by J. R. Masterson”, written around 1925, says
this is how to make “A Cheap Dog Feed.”
One of the cheapest dog feeds is a composition of cotton seed meal,
corn meal, and molasses. To ten parts of corn meal, add one part of cotton seed
meal. Mix the two into a batter with cheap molasses and cook brown. Where the
cotton seed meal cannot be secured, make the dough of corn meal mixed with one
third molasses and two-thirds milk. This is more preferable than meat and the
dog will be less subject to worms.
Don’t have a dog but you do have a cow, you say? And she
is off her feed? Jacob Santee recorded just the remedy you need in his account
book for 1887. “Cow off her Feed. ¼ lb. Juniper berries crushed fine. ¼
lb. Antimony. ¼ lb. calamus grated. Mix all and give a tablespoonful once a day
a few days, then every other day till better.”
Antimony
is an element on the periodical chart listed as 51Sb. It is a
sulfurous metal that makes up the mineral Stibnite. In earlier times it was
powered and used by doctors as a purgative. If taken in pill form, because it
is a metal, it is even reusable! (I was going to go into that a bit further
but, on second thought, I’m sure there isn’t any need to.) It was also
considered effective as a remedy for parasites. However, it seems that there is
a fine line between helpful and toxic as not all patients survived the “cure”![1],
[2]
I don’t know, does this seem like something you’d
want to give, or do, to anything, even if it is "just" a cow? And remember, Chapman's book was written, not for cows, but for HUMANS! However, it does seem that
there are a few medical uses that have been found for Antimony in veterinary medicine
of today.[4]
Perhaps Jacob was on to something after all.
Calamus is a plant that grows in wetlands, marshes, and
along muddy stream banks. It is also known as Sweet Flag. It is the root that
is used for these preparations but since the FDA strictly prohibits its use in
foods it is best to use calamus externally only.[5]
One wonders how many of these cows got back on their feed
just to stop the treatments, or worse, due to the treatments, got off their
feed permanently!
Return to the Drums of Drums, PA on September 24,
2018 for the heart-breaking story of the
Hart Children.
[2]
Frezard, Frederic, Cynthia Demicheli, and Paul R. Ribeiro, Pentavalent
Antimonials: New Perspectives for Old Drugs, www.mdpi.com accessed 2/18/2018
[3]
Chapman, N. M.D., Elements of Therapeutics and Materia Medica, vol. 2
(Philadelphia: H. C. Carey and I. Lea, 1822) p 118.
[4] Frezard.
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