Jacob & David Hostetter–Dr. J. Hostetter’s Celebrated Stomach Bitters by Ferdinand Meyer V

Jacob & David Hostetter DR. J. HOSTETTER’S CELEBRATED STOMACH BITTERS

By Ferdinand Meyer V

David Hostetter was a millionaire manufacturer of one of the most, if not the most, famous and successful bitters ever produced: Dr. J. Hostetter’s Celebrated Stomach Bitters. Much has been written about the brand. I thought I would try to tie it all together.

Of Dutch extraction, David Hostetter was the eldest child of Jacob Hostetter by his wife, Mary Landis, and was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, on January 23, 1819. Dr. Jacob Hostetter was born on October 13, 1785, in York County, Pennsylvania, and actually developed the original formula for the bitters. Dr. J. Hostetter prescribed the medicinal tonic to his clientele, and it did not occur to him to place the product at the disposal of others outside of his practice. In the following September, Hostetter’s entire stock was destroyed by fire. The San Francisco Fire of May 3rd and 4th, 1851, was a catastrophic conflagration that destroyed as much as three quarters of San Francisco, California. During the height of the California Gold Rush, San Francisco endured a sequence of seven destructive fires, of which this was the sixth and by far the most damaging. In terms of property value, it did three times as much damage as the next most destructive of the seven fires. With this disaster, Hostetter returned home to Pennsylvania, where he worked as a paymaster for McEvoy & Clark and a contractor for the railroad at Horseshoe Bend.

Hostetter & Smith

David Hostetter

Dr. Jacob Hostetter

David Hostetter was educated in Lancaster County and, at the young age of 15, was employed as a clerk and salesman in a dry goods establishment in his native town. He worked in this capacity until 1842, when he began a business of his own that met with moderate success.

In 1850, David Hostetter moved to California to capitalize on the Gold Rush and settled in San Francisco with a grocery business. The California Gold Rush (1848–1855) began on January 24, 1848, when James W. Marshall found gold at Sutter’s Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California from the rest of the United States and abroad. In 1853, Hostetter associated himself with George W. Smith, a boyhood friend, and organized the firm of Hostetter & Smith selling Hostetter’s Celebrated Stomach Bitters. George. W. Smith, Esq., was a junior partner and a native of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. He was born in the city of that name on February 22, 1823.

David Hostetter married Rosetta Cobb Rickey in Cincinnati, Ohio, on July 13, 1854. She was born on October 06, 1829, and died on July 03, 1904. She was a daughter of Randall Hutchinson Rickey by his wife, Susanna McAuley.

At that early period in its history, the firm of Hostetter & Smith occupied part of a building on Penn Street in Pittsburgh at a rental of $175 per annum. The entire staff of employees engaged in the manufacture of the bitters would scarcely number half a dozen.

The medicinal compound was manufactured in Pittsburgh following the formula discovered by his father. By 1853, Dr. Jacob Hostetter retired from medical practice and gave his consent to his son, David, to continue. David had realized the value of the medicine and began to manufacture and sell the formula to the American people.

DR. J. HOSTETTER’S CELEBRATED STOMACH BITTERS

Three large Dr. J. Hostetter’s Stomach Bitters in shades of green glass. Two framed Hostetter’s Celebrated Stomach Bitters advertising pieces. Left is authentic. Right is recreated.

Four of many Hostetter’s Celebrated Stomach Bitters labels.

HOSTETTER KNOCK-OFF LABELS

COPYCAT PRODUCTS

limitless ambition. After a great deal of missionary work and what was considered a significant expenditure for advertising, the business began to grow during the late 1850s. Naturally, the reputation that the medicine obtained in Pennsylvania reached neighboring states and was finally known, not only in the United States but also in South American countries.

The trademark of St. George and the Dragon early on became synonymous with Hostetter’s Stomach Bitters. According to tradition, Saint George (c. 275/281 – April 23, 303) was a Roman soldier from Syria Palaestina and a soldier in the Guard of Diocletian, venerated as a Christian martyr. In hagiography, Saint George is one of the most venerated saints in the Catholic (Western and Eastern Rites), Anglican, Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox churches. He is immortalized in the tale of Saint George and the Dragon and is one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers. His memorial is celebrated on April 23, and he is regarded as one of the most prominent military saints.

