Dr. Seth Arnold
Woonsocket's Medicine Man
Dr. Seth Arnold was born on February 26, 1799, to Nathan and Esther (Darling) Arnold. He is a descendant of William Arnold, who came to Providence in a canoe with Roger Williams. A sixth generation Rhode Islander, Seth Arnold spent his early years occupied in a wide variety of endeavors that included cotton mill worker and hotel keeper. His youth even included a five-year stint as a traveling showman. He travelled to various states with an exhibition of natural and artificial curiosities.
Exactly when Arnold began manufacturing and selling patent medicines is not clear, however an early advertisement for Dr. Seth Arnold’s Balsam that appeared in several June-July, 1851 editions of the Hartford Courant suggested that it occurred approximately six years prior to the ad being published, making it sometime in the mid 1840’s. In the 1849 New England Mercantile Union Directory, he was listed as an eclectic physician and a patent medicine manufacturer.
Dr. Arnold peddled his balsam as a quick cure for any bowel discomfort caused by cholera, dysentery, or diarrhea. The regular litany of ailments for any 19th century urban dweller. By 1864 he was distributing many of his own medicines and was president of his own laboratory, located at 64 Sullivan Street (now Park Avenue). In 1872 the “Dr. Seth Arnold Medical Corporation” was founded in Woonsocket and incorporated under an act of the General Assembly. His medicines were in use in various parts of the country and were in great demand.
Another extremely popular medicine that the firm produced was Dr. Seth Arnold’s Cough Killer, for coughs, colds, pneumonia, asthma, croup, malaria, inflammation of the stomach and malignant fevers. The main ingredient of the cough killer was morphine, so even if you were not cured, after a few spoonfuls you didn’t care. Also popular were a Soothing and Quiet Cordial, a remedy which was good for infantile pains of the stomach and bowels which also induced sleep, and Indian Vegetable Sugar Coated Bilious Pills used for headaches, diseases of the stomach and purifying of the blood. In 1868, Arnold sold the right to manufacture Arnold’s Balsam to Gilman Bros. in Boston for the amount of $12,500.
Dr. Seth Arnold’s Cough Killer was instrumental in the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, which required the labeling of all narcotic and poisonous ingredients. Dr. Arnold died on October 31, 1884 and is buried in the Arnold-Vose Cemetery on East Orchard Street in Woonsocket.
