The H. C. Whitmer Company

[David Sechrest]

If you read the HCI EBAY folder in the Classifieds Thread, then you saw the picture postcard of the H. C. Whitmer panel truck. I thought this would be a great way to start off this thread about the H. C. Whitmer Company.

The gentleman standing by the side of the truck was identified as dealer Woody Shields. Other than that, it is unknown who the photographer was, and the date and city where the picture was taken.

The H. C. Whitmer Company manufactured medicinal type products, spices, different types of extracts, and other items.

For many years, the Company operated out of 722 5th Street. Before the Whitmer Company took possession of this "house," it had been one of the earliest hospitals in Columbus, with Dr. John Morris as staff doctor, surgeon, and all around medicinal physician. Dr. Morris was married to Grace Reeves, daughter of M. T. and Louisa Reeves. The Morris facility was located across the street from M. T.'s home on 5th Street.

By the time Whitmer's moved in to 722 5th St., it was owned by Fred and Larry Whitehouse. Whitmer's had a staff of 750 salesmen, covering 26 states, selling Whitmer products door to door.

[Deleted]

A list of products that the H. C. Whitmer Co. had for sale.

[Deleted]

The company's line of medicine.

[Deleted]

[richard]

Hello all, I met a fellow last week that worked at The H. C. Whitmer Company, the makers of Black Diamond Liniment. Hopefully I’ll have more information soon.

[richard]

Hello all,

My 1953 City Directory lists the H. C. Whitmer at 722 Fifth Street. That location was on the North side of the street between Pearl and Sycamore Streets, which is the present site of the Lincoln School.

I checked the History of Bartholomew County Volume II index that David created and posted on his home page and found the following. It lists a reference to the H. C. Whitmer Company on page 320.

The building that housed the H. C. Whitmer Company housed a hospital-sanitarium operated by Dr. John Little Morris, the son-in-law of M. T. and Louisa Reeves. After the death of Dr. Morris in 1912 the hospital was operated by Dr. A. P. Roope as City Hospital until the Bartholomew County Hospital opened in 1917 on east Seventeenth Street.

The H. C. Whitmer Company purchased the building in 1921. The company made more than 140 items that included medicinal products, cosmetics, flavoring extracts and other household items. Fred C. And Larry S. Whitehouse, both salesmen for the company, had purchased the company from the family of its founder and moved it from Ohio.

At one time the company had more than 750 salesmen working in 26 states selling Whitmer products, usually door-to-door. The company closed in 1958. The company was in business at that location for more than thirty years.

Volume II can be purchased at the Bartholomew County Historical Society, 524 Third Street, Columbus, IN 47201.

Those living in another location can visit the Bartholomew County Historical Society web page by using the link below. Click PRODUCTS/SERVICES on the left of the home page to purchase this volume.

www.barthist.com/barthist.html

[richard]

Hello all, I received the following information from Mr. Jim Martin.

It would be nice to make a story about the H.C. Whitmer Co. It was down on Fifth Street and was the First hospital building in Columbus. They were in business a long time and he used to go door to door selling the products before he had a work permit. Then he worked inside mixing up a lot of the products.

Black Diamond Liniment was a number 1 seller. It was in every horse barn in the country.

We had two chemists. Albert Lortz was the chief and Raymond Glosson was assistant.
Fred Whitehouse was the owner and Paul Whitehouse was vice president. The products were sold throughout Ohio, Kentucky, Virginia and Indiana. The big medicine Companies put them out of business. They had “Good for Man or Beast” on the label of the Liniment and some of those large companies sued. The courts ruled in favor of the larger companies and the W. C. Whitmer Company was fined. Jim’s understanding at the time was that the continuation of the suits was the demise of the company.

Jim started working there while still in school even before he had his work permit. He would go in after school. He also sold the products around town using his bicycle to make his deliveries. The work at the company consisted of many different job types.

The products were mixed upstairs and moved by pipes to the packaging area on the first floor and basement. He recalls one amusing incident that occurred after mixing a batch of Butterscotch Pudding. The pipes were to always be inspected while going up the stairs to the second floor. After mixing the powder, they sent it down the pipe and in short order Wava Bloomstock, another high school employee came running up the stairs yelling STOP, STOP! The pipe had come apart and all of the ladies including Wave had white hair.