Later in the 1850s, Hostetter’s Stomach Bitters would become a national best-seller. With the increase of business, Hostetter & Smith moved to Nos. 57, 58, 59, 60, and 61 Water Street in Pittsburgh. Additional space was added until the concern occupied five three-story buildings fronting 110 feet on Water Street, with a depth of 160 feet to First Avenue. Their footprint covered an area of over half an acre. The company was also admirably situated for shipment purposes by rail or river. As a testament, large quantities of Hostetter’s Stomach Bitters were shipped to all parts of the United States and territories, to South America, Australia, and other foreign countries.

The earliest Hostetter’s bottles could be from John Agnew and Son, Pittsburgh, 1854-1866, or Adams and Co., Pittsburgh, Pa., 1854-1891. One of the most significant early mass producers of bottles for Hostetter’s was Lorenz and Wightman (L&W), Pittsburgh, Pa, 1862-1871. Another notable large producer was W. McCully & Co. There were even other glasshouses that made the bottles, as the need for bottles increased.

Hostetter’s Stomach Bitters base embossing for Wm McCully & Co., Pittsburgh Hostetter’s Stomach Bitters Base embossing for Lorenz & Wightman, Pittsburgh

Counterfeiting the Hostetter’s brand was rampant, so much effort was made to guarantee the product and seek damages from the perpetrators. There were so many empty and used Hostetter bottles available that some shady dealers filled the bottles with some form of glop and sold it for less than Hostetter’s Stomach Bitters. This deception prompted the authentic signature on the Hostetter’s label.

A Growing Business

By now, the operation had grown into contingent operations, such as gathering and developing the necessary medicinal drugs, the manufacture of the paper with its dependent industries, the product of grain, its conversion to spirits, etc. The firm eventually employed directly and indirectly the labor of 1,000 people daily. Nine accountants alone and correspondents were engaged in the counting rooms of the firm. Aside from the intrinsic merits of its specialty, this became a significant factor in promoting the general good in Pittsburgh.

When first established, the manufacture of Hostetter’s Stomach Bitters was entirely a manual operation. However, the enormous increase in production made this process impracticable, and machinery and apparatus of the best construction were used in preparing and bottling the bitters. Hostetter and Smith needed a capacity for putting up 500 dozen bottles per day. There were fourteen huge tanks in this important department, 15 feet in diameter and 5 feet high, and ten 8 feet high and 6 feet in diameter. The department employed, in manufacturing, packing, and shipping, not less than 50 hands.

About this time, Hostetter & Smith needed to establish a branch office in New York City and agencies in New Orleans, San Francisco, and St. Louis. From the early 1860s, the business developed from several hundred thousand dollars until, in 1872, it had reached the million-dollar mark. One big reason for this success was the Civil War.

During the Civil War, Dr. J. Hostetter’s Stomach Bitters was sold to soldiers as “a positive protective against the fatal maladies of the Southern swamps, and the poisonous tendency of the impure rivers and bayous.” The original formula was about 47% alcohol and was 94 Proof! The amount of alcohol was so high that it was served in saloons by the glass.

Hostetter sweetened the alcohol with sugar, to which he added a few aromatic oils such as anise, coriander, etc. Vegetable bitters like cinchona and gentian were added next to give it medicinal flavor. Long-winded advertising declared, “Our Bitters, which are made entirely from the choicest remedial roots, barks and herbs, the active essences and freshly expressed juices of which are preserved in chemically pure spirits, forming a compound of the most remarkable vital force and efficacy, peculiarly active in the rapid and in many cases almost miraculous relief afforded in all diseases arising from climatic causes or derangements of which an impaired stomach is the prime occasion.”

Marketing

From the beginning of business operations, David Hostetter formulated a wise policy of making personal visitations on wholesale drug and commission houses. This policy was augmented by consistent advertising in almanacs, newspapers, magazines, and exhibits.

Hostetter’s Stomach Bitters contestants in the FOHBC 2016 Sacramento National Antique Bottle Show Shootout competition.

Logo for the competition. Holstered gun and a bottle of Hostetter’s Celebrated Stomach Bitters Hostetter’s Stomach Bitters contestants in the FOHBC 2016 Sacramento National Antique Bottle Show Shootout competition.

