Education: Vegetables

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"In the year 1819, two babies were born whose lives were destined to have a far-reaching influence. One was born in a stern castle of Old England, the other in a humble farmhouse in New England. Queen Victoria, through her wisdom and kindliness during a long and prosperous reign has become enthroned in the hearts of the British people. Lydia E. Pinkham, through the merit of her Vegetable Compound, has made her name a household word in thousands of American homes."

History textbooks tell at length of Susan B. Anthony, Carrie Nation, Emma Willard, Molly Pitcher. But it remained for hearty Elbert Hubbard (whose work the Atlanta Journal paraphrased) to record in his last book (1915), a life which, from every evidence, intimately affected great masses of homeloving U.S. women. It were desecration to paraphrase Author Hubbard's rounded periods:

"This is the Era of Woman. Today is Woman's Day. ... We might hark back to the genesis of human tradition and trace the golden woof of woman's influence for good through the warp of the ages. . . . Lydia Estes was born at Lynn, Mass., on February 9, 1819. . . . Britain's Queen has been called the 'Mother of the Nation.' . . . Lydia E. Pinkham occupied no throne. She was not born to the purple. As a matter of fact she tasted the dregs of poverty and knew the bitterness of bereavement. . . . The family were Quakers . . . Lydia spent many happy days around the farm doing chores, gathering wood and hunting for herbs. Her mother was a woman of great strength and character. She thought for herself—and thought along original lines ... She [Lydia] was a bright and progressive child. . . . She became an Abolitionist and acted for years as Secretary of the 'Freeman's Society,' in which she formed friendships with some of the finest minds of the time—such as Whittier, Garrison and Lowell. Lowell lived not many miles from Lydia's home. ... On September 8, 1843, when 24, she married Isaac Pinkham .... The Pinkhams were a patriotic family. Within the next 14 years five children were born to Lydia and Isaac Pinkham, four sons and a daughter . . . Mr. Pinkham was a real estate dealer ... He overreached himself with his ambition . . . Lydia Pinkham helped bear the burden in true wifely fashion ... So the boys did what they could to eke out the exchequer. They peddled popcorn at the fairs and did chores for the neighbors ... It happened that she [Lydia Pinkham] possessed a recipe for a botanic remedy for the diseases of women. This old recipe was a very effective one as had been proved in the practice of a great physician. Mrs. Pinkham, without a thought of making money out of it, used to prepare this medicine and give it freely to such of her neighbors as she found in need of it. She procured the herbs, steeped them and prepared them in the true old-time fashion on the kitchen-stove . . . for years. . . ."

It is then told how, in the panic of 1873, Isaac Pinkham became insolvent. Lydia Pinkham called a family conference. That very day four different people—three of them in carriages—had come from Salem and Boston for the famed remedy. They decided to sell it and Lydia Pinkham said: "We must advertise."