Sir James Clarke's Female Pills

The 1860s marked the proliferation of Moses’ patent medicine business. In 1860, three years after the death of Ira Baldwin, Moses had 15 employees and an annual income of $50,000 (United States Census Year 1860). With his business firmly established in Rochester, Moses expanded the company in 1862 with a factory and office in New York City located at 10 Spruce Street (U.S. IRS Tax Assessment Lists, 1862-1918). The years that followed showed that Moses amassed a small fortune from the sale of patent medicines as indicated by the increase in the number of newspaper advertisements for “Sir James Clarke’s Female Pills.” The variety of the newspaper advertisements geographic locations, and the many agents listed in his service displayed the extent …show more content…
The advertisements for the product ceased to appear in Toronto newspapers after 1870 and in other Canadian newspapers after 1879, while in the United States they ceased to appear after 1872. In 1870, they were advertised as “Job Moses’ Female Pills” (Fig. 3; The Daily Globe 1870; The Times 1870), then as “Job Moses’ Sir James Clarke’s Female Pills” in 1871 (Fig. 3; The Ottawa Times 1871), and later that year as “Job Moses’ Female Pills” (The Ottawa Times 1871). In 1872, they were renamed “The Great Female Remedy, Clarke’s Periodical Pills” (The Morning Chronicle 1872), while in 1874 they were named “Job Moses’ Female Pills” (The Times 1874). From 1876 through to 1879 they were advertised as “Job Moses’ Periodical Pills” (The Sherbrooke News 1876, 1877; The Huron Expositor 1877, 1878). The final evolution of the name occurred in 1879, to simply “Job Moses’ Pills” (The Sarnia Observer 1879). Throughout this period of rebranding, Job Moses continued as the sole proprietor of the product with his name embossed on each side panel of the