Page 10 - Newsletter Spring 2023

Lyons, continued Luther Moore, continued remains, most of which were collected
Advertisements touted that the natural by the Fauntleroy and sent to Washing-
ton. Among these remains were found
remedy that would purify the blood and wedges made from the rib bones, sim-
cure everything from asthma to venereal ilar to the bone wedges made by mod-
disease--including conditions in ern Indians from elk and deer
between such as ague, alcoholism, horns for splitting the soft
asthma, bowel problems, con- cedar wood into stakes and
sumption, constipation, dyspepsia, planks with which to construct
scrofula, rheumatism, and ‘wom- their dwellings.
en’s troubles.’ Mr. Luther Moore, discov-
In 1888, an Oregon medical erer of Moore’s Revealed
doctor, William Lysander Adams, Remedy, had a logging camp
wrote a book about the history of on Whidbey Island, near this
medicine, and devoted an entire place, and he has informed me
chapter to debunking and mer- that he saw and handled some
cilessly making fun of “Moore’s of the bone wedges I mention.
Revealed Remedy” and its spirit This shows that Indians ex-
origins. isted here at the time these elephants
Despite this, the remedy sold very lived,and these evidences of palaeolith-
well, though its advertising budget ulti- ic man are not confined to Puget Sound,
mately put the company into arrears and but are found all over the continent.”
in danger of bankruptcy.
Moore lost control of the company
and it was sold in 1889 for $650 to Van
was unable to identify the two men. Waters, who brokered a deal with the
Swan Berg, a carpenter who worked wholesaler to form a new manufactur-
for Lyons, was arrested and stood trial, ing company of Stewart-Holmes Man-
but was later acquitted. ufacturing Company for the purpose
Newspapers speculated that Lyons of producing Moore’s Revealed Rem-
may have been killed to prevent him edy. It was incorporated in 1890 with
from testifying against a neighbor who $150,000 in capital stock.
had shot his wife, and then attempted Van Waters soon lost interest in the
suicide. The man suspected his wife of new venture and returned to working
having an affair with Lyons. However, for the railroad. The Remedy evidently
a kill for hire was unlikely as the man did not work for him as he died of heart
had already admitted his guilt. failure in 1921 in a Seattle hotel room
Oldest daughter Nellie Lyons How- at age 60 and was buried in a pauper’s
ard, petitioned to be administrator of grave at the county poor farm.
her father’s estate, but was soon chal- And what became of Luther Moore?
lenged by her siblings, including An- According to his 1905 obituary, after
nie, who needed money and the Ly- losing his company, “he drifted from
on’s house to raise her three younger bad to worse until he was penniless.”
half-siblings. Annie received money Though he died in Seattle, his body was
and exempted home as requested. taken to Port Townsend and buried next
In probate court it was revealed that to his wife in Laurel Grove Cemetery.
little was left of Michael Lyon’s estate Luther Moore was also cited in a
and that the home in Seattle was in March 30, 1891 Seattle Post-Intelli-
need of major repairs to be brought up gencer article about the discovery of
to code. mammoth fossils at Skagit Head. The
The Lyons family, like Luther article cites a discovery in the late
Moore’s family, had for a time accu- 1860’s by Captain Charles Willoughby,
mulated a comfortable income in the who was surveying in the vicinity.
booming Pacific Northwest, but ulti- “A portion of the bluff had fallen
mately lost or depleted it. down, disclosing the elephant fossil

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