Relic on the Lethe

As we near the end of our text correction marathon for People's Voice from April 17, 1880 , a news bite caught my eye: Dr. Minor, health officer at Cincinnati, found on the Louisville mail boat a lot of yellow fever feathers from Memphis. Dr. Minor ordered them reshipped to Louisville. They are the same lot that were recently sent out of Chattanooga. The brevity of this note implies it was a well-known event. Can we find out the full story of the yellow fever feathers? Detail of "Yellow Jack monster" by Matt Morgan, c. 1873. Courtesy Library of Congress . At a guess, this news bite in the Winchester paper was reprinted from the April 13, 1880 Alexandria Gazette : CINCINNATI, April 13-Dr. Minor, Health Officer, to day found on the Louisville mail boat a lot of yellow fever feathers from Memphis, consigned to a dealer here who had not ordered them, and refused to receive them. Dr. Minor ordered them re-shipped to Louisville. They are the same lot that were recently sent ou...

As I was finishing up a transcription for the second page of the People's Voice from April 17, 1880 , there was an intriguing tidbit at the bottom of the paper. The article stated, "There are four firms that monopolize the manufacture of quinine in the whole United States." Can we figure out these four companies from this one tantalizing clue? Unfortunately the previous article source is vague. So far the original article has eluded our search attempts (there are many newspapers named "Free Press" or variations to that effect). Another researcher helpfully clipped an article in the Ann Arbor Courier from 1888 that names the four manufacturers that were (presumably) in the original article. The Ann Arbor list includes "Powers & Weightman, Rosengarten & Son, Keason & Mattison, and C.T. White & Co." Now that we have the business names, what can we find learn about these companies? Powers and Weightman : This is probably the most-remembere...