Reaching a National Market

Because of railroad shipping, manufacturers like Wakefield could sell their products throughout the nation. 

Featuring:

Cyrenius Wakefield, (1815 – 1885), inventor & factory owner
Benjamin F. Reeve, (1856 – 1925), newspaper printer

Cyrenius Wakefield (1815-1885) took over the patent medicine factory he had helped his recently deceased brother Dr. Zera Wakefield establish in 1846. Cyrenius turned Wakefield’s into a highly successful business that utilized traveling sales agents and free almanacs to sell Wakefield’s Blackberry Balsam and other remedies. Because of railroad shipping, manufacturers like Wakefield could sell their products throughout the nation.

Cyrenius chose not to purchase his own presses. But after he passed management of the factory to his son Oscar in 1871, presses were purchased and printers were hired. 

In 1878 Oscar employed 40 workers at the medicine factory. He also employed seasonal workers to mail Wakefield’s annual almanac, as well as selling agents who traveled the region selling Wakefield’s medicines. 

In the 1880s annual distribution of Wakefield’s almanac reached 1.5 million households. The large number of orders received more than offset the cost of printing and mailing the almanacs.

black and white photograph of a light skinned man with long wavy hair and a large beard.

Cyrenius Wakefield

black and white photograph of a light skinned man with long wavy hair and a large beard.
an illustration of a few factory buildings, one in the foreground is very large, and a smokestack with billowing smoke.

Laboratories of C. Wakefield & Co. Manufacturing Pharmacists, Bloomington Ill.

an illustration of a few factory buildings, one in the foreground is very large, and a smokestack with billowing smoke.

Wakefield's Eye Salve claimed to be "an excellent remedy for sore, inflamed, and weak eyes, sore lips, and removing proud flesh from sores and ulcers."

Wakefield's Wine Bitters claimed to "cure dyspepsia, general debility, and constipation".

Wakefield's Eye Salve. An excellent remedy for sore, inflamed, and weak eyes, sore lips, and removing proud flesh from sores and Ulcers. Prepared by C. Wakefield and Co., Bloomington, Illinois. For sale by all druggists.

Wakefield's Cough Syrup "for coughs, colds, asthma, consumption, whooping cough, crop, hives, measles, pneumonia and lung, or Winter Fever." Claiming to be excelled by no other remedy, the advertisement compels the reader to try the product.

Wakefield's Eye Salve. An excellent remedy for sore, inflamed, and weak eyes, sore lips, and removing proud flesh from sores and Ulcers. Prepared by C. Wakefield and Co., Bloomington, Illinois. For sale by all druggists.

Wakefield's Sugar Coated Liver Pills claimed to be "for liver complaint, costiveness, gout, jaundice, sick headache, and all bilious affect."

The 1906 Pure Food & Drug Act put most patent medicine companies out of business. But Wakefield’s blackberry bark and root-based balsam had some medicinal qualities for diarrhea. Until the mid-1990s, Wakefield’s Blackberry Balsam could still be purchased from a New York based company.

Wakefield’s Blackberry Balsam, circa 1945

A small bottle with a lot of text on the label

Donated by: Bob Fisher
945.323

A small bottle with a lot of text on the label

Wakefield's Blackberry Balsam, circa 1870

a small bottle with a long neck, again has a lot of text on the label.

Donated by: John Colteaux
878.820

a small bottle with a long neck, again has a lot of text on the label.

Wakefield's Ague and Fever Pills, circa 1858

a clear glass bottle with a large opening on top. no label.

Donated by: Karl Feaster
878.730

a clear glass bottle with a large opening on top. no label.

Wakefield's Blackberry Balsam Compound, circa 1890

a clear glass bottle with Wakefields imprinted on the glass. No label.

Donated by: Bob Fisher
945.323

a clear glass bottle with Wakefields imprinted on the glass. No label.

Wakefield's Cough Syrup, circa 1875

a clear bottle with a green tint with Wakefield's imprinted on the bottle. no label.

Donated by: John Colteaux
868.678

a clear bottle with a green tint with Wakefield's imprinted on the bottle. no label.

Wakefield's Cough Syrup and Fever Specific, circa 1890

Three small bottles with necks, no labels.

Donated by: John Colteaux
868,678, 868.665, 888.829

Three small bottles with necks, no labels.

Benjamin F. Reeve

Benjamin F. Reeve (1856-1925) was an accomplished printer who worked for Bloomington’s Pantagraph for 12 years. But in 1892 he was convinced to leave and manage the printing department at Wakefield’s medicine factory.

It was a new job, a new boss, and a new environment. But the work was not so different from the jobs Ben did at the newspaper. He supervised the work of printing almanacs, medicine bottle labels, and medicine boxes, as well as order forms.

Ben hired Edward J. Tohill (1877-1918) to work as a press feeder the same year. Ed worked his way up to pressman, but in 1898 took a job in Chicago.

That same year Ben, who missed newspaper work, moved to Michigan to work as a newspaperman.

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