{{Short description|British-American businessman and politician (1809–1880)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=July 2025}} {{Infobox person | name = Benjamin Brandreth | image = Benjamin Brandreth.JPG | caption = Benjamin Brandreth portrait (oil on canvas) circa 1870 | birth_name = | birth_date = {{birth date|1809|6|23}} | birth_place = Newtown, Derbyshire, England | death_date = {{death date and age|1880|2|18|1809|6|23}} | death_place = Ossining, New York, US | known_for = Pioneer of mass pharmaceutical marketing | spouse = {{ubl|Susan Leeds (divorced)|Harriet Smallpage (died)|Virginia Graham}} | partner = | political_party = Democratic | occupation = Businessman | children = 13, including George | relatives = {{ubl|Courtenay Brandreth (grandson)|Gyles Brandreth (great-great-great grandson)}} | module = {{infobox officeholder |embed = yes |office = Member of the New York State Senate |term = January 1, 1850 – December 31, 1851 |constituency = 7th district |predecessor = Saxton Smith |successor = Abraham Bogart Conger |term1 = January 1, 1858 – December 31, 1859 |constituency1 = 8th district |predecessor1 = William Kelly |successor1 = Hezekiah D. Robertson }} }}
'''Benjamin Brandreth''' (June 23, 1809 – February 18, 1880) was a British-American businessman. He was a 19th-century pioneer in the early use of mass advertising to build consumer awareness of his product, a purgative that allegedly cured many ills by purging toxins out of the blood.
Brandreth became a successful and wealthy businessman, bank president, and New York state senator.
==Biography==
Brandreth was born at Newtown, Derbyshire on June 23, 1809, the son of William Holmes (1775–1809) and Ann ''née'' Brandreth (1785–1877). His father abandoned the family while Benjamin was young so he was raised by his mother and maternal grandfather William Brandreth (1743–1828), whose surname he adopted.
His cousin was Joseph Brandreth (1748–1815),<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://burkespeerage.com/|title=Burke's Peerage|website=burkespeerage.com}}</ref> whose family remained at their ancestral seat in North West England, descending in the senior line via James Watson-Gandy-Brandreth (1908–2008),<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/photos/item/IOE01/09861/09|title=Manor House / Buckland Newton Manor (IOE01/09861/09) Archive Item - Images Of England Collection | Historic England|website=historicengland.org.uk}}</ref> now being represented by his great-nephew Mark Watson-Gandy.<ref>[https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C4764981 www.nationalarchives.gov.uk]</ref>
===Brandreth's Pills=== Brandreth emigrated to the United States in 1835 with his three children shortly after the death of his second wife, Harriet Smallpage, hoping to find a bigger market than he had in England for his "Vegetable Universal Pill" invented by his grandfather, William Brandreth. The formula was a powerful cathartic and played off the popular notion that impurity of the blood was the source of many ills.<ref name="King">{{cite book | last = King | first = Dan | title = Quackery Unmasked | url = https://archive.org/stream/quackeryunmaske00king#page/294/mode/2up | publisher = D. Clapp | location = New York | year = 1858 | pages = 295–296}}</ref> Establishing himself on Hudson Street in New York City, Brandreth eventually found success marketing his pills prompting a move to a larger facility which he built at Sing Sing (later Ossining, New York) in 1836.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Brandreth Pill Factory |url=https://www.westchesterarchives.com/HT/muni/ossVill/brandreth.htm |access-date= |website=Westchester County Archives}}</ref>
Brandreth was a pioneer in using the then-infant technique of mass advertising in building brand awareness to create a mass market for his product. Brandreth created and published a wide variety of advertising material for his pills, including a 224-page tome entitled ''The Doctrine of Purgation, Curiosities from Ancient and Modern Literature, from Hippocrates and Other Medical Writers''. His advertising copy had a distinctly literary flavor which found favor with the public. Brandreth widely distributed his books and pamphlets throughout the country as well as taking copious advertising space in newspapers.<ref name="Young 1961">{{cite book | last = Young | first = James | title = The Toadstool Millionaires: A Social History of Patent Medicines in America before Federal Regulation | publisher = Princeton University Press | location = Princeton | year = 1961}}</ref> Eventually his pills became one of the best selling patent medicines in the United States.<ref>{{cite book | last1 = Hoolihan | first1 = Christopher | last2 = Atwater | first2 = Edward | title = An Annotated Catalogue of the Edward C. Atwater Collection of American | publisher = Boydell & Brewer | location = New York | year = 2004 | page = 117 | isbn = 1-58046-098-4}} </ref> "…A congressional committee in 1849 reported that Brandreth was the nation's largest proprietary advertiser… Between 1862 and 1863 Brandreth's average annual gross income surpassed $600,000…"<ref>{{cite book | last1 = Hoolihan | first1 = Christopher | last2 = Atwater | first2 = Edward | title = An Annotated Catalogue of the Edward C. Atwater Collection of American | publisher = Boydell & Brewer | location = New York | year = 2004 | page = 118 | isbn = 1-58046-098-4}} </ref> For fifty years Brandreth's name was a household word in the United States.<ref>{{cite book | last = White | first = James Terry | title = The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography | publisher = J.T. White | location = United States | year = 1895 | page = [https://archive.org/details/nationalcyclopa01whitgoog/page/n185 166] | url = https://archive.org/details/nationalcyclopa01whitgoog| quote = benjamin brandreth. }}</ref> Indeed, the Brandreth pills were so well known they received mention in Edgar Allan Poe's satirical story "Some Words with a Mummy", Herman Melville's classic ''Moby-Dick'',<ref>{{cite book | last = Melville | first = Herman | title = Moby-Dick; Or, The White Whale | publisher = L.C. Page & Co. | location = Boston | year = 1892 | page = 386 | url = https://archive.org/details/mobydickorwhite00melvgoog| quote = moby dick. }}</ref> and P. T. Barnum's book ''The Humbugs of the World''.
