Benjamin Brandreth: Difference between revisions

|death_place = [[Ossining (village), New York|Ossining, New York]], United States

'''Benjamin Brandreth''' (1809–1880June 23, 1809 – February 18, 1880) was a pioneer in the early use of mass advertising to build consumer awareness of his product, a [[purgative]] that allegedly cured many ills by purging [[toxins]] out of the blood. He became a successful and wealthy businessman, bank president, and New York State Senator.

Brandreth was born in [[Newtown, Derbyshire]], England, on 23 June 1809, the son of William Holmes (1775–1809) and Ann, née Brandreth (1785–1877). His father abandoned the family while Benjamin was young and he was raised by his mother and maternal grandfather William Brandreth, whose surname he adopted. He immigratedemigrated to the United States in 1835 with his three children shortly after the death of his second wife, Harriet Smallpage, hoping to find a bigger market than he had in England for his “Vegetable"Vegetable Universal Pill”Pill" invented by his grandfather, William Brandreth. The formula was a powerful [[cathartic]] and played off the popular notion that impurity of the blood was the source of many ills.<ref name="King">{{cite book

| pages = 295–296}}</ref> Establishing himself on [[Hudson Street (Manhattan)|Hudson Street]] in New York City, Brandreth eventually found success marketing his pills prompting a move to a larger facility which he built in Sing Sing (later [[Ossining (village), New York|Ossining, New York]]) in 1838.

Brandreth was a pioneer in using the then-infant technique of mass advertising in building brand awareness to create a [[mass market]] for his product. Brandreth created and published a wide variety of advertising material for his pills, including a 224-page tome entitled ''The Doctrine of Purgation, Curiosities from Ancient and Modern Literature, from Hippocrates and Other Medical Writers''. His advertising copy had a distinctly literary flavor which found favor with the public. Brandreth widely distributed his books and pamphlets throughout the country as well as taking copious advertising space in newspapers.<ref name="Young 1961">{{cite book

| title = [[The Toadstool Millionaires: A Social History of Patent Medicines in America before Federal Regulation ]]

| year = 1961}}</ref> Eventually his pills became one of the best selling [[patent medicine]]s in the United States .<ref>{{cite book

| lastlast1 = Hoolihan

| firstfirst1 = Christopher

</ref> “…A"…A congressional committee in 1849 reported that Brandreth was the nation’snation's largest proprietary advertiser… Between 1862 and 1863 Brandreth’sBrandreth's average annual gross income surpassed $600,000…”000…"<ref>{{cite book

| lastlast1 = Hoolihan

| firstfirst1 = Christopher

</ref> For fifty years Brandreth’sBrandreth's name was a household word in the United States.<ref>{{cite book

| url = https://books.google.com/?id=Td0DAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA166&dq=benjamin+brandreth}}</ref> Indeed, the Brandreth pills were so well known they received mention in [[Edgar Allan Poe]]'s satirical story "[[Some Words with a Mummy]]", [[Herman Melville]]'s classic ''[[Moby-Dick]]''.,<ref>{{cite book

| url = https://booksarchive.google.comorg/?id=cyokAAAAMAAJ&dqdetails/mobydickorwhite00melvgoog| quote = moby+ dick}}</ref>.

A prominent businessman, Brandreth was among the original founders and was the first President of the Westchester County Savings Bank in [[Tarrytown, New York|Tarrytown]], NY. The bank was incorporated on 21 July 1853 and was merged into Federal First Fidelity Bank on 30 December 1993.<ref>{{cite web

| accessdateaccess-date = 2008-06-06

| author = New York State Banking Department}}</ref> In 1857 he built the Brandreth Hotel near Canal and Broadway in New York City.

In 1851 Brandreth bought {{convert|26000|acre|km2}} in the [[Adirondacks]] of [[New York State]] for 15 cents an acre,<ref name="John * Barbara Adamski">{{cite web

| accessdateaccess-date = 2008-06-06

| author = John and Barbara Adamski
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20081203141327/http://www.jbadamsgallery.com/article-franklin.htm
| archive-date = 2008-12-03
| url-status = dead
}}</ref> establishing the first private preserve in the [[Adirondack Park]]<ref name="John * Barbara Adamski"/> becoming known as “"[[Brandreth Park]]”". The Parkpark remains in the family today and incorporates a number of cabins and cottages in a preserved wilderness setting.<ref>{{cite book

| url = https://booksarchive.google.comorg/?id=-b8LAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA60&dqdetails/historyofadiron01dona| quote = benjamin+ brandreth}}</ref>.

