Phelps healing tomato

Advertisement Date: Thursday, May 28, 1840 Paper: Sun (Pittsfield, MA) 

 

 

 

Photo from Find A Grave

In November 1837, Miles selected Hoadley, Phelps and Co., a wholesale drug firm, as his agent in New York City. In December of that same year Dr. A. J. Holcombe became upset with Miles’s claim that Miles was the originator of tomato extract. Holcombe pointed to his own previous advertisements, which predated Miles’s announcement by two years. John Cook Bennett immediately agreed with Holcombe and shared his recipe with the newspapers that in turn shared it with “the community at large.” It was basically condensed tomato juice with the consistency of stiff tar.

George and Guy R. Phelps
(PHELPS’ COMPOUND TOMATO PILLS)
After Miles discovered that a Dr. Rowland’s Compound Tomato Pills was being advertised in Boston, New York, and Hartford, Connecticut. Miles had his agent in New York investigate the situation. The agent went directly to Hoadley, Phelps and Co. and spoke to the bookkeeper who was the only person at the company’s office the day of the visit. The agent’s version of the conversation is as follows:

“Ah,” said I, “you have the Tomato medicine; do you sell much of it?”
“No! We have sold but a few dozen.” “Oh,” said I; “well I see by this
handbill you have here, that you have another Tomato medicine.” The
handbill stuck up was “Compound Tomato Pills, Blood Purifier, and
Universal Panacea, prepared by G. R. Phelps. Price 37 ½ cents per box.”
The clerk remarked, “that medicine we can recommend to be a fist rate
article.” “Oh,” said I, “it’s, prepared, I suppose, by Mr. Phelps, of this
firm.” “No,” he replied, “by his brother!”

George Phelps’s brother was Guy R. Phelps. He was born in 1802 in Simsbury, Connecticut, and graduated in 1825 from Yale’s Medical School. He settled in New York to practice medicine and worked for Hoadley, Phelps and Co. In November of 1837 George Phelps began advertising Dr. Rowland’s Compound Tomato Pills. Advertisements for both pills appeared simultaneously in Hartford and Boston. The name was subsequently expanded to Dr. Phelps Compound Tomato Pills. The pills came in an oval wooden box two inches long and three-quarters of an inch wide with the name DR. PHELPS COMPOUND TOMATO PILLS – ENTIRELY VEGETABLE on the top. A thin strip connected the top to the bottom. When the box was manufactured, or how many pills it contained, is unknown. The box had the price of twenty-five cents on it. Guy R. Phelps’s signature extended the length of the other side. The box was constructed so that when it was opened, the signature was destroyed. It was evidently intended to prevent the box from being refilled with some other concoction by a counterfeiter. Phelps claimed that his were made from the leaves and stalks of the tomato plant.

Despite this basic difference, the advertising claims for the pills were essentially the same. These claims, as strange as they may seem today, were imbedded in medical beliefs and practices in the mid-nineteenth century.  According to medical historians the whole point of many cathartics, such as tomato medicine, was the notion that emptying the bowels of their contents and emptying the liver’s bile into the intestines would help remove noxious substances wherever they were in the body.

Phelps-Batcheller/Batchelder Line & Ancestors

Laura Ann Batcheller, b. Sept. 23. 1826, daughter of Silas Weatherbee Batchellor*; married on April 15, 1851, George Edwin Phelps SR (See above photo) b. July 30, 1826 in Dudley, MA son of Horatio Phelps and Sarah Davis daughter of Rufus Davis and Sally Dunbar. 
Home: Nashua, N. H., 258 Main St. George Phelps
Horatio married Sarah Davis May 22 1825 in Dudley, Mass.rem. to Worcester.
He was b. 12 July, 1798, at Sutton.
Sarah was b. 23 June, 1805, at Dudley ; d. 31 July, 1876, at Worcester.
Children:
George, b. 30 July, 1826, at East Dudley, now Webster.
Albert, b. 1 June, 1828; d. 14 Sept. 1829.
Sarah Davis, b. 7 Dec. 1829.
Emma, b. and d. 17 Aug. 1836.
Mary Russel, b. 8 April, 1840.
Deborah Moore, b. 2 Feb. 1842.
Helen Elizabeth, b. 16 June, 1844.
Here is a obituary on Horatio Phelps which gives information on Phelps Conn/Ma

Horatio Phelps was the son of Ebenezer Phelps, of Sutton; worked in young manhood in his father's saw and grist-mill, at New Boston, Conn., whither the family had removed; was , married while living there; removed in 1825 to Slater's Mill, now East Webster, Mass., where he learned the trade of a machinist. In 1827 he removed to South Worcester, Mass., where he was employed three years as journeyman and in 1830 began, in co-partnership with William M. Bickford, the manufacture of woolen looms, which they continued for sixteen years, when he sold out to Bickford. Later he was interested in hosiery manufacture with his brother at Millbury for a few years. He retired with a competency several years since, and is living on his estate in Worcester, enjoying a healthy old age in the pursuit of horticulture, in which he is specially interested.Horatio Phelps manufactured looms of all kinds in the shop formerly occupied by William Howard, at South Worcester, from whom Mr. Phelps had purchased the right to make his patent broad looms. The firm of Phelps & Bickford, composed of Horatio Phelps and William M. Bickford, continued to manufacture here, after the formation of their copartnership, all kinds of woolen looms. In October, 1834, they removed from South Worcester to Court Mills, then a new building erected by Stephen Salisbury for the accommodation of parties desiring to lease factory room. Phelps & Bickford afterwards occupied part of the wire factory in Grove Street. Later, Mr. Bickford continued the business alone, and in 1859 he employed twenty-three hands in building looms in the west wing of the Grove Street mill. December 28, 1860, he moved to Merrifield's building, in Exchange Street, where he was prepared to build all kinds of Crompton looms and other fancy looms, broad and narrow; also walking, dressing and spooling machinery, with steam cylinders or pipes for drying; also all kinds of machinery and tools for making wire.

