In 1849 Dr. Reuben Parkhurst's first ads appeared in the Pantagraph. He was unusual in that his ad was a poem:
R. Parkhurst who doctors with roots and with leaves
Just mentions that with them he masters disease,
He lives upon Front Street, west part of town,
His house you may see as you pass up or down,
He there keeps his office with medicines ground
And there or elsewhere he may always be found
To know of his practice you wish or desire
Just go to his patients and of them enquire.
Another simply identified his office as being at the end of Front Street "at the nursery" where piles could be effectually cured!
He slightly altered his ad in early 1850 to say:
With roots and herbs I cure disease
And Reuben Parkhurst is my name
I'll wait upon you when you please
And charge but little for the same
I get my medicine from the wood
And some are on the prairie found
Which I prepare in order good
In healing virtue they abound
In Bloomington I have my home
On Front Street west you'll find my place
And if you choose you there may come
And soon be cured I rather guess.
Dr. Parkhurst liked to keep his ads "fresh" and updated his poem in February 1851:
All who are afflicted with any disease
And wish to be cured, just call if you please
A have a supply of good roots and some herbs
To comfort your bodies when sickness disturbs
My Name is R. Parkhurst which most of you know
My skill in your cases I'll try to bestow
I live upon Front Street, west part of town,
My sign you may see as you pass up or down.
I there keep my office with medicines ground
Which as efficacious as many have found.
If more information you wish or desire
Just go to my patients and of them enquire.
In 1851 he grew more assured and tempted patients with this poem:
R Parkhurst the herbiest doctor now says
He cures up a fever in two or three days
And other diseases soon yield to the force
Of plant medication -- a curative course
And this can be proven a matter of fact
By those who have seen now the medicine act
Yet others could beat him which if he could see
He'd own and acknowledge they're smarter than he.
In 1853 he had an ad for evergreen trees, which he was selling. Dr. Parkhurst acted as an agent for a fruit tree nursery out of Springfield as well -- at his nursery. Unfortunately this interesting doctor was only in Bloomington for about three years and no further information could be found about him, other than the fact his wife was Catherine and they had a daughter named Mary. He was a native of Pennsylvania.
Other Dr. Parkhursts followed him, one of whom had a clinic in Danvers around the turn of the century for the treatment of inebriates and that treatment was the Willow Bark Treatment!