John H. Jones was born in England about 1852. According to 1910 census records he immigrated to the United States in 1876.
John H. Jones, drugs, was first listed in the NYC Directories at 977 Eighth Avenue around 1876/1877. Sometime around 1888 he moved to 798 Ninth Avenue (at 53rd Street) where he conducted a drug store up through at least 1925. The 1905 ERA Directory indicated that his store provided services in the following categories: drugs and medicine, drug sundries, tobacco or cigars and books or stationary.
The IRT Ninth Avenue Line, the first elevated line in the City, ran right by the Jones Pharmacy. It was called “the cable” because originally the cars were propelled by a series of one-mile long cable loops that ran between the rails that were driven by stationary engines placed in buildings adjacent to the line. “The Cable” made a sharp turn at 53rd Street, directly adjacent to the Jones Pharmacy, which led to this item found in an 1895 issue of the American Druggist and Pharmaceutical Record.
A number of accidents take place there and, as might be expected, the injured persons are at once carried into the drug store while an ambulance is being summoned or the exact state of the injured man’s condition is ascertained. During June (1895) there have been perhaps a half a dozen people carried into the store and temporarily treated. On each occasion, Mr. Jones suffered loss of goods from contemptible pilferers who must have gathered in the crowd and followed in, simply to steal whatever they could get their hands on.
Jones was still listed as a druggist at the 798 address as late as 1925. By 1930, now 78 years old, census records list his occupation as “clerk” in a “drug store,” so he had apparently sold out by then. His wife Emily was living alone and working as a “cook” in 1940, suggesting that John passed away sometime in the 1930’s
Today 798 Ninth Avenue is a five-story walk-up with a commercial store at street level. It almost certainly dates back to the time of the business. Today it houses a business called “The Meatball Shop.”
The bottle I found is a small (approximately 4 oz) mouth blown medicine bottle with a tooled finish. Embossing on the base indicates it was made by Whitehall Tatum Company (W.T. Co). The fact that there’s no ampersand (between the T and Co) indicates it was made after that business incorporated in 1901.
On a final note:
As early as 1906, a company named J. F. Abbott Co. also listed 798 Ninth Avenue as their address. The company advertised a patent medicine called “Judd’s Antiseptic Foot Powder” in several 1906 editions of a newspaper called “New York Age.”
1912 and 1919 NYC Copartnership and Corporation Directories and the 1922 Directory of Drug Manufacturers and Proprietors listed the proprietors of JF Abbott Company as Judson F and James L Abbott, so Judson Abbott was apparently the product’s namesake. Whether the Abbott’s and Jones were associated or simply occupied individual stores in the same building is not clear.