Jeremy Roberts was digging into the ceiling at the Edward Jones office and uncovered a pile of old medicine bottles dating back several decades. The stash of about 15 clear glass bottles ranged from small, medicine size up to large containers and even a couple of whiskey bottles for good measure.
Understandably the whiskey bottles were hidden away out of sight since they were evidently from the time when liquor was still banned in the state. That didn't provide a reason why the others were among the pile of refuse.
Roberts hauled all the bottles down and started cleaning them up. Some still had the cork stoppers in place.
His office is in the spot on Main once housing Bruton Owens, a fine ladies' clothing store. Next door to the east now is a loan company but, when a photo of a nearly six-decades-old Labor Day parade is examined, it revealed that building was home to Nyal Drug.
That spurred an email to Thehenryettan.com contributing historian Earl Goldsmith seeking more information.
Goldsmith has, among his volumes of historical features on Henryetta, an accumulation of information about drug stores in town.
He admitted he did not recall Nyal Drug but remembers Santee's Drug Store at that Fifth and Main location in 1923."It was the location of the graduation dinner for the 1923 HHS class, of which my youngest Aunt, Martha Goldsmith, was a member," he said.
"At some point after that, probably in the early 30s, some people named Judy, bought it and it became Judy's Drug. Then, in about 1943, a Mr. and Mrs. Jones bought the store, but kept the name, Judy's. Mr. Jones was the pharmacist and Mrs. Jones ran the rest of the store. There is absolutely no doubt that in my high school years, Judy's, with its soda fountain and booths, was most popular hang-out place for the teenagers."
Two of the bottles found were produced for Dr. Miles Nervine, a patent medicine that, according to advertising posters, helped mothers relax and even acted as a deterrent from smoking.
An Internet search found Nervine was the product of Dr. Franklin Miles, who started Dr. Miles Medical Company (which became Miles Laboratory in 1935) in Elkhart, Indiana. The company was in existence independently from 1885 to 1979, at which point it became a subsidiary of Bayer until 1995. Nervine was taken off the market in the 1960s.The principal component of the medicine was bromide. That was once used as a sedative and anti-convulsant.
Because Nervine was said to have been so all-inclusive in it's healing properties, it was used for anxiety, sleeplessness, and restlessness but also for exhaustion, epilepsy (seizure disorder), spasms, fits, pain (including backache, headache, and nerve pain), depression, and St. Vitus dance.
Advertising of that time included almanacs, calendars and even a Little Book series on health and housekeeping topics.Roberts did his own Internet search to see if the old bottles had any current value to collectors. "The small ones are worth about $1.50 each," he said.
That means the real treasure in just in the knowledge the hoard is part of Henryetta history.