Great-grandfather Albertson Was Not Perfect

I found the following advertisement published 10 Mar 1905 in The Goodland Republic, from Goodland, Kansas, extolling the healing properties of Dodd's Kidney Pills for rheumatism.

THE NEIGHBORS ALL USE THEM NOW

Quick Cure of Rheumatism by Dodd's Kidney Pills. How They Saved the Shop

of a Kansas Blacksmith -- Cure was Permanent too.

Goodland Kans., Feb. 20th --- (Special) --- So quick and ccomplete was the cure

of N. E. Albertson, a local blacksmith, that it almost seems like a miracle. He had

Rheumatism so bad he feared he would have to give up his shop. One box of Dodd's

Kidney Pills drove away all the pains and they have never returned. Speaking of

his cure Mr. Albertson says:

"I had Rheumatism in my shoulders and arms for years. Part of the time it was so

bad I could not sleep at night. My arm hurt so that it seemed I would have to give

up my blacksmith shop. I went to the drug store and bought one box of Dodd's

Kidney Pills and took them. I have nnot had the Rheumatism since. A great many

of the neighbors are using Dodd's Kidney Pills since they saw how they cured me."

When I checked the Goodland paper from 1902 to 1905 which was on-line at Chronicling America at the Library of Congress, I discovered that at least eight other individuals had given their testimonial about how Dodd's Kidney Pills had cured their rheumatism, living in Missouri, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Pennsylvania and New York. Then I checked one of our local newspapers on the same website, The Bohemia Nugget, Cottage Grove, Oregon,  and in the early 1900's there were 45 ads for Dodd's Kidney Pills for curing various ailments. I relooked at the page where I found Great-grandfather Albertson and discovered other companies also had people telling of their experiences with their products: Someone in Hot Springs, Arkansas, told about digestive wellness from eating Grape Nuts and Cream; a man in Normal, Illinois had used Doan's Kidney Pills to solve his kidney problems and then a woman from Canton, Ohio, had been very satisfied from using Dr Williams' Pink Pills for Pale People. Patent medicine companies apparently used this type of advertising quite heavily. So great-grandfather Albertson was not the only one. I hope he was paid a little to make his statement or at least got some free pills.