Witness the process of making wooden pillboxes

To the Editor:

“Dr. Chesebro of Knox advertised his pills and salve extensively in The Knowersville Enterprise (to become The Altamont Enterprise in 1888) in the 1880s.”  This, according to the Knox Sesquicentennial History book, published in 1972.

Knox pillboxes were used to package his “Compound Vegtable (sic) Sugar Coated Mandrake & Dandelion Pills.”  These pills were advertised to “be used in all cases of Liver Complaint, Jaundice, Sick Headache, Constipation of the Bowels, Coughs, Colds, and Catarrh, and all diseases of the system in which an alternative is needed and are of especial service in all diseases of the Liver, Typhoid and Bilious Fevers.” 

A label from these pills is on display at the Saddlemire Homestead museum, located at 2190 Berne-Altamont Road (Route 156) in Knox. 

The Knox Historical Society invites the public to witness the process of making wooden pillboxes, a cottage industry that was an important part of the local economy for over 100 years, on Sunday, July 13, from 2 to 4 p.m.

The program will culminate with the unveiling of a new roadside historic marker at the site of the first pillbox factory, founded in 1806 by Nathan Crary.

Copies of the Knox Sesquicentennial History book will also be available on the 13th, or anytime by contacting Charlene Stevens by phone at 861-8393 or by email at [email protected].   

Nancy Frueh, president
Knox Historical Society

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