Smithville Community Historical Society welcomes medicine man

The Smithville Community Historical Society will hold its annual picnic at the home of Rex and Diane Miller at 8764 Leichty Road in Smithville on Monday, Oct. 2. Each family is to bring a covered dish to share and their own table service. Beverages will be provided by the officers. Dinner will be at 5:30 p.m.

The program will feature Dr. Balthasar, medicine man, portrayed by Mike Follin, and will begin at 7 p.m. Medicine men were prominent in America from the late 1700s to the late 1800s. Follin is an education interpreter who has made presentations for the Ohio Historical Society for more than 30 years.

Follin sometimes displays a sign that proclaims, “Miracle medicine for man or beast, formulated from an ancient Tibetan recipe.” The elixir is a miracle tonic claimed to cure a vast variety of ailments. It was made of any number of elements that had no real healing powers.

The famous elixir sometimes contained 150- to 200-proof alcohol, otherwise known as “White Lightning.” The medicine men were many times referred to as “snake oil salesman” and usually had no medical training whatsoever.

By the late 1800s the government felt there should be some regulations placed on the sale of medications, which basically put medicine men out of business.

These men also were known to carry news of the local and national to some of the rural areas that did not have newspapers. They also could be known for creating the “hard sales” method in early marketing.

While the early practicing physicians would tell their patients to come back in two weeks, the medicine men would state that when buying their medicine, “You will never see me again.”