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THE PATENT MEDICINE
VENDOR
(Georgia)
"I was just about eight when I met my
first husband. That sounds funny, but it is the truth, but I did not dream
of such a thing as ever marrying that old man, but that just goes to prove
that we never know what is in store for us."
A customer came in the shop where Mrs. Cherry works, and as she waited on
him, I looked around the shop which was a large room, with several long
tables that were used for cutting and marking clothes. A large clothes
rack at one end of the room, held finished garments. A sewing table, with
a machine on each side, one electric but the other was just a plain sewing
machine with the foot peddle.
The large heater at one side of the room, and it was very warm, coming out
of the cold wind and rain. Four large windows furnished a good light to
work by. The room was very comfortable and as the customers chatted for a
few minutes about the weather and to inquire about the woman who owned the
shop and was at home sick.
As the customers left, Mrs. Cherry came back to the fire. "It is cold,"
she said, "and all this rain is awful but there is nothing we can do about
it, except grin and get wet.
"But just where did I get in the story. I believe I was telling how I met
my first husband. We had just moved to that house, which was near a
university and he was one of the stewards in the school. The school
grounds joined our lot on the back, and they raised their vegetables. The
corn and potato patch joined our lot. They had cows also and there was a
branch running through their pasture. This branch was a good place to
wade, and all the kids around played in it.
"I was one of the smallest kids in the crowd and he would pick me lots of
times and carry me to keep the weeds and briars from hurting my feet. I
thought he was great, especially as he was always giving me candy, chewing
gum or apples. Why, I just knew he was the best man I knew, and he would
tell us about his little girl. She was a year or so older than I and lived
with an aunt, as her mother was dead.
"He was good to all the children but I was his favorite. They thought it
was because I was the smallest one of them, and too I played in the
pasture lots of times when they were in school for I couldn't go to school
because my eyes were bad. I got sick, I just caught the measles but I was
pretty sick. He never missed a day coming to see me and would always bring
me something. He told mama one day that he wished she would give me to
him. Mama just laughed and said, 'Why I couldn't give my baby away; we
couldn't do without her.
"He laughed also and said, 'Well, when she gets older I am coming back
after her. Of course they all laughed and told him alright, for they
didn't think as old as he was he would ever think about me, except as a
kid. They teased me all the time about him, and kid like it pleased me,
but he petted me as long as he stayed there which was for several years
after I first saw him.
"When he did leave the university; he came by the house to tell us
good-bye and that he was going to Atlanta, but said 'I am coming back
after you.' I guess I was about eleven then. Mama just laughed and said,
'alright.' She thought he was just talking, and I didn't hear from him for
about a year. Then one day I got a letter from him saying that he had not
forgotten and was still coming back for me, and kid like I felt flattered.
I just didn't have any sense.
"He kept writing to me and when I was fifteen he came back and said he had
come for me. I didn't realize what I was doing, and thought I was just
head over heels in love. Nothing would do except that I must marry him. We
had a home wedding. The house was really lovely. It was decorated with
large palsm, ferns and flowers of all kinds.
"I was married in the afternoon about four o'clock. My wedding dress was
gray chiffon and I had grey accessories. My flowers were white roses. I
wall scared almost to death and turned his hand lose several times during
the ceremony. The preacher had to keep reminding me that I would have to
hold hands. The preacher was an old friend of our family. In fact we were
then living in his house and he had married my sister just about a year
before in this same house, and in the room next to the one he married me.
It seemed to me as if he never would get through praying.
"We did not have a reception for we left immediately after the ceremony
for the city where he lived, but there was a large crowd of people and we
received many nice presents. The man he worked for gave us a check for one
hundred dollars, and when we reached the city where he lived his boss had
our house all furnished and ready for us.
"My husband as I have told you was years older than I, and he was working
for an old Indian medicine company. The main office or plant where the
medicine was made was in this city. He would stay in the plant until a
large supply was made and ready to ship and then he went on the road to
advertise it. This kept him on the road most of the time.
"The office and plant was in a large lovely old home, that the company had
bought, and it was fixed up to be convenient in every way, both for the
work and the ones that worked there. Why they even had a large swimming
pool for the use of the people that worked for them. They were mighty good
people to work for.
