Cold and flu season is finally behind us. Did you catch a cold, the flu, or perhaps even COVID 19 or RSV this winter? So many of us did. And when you get sick, the search is on for anything that will help relieve your symptoms and fast-track you to recovery.
We are blessed with the miracles of modern medicine. Can you imagine what life was like struggling with a with sickness in the 19th century and earlier? The grim reality in those days was sicknesses and diseases were often lethal.
The Disease
A common, and often fatal disease, that ravaged families in 1800’s America was typhus fever. Unlike typhoid fever, typhus is not spread person-to-person. Typhus is caused by the bacteria Rickettsia, which is transferred to humans through lice, ticks, mites, or fleas. Typhus symptoms include headache, a rash originating from the torso, fever, confusion, low blood pressure, muscle pain, and sensitivity to bright lights.1
Speaking on typhus, 19th century German epidemiologist, Dr. August Hirsch, pronounced:
The history of typhus is the history of human misery.
Dr. August Hirsch (1817-1894)
According to mortality statistics gathered by the U.S. Census Bureau, typhoid fever, including typhus, resulted in the death of 13,099 in 1850 (4.7% of U.S. deaths).2
The Miracle
Otis Spaulding, my 4th great-uncle, was born December 20, 1817. Otis was the younger brother of my 3rd great-grandfather, Addison Spaulding. Otis married Azuba Zenobia Richmond in 1838. Two years later in 1840, Otis and Azuba migrated west from Cavendish, Vermont to Mifflin, Ohio.
While living in Ohio, Otis became very ill with typhus fever. After repeated failed healing attempts by local doctors, all of whom said he would die, Otis called on a local Wyandotte Indian as a last resort. The Wyandotte medicine elder gave Otis a remedy that he said would cure him. Otis’s situation was extraordinary as Native American doctors were often reluctant to discuss matters of medicine with non-Indians.
Otis Spaulding paid all he was able for the Wyandotte medicine elder’s recipe together with an oath not to sell or give the recipe to anyone for 20 years. In short time, and to the astonishment of his doctors, Otis was healed!
The Wyandotte Nation
The Wyandotte Nation originated in southern Canada, but prior to the arrival of European colonists, they were driven south by the Iroquois Confederacy. The Wyandotte people then settled in what is now northern Ohio.3 The Wyandotte Nation consists of remnants of the Tionontati, Attignawantan, and Wenrohronon people. These independent tribes united in 1649 after being defeated by the Iroquois Confederacy.4
The passage of the Indian Removal Act of 1830 by Congress marked the beginning of the end of the Wyandotte Nation in Ohio. This Act enabled the President of the United States to grant unsettled land west of the Mississippi River to Indian tribes that agreed to give up their homelands.5
In 1843, after a decade of Wyandotte Nation resistance, the State of Ohio finally succeeded in negotiating the tribe’s removal. Shortly thereafter a reporter for The Cincinnati Enquirer declared:
This is the last remnant of the Indian tribes in Ohio. They are gone. Once powerful in number and in strength, they are now a melancholy fraction. The fate of the Red man is theirs.6
The Cincinnati Enquirer (1843)
The Hope
Otis Spaulding and his family’s stay in Ohio wasn’t long-lived, as they moved back east to Vermont around 1846. Honoring his vow, Otis made the Wyandotte Indian Remedy available to the public in 1862, following his 20-year commitment of silence.
Here’s a July 4, 1862, excerpt of Otis Spaulding’s story, recorded in The Voice Among The Mountains newspaper of Ludlow, Vermont, announcing the availability of this miraculous remedy:
This great and powerful Remedy is now introduced to the general public for the first time and the daily call for it is unprecedented. Although poor in purse, having twice been burnt out, and for three years prostrated by sickness yet I am rich in faith, believing that when I am called to my rest I shall have left evidence that I have done some good in the world, and that generations yet to come will have received great benefit from my medicine, as it continues to move along through the country.
This great Remedy has been silent for 20 years by a bound Agreement with the Indian Doctor himself. The time expired one year ago this spring; and such is its power to strengthen the whole system, stimulate and purify the blood, and cure the diseases for which it is recommended, that 54 gallons of it were sold within 10 miles of my house in short space of three months.
This Medicine is warranted to cure the worst of Colds in the shortest time of any medicine on record. Liver complaints, Scrofula, Consumption, general debility, pain in the side, chills and fever and all diseases of the lungs have been cured by it; and not one can deny its efficacy for the above complaints.
Otis Spaulding (1862)
Evidently, there were skeptics in central Vermont in those days that weren’t convinced of the healing claims of Otis Spaulding and the Wyandotte Indian Remedy. Confident of the results that he witnessed personally in himself, and others, Otis posted a $1,000 reward in The Black River Gazette of Ludlow, Vermont on July 8, 1868 for anyone who could prove the remedy was not genuine. This was a substantial amount of money in 1868 as it equates to over $20,000 in 2024 dollars.
