Oxygenated Bitters

A Sovereign Remedy

13 October 2012 (R•102313) (R•102115) (R•032118) (R•101618) (R•082619)

My friend, collector and Civil War author Jim Schmidt (pictured signing his latest book above) sent me the full text and images of an 1845, 8-page pamphlet for “Oxygenated Bitters.” Enjoy! See pamphlet. This prompted me to pull out my three examples and take a closer look at them. This includes two, O 99 examples and one, O 100 example (pictured below). Read more on Jim at: Civil War Medicine (and Writing)

George Barrett Green was born in Windsor, Vermont on 14 April 1798, the fourth in a family of seven children of Dr. Isaac (1759-1842) and Ann (Barrett) Green (1774-1847). The elder Green was a physician, banker and merchant in Windsor. George B. Green was also a life-long resident of Windsor and developed Oxygenated Bitters around 1845 or so. Green emphasized at all touchpoints that his bitters was “A Sovereign Remedy” for Dyspepsia, Asthma, & General Debility.

Advertisements also state that Bicolorata Bark was used in his bitters formula which was said to be of great service in all the atonic conditions, not only of the stomach and intestines, but also of all organs where the organic muscular fibre exists. Green also said that his bitters contained no alcohol which is against the grain of many bitters of the era. Pictured above is cylindrical labeled example with a rolled lip and pontil circa 1850 from Vermont Medicines.

Green began the study of medicine with his father, but never entered upon the practice of the profession, though he was always called “Doctor Green.” He manufactured and sold on a large scale the celebrated “Oxygenated Bitters,” of which his father, together with himself, were the proprietors. A number of versions of the embossed bottles exist.

In the late 1850s, Seth W. Fowle seem to take over the brand which gets a bit diluted. Sometimes it is called “Oxygenated Bitters”, and in many cases, “Green’s Oxygenated Bitters”. There are even cases where Green is misspelled as “Greene”.

Dr. George B. Green died on May 31, 1866. His brand would continue as we see newspaper advertisements as late as 1887.

The Carlyn Ring and W.C. Ham listings in Bitters Bottles and Bitters Bottles Supplement is noted below. Bill is pictured on the left at the recent FOHBC Reno Expo this past July. The two books are pictured with Bill. These two books are essential for any bitters collector.

O 99 sp // OXYGENATED // FOR DYSPEPSIA / ASTHMA & / GENERAL DEBILITY // BITTERS //
L… Dr. Wistar’s Oxygenated Bitters
Seth W. Fowle & Co. Boston, Massachusetts
7 5/8 x 2 5/8 x 1 5/8 (5 1/2) 1/4
Rectangular, Aqua , LTC, Applied mouth, 4 sp, With and without Rough pontil mark, Common

Poster
O 100 THE CELEBRATED OXYGENATED BITTERS, Fancy frame and portrait of George B. Green. A Sure Remedy for Dyspepsia, Asthma and General Debility. Testimonial and agent listings.

Label
O 100 OXYGENATED BITTERS, Geometric triangle frame, Oxygenated Bitters. Sovereign Remedy for Dyspepsia and Phthisic (a wasting illness of the lungs). Geo. B. Green, Proprietor, Windsor, Vermont. $1.00 Per Bottle.

Label
O 100.1 OXYGENATED BITTERS, The Celebrated Oxygenated Bitters, Caution None is Genuine Without This Signature, Reed, Bates & Austin. On both ends of decorative horizontal cameo frame. To prevent Counterfeits, the Genuine will invariably have this Label and Signature.
Reed, Bates & Austin were Wholesale Druggists located at No. 20 Merchants Row in Boston, Massachusetts in 1851. They were General Agents and the primary outlet for George B. Green’s Oxygenated Bitters. See s2O 100

Seth W. Fowle & Sons “The Home Almanac“, Green’s Oxygenated Bitters – An Annotated Catalogue of the Edward C. Atwater Collection of …, Volume 3 – By Christopher Hoolihan

Connecticut Circle: January 1960; article by Clarence Hubbard.