He related that the white powder was everywhere. When they started cleaning the area, the powder would turn to pudding and needless to say, they all worked late into the night that day! He said they mixed and sold several flavors of the mixes that were used for pudding and pie filling.

Did you look closely at the picture of the Black Diamond Liniment bottle? Did you notice the name on the bottle that I posted in this thread? It says “Manufactured by The Whitmer Company, Bowling Green Ky. 42101." Jim said he understands that the H. C. Whitmer Company sold many of their formulas when the company closed.

Many years later his employment was in sales and he traveled within a wide area of Columbus. He had one customer in Franklin, Indiana that knew Jim had worked for the H. C. Whitmer Company. The customer had used all of his Black Diamond Liniment and he swore that it relieved his arthritic pain. Later on as he was in Scottsburg, Indiana calling on a customer he saw a few bottles of Black Diamond Liniment setting on a shelf. That fellow was still buying the product from the new company in Bowling Green, Kentucky. In the next several years, Jim purchased several bottles for his Franklin, Indiana customer from the Scottsburg, Indiana customer!

[richard]

This is a story that was related by Wava Bloomenstock, a Columbus girl that became a teacher at Columbus High School. Do any of you recall Mrs. Stevens? She is now retired and lives in a warm climate. I must thank Mr. Bill Hawes of Skokie, Illinois for keeping me on my toes to get this story. Bill was raised in Columbus until he went to collage. Bill attended school in Columbus with this lady and he says she was one fine girl. Bill sent her an e-mail to tell her I would like to talk to her about her employment at the H. C. Whitmer Company.

She was traveling to visit her son and grandchildren over the Christmas Holidays. During the trip, while stopped at a visitor center, she checked her e-mail and read the note Bill had sent. She had no e-mail addresses with her but did have her phone list and called Bill when she arrived at her son’s home. Bill called me and I called her. THANKS Bill. Without your help, this story may not have been posted here.

The story starts in nineteen-thirty-nine when she was nine years old and her fifty-year-old father died. She had a sister twelve years older than she and her mother had no job! Mr. Fred C. Whitehouse sales director of the H. C. Whitmer Company on Fifth Street, offered the family employment. The mother became the bookkeeper and the oldest daughter became Fred’s secretary.

Now remember in the 1940's things were different and the nine-year-old was also employed. She worked after school and weekends in the attic out of sight of any visitors! Her 1st job was assembling boxes. At age sixteen, she was old enough to move down to the third floor where her job was packing lipsticks.

She said that Mr. Whitehouse became a friend of the family and she was able to have a twelfth birthday party at his home on Washington Street. That large house was the former home of Q. G. Noblitt at 1910 Washington Street.

She continued to be employed at the Whitmer Company till she left Columbus to attend Indiana University.

Her father died just days before Social Security was to go into effect. She stated that Mr. Whitehouse was a wonderful man and she can only guess how the family would have stayed together had it not been for his employment.

[Deleted]

The H. C. Whitmer Co. laboratory.

[David Sechrest]

Here is part of the Sanborn Insurance Map from 1947 showing the location of the H. C. Whitmer Company.

The Sanborn maps that our local library have on file are extremely interesting. You can look at the maps while visiting the library, or from your home computer. In order to view these from your home computer, you need to contact the staff at the library to be able to sign in. Once you sign in to a specific map, you can save them to your computer so you won't need to access the library each time you wish to view them.

I highly recommend this wonderful service!

[Deleted]

David........seeing that map brings back some old memories, the Whitmer building was the first fire of my fire department career. The fire was in December 1957, the company had went out of business a short time before that I believe. Some time after the fire the building was made into apartments.

George

[David Sechrest]

george said:

David........seeing that map brings back some old memories, the Whitmer building was the first fire of my fire department career. The fire was in December 1957, the company had went out of business a short time before that I believe. Some time after the fire the building was made into apartments.

George

[/size]

Hi George. Being a baby-boomer, the H. C. Whitmer Company was a little before my time, although I have seen quite a few things that came from there.

These Sanborn Insurance maps are great, and I love looking at them! So far, I have downloaded 1886, 1890, 1892, 1898, 1906, 1912, 1927, and 1947. It's fun to compare the same parts of Columbus from map to map and see the changes.

