Time in a Bottle - Stuff Out of the Archive

Vernon Peeples stored a significant part of his collection in a large study lined with book cases. The tops of those cases were adorned with a curious bottle collection that Mr. Peeples would frequently talk about when we visited.  The bottles, he said, he had found along Charlotte Harbor and collected from the time he was a young boy in the 1930s. Examining the bottle collection more closely as we unpack the boxes containing over 100 of them reveals glass  pointers to the history of the early Florida frontier.

The bottle pictured above was one of many remedies hawked in the 1800s to cure the various ills that plaqued people of the day.  Bitters became very popular in the South during the Civil War when Union soldiers were told the concoction would protect them from the maladies in the swamps and bayous.  Simon Herrmann was the maker of the Old Hickory Celebebrated Stomach Bitters.  He was born about 1832 in Germany and arrived in Louisiana in 1863.   He came to New Orleans and entered the staple dry goods, boots and shoe business under the business name Herrmann, Levy & Company.  Around 1884 or 1885, is when the first Old Hickory Celebrated Stomach Bitters was made based on a patent on 12 February 1885.  It's probable that early settlers many of whom were former Union soldiers were frequent imbibers of Old Hictory which had a very high alcohol content.

Prickly Ash Poke Root Potassium PPP was manufactured by one of largest druggists of the late 19th century headquartered in Savannah.  Since it was purported to cure just about everything from malaria to rheumatism, syphllis and menstrual problems, it is likely to have been widely available in Punta Gorda through the turn of the century.  

Hey Look At This - Stuff out of the Archive

Every day as we continue to process materials from the Vernon Peeples collection volunteers uncover fascinating pieces of Punta Gorda history and call out " hey, look at this."  It occurred to us that our followers might be interested in some of the items we are accessioning so time to time I will be writing a post on what we are finding in collections as we process them.  Today, for instance, we processed:

- the photo you see above of Trabue (before it was Punta Gorda) taken from the Hotel Punta Gorda (most likely in 1886).  It appears to be where Hurricane Charley's and Gilchrist Park are today.  In the background the recorder refers to a freight wharf on the horizon -- this was probably the Long Dock.  

  

- an original court document from Kelly B. Harvey's lawsuit vs. Issac Trabue

- A document fining Issac Trabue for vagrancy because he continued to occupy land he had dedicated to the City of Punta Gorda which had become a public park

- An actual newspaper from 1912 - with the headline of the sinking of the Titantic

- A book that was essentially a register of the day to day activities of a Florida Plantation mostly accounting for slave activities.  One noted the transfer of ownership of slaves with a marriage of an owners daughter.

- a map of the city streets of Punta Gorda from 1936

These are but a few of the fascinating things uncovered -- in one day!