Oxygenated bitters. A sovereign remedy for fever & ague, dyspepsia, asthma & general debility. Print shows a female figure sitting on a large ball with two cornucopia-like vases of flowers as part of a scroll design around the margins. Tappan & Bradford, lithographer, Published Boston: Tappan & Bradford’s Lith., c1851 – Library of Congress

THE CELEBRATED OXYGENATED BITTERS – George B. Green of Windsor, Vermont ~ ca. 1861, Large four-page advertising circular; three pages of which consist of raving testimonials about the healing power of the product – eBay

R/H O 99 Oxygenated Bitters – Meyer Collection

R/H O 99 Detail Oxygenated Bitters – Meyer Collection

The Celebrated Oxygenated Bitters, Caution None is Genuine Without This Signature, Reed, Bates & Austin, Wholesale Druggists located at No. 20 Merchants Row in Boston, Massachusetts in 1851. They were General Agents and the primary outlet for George B. Green’s Oxygenated Bitters.

The Celebrated Oxygenated Bitters – circa 1847

Label: Label in English and German on flat panel.

Oxygenated Bitters bottle directions label c 1855

Drug Catalog: 1892 Goodwin

Celebrated Oxygenated Bitters – An advertisement for “the Celebrated Oxygenated Bitters”. Guaranteed to cure a variety of ailments.

Newspaper Advertisement 1851: Contains no alcohol but is the strongest certified medicine in the world. Cures heartburn. costiveness, asthma, fever, old age, deranged stomachs, consumption and piles.

R/H O 100 Oxygenated Bitters – Meyer Collection

R/H O 100 Oxygenated Bitters – Meyer Collection

Oxygenated Bitters with label and original hand bill – Bottle is ex: Greer – ebay

Oxygenated Bitters with label and original hand bill – Bottle is ex: Greer – ebay

Green’s Oxygenated Bitters

In Bitters Bottles you will also see a reference top Green’s Oxygenated Bitters. It is the original brand from George B. Green of Windsor, Vermont in 1845.

Listing for Green’s Oxygenated Bitters sold by Seth S. Hance at 106 Baltimore Street – The (Baltimore) Sun, Wednesday, March 10, 1858

A circa 1865 coated stock advertising card meant to go in the window or on the counter-top of a druggist that sold Oxygenated Bitters. On 20 April 1861 Dr. Green appointed M.S. Burr & Co., 26 Tremont Street, Museum Building, Boston as his agents and thereafter the paper label of each bottle bore the facsimile signature of both. – Ben Swanson Collection

George Barrett Green

History of Windsor County, Vermont by Lewis C. Aldrich and Frank R Holmes, 1891, Pages 855 – 932

GREEN, DR. GEORGE BARRETT, was born in Windsor, Vt., April 14, 1798, the fourth in a family of seven children of Dr. Isaac and Ann (Barrett) Green. George Barrett Green was a life-long resident of Windsor, Vt. He fitted for college with the Rev. Mr. Chapin of Woodstock and entered Middlebury College, but did not graduate, though he received the degree of A. M. in 1857. He began the study of medicine with his father, but never entered upon the practice of the profession, though he was always called “Doctor Green.” He manufactured and sold on a large scale the celebrated “Oxygenated Bitters,” of which his father, together with himself, were the proprietors. He also carried on a general dry goods trade in company with Joseph D. Hatch, of the firm of Green & Hatch, for a number of years. He married first, November 9, 1829, Mary Hatch, daughter of Darius and Elizabeth B. (Hatch) Jones. She died August 3, 1840, in Manchester, Vt., while on a visit to her sister. He married second, January 3, 1854, Mrs. Hannah Adams Deane, only daughter of the Hon. Chester Baxter, of Sharon, Vt.; she died August 1860. His children, all by the first marriage and all born in Windsor, were:

(1) Ann Elizabeth, born August 28, 1830, married, September 28, 1879, George Wardner (see biographical sketch on page 871).