"I went to work for my husband and started in the laboratory to learn the
business from the beginning and I started in at six dollars a week. My
husband was getting fifty dollars a week. The first thing I did was label
bottles. At first this was done by hand, but business grew so that we had
to have a machine to label as well as fill the bottles and it wasn't long
until I could label more bottles than anyone else. I was paid more. I
think it was raised to ten dollars a week.
"It wasn't long then until I was taken in the laboratory where the
medicine was made, and the doctor in charge of this department taught me
how to make the medicine up. I really enjoyed this work for it was really
interesting and you know it was really a good medicine. We used it
ourselves so you know it was good. I could soon make it as good as the
doctor. When we had a good supply made we were ready for the road work. I
was looking forward to this for I didn't realize what it meant and thought
it would be fun.
"But I soon learned better than that. As I said the medicine was really
good and was in demand. It was sold all over the United States. Why one
man that run a chain of drug stores bought about one hundred carloads at
one time. We had salesmen on the road to make the sales and then we did
the advertising also giving out circulars and coupons and for this my
husband carried several crew managers with him. But the others were hired
to work under them in the towns where we were working.
"As it was an Indian medicine all the people that advertised were made up
as Indians. The crew managers went on a day ahead. Yes they had enough of
them so they could do this. They carried a supply of the Indian suits for
the men giving out the circulars wore the Indian suits also. The medicine
sold for a dollar a bottle and the coupons that we gave away was good for
thirty five cents on a bottle of medicine.
"My job was to advertise at the drugstores while the crew managers and
their men canvassed the town. My husband saw that it was all done and the
first day or so it was alright. I thought it was fun. I was dressed in a
soft leather suit, all trimmed up in beads and fringe, leather moccassim
shoes with beads, my face and hands were stained and I wore a wig with
corse balck hair and feathers in my hair, and hanging down over my
shoulders. You know how it all looked for I know you have seen pictures of
them. I stood at the door of the drugstore and gave away coupons.
"Yes, I made good money for when I went on the road I was paid twenty-five
dollars a week and all expenses. My husband made fifty dollars. The crew
managers were paid fifteen dollars. Of course all our expenses were paid
by the company. The men or boys that he hired in the towns were paid
twelve dollars a week or two dollars a day for it was a large town if they
stayed there for a week. My husband and I only stayed one day at a town
and then we went on to the next town.
"We didn't travel in cars but went on
the trains. I soon grew tired of it for standing all day and then getting
the make up off and rushing to catch trains sometimes didn't have time to
eat and very little sleep and very often we could not get a good place to
stay for this was during war times and you know how things were then.
"Sometimes we almost froze to death in the winter time. Maybe we would get
in about day light and have to get ready for the day's work, probably have
to get on the job before we had time to eat and we had to be on the job
for that was in the company was to do all the advertising. I was the only
woman on the road, but my husband saw that I did my part.
"We didn't go to the small towns where there were no trains. The salesmen
and crew managers took care of them. But hard as the work was I would want
to laugh sometimes especially at the kids. They would get off and look at
me just knew they were looking at an honest to goodness Indian woman, but
then some of the grown ups were as bad as the children and have asked me
all kinds of questions. I was not supposed to be able to talk any English
and I even had one to pinch me one day to see if I was real. She laughed
and said, "That is one time I could hardly keep still.
"One time we went into a town to work. It had been raining for days. I was
just tired and worn out. The rivers were all high and especially so at
this town. The trains were the only means of getting in and that was
dangerous. But we had to go. It was late at night when we got in. We were
both tired, sleepy and hungry. We did not take all of our baggage out of
the depot that night, thinking we would just wait until morning to get
them.
"But that is where we made a mistake for the river kept getting higher
during the night and by morning was in the streets and the depot also. All
of our clothes were ruined. It was three days before we could get away
from that town. I never was so tired of looking at water, and it was cold
and we had colds and I was glad to get back in our hometown for we had to
go back and get up another supply of medicine ready. It was just that way
all the time.
