Saturday, September 27, 2008

Percy Medicine

The camera is with me nearly all the time now so I am always looking for photo ops. This building is a few blocks from my work in downtown. I have seen it all my life but hadn't researched it until tonight.

In 1898, young Albert Percy was traveling with his family from New York to his new home in Waco, Texas. Along the way, he developed an upset stomach. The family stopped in Kentucky where his father found a doctor who offered a liquid remedy. Soon, Baby Percy was feeling much better.

After arriving in Waco, Albert's father asked a pharmacist to prepare the Kentucky recipe to help the baby with another bout of stomach upset. The results were so good that druggist W. S. Merrick asked Albert's father to join him in producing Baby Percy Medicine. The company was officially born on January 1, 1904. It continues making the elixir to this day.

Percy Medicine (re-named in 1938) is the only product produced at the factory at 8th and Webster in Waco. It is mixed and bottled by hand and contains a secret formula of bismuth Subsalicylate, alcohol, calcium hydroxide, potassium carbonate as well as rhubarb extract, sugar, cinnamon and orange flavoring.

1 comment:

Jess said...

That is so neat. I love learning little bits of history like that...especially when it is something so very close to you and you never knew it was there! How neat! Thanks for sharing!