Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 4, 2008 17:50:27 GMT -5
Cam
If you wish to purchase a bottle of Black Diamond Liniment you will have to make a trip to Marion,Ky to Elydrugs, they still manufacture it, but no longer ship the product. I happen to have a bottle in my H. C. Whitmer collection, age unknown, but you are welcome to stop by the house and have a swig if you like.
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verybrad
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Post by verybrad on Nov 23, 2008 23:45:21 GMT -5
Great to see this thread! I am a descendant of H. C. Whitmer (Harry Clinton Whitmer). He was my great grandfather. There is a lot of good information given but I want to clarify one thing. The Whitmer medicine company originally started in Ohio but was brought to Indiana by my Great Grandfather. He arrived with family medicine recipes in the late 1890's and first settled in Salem, IN for a short while. About 1899, he purchased property and moved his family to Seymour, IN where the medicine company prospered. It was not until the medicine company was sold that the company moved to Columbus. My great grandfather died fairly young and my great grandmother did not have the inclination to continue running the company. My grandfather was too young to run the company and the decision was made to sell it. H. C. Whitmer is buried in Seymour. This is a photo of my grandfather as a young lad with one of the company's medicine wagons. The photo was taken in front of their home in Seymour. I figure it was taken about 1905 based on how old my grandfather appears.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Nov 25, 2008 19:49:00 GMT -5
Hi Verybrad,
Welcome and thank you very much for the information about the H. C. Whitmer Company and the great pictures. I collect Whitmer memorabilia and have about forty pieces, if you have any more pictures and history about the company I'm sure there are many of us that would be interested.
George
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Post by jrwhitehouse on Jun 16, 2010 11:15:33 GMT -5
Just found this board yesterday, and thought I would add a little information about the Whitmer Company and my family's involvement. I was born and raised in Columbus and, at one time, owned a business there. I am now retired in Sun City, Arizona. To my knowledge, of the many Whitehouse families who lived in Columbus there are only two remaining there, and they are my first cousin and a second cousin, 1 time removed. All of the others have died, moved for work, or retired and moved away.
My grandfather was James H. Whitehouse from Rockport, IN, and one of his older brothers was Thomas J. Whitehouse who also lived in Rockport. My grandfather sold for the H.C. Whitmer Company in southern Indiana and northern Kentucky, and in those days traveled via a buggy and a matched pair.
Thomas was the father of Frederick C. & Lawrence A. Whitehouse who purchased the company from Mr. Whitmer's widow. I am fairly sure it was my grandfather who made the contact between the widow and his nephews to arrange a purchase of the company. The company was a family business with both brothers, Fred's wife, and Lawrence's son, Paul, involved in one way or the other until Fred's death c. 1953-54 when the company finally folded.
Fred owned the very large home on the west side of Washington Street and the first house north of 19th Street. I think one of the Golden family originally built that house. He purchased it sometime in the late twenties.
My dad who sold life insurance in Indianapolis in the mid twenties for John Hancock Life Insurance Co. came to work as a salesman for his cousins in about 1927. That association did not last very long though when dad made a very large sale to Marshall Field Department Store in Chicago, the premier department store in the Midwest at that time. He had sold them the complete line of medicines and also the cosmetic line Whitmer produced under the name of L'Aube Cosmetics. Fred and Lawrence told my dad that the company had always sold door to door and would continue doing just that. Who knows what that could have developed into and how large the company could have grown. We will never know.
So, my family was the one who continued the work of Mr. Harry Clinton Whitmer and his family formulas. The Black Diamond Liniment is still available from the Marion Feed Mill in Marion, Kentucky which is not far across the Ohio River from Rockport.