"We would stay on the road until the medicine gave out and then we had to
come back in and help get another supply made up. I did hate for time to
come to go back on the road. I begged my husband to let me stay in the
office, but would not hear to that. I don't know why it was but he was
extremely jealous of me and I had to go with him all the time. so there
was nothing for me to do except keep going.
"We had to keep up with all those Indian suits that were used by the crew
managers for their boys that distributed circulars. This was not as easy
as one might think for they sent in from many different towns at time to
laundered and we had to send out fresh ones. There was always something to
keep you on the move. I did not get very much in the evenings for any past
time or pleasure for when we were on the road I was really too tired to
think of it and too I had no time for it was catch a train by the time I
was off so I could be at another town by morning.
"And when we were at home we worked also and in the evening my husband was
old and enjoyed sitting around reading his paper and discussing the days
work, and he was not willing for me to go without him. I was young and
grew tired of all this. I realized then what I had done and every day it
grew worse but I didn't know what to do and I just stood it for three
years and we separated.
"He changed jobs then and went to work as a landscape gardener on a large
private estate. He kept begging until I finally went back to him but we
just couldn't make a go then and I finally decided the best thing for both
of us, and after being married three years, we separated for good. He went
to another town and I went to work there in a paper mill.
"But before I get off of that part of my story I am going to tell you
about one of the doors in the office of the medicine plant. I don't expect
you to believe it for I didn't until I saw it happen myself. But when I
first went there to work one of the girls told me about this door. She
said that everytime it was locked it would come open.
"I just laughed and passed it up for I was a new hand and thought they
were trying to have a little fun with me. I didn't think of it again for
sometime. Then one day I just happened to think about it and I told my
husband about the girls trying to play a joke on me. He said, 'Haven't you
ever seen that door? Come on and I will show it to you.
"He carried me in the office and told me to lock the door. I still thought
they were trying to play a joke on me. But I locked the door and took the
key out. I then tried it to see if it was really locked. It was and I
laughed and started to a chair to set down saying I guess it wont come
open this time. My husband said, 'Well, what do you say now? I looked and
the door was coming open just as if some one was opening it, but there was
no one there. I tried it two or three times and everytime I locked it, it
came open. But if you just pushed it to then it would stay closed. It was
that way all the time I was there. But that was a real old home and I am
sure it must have an interesting history.
But not so long after we left the medicine company, the owner of it died
and he had really made money out of it, and took care of it, but after his
death, his brother took charge of it and just went through with everything
and it was soon broke and sold to pay up the debts.
"After I had been separated sometime from my husband and he had left town,
I got my divorce. I was still working and so sure that I was through with
men for the rest of my life. The girl that I roomed with would laugh at me
and say just wait young woman, you are just getting old enough to have a
good time, and to start to thinking of getting married.
"I did not think she was right. In fact, I just knew I would never marry
again. I did have a good time, just went some where most every evening,
shows, dances, or sometimes we would have a card party for my room mate
although a little older than I was enjoyed a good time also. We always
went out together. It was not so many months before I met my second
husband.
"He was so nice and kind all together different from the first one for we
were nearer the same age. I met him in May and we were married in
September. He worked in a large railroad machine shop and made sixty
dollars a week. I wanted to work on, but he wouldn't listen to me, he said
that he didn't want me to work and we were so happy and got along so good.
"His father run a blacksmith shop in another town. He got kicked by a mule
and was hurt pretty bad. He sent for my husband to come and look after his
shop until he was able to work again. We went. He gave up his job in the
railroad shop. We stayed at his fathers until he was able to look after
his shop again. He didn't want my husband to leave, but we wanted to get
out to ourselves again. He went to work for a highway construction company
that was grading the highway going into Alabama.
He worked for them as a blacksmith and he also set up the wheels on the
shovels, which were pulled by two mules. I don't know whether you know
anything about these things or not, but they have to be adjusted just
right to pick up the same amount of dirt all the way around or it will
tilt it all over. He was the only one that could do this kind of work and
they paid him a good salary.
"We were on the road all the time, following the crew of workers, but
still it was not like it was before for I didn't have anything to do. But
it was lonesome. For most of the time, there was only two or three white
people with about a hundred Negroes. We never had any trouble with them.