I plan on adding more pics from the maps where appropriate, and I highly recommend them to all on this message board.

To sign up for the maps, follow this link:

www.barth.lib.in.us/contact.html

[David Sechrest]

Regarding the map, the buildings designated with a "D": The "D" stands for "dwelling."

I find it interesting that there was an undertaker on the corner of 5th and Pearl. That wasn't too far from the Hathaway Funeral Home that was located between 10th and 11th Sts. on Pearl. Or, was the place at 5th and Pearl a funeral home?

It looks like a pretty good sized building on the map.

[Deleted]

Hi David,

Those maps are great.......thanks. About the funeral home that you mentioned at 5th and Pearl, I believe it was the Flanagan and Reed funeral Home, I attended a funeral there in March 1958.
I think that the home at one time was one of the Reeves homes that were along 5th St. at that time, there were some fine homes on 5th St. in the early days.

George

[teanda]

hello i would like to know where to purchase some black diamond liniment it is good for everything and i know a few people who would like to know as well please email me. thank you

[teanda]

hello i would like to know where to purchase some black diamond liniment it is good for everything and i know a few people who would like to know as well please email me. thank you

[jdhinkle]

I DONT KNOW IF THIS WAS A TRICK QUESTION OR NOT
I DID A GOOGLE SEARCH FOR BLACK DIAMOND LINIMENT
THERE IS AN ELY DRUGS IN KY THAT SELLS IT
ONE OF THE ENTRIES HAD A PICTURE OF THE PRODUCT
WHEN I ENLARGED IT YOU COULD SEE THE H C WHITMER ON THE LABEL
JACK

teanda said:

hello i would like to know where to purchase some black diamond liniment it is good for everything and i know a few people who would like to know as well please email me. thank you

[Ricky_Berkey]

Apparently Black Diamond Liniment (still with the Whitmer flag) is distributed and produced at the Marion Feed Mill in Marion, KY. This is a message that I recieved from Charlie Hunt at the feed mill:

"Yes, it is the same product that Whitmer produced. We have owned the manufacturing and copy rights for nearly 20 years. The problem is that just recently one of the ingredients seems to have become unavailable. We have stopped shipping and only sell at this location. I was raised on BDL and will continue to try to keep it on the market.

Charlie Hunt"


Marion Feed Mill - www.marionfeedmill.com/black_diamond_liniment.php

Ely Drugs - www.elydrugs.com

jdhinkle said:

I DONT KNOW IF THIS WAS A TRICK QUESTION OR NOT
I DID A GOOGLE SEARCH FOR BLACK DIAMOND LINIMENT
THERE IS AN ELY DRUGS IN KY THAT SELLS IT
ONE OF THE ENTRIES HAD A PICTURE OF THE PRODUCT
WHEN I ENLARGED IT YOU COULD SEE THE H C WHITMER ON THE LABEL
JACK

teanda said:

hello i would like to know where to purchase some black diamond liniment it is good for everything and i know a few people who would like to know as well please email me. thank you

[richard]

This information is from the Looking Back column on April 6, 2008, in ‘The Republic’. This note is from 1958 and states that renovation work began on the old H. C. Whitmer Building, located at 722 Fifth Street, to convert the structure into a 10-unit apartment building.

The article includes a photo with the following caption, “Charles B. Whittington leaned on one of the 50-gallon crocks labeled ‘H. C. Whitmer Company Analgesic Linament’.” Actually the spelling of Linament in the article is Liniment on the bottles in this thread.

[cam]

Mar 8, 2008 12:54:09 GMT -5 jdhinkle said:

I DONT KNOW IF THIS WAS A TRICK QUESTION OR NOT
I DID A GOOGLE SEARCH FOR BLACK DIAMOND LINIMENT
THERE IS AN ELY DRUGS IN KY THAT SELLS IT
ONE OF THE ENTRIES HAD A PICTURE OF THE PRODUCT
WHEN I ENLARGED IT YOU COULD SEE THE H C WHITMER ON THE LABEL
JACK

teanda said:

hello i would like to know where to purchase some black diamond liniment it is good for everything and i know a few people who would like to know as well please email me. thank you