(2) Isaac, born May 13, 1832, married, September 22, 1853, Frances Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Joseph Denison and Frances Spooner (Forbes) Hatch, a merchant and at one time mayor of Lacon, Illinois. He was a soldier in the War of the Rebellion, enlisting in Company A, Eighth Regiment of Minnesota Volunteers; he died suddenly, June 17, 1863, in Red Wing, Minn., and is buried there. His wife died June 17, 1860, in Windsor. Their children were, (a) George Baxter, born and died in Lacon, Ill., April 1855; (b) Frances Hatch, born August 21, 1856, in Lacon, Ill., died there February 1857; (c) Mary Hatch, born in Windsor, August 31, 1857, married, September 11, 1879, Dr. William Reid Prime, eldest son of Dr. Thomas Merrill and Amity (Paige) Prime of Knowlton, Quebec, Canada. He was born in Fairfield, Vt., October 17, 1857, graduated from McGill Medical College, Montreal, and the University Medical College, New York, in 1859. They now reside in Burlington, Vt., and their children are, Mary Frances, born in Manchester, N. H., June 30, 1880; William Isaac, born in Richford, Vt., May 29, 1883; Thomas Benjamin, born and died in Richford, Vt, November 24, 1888. (d) Frances Elizabeth, born in Red Wing, Minn., September 22, 1858, married, December 12, 1878, Frank Hallett Fisher, of Burlington, Vt., who was for three years cashier of the Howard National Bank, and is now special eastern agent of the Northwestern Guaranty Loan Company of Minneapolis. Their children are, Wilson Hatch Fisher, born September 12, 1879; Louis Edwin Fisher, born November 6,
1880; John Marcus Fisher, born November 12, 1882, died August 16, 1883; Josephine Forbes Fisher, born July 24, 1884, died January 3, 1888, and FlorenceMartha Fisher, born November 24, 1888.

(3) Charlotte Eloise, born January 30, 1834, married July 9, 1863, Rev. Henry A.
Hazen, and died in Auburndale, Mass., February 8, 1881; buried in Christian Street burial-ground, Hartford, Vt. Mr. Hazen was born in Hartford December 27, 1832, graduated from Kimball Union Academy, Dartmouth College and Andover Theological Seminary; was pastor of Congregational churches in Plymouth, Lyme and Pittsfield, N. H., and in Billerica, Mass, and since 1880 has resided in Auburndale, Mass., in the service of the A. B. C. F. M. until 1883; secretary of the National Council of the Congregational Churches of the United States, and editor of the Year Book from 1883; trustee of Kimball Union Academy and of the Howe School of Billerica; secretary of Andover Alumni Association, 1880-90, of the New Hampshire General Association, 1872-74, and of the Massachusetts General Association since 1888; editor of the General Catalogue of Andover Theological Seminary, 1880, and author of History of Billerica with Genealogies, 1882. Their children were, (a) Mary, born in Plymouth, N. H., November 23, 1864, died September 30, 1865; (b) Emily, born August 5, 1866, graduated from Smith College in 1889, and now teacher in the Mary Burnham School, Northampton, Mass.; (c) Charlotte, born in Lyme, N. H., November 6, 1868.

(4) Ellen Shepherd, born March 13, 1836, married in Windsor, Vt., September 29,
1857, to Samuel Willard Foster. Mr. Foster was born in Frost village, Quebec,
educated at the academy in Concord, Mass., and the University of Vermont, studied law with the Hon. H. Bailey Terrill, of Stanstead, and the Hon. Judge Secotte of St. Hyacinthe, Quebec, and was admitted to the bar of Lower Canada February 6, 1854. They reside at Knowlton, Quebec. Their children, all born at Knowlton, are (a) George Greene, born January 28, 1860, educated at McGill College, Montreal, is a member of the law firm of Archibald & Foster, Montreal, Canada; (b) Samuel Baxter, born December 5, 1861, graduated at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, married Minnie M., daughter of Nathanial Norton of Chicago, Ill., October 8, 1885, is a lawyer and the attorney for the Grand Trunk Railway in Chicago, Ill., where he resides; their children are Samuel Norton, born August 8, 1888, and George Getty, born February 14, 1889; (c) Ellen Gertrude, born November 19, 1864, married, June 3, 1886, Gardner Stevens, eldest son of Hon. G. G. Stevens of Waterloo, Quebec, where they now reside, and their children are Gertrude Foster, born April 26, 1887; Harold Gardner, born March 14, 1889; Ellen Greene, born October 25, 1890.

5) Mary Harriet, born February 20, 1838, married, October 8, 1861, Gilman Henry
Tucker. She died in Boston, Mass., January 28, 1869; buried in the Tucker lot in
Raymond, N. H. Mr. Tucker was graduated, as were his wife and her sisters, Anna
and Ellen, from Kimball Union Academy. He graduated at Dartmouth College
and read law, but became agent or manager of the school-book department of
Charles Scribner & Co., in Boston, 1866-78; in New York, 1878-83; secretary
Publishers’ Association, 1883-90, of American Book Company, 1890-, and has
been since 1887 president of the Dartmouth Alumni Association of New York.