The Tragedy
In 1864, just two years after Otis Spaulding shared the miracle Wyandotte Indian Remedy with the public, tragedy struck. Otis and Azuba’s son, Private Henry C. Spaulding, Company F, First Regiment, Vermont Cavalry died during the Civil War. Henry was captured by Confederate troops in Virginia on March 2, 1864 and died 73 days later at the notorious Andersonville POW camp in Georgia. You can read Private Henry Spaulding’s compelling story HERE.
My 4th great-uncle, Otis Spaulding, died in Andover, Vermont on August 25, 1897 at age 79. His obituary in The Vermont Tribune indicated that Otis was known as “Dr.” Spaulding in the region. Otis’ five short years in Ohio brought a grave sickness, an astonishing healing, and a miracle remedy back home to central Vermont. I wonder how many people Otis helped with the Wyandotte Indian Remedy?
The Connection
In the course of writing my book, Fortitude: Preserving 400 Years of an American Family’s Faith, Patriotism, Grit, and Determination, I was fortunate to connect with one of Otis and Azuba Spaulding’s descendants, Vickie Aldous Budge, a fellow family historian from Virginia. Otis and Azuba are Vickie’s 3rd great-grandparents.
I don’t know about you, but the next time I’m acutely ill, I wouldn’t mind giving the ole Wyandotte Indian Remedy a try. It’s surely better than swallowing the horse pills we are prescribed today!
NOTES
- Hospitality Health ER. Typhus and Typhoid: What’s the Difference? Accessed from https://hher24.com/typhus-and-typhoid-whats-the-difference/# on January 16, 2024
- U.S. Census Bureau. Mortality of the United States, p. 239. Accessed from https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1860/statistics/1860d-10.pdf on January 14, 2024.
- Ohio History Connection. Wyandot Reservation Map. Accessed from https://ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p267401coll32/id/15735/# on January 14, 2024.
- Wyandotte Nation. Our Culture. Accessed from https://wyandotte-nation.org/aboutus/our-culture/ on January 18, 2024.
- U.S. Department of State. Office of the Historian. Indian Treaties and the Removal Act of 1830. Accessed from https://history.state.gov/milestones/1830-1860/indian-treaties# on January 18, 2024.
- Wingo, R. Ohio Humanities. Built on Broken Promises. Accessed from https://www.ohiohumanities.org/2022/10/10/built-on-broken-promises/ on January 18, 2024.
- Featured Image: Rodriguez, T. 2019. Variety of Soaps. Accessed from https://unsplash.com/photos/variety-of-soaps-L2Fp8CIHafc on January 23, 2024 and is free to use under the Unsplash License.
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Thanks for posting about my 3rd great-grandfather, Otis Spaulding and his patent medicine. I have been a collector of vintage patent medicine bottles for decades, long before I learned about my ancestor Otis Spaulding and his business. A coincidence or an omen? Otis tried his hand at blacksmithing in Vermont and farming in Massachusetts before his life-altering illness and recovery in Mifflin, Ohio. It’s unfortunate that he was still abiding by his promise not to sell or administer the Wynadotte Remedy for 20 years when his father, Jesse Spaulding, suffered from consumption and succumbed to the disease in 1858, 4 years before Otis began marketing his remedy.
Vermont was a “dry” state for 50 years, beginning in 1852. Liquor could only be sold for medicinal, chemical, and mechanical processes. This prohibition greatly increased the popularity of patent medicines because they generally contained a good dose of alcohol and sometimes opium. The Wyandotte Corn Nipper pictured above contained 42% alcohol, also ether, and cannabis. That particular Wyandotte remedy was manufactured in Mt. Vernon, Ohio 9 years after Otis’s death so I’m not sure if it has any connection to him. The famous original Lydia Pinkham’s tonic contained 18% alcohol. I have a bottle of Stella-Vitae – Women’s Relief and Mother’s Cordial which contains 10% alcohol. That would make mothers more cordial! I also own a bottle of Dr. Shoop’s Cough Cure. It promises to cure coughs from colds, catarrh, whooping cough, asthma, and consumption; all without containing any opium. The proprietor offered $10.00 per every drop of opium found in his cough cure. The label doesn’t say how much alcohol contained in the cure.
Otis Spaulding sold his remedy for $1 a quart. He published testimonials from satisfied customers in local newspapers in his area of Vermont. One man said he was confined to his room for 3 months with a debilitating cough. Over the period of his confinement, he consumed 12 quarts of the remedy and was completely cured. It must have been some good stuff!!
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Thanks Vickie for adding some fascinating insights to the story! It’s so great to hear from a direct descendant of Otis Spaulding. He would be happy to know his legacy lives on and that we are still sharing his miraculous story 170 years later!
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