Quack Cure Bottle Embossed: McELREE'S CARDUI. THE CHATTANOOGA MEDICINE CO.

 

Bottle Embossed: THE CHATANOOGA MEDICINE CO

I haven't post any bottles for a while, but here is a Treasure Coast found light green bottle, embossed as shown below the photos.  It has a good story behind it.

Other Side of Same Bottle Embossed: McELREE'S CARDUI.

When the Civil War ended, two Federal soldiers, Z. C. Patten and T. H. Payne, were mustered out of the army in Chattanooga. They formed a partnership for selling paper, blankbooks and miscellaneous stationery supplies. Business in Chattanooga was in a disorderly state because of the chaos caused by the war, and the rapid surge forward of business reorganization...

Patten, however, gave rein to his expansive ideas and bought the formulas of Thedford’s Black Draught and McElree’s Wine of Cardui, and organized the Chattanooga Medicine Company for large-scale production of these medicines...

Of Wine of Cardui, a newspaper ad said, ‘This pure wine is a simple vegetable extract without intoxicating qualities, and has proved to be the most astonishing TONIC FOR WOMEN known to medical science.”

Twenty years later when Samuel Hopkins Adams published his “Great American Fraud” articles, he mentioned the advertising of the Chattanooga Medicine Company as not being suitable reading material for a family gathered around the breakfast table...

Here is a link to an article that provides a lot of additional information.

Black Draught and Wine of Cardui - Appalachian History

Below is an older bottle and box containing the Chattanooga Medicine Company tonic.

McElree introduced his Cardui in 1879 and sold this product to the Chattanooga Medicine Company in 1882, where it was originally marketed as "McElree's Cardui, The Woman's Tonic."” In the 1920s product, the ingredients were listed as: Blessed Thistle, Golden Seal, and 19% alcohol (38 proof). In the US in the 1800s & early 1900s, use of alcohol was viewed with disdain. Thus, the increasing popularity of an increasing number of alcohol based patent medicines was prevalent (McElree's Cardui Tonic; Reverend R.I. McElree; 1879; Fincham Collection 040 | eHive).

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