Home Bitters (H 158) – Meyer Collection
The Home Bitters – St. Louis
19 August 2013 (R•112413) (R•051015) (R•042419)
Today, I have reason to quickly educate myself with The Home Bitters of St. Louis. I need to review the variants, the history and find out the rest of the story. First of all, let us not confuse this bottle with the Wheeling, West Virginia Old Home Bitters or Old Homestead Bitters.
James A. Jackson initially developed The Home Bitters in 1870 and took on partners James McQ. Douglas and Paris S. Pfouts in 1874. They were selling wholesale groceries and liquors in Saint Louis when The Celebrated Home Stomach Bitters was introduced. It may well have been an offshoot of the liquor business, as a number of patent medicines were at that time. There is an abundance of support material on this brand and it is refreshing to get history, patent, label, advertising, postal, tax and other information on a brand that was relatively short lived.
A nicely colored Home Bitters I recently picked up. These are most often seen in straight amber so finding a lighter off colored example is pretty sweet. I always like it when they spell out Saint Louis. – Tim Henson (see special post dedicated to this specific bottle)
The Carlyn Ring and Bill Ham listings in Bitters Bottles and Bitters Bottles Supplement for the numerous St. Louis Home Bitters are as follows. I have also updated to include the projected Bitters Bottles Supplement 2 numbers:
H 155.7 HOME BITTERS
HOME BITTERS // HOME BITTERS / COMPANY // PROPRIETORS / ST. LOUIS. MO. // f //
9 x 2 3/4 (6 3/4) 1/4
Square, Amber, LTC, Applied mouth, 3 sp, Rare
H 156 HOME BITTERS
HOME BITTERS // sp // SAINT LOUIS Mo // f //
8 ¾ x 2 3/4
Square, Amber and Yellow olive, LTC, Applied mouth, 3 sp, Scarce
Two dots under O of MO
H 157 HOME BITTERS
HOME BITTERS // JAS A. JACKSON & CO. / PROPRIETORS // SAINT LOUIS MO // f //
L… The Celebrated Home Bitters
James A. Jackson & Co., Sole Proprietor, No. 105 and 107 North Second Street
9 1/8 x 2 3/4 (6 3/4) 3/8
Square, Amber, LTC, Applied mouth, 3 sp, Common
The Daily Picayune (New Orleans) March 4, 1871
Junction Union (Kansas) February, 1872
Drug Catalogs: 1872 Fuller & Fuller, Melliers
Trade Mark No. 39 November 1, 1870
Home Bitters was marketed from 1870 to 1874 by Jackson alone.
H 157.8 HOME BITTERS
HOME BITTERS // HOME BITTERS (over peened out line) / (peened out line) / COMPANY (over peened out line) // sp // PROPRIETORS / (peened out line) / ST.LOUIS.MO. // f // b // X
9 x 2 3/4 (8 3/4)
Square, Amber LTC, Applied mouth, 3 sp, Very Rare
H 158 HOME BITTERS
HOME BITTERS // JAS A. JACKSON & CO. / PROPRIETORS // SAINT LOUIS. MO //
James A. Jackson & Co. Sole Proprietor No. 105 and 107 North Second Street
9 x 2 3/4 (6 3/4) 1/4
Square, Amber, LTC, 3 sp, Common
Bottle differs from H 157 by having 2 dots under the ‘S’ of JAS
H 159 HOME BITTERS
HOME BITTERS // JACKSON. PFOUTS / & DOUGLAS / PROPRIETORS / ST. LOUIS, MO. // f //
L… The Celebrated Home Bitters
9 x 2 3/4 x 1 1/4 (7 1/4) 1/4
Square, Amber, LTC, Applied mouth, 3 sp, Common
North Second Street
Label: Any physician or chemist in the United States is invited to call and examine the formula and manner of combining the ingredients. The best tonic stimulant known to the medical faculty. Indorsed by every physician who has examined them, among whom are some of the most eminent in the country, as being the best and purist made. These bitters are prepared from the most valuable roots, barks and herbs known to medical science, and are unequalled as a preventative for all summer disorders, biliousness, fever and ague, intermit tents, indigestion, dyspepsia.
The Home Stomach Bitters are no patent medicine, nor is the formula kept secret from the honorable members of the medical fraternity, and we ask a thorough investigation of their component parts from the scientific gentlemen.
Jackson became partners with Pfouts and Douglas in 1874.
Drug Catalog: 1872 Mellier, 1878 CB & Co.
Detail of HOME BITTERS / JACKSON, PFOUTS & DOUGLAS (H 159) embossed panel – BottlePickers.com
Jackson, Pfouts & Douglas directory listing – 1874 City Directory for St. Louis, Missouri
THE CELEBRATED HOME STOMACH BITTERS
Advertisement for The HOME – The Celebrated Home Bitters – Gazeteer of Utah and Salt Lake City Directory, 1874
Home Bitters Company advertisement – Joe Gourd
JACKSON, PFOUTS & DOUGLASS (-S?)
Jackson, Pfouts & Douglas from Saint Louis, the Commercial Metropolis of the Mississippi Valley – L. U. Reavis – Tribune Publishing Company, 1874
PRIVATE DIE STAMPS & POSTAL
James A. Jackson & Co. private die stamps were issued from October of 1870 until April of 1875. 206,532 were issued on old paper and 521,025 on silk paper. This copy is printed on silk paper. – rdhinstl.com
In April of 1875 The Home Bitters Company took over from Jackson, Pfouts & Douglas. They had stamps printed in three denominations beginning with the four-cent green, first issued in June of 1875 and last issued March 3,1883. 271,514 were released on silk paper and 213,617 on watermarked paper. The copy above is on silk paper.
The three-cent green stamp was printed next, from 1876 until February 12, 1883. 482,130 were issued on silk, pink and watermarked papers. The one above is on watermarked paper. – rdhinstl.com
Jackson, Pfouts and Douglas advertising cover for Home Stomach Bitters – Richard D. Sheaff
It appears that someone in Texas was passing himself off as a representative of the Home Bitters Company and writing merchant’s drafts on the company to obtain money. When this one came back to the company to be approved they denied it, which led to a protest filed in 1875. – rdhinstl.com
Home Bitters Company receipt – Joe Gourd
The merchant draft above was made out to Mrs. W.A. Menger…from http://www.texasbreweries.com/sanantonio.htm#ixzz2cW3B3YK5
“William Menger arrived in San Antonio from Germany at the age of twenty in 1847. He rented a room from Mary Guenther’s boarding house. Mary was a widow, and before long the two fell in love and married. In 1855, they moved the boarding house to Alamo Plaza. in 1856, Charles Degen was hired to run the brewery (Western Brewery) while the Mengers concentrated on opening their new hotel. The Menger Hotel became one of San Antonio’s crown jewels. Mary, an excellent cook, filled their bellies, while Menger beer slaked their thirsts. Menger died in 1871. Mary ran both the hotel and the brewery until 1879.”
Great…thank you. Good reading and support material.
Post updated with a newspaper advertisement and receipt for Home Bitters Company from the Joe Gourd collection.
Post updated with example from Tim Henson.