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jdhinkle
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LITTLE HINK
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Post by jdhinkle on Jun 17, 2010 12:06:42 GMT -5
I WAS INTERESTED IN THIS POST WHEN HE MENTIONED THE HOUSE AT 19TH AND WASHINGTON I FOUND THAT ONE OF MY RELATIVES WAS INVOLVED WITH HOUSE MENTIONED I THINK THE HOUSE IS A PART OF THE HISTORICAL TOUR OF HOUSES THIS IS A PART OF THE INFO ON THE HOUSE History According to Marilyn Marr Lentz, a descendent of Lydia’s brother Jesse, the wealthy Newsom family was not very enthusiastic about Lydia’s decision to marry Weldon in 1905, when she was in her early thirties and he in his late forties. Marilyn also recalls older members of the Newsom family saying that Weldon “spent all of [Lydia’s] money.” Although family members do not recall any children, census records reveal a son, Weldon Newsom Lambert, born in 1908 and residing with his parents well into the 1920s. He died in Connecticut in 1995. Notes by Ross Crump, president of the Bartholomew County Historical Society for twenty years, reveal that Lydia Lambert may have developed the idea for the home based on residences she and her sister, Vida Newsom, had seen during a trip to Europe. Lydia also provided the site for the home, which was located on Block A of Lydia Newsom Lambert’s Highland Place Addition on land purchased from Joseph I. Irwin in 1908 and platted in 1912. In addition to the Highland Place Addition, Lydia also purchased land known as Lydia Newsom Lambert’s Second Addition, lots 17 through 28 extending north on Washington Street to just beyond Sunset Drive. According to the 1888 History of Bartholomew County Volume I, Weldon was born in 1857, graduated from Hartsville University in 1879 and was admitted to the Columbus bar that same year. With offices in the First National Bank building, he was evidently a highly successful attorney and active in Republican politics, having served two terms, 1899-1903, as an Indiana State Senator before his marriage to Lydia. Given his ambitions for higher office, he was delighted to build a home of grandeur – envisioning himself as governor giving speeches from the second-floor balcony located behind the Ionic-pillared entrance. Sadly, his ambitions went unfulfilled although he did serve two more terms in the Indiana Senate from 1923 through 1926. In 1936, at the age of 79, he ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Congress. No expense was spared in hme construction – a factor that is said to have led to Weldon and Lydia’s eventual bankruptcy and the loss of the home in the late 1920s. In the early 1930s the rest of Lydia’s real estate holdings were also lost. By then Lydia and her son had moved to Chicago, where Lydia died in 1943. As for Weldon, legend has it that he ended his days living in a Model A Ford just up the street from his grand residence. He died in 1942. The First National Bank acquired the home in 1928 and sold it in 1929 to Fred C. Whitehouse, president of the H. C. Whitmer Company, a manufacturer of cosmetics and pharmaceuticals – including his pride and joy “Black Diamond Liniment.” Mrs. Whitehouse reportedly decorated the home elegantly but was loath to entertain, concentrating on maintaining an immaculate residence. As a 1974 Republic article by historian Susanna Jones reported, “So ardent was Mrs. Whitehouse in her pursuit of cleanliness that she periodically removed the coal to scrub the coal bin.” After her death, Fred Whitehouse found an outlet for his gregarious nature, maintaining a riding stable and taking neighborhood children for sleigh rides after the first snowfall. In 1942, Whitehouse sold the home to Quinton G. Noblitt, president and co-founder of Noblitt-Sparks, the enterprise that later became Arvin Industries, a Fortune 500 company based for many years in Columbus. “Q.G.” was an industrial leader who found time to develop the Noblitt Lagoons, Harrison Lakes and Grandview Lake residential areas as well as the Harrison Lakes Country Club. In addition, Q.G. was a major philanthropic presence in the community, donating land for the Foundation for Youth Camp in Harrison Township and leading soil and water conservation efforts. During the Noblitts’ tenure, the home was the site of many festive gatherings. Following Q.G.’s death in 1954, Grace stayed on in the home with a housekeeper until she died in 1973. Just found this board yesterday, and thought I would add a little information about the Whitmer Company and my family's involvement. I was born and raised in Columbus and, at one time, owned a business there. I am now retired in Sun City, Arizona. To my knowledge, of the many Whitehouse families who lived in Columbus there are only two remaining there, and they are my first cousin and a second cousin, 1 time removed. All of the others have died, moved for work, or retired and moved away. My grandfather was James H. Whitehouse from Rockport, IN, and one of his older brothers was Thomas J. Whitehouse who also lived in Rockport. My grandfather sold for the H.C. Whitmer Company in southern Indiana and northern Kentucky, and in those days traveled via a buggy and a matched pair. Thomas was the father of Frederick C. & Lawrence A. Whitehouse who purchased the company from Mr. Whitmer's widow. I am fairly sure it was my grandfather who made the contact between the widow and his nephews to arrange a purchase of the company. The company was a family business with both brothers, Fred's wife, and Lawrence's son, Paul, involved in one way or the other until Fred's death c. 1953-54 when the company finally folded. Fred owned the very large home on the west side of Washington Street and the first house north of 19th Street. I think one of the Golden family originally built that house. He purchased it sometime in the late twenties. My dad who sold life insurance in Indianapolis in the mid twenties for John Hancock Life Insurance Co. came to work as a salesman for his cousins in about 1927. That association did not last very long though when dad made a very large sale to Marshall Field Department Store in Chicago, the premier department store in the Midwest at that time. He had sold them the complete line of medicines and also the cosmetic line Whitmer produced under the name of L'Aube Cosmetics. Fred and Lawrence told my dad that the company had always sold door to door and would continue doing just that. Who knows what that could have developed into and how large the company could have grown. We will never know. So, my family was the one who continued the work of Mr. Harry Clinton Whitmer and his family formulas. The Black Diamond Liniment is still available from the Marion Feed Mill in Marion, Kentucky which is not far across the Ohio River from Rockport.
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Post by David Sechrest on Jun 17, 2010 13:00:18 GMT -5
jrwhitehouse, welcome to the board and thank you for the info!
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