Brandreth was a prominent [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrat]] in [[Westchester County, New York]] and represented the district in the [[New York State Senate]] in [[73rd New York State Legislature|1850]], [[74th New York State Legislature|1851]], [[81st New York State Legislature|1858]] and [[82nd New York State Legislature|1859]].<ref>[https://booksarchive.google.comorg/books?id=Ju5EAAAAYAAJ&details/cu31924014084531/page/n47 <!-- pg=PA3838 --> ''Biographical Sketches of the State Officers and Members of the Legislature of the State of New York in 1859''] by William D. Murphy (pages 38ff)</ref> In 1856 he narrowly lost election to the United States Congress to [[John W. Ferdon]]. He was active in a number of Democratic Statestate conventions.

Brandreth was active in civic development in Sing Sing (later [[Ossining (village), New York|Ossining, New York]]). He was an early subscriber to the fundraising effort to build the Trinity Church in that town. He was one of the founders of the New York [[Eclectic medicine|Eclectic Medical College]], which he supported financially throughout his life. In 1874, he presented the building used by the Collegecollege to Dr. Robert S. Newton and his associates.<ref>{{Cite Appletons'|wstitle=Brandreth, Benjamin|year=1900}}</ref> Brandreth was active in the [[Freemasonry|Masons]], who took charge of his funeral with full honors.

[[File:Benjamin Brandreth Grave.JPG||thumb | 300px | Right right| Grave marker of Benjamin and Virginia Brandreth at the [[Dale Cemetery]] in Ossining, NY as it appeared in November, 2008]]

Brandreth died on 18 February 1880:.

:"<blockquote>That morning he had risen early, reaching the plant, with his eldest son, at six-thirty. He had worked an hour or so in the mixing room. Then came a stroke of [[apoplexy]] and death. Thus, at the end as at the launching of his venture in America, Brandreth was mixing the purgative in which he so fervently believed."<ref name="Young 1961" /></blockquote>

The impact Brandreth had on the local community of Sing Sing was noted by the account in the ''[[The New York Times]]'' which stated that at the time of his death :

:“…flags<blockquote>…flags have been hung at half-mast there and on Saturday all the business places of the village, including the bank, Post Office, Soldiers’Soldiers' monument, and several hotels, together with innumberable private dwellings, we draped in mourning.<ref>{{cite news

| url = httphttps://querytimesmachine.nytimes.com/memtimesmachine/archive-free1880/02/23/98888942.pdf?res=9E01EED71E31EE3ABC4B51DFB466838B699FDE

| publisher work=The New York Times

| format=PDF}}</ref></blockquote>

Brandreth's funeral was held at the Trinity Church which could hold only a fraction of the mourners in attendance. Others lined the streets to the [[Dale Cemetery]] where he was buried. His body was in a wrought metal and bronze casket hermetically sealed with a full -length plate glass top.<ref>''Medical Eclectic'', p. 97</ref> The procession to the cemetery included carriages for the clergymen and pallbearers, the 16th Battalion brass band, the hearse with a bodyguard of 8eight Masonic knights, and carriages for 150 friends and family, stretching out over a mile in length, so that the first carriages were arriving at the cemetery at about the same time as the last were leaving the church.

Brandreth's pill company was known as The Brandreth Pill Works when he established operations in Ossining New York. In 1848 he bought Allcock's Porous Plaster from founder [[Thomas Allcock]] and the name of the firm eventually changed to Allcock Manufacturing. After Brandreth's death, control of the firm eventually moved to his great-grandson, Fox Brandreth Conner, who began manufacturing animal traps along with pills and plasters. After a pause in production for [[World War II]], production of the traps resumed and the ''Havahart'' brand became a registered trademark. Conner sold the pill and plaster business in the 1960s thus ending Brandreth's medical legacy, but continued making the Havahart traps. In 1979 the Havahart trap business was sold to the Woodstream Corporation of Lititz, Pennsylvania, and the remaining property in Ossining was sold to Filex Steel Products Company. The remaining 34 employees in Ossining were offered jobs in Pennsylvania with the new owner, but many retired, thus ending the 142-year legacy of Brandreth's enterprise.<ref>{{cite news |first=Suzanne |last=DeChillo |authorlink= |coauthors= |title= Business is Sold After 142 Years, but Its Heart Lives On|url= http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA0E1FF93C5D12718DDDAC0A94DB405B898BF1D3&scp=6&sq=benjamin%20brandreth&st=cse |work=The |publisher=New York Times |date=25 March 1979 |accessdateaccess-date=2008-09-10 }}</ref>

[[Category:New19th-century YorkAmerican State Senatorslegislators]]

[[Category:People from DerbyshireNew Mills]]