The Brandreth Pill Factory complex was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|version=2009a}}</ref> thumb|Brandreth Pill advertisement
Although his pills sold well to the public, they were described by medical experts and skeptics as an example of quackery.<ref>Holbrook, Stewart. (1959). ''The Golden Age of Quackery''. Collier Books. p. 46</ref><ref name="Quackwatch">[https://www.quackwatch.org/13Hx/TM/06.html Purgation Unlimited]. Quackwatch.</ref> Brandreth and his pills are mentioned in Dan King's book ''Quackery Unmasked'' (1858).<ref name="King"/> Historian James Harvey Young has noted that Brandreth convinced "his dupes to swallow his pills as fast and as rapidly as they would their dinner" and deluded them with "the merest twaddle of medical language that ever made the ignorant gape, or the educated cry 'bah!'"<ref name="Quackwatch"/>
===Other business interests=== A prominent businessman, Brandreth was among the original founders and was the first President of the Westchester County Savings Bank in Tarrytown, Westchester County, New York, in 1853.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.banking.state.ny.us/histw.txt | title = The History of Banking in New York State | access-date = June 6, 2008 | author = New York State Banking Department | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080331071403/http://www.banking.state.ny.us/histw.txt | archive-date = March 31, 2008 }}</ref> In 1857 he built the Brandreth Hotel near Canal and Broadway in New York City.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://tribecacitizen.com/the-history-of-tribeca-buildings/the-history-of-415-broadway/|title=Tribeca Citizen | The History of 415 Broadway}}</ref>
===Brandreth Park=== In 1851 Brandreth bought {{convert|26000|acre|km2}} in the Adirondacks of New York State for 15 cents an acre,<ref name="John * Barbara Adamski">{{cite web | url = http://www.jbadamsgallery.com/article-franklin.htm | title = "Franklin Brandreth" courtesy Adirondack Life Magazine | access-date = June 6, 2008 | author = John and Barbara Adamski | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20081203141327/http://www.jbadamsgallery.com/article-franklin.htm | archive-date = December 3, 2008 | url-status = dead }}</ref> establishing the first private preserve in the Adirondack Park<ref name="John * Barbara Adamski"/> becoming known as "Brandreth Park". The park remains in the family's possession today and incorporates a number of cabins and cottages in a preserved wilderness setting.<ref>{{cite book | last = Donaldson | first = Alfred Lee | title = A History of the Adirondacks | publisher = Century Co. | location = Adirondack Mountains, NY | year = 1921 | page = [https://archive.org/details/historyofadiron01dona/page/60 60] | url = https://archive.org/details/historyofadiron01dona| quote = benjamin brandreth. }}</ref>
===Political activities=== Brandreth was a prominent Democrat in Westchester County, New York, representing the district in the New York State Senate in 1850, 1851, 1858 and 1859.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/cu31924014084531/page/n47 <!-- pg=38 --> ''Biographical Sketches of the State Officers and Members of the Legislature of the State of New York in 1859''] by William D. Murphy (pages 38ff)</ref> In 1856 he narrowly lost election to the United States Congress to John W. Ferdon. He was an active participant in a number of Democratic State Conventions.
===Civic service=== Brandreth was active in civic development at Sing Sing (later Ossining, New York). A staunch Episcopalian, he was an early subscriber to the fundraising effort to build Trinity Episcopal Church in Downtown Ossining, later serving as a vestryman.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://graceossining.org/|title=Grace Episcopal Church: Ossining, NY|website=Grace Episcopal Church}}</ref> He was one of the founders of the New York Eclectic Medical College, which he supported financially throughout his life. In 1874, he presented the building used by the college to Dr. Robert S. Newton and his associates.<ref>{{Cite Appletons'|wstitle=Brandreth, Benjamin|year=1900}}</ref> Brandreth was active in the Masons, who took charge of his funeral with full honors.
