Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Remember the Alamo

I should have posted this yesterday, March 6, because on that date in 1836 the Alamo fell to General Santa Anna's Mexican Army after a 13 day siege. 187 Texans fought against 6,000 Mexicans.  So remember, "the Alamo" isn't just a college football bowl game.

Illustration from the Deseret Evening News, Salt Lake City, UT, August 29, 1903 

Article from The San Juan Islander, Friday Harbor, WA, November 26, 1904.

The Alamo, San Antonio, TX, photo by me

About a month later, The Army of Texas, commanded by Sam Houston, soundly defeated Santa Anna at the Battle of San Jacinto.  The battle cry for the feisty Texans at San Jacinto was "Remember the Alamo!" Now a giant 567.31 foot tall monument stands at the site of the Battle of San Jacinto near Houston, TX; it's the world's tallest monumental column, approximately 12 feet taller than the Washington Monument.

San Jacinto Monument, Harris County, TX, photo by me


More Information:
On the Alamo:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Alamo
http://www.thealamo.org/battle/battle.php
On the San Jacinto Monument:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Jacinto_Monument
 http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=6702

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Hood's Sarsaparilla Testimonials

Recently I published a post about a distant cousin, M. L. Cheuvront, who in 1894 had written a testimonial in an advertisement for Hood's Sarsaparilla cure:
http://miscellaneousmar.blogspot.com/2012/02/marshall-lloyd-cheuvront-in-agony.html

Hood's Sarsaparilla was a prolific advertiser in the late 1800's through the early 1900's so there were lots of testimonials. I decided to go back to the Library of Congress' Historic American Newspapers collection and look for other testimonials.  I found Hood's Sarsaparilla advertisements in newspapers from Florida, Hawaii,  Minnesota, Nebraska, New York, and Texas;  I'm sure I could have found them in every other state if I had more time.  Here are 21 more people who wrote testimonials.

Some Men:

    Mr. Harvey Heed, Laceyville, OH;    Mr. Herman Hicks, Rochester, NY;   Mr. A. H. Smith, St. Louis, MO     

Some Women:

Mrs. Andrew Gray
Birdie Buckholz and her Mother 

Mrs. Isa Griggs 

A husband and wife:

Mr. and Mrs. H. C. Richardson of Siloam, NY

Often Hood's Sarsaparilla printed half or full page advertisements with testimonials from several people.

Miss Jessie Fremont, Saddle River, NJ; Mrs. F. H. Andrews, S. Woodstock, CT; 
Miss Margaret Smith, Hebron, OH 

 Miss Etta Hilbert, Lawrence, MA; Deputy Sheriff R. D. Wheeler, Burlington, VT;
Rev. Wm. Hollinshed, Sparta, NJ; Miss Lettie Huntley, Cortland, NY

Mrs. Carleton, Ayer, MA; Mrs. Gee, Stoneham, MA; Mrs. Gray, New Bedford, MA



Miss Julia C. Tison, Jacksonville, FL; Seymour L. Hotchkiss, Wallingford, CT; 
Charles L. Clark, Westbrook, ME ;  Mrs. S. L. Carleton, Ayer, MA

The testimonials for Hood's Sarsaparilla Cure stated that it cured many illnesses and health problems such as spring humors, eczema, scrofula, catarrh, and loss of appetite.  Here are three examples of typical advertisements with testimonials/claims that it cured them of deafness, rheumatism and salt rheum (eczema):





Sources:

Library of Congress, Chronicling America, Historic American Newspapers, http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/



People/Newspapers ( in the same order as shown above):

Heed; Evening Dispatch. (Provo, City, Utah), January 25, 1894
Hicks; Daily Herald. (Brownsville, Tex.), January 16, 1894
A. H. Smith; The Courier. (Lincoln, Neb.), May 12, 1894
Gray; Evening Bulletin. (Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii), May 29, 1895
Buckholz; The Courier. (Lincoln, Neb.), April 13, 1895
Griggs; Evening Bulletin. (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii), May 18, 1895
Richardson; Daily Herald. (Brownsville, Tex.), August 25, 1893
Fremont, Andrews, Smith;  St. Paul Daily Globe. (Saint Paul, Minn.), April 17, 1895
Hilbert, Wheeler, Hollinshed, Huntley; St. Paul Daily Globe. (Saint Paul, Minn.), March 26, 1892
Carleton, Gee, Gray; The Pensacola Journal. (Pensacola, Fla.), April 28, 1907
Tison, Hotchkiss, Clark, Carleton; New York Tribune. (New York [N.Y.]), April 01, 1906