Page 9 - Newsletter Spring 2023

It also served as the area post office Luther L. Moore and his Revealed Remedy
from 1884 to 1891. After the Lyons
moved, the post office was relocated
to John Parson’s farmhouse, and then Luther Moore, a logger born in She told him about this natural remedy
back to the beach when the Mack- 1828 in Maine, was one of the earli- made from spring water and three ingre-
ies built the wharf in 1908 and James est landowners on south Whidbey. He dients found in the forest, presumably
Montgomery built a store and post of- purchased tracts of land totaling 800 roots and bark. Moore said that he was
fice at the entrance to the dock.. acres for $1.25 an acre in 1862 from the given the recipe and directions through
Washington Territory University Board auto-suggestive writing.
of Commissioners. The concoction took four months
In 1864 he bought federal land from to ‘age’ for consumption, and Moore
the General Land Office with a patent claimed that it cured him of his pain,
that bears the signature of Abraham Lin- bowel problems, and a nagging cough.
coln. The tracts are for the area known In 1886/87 Moore started a company
today as Maxwelton Beach. in Seattle, Moore Manufacturing Com-
Luther married his wife, Frances, in pany, for the sole purpose of making
1867 and had a son, William, in 1868. and selling the product which he called
Moore worked in several logging ‘Moore’s Revealed Remedy.’
camps, including on south Whidbey, but
February 28, 1884, The Argus. his family lived in Port
Townsend until 1879,
In 1890 the Lyons sold their Island when Frances died.
holdings, now numbering 800 acres, to In 1870 Moore sold
Seattle real estate broker C. C. Calkins, about 200 acres of land
who later sold it to the Mackie brothers. to Ellen Lyons, who
along with her hus-
band, Michael, owned
the Lyons Hotel in Port
Ludlow.
When Moore was
logging at Port Ludlow
Michael pursued a new career as
a grocer in Seattle, but in September in 1864, a log rolled
1892 his wife Mary died of puerper- back over him, leaving
al convulsions following a home birth him in chronic pain af-
at age 43. (The infant was presumably terwards. That is, until a
stillborn.) remedy was ‘revealed’
Afterward Michael moved to Rider- to him by a spirit guide.
ville near Port Blakely to manage a ho- Spiritualism (con-
tel, which was really more of a saloon tact with spirits of the
and boarding house. dead) was a growing
His three youngest children were left movement after reports of the Fox sis- It sold for $1.25 per bottle and was
in his Seattle house under the care of ters in 1848 in Hydesville, NY and their wholesaled by the prominent drugstore
Annie, their step-sister. communication with spirits through chain Stewart-Holmes Drug Company.
In June 1897, Michael Lyons was rappings and knocks. The girls became Moore hired a former railroad agent,
shot and killed in an apparent midnight famous, and it is estimated that by the William Van Waters, as his business
holdup at his saloon, however nothing 1880s, there were 8 million people in manager and marketer. Van Waters pro-
was stolen, though the safe was open the U.S. who identified as Spiritualists. duced circulars recounting the spiritism
and contained hundreds of dollars and According to Moore, he and two fel- origins of the ‘revealed’ remedy and em-
nine watches. low loggers were sitting around a table barked on an ambitious campaign of tes-
Several suspects were arrested, but one night in camp when to amuse them- timonials and advertisements in many of
later released since the main witness, selves they tried to initiate contact with the region’s newspapers. (See advertise-
a sailor named “Scotty,” was seriously the spirit world. It was then that Moore ment on the next page.)
drunk when the holdup occurred, and felt contacted by the spirit of the daugh-
Continued on next page ter of a doctor from Cincinnati, Ohio. Continued on next page
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