The three finalists in the FOHBC 2016 Sacramento National Antique Bottle Show Shootout competition. The winners for the Hostetter’s Stomach Bitters category were First Place, Mike Henness, Second Place, Jerry Forbes, and Third Place, Richard Siri.

Hostetter & Smith , Sole Proprietors of Hostetter’s Celebrated Stomach Bitters, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania postal advertising cover, 1859

Redington, Hostetter & Co. Wholesale Druggists, San Francisco advertising cover

Examples of Hostetter’s Stomach Bitters almanac covers;1856, 1861, 1866, 1868, 1883, and 1933

Hostetter was one of the most prolific producers of patent medicine almanacs, and they rival Ayer’s almanacs as the most common patent medicine almanacs. For many years, the Hostetter business distributed 10 to 13 million almanacs.

The business, however, contained the elements of success, and under the consummate tact and resolution of its projectors, annually increased, with rapidly augmented revenues and proportionately enlarged facilities in every department. The extent to which the operations of Hostetter & Smith reached is supported by the fact that in 1866 it became necessary that they do all of their printing in-house. No firm in Pittsburgh, or perhaps in the whole country, was capable of producing, either in kind or quantity, the work required in carrying on the trade of the rapidly growing business.

In the Hostetter printing and binding departments alone, eighty compositors, pressmen, and others, were employed. The machinery equipment consisted of ten large cylinder presses and eight smaller ones; all kept running for ten months during the year. The Hostetter’s Illustrated United States Almanacs were printed in English, German, Dutch, French, Spanish, Welsh, Norwegian, Swedish, and Bohemian.

Almanacs

The first Hostetter almanac was issued in 1861 and was published only in German and English and distributed to those populations. Hostetter increased its edition each year and reached, in 1867, one million copies for the English and German market. In 1876, with the success of Hostetter’s Stomach Bitters and the almanac marketing approach, 9,000,000 copies were produced in all the various languages above enumerated. The average issue per year eventually leveled out at 10,500,060 copies. This printing consumed annually 16,000 reams of white paper and about 2,000 reams for covers alone.

No copy of a Hostetter’s 1862 almanac is known; possibly this issue was not published because of the beginning of the Civil War. After a gap of 23 years, the Hostetter Co. published an almanac in 1933 to celebrate the 80th Anniversary of the company. A list of Hostetter almanacs is noted below:

Hostetter & Smith (1861-1885), Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Hostetter & Co., (1886-1890), Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania The Hostetter Co., (1891-1910), Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Title: Hostetter’s United States Almanac for the Use of Merchants, Mechanics, Farmers and Planters and all Families 1861 (1863-1865) Title: Hostetter’s United States Almanac for Merchants, Mechanics, Miners, Farmers, Planters, and General Family Use 1866 (1867-1910) Title: Hostetter’s California Almanac for Merchants, Mechanics, Farmers and Planters and all Families 1861 (1863-1910) Title: Hostetter’s Almanacs, 1872 (Bound volumes in multiple foreign languages: 18731890, 1892-1893, 1895-1902, 1904, 1909) Title: Hostetter’s Illustrated United States Almanac 1933, 1853-1933, 80th Anniversary Number of Interest to all the Family With the Hostetter’s business flourishing and using his capital and experience, David Hostetter, in 1867, became a director in the Pittsburg Gas Company and, in 1869, was elected president. He remained in this position and was a very influential person in this institution. He was also the largest stockholder and one of the most energetic movers in the East End and Allegheny Companies.

In March 1874, Hostetter purchased the charter of the Columbia Conduit Company and hastened the work forward to completion. Upon this occasion, he was elected president but declined to accept the office. With the Penn Gas Company in Philadelphia, Hostetter was a prominent director and also the second-largest stockholder. He was also a director in the Farmers’ Deposit National Bank and the Fort Pitt Bank of Pittsburg.

As an aside, Pittsburgh’s name is commonly misspelled as Pittsburg because numerous cities and towns in America use the German “burg” suffix, while very few use the Scottish “burgh” suffix. This problem was compounded from 1891 to 1911 when the spelling of the city’s name was federally recognized as Pittsburg. Now, of course, we spell it Pittsburgh.