 
George Phelps was a coal dealer/trader in Worcester, Mass., with F. W. Wellington, He worked as clerk and partner. Me removed in 1870 to Nashua, N. H Coal and related enterprises: the coming expansion and its investment implications; energy research service George E. Phelps Company; September 13 1877; A902157. More from History of Nashua NH

Children of George Phelps and Laura Ann Batcheller:
George Edwin Phelps, b. May 9, 1852; d. Nov. 1881 at Boston Highlands (Single)
Arthur Wellington Phelps, b. 12, 1858; m. Dec. 1890; post office Nashua, N. H.
Laura Gertrude Phelps, b. March I, 1865; unm.; post office Nashua, N. H.(Single)

[Messrs. T. W. Wellington; Mr. George Phelps; Prosperity]
Date: Saturday, July 22, 1865 Paper: National Aegis (Worcester, MA) Page: 2

Another item in the Archives was the Will of Gideon Hardy (Have to explore this more)

PETITION, for a construction of the will of Gideon Hardy, which was proved June 24, 1884. Transferred without ruling from the May term, 1910, of the superior court by Plummer, J . The defendants were duly served, but did not appear in the superior court. After a gift of all the residue of the estate to the testator’s wife, to be expended by her for her comfort and necessities as she might choose, the will contained the following: “ At my said wife’s decease, if any property is left after paying the funeral expenses and liabilities, I desire the same to be divided into four parts, one fourth to the First Congregational Church of Nashua, one fourth to the feeble Congregational churches of New Hampshire, one fourth to George Phelps, and one fourth to Barney Phelps.”

The testator’s wife survived him, dying in 1910. The property remaining consists of three dwelling-houses in a continuous row on Chestnut street in Nashua, with appurtenant land. George and Barney Phelps both died before the testator’s wife, and their sole heir is the defendant Lawrence. The advice of the court is asked as to the duty of the administrator to cause a division of the property by proceeding for sale or partition, and as to the construction and proper execution of the gift to the feeble Congregational churches of New Hampshire.
Death Records of Laura Ann Phelps

Another famous Dr. Azor R Phelps in the area---Dr. Azor R. Phelps about 1835, to 1843, when he died. He was proprietor of Phelps' Arcanum, once a famous panacea.

 

Dr Phelps (son of Azor Phelps SR and ) m. Ann Janette, D. of Jason Ware, in 1833, and d. Oct. 14, 1843, aged 45. Children: Virginia Isabella, b. May 15, 1835; Sarah Janette, July 8, 1836 ; Robert Archer, Feb. 19, 1838; Harriet Jemima, Dec. 4, 1841 ; Martha Maria, July 13, 1843. The four last named d. in infancy.
 "Arthur W. Phelps coal office 232 Main St. Nashua"

Arthur Wellington Phelps

  

  
 Death Certificate of Arthur Phelps

Arthur Wellington Phelps married Dec. 1890 Emma Gertrude Osborne From Berrien County Marriages 1890-1899

Emma Gertrude Osborne born

Children: Marion B Phelps George Osborne Phelps (March 8 1896-1962)

George Phelps with sister Marion

Draft Card George O Phelps

Burial: Keystone Heights Cemetery
Keystone Heights Clay County
Florida, USA Created by: Alton & Loudonia

Batcheller Line:From the book: "Batchelder, Batcheller Genealogy: Descendants of Rev. Stephen Bachiler, of England, a Leading Non-conformist, who Settled the Town of New Hampton, N.H., and Joseph, Henry, Joshua, and John Batcheller of Essex Co., Massachusetts" by Frederick Clifton Pierce

*Silas W Batcheller  (Isaac, Nehemiah, Nehemiah, David, John, Joseph), b. Boxboro, Mass., March 15, 1791; m. June 27, 1814, Rhoda Goddard, b. June 17, 1795; d. Aug. 13, 1887. He was a farmer. He d. April 19, 1880. Res. Bethlehem and South Royalston, N. H.

ISAAC BATCHELLOR (Nehemiah, Nehemiah, David, John, Joseph), b. Acton, Mass., Oct. 22, 1766; m. there April 10, 1788, Mary Wetherbee, b. Nov. 7, 1770; dau. of Silas. After Isaac's death she m. 2d, John Holman. She d. June 6, 1858, in So. Royalston, Mass. Isaac was one of the first settlers of Bethlehem, going there from Mass.. at the end of the last century. He was prominent in town affairs, was often moderator, selectman and collector. He d. in Bethlehem, N. H., June 6, 1803, being accidentally killed by a fall from a tree. Res. Bethlehem, N. H.