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Pinkham_proof2 LYDIA PINKHAM Design & layout by Quench Design & Communications | Port Hope | www.quenchme.ca Do you know who Lydia Pinkham was? She was the smiling benevolent grand- mother whose face stared out from bottles of her Lydia E. Pinkham Vegetable Compound. Her name became a household word and her face an iconic image. The Lydia E. Pinkham Medicine Co. began in Lynn, Massachusetts in the late 1800s. The company was so successful in the U.S. that the family opened a Canadian branch in Cobourg in 1917. The Pinkhams bought an attractive red brick building that had been the County of Northumberland Model School, a training facility for teachers. It was located at 128 University Avenue, now the site of Thomas Motors. The Lydia Pinkham company was a quiet presence in Cobourg, manufacturing Lydia's line of products here for almost 50 years. The operation only required a small number of employees. Today there are only a few individuals in Cobourg who have any memories of the Lydia Pinkham factory. Around 1962, when the popularity of Lydia Pinkham products was waning, the parent company in Massachusetts closed its Canadian branch in Cobourg. Another Cobourg company, Bird-Archer, bought the rights to continue turning out the Lydia Pinkham line for the Canadian market. Bird-Archer (later bought by the Diversey Corporation) was located on Second St. near Lake Ontario. Surprisingly, the company's main business was manufacturing chemicals for the treatment of water, as well as other chemicals, and providing specialized engineering services. Bird-Archer built an addition to facilitate this new venture. Ralph Strong, formerly of Lydia Pinkham, oversaw the operation. From then on, the products bore a Bird-Archer label, even though they were still packed in the trademark Lydia E. Pinkham boxes. Cy Winter, a customs official in Cobourg, checked the shipments of alcohol before the factory received them. Bird-Archer continued manufacturing Lydia Pinkham products in Cobourg until c. 1977, about the time that the Lydia E Pinkham Co. finally closed its doors in the United States. However even after that, Cooper Laboratories of California bought the rights to continue producing Lydia's products. Over the next thirty years the handsome Lydia Pinkham building housed a number of tenants. Some may remember when Triangle Plumbing and Nyberg Plumbing operated businesses there. The building, though still viable, was demolished in 1998 to allow for the expansion of Thomas Motors. • Mary Corbett recalls three employees: Tom Jones, Arthur Trolley and Ralph Strong. • Marion Hagen commented that the premises were very well-kept by the company and she admired the beautiful ivy that covered the building. • As boys, Paul Leonard and Wayne Crossen remember eating licorice root from the Cobourg factory. HER COBOURG PRESENCE