Crispin's Drug Store Museum

06/10/2026

Among the many serious issues we Kansans will have to make decisions on this fall is the question of electing our judges. I am currently reading a book entitled Lincoln’s Mentors by Michael J. Gerhardt and I was struck by how applicable the following passage from the 1840’s was to today:

“Lincoln continued to ride the circuit in order to earn additional money, and as he became more familiar with the law’s complexities, he, like other lawyers at the time, had to deal with the jarring reality that judges varied in quality. Some judges knew and cared about the law, while many others did not. Outcomes often did not depend on the facts but on a judge’s politics. In the nineteenth century, judges rose to the bench because of their political connections, rarely because of their acumen or distinction as lawyers. Their courts were often poorly run and their decisions erratic. Lawyers were representing different parties constantly, so an opponent one day could be an ally the next or vice versa. The legal system was much like the rest of the Old West at that time, where order did not strictly follow the law.”

Abraham speaks to us yet today.

05/29/2026

It might seem strange that a drugstore bottle would list Drugs & Jewelry, but when you get to know the career of Alexander Eisler, the inclusion of Drugs might be questionable. A new ad in the Harper Graphic newspaper in 1884, announces the opening of the jewelry business of C. Irion and A. Eisler in the drugstore of E.B. Weatherly. Life is good and Alex marries Elise Otti of Harper. That same year he is elected to the City Council. In 1892, he starts serving on the fair board. By 1897, Eisler decides to get into the drug business as well and buys Dr. McManigle's drugstore and moves his jewelry business into there. He hires N.H. Kilmer of Belle Plaine to fill the prescriptions. Business is good, but home is calling him, and 1903 he sells the drugstore to Earl Collins and announces his plans to return to Hungary for a year long visit. In 1905, an ad shows him back in Harper and the jewelry business in a new location.

05/07/2026

In 1909, John F. Stoskopf and Dentist J.S. Vaniman bought out Brown's Drug Store in Hoisington, KS. They also hired D.M. Woodburn, formerly of Hooper's Drug Store in Great Bend as druggist, with Stoskopf helping. Vaniman set up his office in the upstairs of the drug store and Dr. F.L. McCauley in the rear room of the store. Newspaper ads show that besides prescriptions and patent medicines, they offered stationery, perfumes, toiletry items, candy, ci**rs, to***co, post cards and stereopticon pictures. Later on, they add the Grebe Synchrophase radios to their inventory. The last of their ads I could find were in 1925. Below is a photo of the soda fountain in the store. Note the Coca-Cola signs hanging from latches on the back bar cabinets. The large white container sitting on the counter at the right end held Hires Root Beer Syrup. The soda water used to mix up a root beer and other fountain specialties came out of the spigot on the center piece with the lamp on top of it. The soda fountain was usually the fanciest part of the store. The prescription counter was usually delegated to a narrow space across the far back of the store.

04/19/2026

I was doing some research on early Lincoln County, Kansas, drug stores and ran across an ad for Dr. Jaques' German Worm Cakes being available at both Dr. R. F. Bryant's and W. B. Johnston's Drug Stores in 1878. Below is a trade card for that product that was provided to the druggist to hand out to customers along with free newspaper advertising if he bought enough of it. This trade card does not identify what drug store it came from, as they sometimes did, but if not this one, one like it could have been used here in Lincoln. No, the cake was not made of worms, but was for the treatment of intestinal worms. The card is about 3" by 4".

04/18/2026

Had a couple couples from Montezuma KS & St. Joseph MO stop in for a visit today.

03/29/2026

For all of you that struggle with the way our current government treats We the People, please read:

The Struggle

Say not the struggle naught availeth,
The labour and the wounds are vain,
The enemy faints not, nor faileth,
And as things have been they remain.

If hopes were dupes, fears may be liars;
It may be, in yon smoke conceal’d,
Your comrades chase e’en now the fliers,
And, but for you, possess the field.

For while the tired waves, vainly breaking,
Seem here no painful inch to gain,
Far back, through creeks and inlets making,
Comes silent, flooding in, the main.


And not by eastern windows only,
When daylight comes, comes in the light;
In front the sun climbs slow, how slowly!
But westward, look, the land is bright!

Arthur Hugh Clough, 1849

Quoted by Winston Churchill, April 27, 1941

03/25/2026

I didn't find out a lot about A.T. Holcomb who bought W.S. Hannum's Drug Store in Garnett, KS, in 1892, renamed it A.T. Holcomb & Co. Drug Store. It was on the west side of the square, near the northwest corner. He advertised in the Garnett newspapers until he sold the store to C.R. Strong in 1906. The 2 ounce clear glass bottle below was embossed on the back.

03/11/2026

In 1920, Jess Eash bought the Corner Drug Store owned by Earl Collins, renamed it the Eash Drug Store and ran it until at least 1939. This hand fan advertised Putnam Dyes for clothes. It is about 11 inches long, with a cardboard blade stapled to a wooden handle. Before air conditioning, these were standard equipment for social gatherings in churches, funeral homes, theaters, etc.

02/20/2026

02/12/2026

In 1859, before Abraham Lincoln became our 16th President, he attended the Wisconsin State Fair. There, amid the best examples of the state’s produce and livestock, Lincoln was asked to make a few appropriate remarks. He started out by noting the hard work that had produced that bounty and remarked that even with the best knowledge and the hardest work, results were never guaranteed, that there were always years of success and celebration and years of failure and gloom. He recounted the old story of a far eastern monarch who had gathered his wisest advisors and asked them to think up a statement that would always be true, no matter the situation, that he might keep it before him for inspiration. The councelors returned with: And this, too, shall pass away. Lincoln remarked, “How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! How consoling in the depths of affliction! And this, too, shall pass away. And yet, let us hope it is not quite true. Let us hope, rather, that by the best cultivation of the physical world, beneath and around us; and the intellectual and moral world within us, we shall secure an individual, social, and political prosperity and happiness, whose course shall be onward and upward, and which, while the earth endures, shall not pass away.”

Happy birthday, Abe! We miss you still.

Call now to connect with business.