Walkabout: The Druggist's Tale, Part 1

Read Part 2 and Part 3 of this story.

In 1836 the Bolton Drug Company, Ltd opened for business, presumably started by one Obed Bolton. No real records seem to have survived as to location or degree of success. In 1875, Obed’s son, William C., and his fiancée, Charlotte Louise, were married. William was starting out as a druggist, and he and his wife, who was said to be a few years older than he, lived above his store in Manhattan, and dreamed of bigger and better things. Through frugality and strict attention to business, the Bolton’s saved up $5000, and in 1884, came to Brooklyn, where William and two other associates opened up a business. The Bolton Drug Company’s first location was a building at 264-270 Fulton St, near Clinton St. (No longer in existence, Fulton no longer connects to Clinton St. so it might be at the intersection of today’s Clinton and Joralemon Streets.) The retail shop sold over-the-counter medicines, patent medicines, filled prescriptions, and sold sundry personal care related items. They also filled mail orders and made deliveries. According to friends, interviewed by the Brooklyn Eagle, the firm made money hand over fist. They made it so fast that they didn’t keep books and had to divide it every little while to have the finances come out straight. Bolton Drugs expanded, and branches opened in other parts of Brooklyn, including another store on Fulton, at Hoyt, now in the Fulton Mall, one on Flatbush, about where the Toren is today, and a fourth branch on Columbia, near Union, in Red Hook.

William Bolton was becoming extremely rich, making a fortune distributing and marketing patent medicines, which were notoriously famous throughout the late 1800’s for their claims of curing everything from a toothache to cancer. While most were basically harmless, some patent medicines contained poisons, alcohol and strong narcotics, like opium and cocaine. Bolton didn’t make them, but he was a wholesaler, the middleman making a fortune in the mail order business, as well as in his stores. The large building on Fulton and Clinton held all of their stock, and all of their prescriptions were mixed and packaged there. It was a large operation with several pharmacists and other workers in attendance.

The Bolton’s still kept apartments in the same building at this time, and began mingling with Brooklyn Society. Then the trouble started. Depending on whom one believed at the time, it appears that Mr. Bolton was stepping out with young ladies who were not his wife, and/or Mrs. Bolton was an erratic, unhinged individual of questionable sanity. According to the Eagle, Charlotte would go on trips for a month, or two or three, and then appear at home unexpectedly, and casually ask her husband if he was going to take her to the theatre that night. While she was gone, William became a social butterfly, becoming interested in amateur theatre, joining clubs and societies and generally having a good time. He supposedly told Charlotte that he would give her an uncontested divorce, and would give her a large settlement, but she refused to divorce, and they made up, and took a trip to Europe. Unfortunately, that didn’t last, and before long they had again agreed to a divorce, and before going to court, William gave her a $60,000 settlement, with $3000 in cash and $57,000 in Bolton Drugs Stock, making her a major shareholder in the company. But after taking the stock and money, she changed her mind, and began coming to the main store frequently, and was known for causing a sensation.

Sometime in 1890, William met Lillian V.C. Shuler, the daughter of an Illinois merchant. She was young and pretty, and William fell head over heels in love. By this time Charlotte had moved out and was living in luxury in the Clarendon Hotel in Brooklyn Heights. In April of 1891, Bolton told his friends that he was going to Europe, but he actually took a train to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where he set up a drug store, stocked it with product, and opened for business. He also bought a house and property. Who would have thought it, but at the time, Sioux Falls was the divorce capital of the US. After residing there for the appointed 60 days, William filed for divorce from Charlotte, got the divorce papers, and headed back east to pick up his new bride-to-be. Under the steely gaze of an aunt, with whom she was living, Lillian Shuler and William Bolton got married in a church ceremony in Newark, on September 26, 1891. The aunt refused to let Lillian leave until she saw them married with her own eyes. When they got to Sioux Falls, the couple married again, just in case, to assure that they were now married in the state where they would live. William informed colleagues that he would be living in South Dakota, and would only return to Brooklyn if business called him there. Some of Bolton’s friends in Brooklyn knew what was going on, and after William and Lillian left for Sioux Falls, took pains to share the information with Charlotte, knowing that she would not take the news well, and could be counted on to do something drastic. Charlotte did not disappoint. She very publically accused William of bigamy, and had him arrested and brought back to Brooklyn.

Next time: The Trial of the Century! Everyone says that about big flashy trials. This one had rich people, claims and counterclaims, tales of demanding and demented wives, philandering bigamist husbands, trophy wives, aiding and abetting friends and relatives, and lots of money at stake. All immensely popular entertainment for upright Victorians, and the kind of stuff newspapers dream of. What happened? Who did the judge believe? You’ll have to read next Tuesday’s Walkabout.
Photo: Fulton Street in the 1880’s – Brooklyn Public Library