===Family=== [[File:Benjamin Brandreth Grave.JPG|thumb|300px|right| Grave marker of Benjamin and Virginia Brandreth at the Dale Cemetery in Ossining, NY as it appeared in November 2008]]
Brandreth was married three times; first to Susan Leeds, from whom he was divorced a few months after the marriage. His second wife was Harriet Smallpage, to whom he was married seven years until her death, and third to Virginia Graham. He had three children with his second wife, among them George A. Brandreth, and ten with his third. His children included Colonel Franklin Brandreth (1849–1928), who was the father of the artist Courtenay Brandreth. He was also the grandfather of Fox Conner's wife Virginia Brandreth,<ref>{{cite book |last=Rabalais |first=Steven |date=2016 |title=General Fox Conner: Pershing's Chief of Operations and Eisenhower's Mentor |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r4sgDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA18 |location=Havertown, PA |publisher=Casemate Publishers |pages=18–23 |isbn=978-1-61200-397-9 |ref={{sfnRef|''General Fox Conner: Pershing's Chief of Operations and Eisenhower's Mentor''}}}}</ref> and the great-great-great-grandfather of Gyles Brandreth.<ref>{{cite book |last=Brandreth |first=Gyles |date=2013 |title=The 7 Secrets of Happiness: A Reluctant Optimist's Journey |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xyRGAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT8 |location=New York, NY |publisher=Early Bird Books |page=v |isbn=9781480467033 |author-link=Gyles Brandreth}}</ref>
===Death=== Brandreth died on February 18, 1880.
<blockquote>That morning he had risen early, reaching the plant, with his eldest son, at six-thirty. He had worked an hour or so in the mixing room. Then came a stroke of apoplexy and death. Thus, at the end as at the launching of his venture in America, Brandreth was mixing the purgative in which he so fervently believed.<ref name="Young 1961" /></blockquote>
The impact Brandreth had on the local community of Sing Sing was noted by the account in ''The New York Times'' which stated that at the time of his death: <blockquote>…flags have been hung at half-mast there and on Saturday all the business places of the village, including the bank, Post Office, Soldiers' monument, and several hotels, together with innumberable private dwellings, we draped in mourning.<ref>{{cite news | title = Funeral of Dr. Brandreth, Sing Sing Village in Mourning – the Whole Population at the Funeral | url = https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1880/02/23/98888942.pdf | work=The New York Times | page = 8 | date = 23 February 1880 }}</ref></blockquote>
Brandreth's funeral was held at the Trinity Church which could hold only a fraction of the mourners in attendance. Others lined the streets to the Dale Cemetery where he was buried. His body was in a wrought metal and bronze casket hermetically sealed with a full-length plate glass top.<ref>''Medical Eclectic'', p. 97</ref> The procession to the cemetery included carriages for the clergymen and pallbearers, the 16th Battalion brass band, the hearse with a bodyguard of eight Masonic knights, and carriages for 150 friends and family, stretching out over a mile in length, so that the first carriages were arriving at the cemetery at about the same time as the last were leaving the church.
==Allcock Manufacturing Company== Brandreth's pill company was known as The Brandreth Pill Works where he established operations at Ossining, New York. In 1848 he bought Allcock's Porous Plaster from founder Thomas Allcock and the name of the firm eventually changed to Allcock Manufacturing. After Brandreth's death, control of the firm eventually moved to his great-grandson, Fox Brandreth Conner, who began manufacturing animal traps along with pills and plasters. After a pause in production for World War II, production of the traps resumed and the ''Havahart'' brand became a registered trademark. Conner sold the pill and plaster business in the 1960s thus ending Brandreth's medical legacy, but continued making the Havahart traps.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.havahart.com/|title=Live Animal Traps & Repellents - Havahart®|website=www.havahart.com}}</ref> In 1979 the Havahart trap business was sold to the Woodstream Corporation of Lititz, Pennsylvania,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.woodstream.com/|title=Woodstream | Solving Pest & Animal Control needs, providing environmentally friendly Lawn & Garden products and Supporting bird enthusiasts with innovative choices for Backyard Birdfeeding.|website=www.woodstream.com}}</ref> and the remaining property in Ossining was sold to Filex Steel Products Company. The remaining 34 employees at Ossining were offered jobs in Pennsylvania with the new owner, but many retired, thus ending the 142-year legacy of Brandreth's enterprise.<ref>{{cite news |first=Suzanne |last=DeChillo |title= Business is Sold After 142 Years, but Its Heart Lives On|url= http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA0E1FF93C5D12718DDDAC0A94DB405B898BF1D3&scp=6&sq=benjamin%20brandreth&st=cse |work=The New York Times|date=March 25, 1979 |access-date=September 10, 2008 }}</ref>
==References== <references/>
{{s-start}} {{s-par|us-ny-sen}} {{succession box | before = Saxton Smith | title = New York State Senate <br>7th District | years = 1850–1851 | after = Abraham B. Conger }} {{succession box | before = William Kelly | title = New York State Senate <br>8th District | years = 1858–1859 | after = Hezekiah D. Robertson }} {{s-end}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brandreth, Benjamin}} Category:1809 births Category:1880 deaths Category:English emigrants to the United States Category:People from Derbyshire Category:People from Ossining, New York Category:People from New Mills Category:Episcopalians from New York (state) Category:Democratic Party New York (state) state senators Category:Patent medicine businesspeople Category:19th-century members of the New York State Legislature Benjamin Category:19th-century American businesspeople Category:19th-century English businesspeople