© All Rights Reserved - Black Diamond Images More images of Morpeth HERE Restoration of this sign by an Australian group of artisans associated with The Letterheads organization commenced on the weekend of the 29th and 30th of April 2000 When a ......... "couple of dozen talented tradespeople descended on an old corrugated iron barn in the Hunter Valley, near the small historical township of Morpeth New South Wales. This site was owned by Mr Ray Mudd who at 74 years of age assured 'the group that' the structure hadn't seen a coat of paint in his lifetime. Mr Mudd was an enthusiastic participant in this sign restoration project from the very first mention of it...as were the local heritage committee of Morpeth." More on the Letterheads Restoration Project HERE www.letterville.com Some History of Dr Morse's Indian Root Pills. "Dr. Morse's Indian Root Pills have their genesis in William Henry Comstock's father, Edwin P. Comstock, who founded a drug company in New York City in 1833. The Indian Root Pills were first formulated and manufactured in 1854 by Andrew B. Moore, who was then operating under the name A.B. Moore in Buffalo, New York. Rights to the pills were then transferred through a number of different business partnerships under the control of Moore, Andrew J. White, Baldwin L. Judson, George Wells Comstock and his nephew, William Henry Comstock. Dr. Morse's Indian Root Pills 'became' one of the most successful and enduring products to be manufactured and marketed in North America as part of the lucrative patent medicine industry, which thrived during most of the 19th and 20th centuries. Its manufacturer claimed the pills contained herbal ingredients that would help "cleanse the blood," as "impurity of the blood" was believed to be the cause of all disease. WIKIPEDIA Stories suggesting that the origin of the medications formula lay in native American folklore were first disseminated as early as the late 1850's, but in fact were entirely fabrication. There never was a Dr. Morse. The originator of these pills was Andrew B. Moore. Prescription of Dr Morse's Root Pills continued until at least the 1940's but mostly declined soon after World War 1. The Root Pills were "recommended as a cure for biliousness, dyspepsia, constipation, sick headache, scofula, kidney disease, liver complaint, jaundice, piles, dysentery, colds, boils, malarial fever, flatulence, foul breath, eczema, gravel, worms, female complaints, rheumatism, neuralgia, la grippe, palpitation, and nervousness..." Originally the formula was of course a closely guarded secret but by the 1930's it was revealed to be a concoction of "Aloes, Mandrake, Gambage, Jalap and Cayenne Pepper." REFERENCE In 1885 the first Dr Morse's Root Pills advertisement appeared in Australia. It was in the form of a hand painted sign able to be viewed along the Melbourne to Ballarat railway journey. midcoaststories.com/2020/07/dr-morses-indian-root-pills/