"Berry's Barb Beater" (c. 1900) - Latest Addition to Patent Medicine Collection

Here are some photos and information related to the latest addition to my patent medicine collection: "Berry's Barb Beater." The medicine was intended for livestock that had suffered cuts on barbed-wire fences.

The proprietor - Wilford Francis Berry - was an Iowan and featured in Past and Present of Appanoose County, Iowa: A Record of Settlement, Organization, Progress and Achievment (1913):

The life record of Wilford Francis Berry is that of a man of stalwart purpose and untiring activity, who in the pursuit of his career has won the advancement which invariably rewards well organized methods when intelligently and persistently pursued. For practically twenty-five years he has been identified with the business interests of Moulton, where he has met with constantly increasing success and is now numbered among the foremost representatives of the commercial fraternity of Appanoose county. Mr. Berry is a native of Iowa, his birth having occurred in Wapello county on the 21st of April, 1863.

(Note: His father, Austin P. Berry, was a veteran of the Mexican War and the Civil War)

Wilford Francis Berry has passed the greater part of his life in this city [Moultion, Iowa]. He pursued his education in the public schools and upon completing his high-school course obtained employment in a drug store at Moulton, where he diligently applied himself to the study of pharmacy, being awarded his certificate by the state board of pharmacy on the 22d of May, 1882. He continued in the employ of others for about six years thereafter and in 1888 entered in business for himself at Moulton, where he established the store he is now conducting. Owing to his limited means he had to begin in a very small way, but as the years have passed he has prospered and has enlarged his establishment until he is now the proprietor of one of Moulton's most thriving enterprises.

About 1900 he began the manufacture of a preparation known as Berry's Barb Beater, to be used for wire cuts. As it is a remedy of unquestionable merit the demand for it has steadily increased until he now makes consignments to twenty-five states. He has the largest mailing list of any manufacturer in the county, his postage frequently amounting to five hundred dollars per month. He not only does a large business with the wholesale drug houses of the middle west, but he carries the names of over ten thousand retail dealers on his ledger.

Mr. Berry possesses the initiative and resourcefulness essential to success in any field of endeavor, and to the support of these qualities he brings the determination of purpose and tireless energy which win achievement. Having unlimited confidence in the future of Moulton, as opportunity has afforded, he has acquired extensive property interests here, in both the residence and business sections. He also owns and operates two farms in Appanoose county.

Using a newspaper archive, I did find some period (1904) advertisments for his product in his local newspaper, the Moulton, Iowa Sentinel.

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