Dr. George B. Green died May 31, 1866. He is well remembered in Windsor as a large-hearted, generous man, very hospitable, with ready sympathy for all in distress and trouble, and sure to express his sympathy by acts of benevolence. He was a true and firm friend, very decided in his opinions, and fearless in expressing them. He was especially kind and indulgent to his children, who were left at an early age without a mother’s care. He gave to all of them a good education, and trained them to habits of virtue and usefulness. He was interested in a variety of things, medicine, horticulture, farming, the raising of fruit, landscape gardening, as well as in plans for the improvement of the village in which he lived. At one time he owned a large amount of real estate in Windsor, and he was always very pleased to do his part in aiding public improvements. He was devoted to his church, the Old South, and a regular and devout attendant upon its services. In his will he provided that the church should share equally with each of his children in his estate.

Select Listings:

1798: Dr. George Barrett Green, was born in Windsor, Vt., April 14, 1798 – History of Windsor County, Vermont by Lewis C. Aldrich and Frank R Holmes, 1891, Page 855 – 932

1833: George B. Green, Druggist – The Democratic Dilemma: Religion, Reform, and the Social Order in the Connecticut River Valley of Vermont, 1791-1850

1840: George B. Green developed Oxygenated Bitters in Windsor, Vermont around 1840 – Vermont Medicines

1844: “On motion of Mr. Winslow, the Committee on Roads was discharged from the further consideration of the petiiton of Theophilus Crawford and others, and of the petition of George B. Green and others, each praying for the incorporation of a Rail-Road Company for the construction of a RailRoad from Brattleboro’ up the valley of the Connecticut River; and. it was ordered, that the petitioners have leave to withdraw their said petitions.” – Journal of the House of Representatives  of the State of Vermont, 1844

1845: Oxygenated Bitters, A Sovereign Remedy booklet (pictured top of post), George B. Green, Proprietor, Windsor, Vermont, Sold by Stimpson, Reed & Co., No. 26 Merchants Row, Boston, Entered according to Actof Congress, in the year 1845.

1847: Advertising poster for The Celebrated Oxygenated Bitters (pictured above), M.V.B. Fowler, Wholesale Agent, New York

1847: Newspaper advertisement for Greene’s Oxygenated Bitters (below) – Hartford Courant, Friday, November 12, 1847

1850: George B Green, Physician, Age: 52, Birth Year: abt 1798, Birthplace: Vermont
Home in 1850: Windsor, Vermont, Household Members: George B Green 52, Ann E Green 20, Isaac Green 18, Charlotte E Green 16, Ellen S Green 14, Mary H Green 12 – 1850 United States Federal Census

1855: Oxygenated Bitters bottle directions label c 1855 (pictured above)

1857: George Barrett Green fitted for college with the Rev. Mr. Chapin of Woodstock and entered Middlebury College, but did not graduate, though he received the degree of A. M. in 1857. – History of Windsor County, Vermont

1858: Green’s Oxygenated Bitters The Home Almanac 1858 Published by Seth W. Fowle and Co., Boston (pictured above)

1860: Newspaper advertisement for The Oxygenated Bitters, Seth W. Fowle & Co., 18 Tremont Street, Boston (below) – The Jeffersonian, Thursday, September 13, 1860

1861: The Celebrated Oxygenated Bitters – George B. Green of Windsor, Vermont ~ ca. 1861, Large four-page advertising circular; three pages of which consist of raving testimonials about the healing power of the product (pictured above)

1865: Advertising card meant to go in the window or on the counter-top of a druggist that sold Oxygenated Bitters (pictured above)

1866: Dr. George B. Green died May 31, 1866.(tombstone (below)

1875: Newspaper advertisement for Greene’s (sic) Oxygenated Bitters (below) – Wilmington Journal, Friday, January 29, 1875

1879: Newspaper advertisement for Green’s Oxygenated Bitters (below) – The Atchison Daily Champion, Saturday, November 29, 1879

1887: Newspaper advertisement for Dr. Greene’s (sic) Oxygenated Bitters (below) – Quad City Times, Saturday, January 15, 1887