They all liked my husband and were very nice to me and we stayed with them
until just a short time before our first child was born.
"My husband settled down in a small town in Alabama in a small town in
Alabama and opened a shop of his own. We did fine there. He did a lot of
work for the construction company as long as they were near enough to him.
His boss didn't want him to quit, said he could send me to a hospital and
work on. He wouldn't do it. He said that he wasn't going to leave me.
After our baby came we stayed on there until his father got hurt again and
wrote for him to come and run his shop for him. He was making good with
his own shop and we did hate to give it up. His father was old and begged
so hard for him to come, we decided that we would go, but only until his
father was able to look after his work again for we did not like to stay
there. His father was really in a bad condition from being kicked again by
a mule. The doctors didn't think he would ever be able to work again, but
he finally got up and after a few months he was strong enough to look
after his shop again. And we left. My husband went back to his old job in
the railroad shop and we were very glad to get back. Of course, we were
foolish over the baby but he just thought that he had the only child in
the world just worshipped that little girl.
"We stayed there for a long time. His old boss kept writing for him to
come back to work for him in the construction company. He did not want to
go, he said it was no place to rear a baby. Then we were expecting another
baby. But all at once they had to put off some of the men in the shop and
as my husband was one of the last ones to go to work, he felt sure he
would he one of them.
"He was right. It was not many weeks until he was laid off. They let him
work as long as they could for he was a good worker and knew how to do it,
and they told him that they were going to put him back just as soon as
they possibly could. But he said he couldn't depend on that with a family
to take care of and we decided that maybe he had better go back with the
construction company.
He was worried to death about me and how we could manage and him away from
home, but I told him I could come home and stay for a while and perhaps by
that time I was well again. We could arrange things so that we could go
with him at least part of the time, if not all the time, but he just
couldn't hardly stand the idea of being away from me and the baby.
"We went with him for a few weeks, rented a room nearby, where the gang
was working on a large dam, and he could come home at night and then I
came home. He came part of the way with me and said he was just a good
mind not to leave us and go back. He just seemed to feel that he wouldn't
see us any more. I tried to reason with him that we would soon be back,
but I don't know why he felt as he did. But he was right and that was the
last time I ever saw him.
"I wired him as soon as I got here and wrote him the next day. I had one
letter from him telling me to be sure and let him hear from me every day
for he was uneasy about me. But that is the last I ever heard from him. I
knew something was wrong, for it was not like him to treat me that way and
we had never had any fusses or disagreements. They said at home, 'Oh,
well, he just wanted to get rid of you.'
"I wrote to his boss, but when the letter came I was so sick they would
not tell anything about it. But when my baby was about a month old they
gave me the letter and he wrote me that my husband was killed in an
accident a few days after I left. He said that he knew my condition and
didn't know where I was, but thought I was with my husband's people and
that he wired them.
"They didn't let me know anything about it. They didn't like it because we
didn't stay on with them. I wrote to them and asked them to tell me more
about it and they never answered my letter but one of the men that worked
with him told me later that he was in one of the trucks and was crossing
the railroad when a train came around a curve and hit the truck, and tore
it to pieces and that my husband's body was crushed.
"I knew when I didn't hear from him that something was wrong, for it was
not like him to treat anyone that way, and especially his family. I have
thought many times since then that he must have had some warning that
something was going to happen the reason that he hated for us to leave so
bad.
"I have had a tough time since then trying to raise my two little girls.
It has been a hard fight. I am trying to do the best I can and get them
through school and for the last few years I have had one of my sisters
little girls to take care of since her mother died and she will tell you
today that there is not one bit of difference shown between her and my
children for I do not make any difference. What one has they all have.
"But I do the best I can. My eyes are so bad that I can't work like I need
to, but I feel like that if I try and do the best I can that there will be
a way provided for me to take care of them for I still have my faith."
February 28, 1939
Mrs. Grace Crowder (white)
250 Baxter St.
Athens, Georgia
Tailor assistant
Grace McCune
Text from: Library of
Congress, Manuscript Division, WPA Federal Writers' Project Collection
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