Day: February 13, 2015

After a big rain we get excited to re-explore the property, especially if the creek floods. Yes, lots of trash surfaces and we haul out our big bags to do clean-up each time. But we also make some pretty good finds, as stuff buried for years sometimes get unearthed with the flow of rushing water. Of late? Bottles. Like a 1952 Purex bleach bottle made of amber glass and a flask-style liquor bottle from ’71, the year our house was built. (We think that’s a good sign! 😉 ) And then there’s the Civil War-era bottle that once housed Dr. J. Hostetter’s Stomach Bitters, a medicinal tonic sold to soldiers that was made with a variety of herbs and copious amounts of alcohol. We snatched that up at a flea market for $5 and added it to the collection.

What will the spring rains bring? We’ll see!

A description of Dr. Hostetter’s Bitters, United States Almanac 1867…

Hostetter’s Bitters  Dyspepsia’s pangs, that rack and grind The body, and depress the mind; Slow constitutional decay, That brings death nearer, day by day; Nervous prostration, mental gloom, Agues, that, as they go and come, Make life a constant martyrdom; Colics and dysenteric pains, ‘Neath which the strong man’s vigor wanes; Bilious complaints, — those tedious ills, Ne’er conquered yet by drastic pills; Dread Diarrhea, that cannot be Cured by destructive Mercury; Heralds of madness or the tomb; For these, though Mineral nostrums fail, Means of relief at last we hail, HOSTETTER’S BITTERS medicine sure, Not to prevent, alone, but cure.