By John Panella and Joe Widman
HOUSE of FAHRNEY, PART 2
in the rising popularity of patent medicines. He also had a laboratory and was able to compound the special medicines his patients required. His son, Daniel, and Peter Dennis Fahrney were much younger and just starting to learn about the family practice.
Things are starting to pick up, some very interesting developments, and the road to success Geographic Identity and Historical Significance Emerge
It would be safe to say there was an understanding between the two groups that each possessed the right to doctor with the medicine developed by their father. They shared the medicine recipes created by their progenitors. This was the status of the Fahrney practices around the time of the Civil War.
The heavily traveled Antietam region of Maryland and Pennsylvania is just north of the Shenandoah valley of Virginia and was situated perfectly for the type of medicinal practices developed by the Fahrneys. There were lots of towns and hamlets in close proximity that sprang up along the north/south and east/west travel corridors of the tristate region. Some credit Old Peter with having the first stationary doctors office in history, since most of his patients came directly to him. Both practices in Boonsboro and Waynesboro had younger family members conducting the riding and visiting aspect of the practice as they called it, which provided care to homebound patients. The first father and son combo was Jacob Sr., riding for his father, Peter, and the second was Daniel Sr., also riding for him in Boonsboro and Waynesboro. By 1860, they were the most popular practice along the Antietam Creek region in Maryland and Pennsylvania, as they had the public trust because of Old Peter’s positive reputation. Peter, with ties to Waynesboro, moved to Blair County Pennsylvania, and his older brother Jacob came back to Waynesboro from Philadelphia and worked with Burkholder. David Burkholder, a son of John Burkholder, another Fahrney emissary, also goes out west to Ogle County, Illinois. It would make sense that they both took a lot of Waynesboro-produced Blood Cleanser with them to establish new business and extend to other regions.
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Antique Bottle & Glass Collector
This photo is referred to as a CDV and was very popular during the Civil War era. It pictures Daniel Fahrney Sr., his wife, Amy Welty-Fahrney, and their son, Daniel, who would succeed his father after his death (in 1867); it is not clear if the first Boonesboro bottles came out before he passed.
The Waynesboro practice possessed the formulas for the Blood Medicine, since Old Peter gave them to his oldest son, Jacob, who developed it into a bottled product. It started out as a herbal infusion, and Jacob added alcohol as a “preservative.” This addition only boosted its immediate curative effect as well. The younger medicine men were beginning to doctor with bottled patent medicine, which was the norm at this time and well into the future. The Fahrney reputation emerged in Boonsboro and never really left, at least for many decades into the 20th century. Daniel was working at the original homestead, the first Fahrney office, and the public perception was positive since Dr. Fahrney began there. Perhaps Daniel Sr. did not place a lot of credence
Saying the Civil War interrupted commerce would be an understatement. They lived near and in the middle of many troop movements and major engagements. This turned the Antietam region into a huge hospital area after they concluded. Daniel and John Burkholder were taught and learned from Peter Sr., who conducted surgery as evidenced by the operation table in the Boonsboro museum. It would be hard to imagine that the two medical men sat on the sidelines after the battles of Antietam and Gettysburg. Peter of Chicago wrote in the 1890s that he moved west because of lost faith after Confederate troops burnt Chambersburg in 1865. Since Mennonites are pacifists and came to the U.S. to avoid the wars in Europe, it made sense: they sent the boys of military age away so they weren’t bothered or tempted by the tides of war. The lack of documented information during this time frame explains this well. The next practitioners were Old Peter’s grandchildren, third generation cousins from different households who never developed the closeness the brothers and sisters from the previous generation or same household did.
