Knapp’s Balsamic Cough Syrup

The advertisement above appeared in the Sandusky Register on February 8, 1875. John Knapp was associated with the Sandusky Medicine Company, which had its offices in the Sandusky Register building on Water Street in 1874 and 1875. Knapp’s Balsamic Cough Syrup was recommended for colds, sore throat, laryngitis, and all diseases of the throat.

Edwin Cutter, of Cleveland, Ohio gave a testimonial in the newspaper. He said he had tried a hundred remedies for asthma, but Knapp’s Balsamic Cough Syrup gave him the quickest and most effectual remedy of any other product. Mrs. E. Husted of Norwalk, Ohio stated that she was afflicted with a distressing cough for many years, but she found immediate relief with Knapp’s Balsamic Cough Syrup. The Sandusky Medicine Company seems to have gone out of business shortly after 1875, and by 1900, John Knapp was residing in Cleveland, Ohio with his daughter and her family. Patent medicines were very popular in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Sandusky’s drug stores sold many patent medicines before the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906.