David Hostetter was involved with various public and private enterprises, too. He was the organizer of the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad, known as the “Little Giant,” which enabled the city of Pittsburgh to secure a competitive outlet to the North and Northwest. He was also one of the promoters and prime movers, with Franklin B. Bowen, William H. Vanderbilt, and others, in the organization and development of the South Penn Railroad Company, which the Pennsylvania Railroad Company halted before its completion. Hostetter was one of the pioneers in the production, carriage, and utilization of natural gas and oil and connected with the construction of the Pittsburg Water Works plant.

David Hostetter possessed a degree of great nerve, sound judgment, and resource power, qualities that always characterized him in times of emergency. A contemporary writer once said of him, “Those who are strangers look upon David Hostetter, see a man of brain and strong will power, and instinctively accord to him the possession of faculties of the highest order.”

Like David Hostetter, George W. Smith was engaged in other enterprises and was a liberal, intelligent, and sincere self-made man. History records much less of Mr. Smith as the name “Hostetter” dominated the brand.

Hostetter & Company

Upon the death of George W. Smith in 1884, his interest was purchased by David Hostetter, and the firm name changed to Hostetter and Company, with Milton L. Myers as a partner. The partnership Antique Bottle & Glass Collector

ceased upon the death of David Hostetter in 1888. Hostetter was said to be worth from $5,000,000 to $15,000,000 upon his death. These numbers were quite an accumulation of wealth and a fantastic story of success in America.

The Hostetter Company

On April 10, 1889, The Hostetter Company was incorporated by the widow and surviving children of David Hostetter, with D. Herbert Hostetter being president and Theodore R. Hostetter, vice president. height, size of embossing, and variations in the “R” embossing of “DR” are often noted in collecting the bottles. Bill and Betty Wilson in Western Bitters, 1969, was the first work that cataloged more than the generic identification. Their work identified thirty nine different variants. Later variants were identified by Carlyn Ring in For Bitters Only in 1980. In Bitters Bottles Supplement 2, there is a wealth of ephemera information included within such as covers, almanacs, and advertising. There is also an impressive amount of information on Hostetter’s brand name and label knock-offs such as Dr. Hoffstetter’s Celebrated Stomach Bitters, Holstein’s Celebrated Stomach Bitters, Honstetters, Hostater’s,

Theodore R. Hostetter died in 1902 and D. Herbert Hostetter, Sr. died in 1924. Upon the latter’s death, Frederick G. Hostetter and D. Herbert Hostetter, Jr., sons of the deceased, were elected president and vice president. Frederick G. Hostetter died in 1931, and his brother D. Herbert Hostetter, Jr. succeeded him as president of The Hostetter Company. By 1934, the business was in its fourth generation of the Hostetter family and its 81st year of uninterrupted health-giving to the American people.

Richard T. Siri

Richard T. Siri, a prominent Western collector and 2018 FOHBC Hall of Fame member, is the absolute authority on Hostetter’s Stomach Bitters. His knowledge is as deep as his collection, and he has displayed his Hostetter’s at many bottle shows and conventions.

Richard states in Bitters Bottles Supplement that there are many variants of Dr. Hostetter’s Stomach Bitters bottles. Variations in Hosteiter’s, Hosteter’s, to name a few. There were many, many others.

Eventually, a group of applied-mouth Dr. J. Hostetter’s Stomach Bitters bottles was assembled with 166 variants. This group was made up of an extensive collection formed on the West Coast combined with a large collection created in the Midwest and East.

Credits:

1) Almanac images courtesy of Bill Ham & Ferdinand Meyer V from Bitters Bottles Supplement 2, primarily ex Dan Cowman collection. 2) Postal Cover images courtesy of Bill Ham & Ferdinand Meyer V from Bitters Bottles Supplement 2, Ben Swanson collection. 3) Select ephemera from the Joe Gourd and Ferdinand Meyer V collections. 4) Label images courtesy of Bill Ham & Ferdinand Meyer V from Bitters Bottles Supplement 2, anonymous. 5) FOHBC 2016 Sacramento National Shootout images from FOHBC archives. 6) Base embossings images courtesy of Norman C. Heckler & Co. 7) Three green Hostetter’s Stomach Bitters image courtesy American Glass Gallery, John Pastor. 8) Hostetter’s Stomach Bitters framed advertising signs courtesy Ferdinand Meyer V collection.

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