W.E. Mayhew S.F. Bay Rum
W. E. M.
S. F.
William E. Mayhew, San Francisco, California
Green Bay Rum
Provenance: Eric McGuire Collection
Our 10-1/8 inch tall cylindrical bay rum bottle was made using beautiful green glass. A tall vertical inset rectangle on the face of the bottle has the embossed initials ‘W. E. M.’ set within an embossed horizontal lozenge shape with ‘S. F.’ embossed beneath. All initials are in a sans serif typestyle. The base is smooth and there is a long tapered applied mouth. A paper label would have been used on the opposite bottle side. The glasshouse is unknown.
In his obituary, William Ernest Mayhew was described as a pioneer San Francisco druggist. He died when he was 75 years old at Lane Hospital (predecessor of Stanford University School of Medicine) on February 23, 1911, from gasoline burns while cleaning some clothing earlier in the month. Mayhew was born on Martha’s Vineyard Island, Massachusetts, in June 1835. His father, Joseph, was a successful trader who married Nancy Worth from England.
We know surprisingly little about William E. Mayhew but see him listed as 24 years old and living in Edgartown, Massachusetts, in 1860, according to the United States Federal Census Report. Two years later, Mayhew worked as a druggist at Welch’s Block on Sixteenth Street between Valencia and First Avenue in San Francisco. He would remain in the apothecary profession for the next 40 years or so.
On December 14, 1868, W. E. Mayhew and W. J. Wenzell, a local druggist from Missouri, applied for a label patent for Mayhew’s Balsamic Hair Stimulant. This label may have been for our museum bottle and depicted a bust of a healthy young woman with a full head of hair. The supporting copy reads, “This Balsamic Preparation has proved itself to be the BEST ever offered to the public for exciting the scalp to a new and healthy action; for cleaning the head from Dandruff and Scurf, for preventing the HAIR from falling off, and for producing a fine growth of NEW HAIR;—a fact to which those who have used it are ready to testify. Copyright Secured. Prepared only by W. E. Mayhew Apothecary, Northwest Corner of Fourth and Howard Sts. San Francisco.”
In 1871, the California Pharmaceutical Society, consisting of the principal druggists of San Francisco, was incorporated with James G. Steele, John Calvert, W. E. Mayhew, Wm. Simpson, and W. J. Wenzell, as Trustees. On April 14, 1882, the San Francisco Chronicle posted “FIERY PHARMACISTS, They Expel One of Their Members.” Apparently, Mayhew was expelled from the Society for slander of other organization members. The paper said, “As soon as the result was announced, Mr. Mayhew inquired if the Society had any property. Receiving an affirmative reply, he withdrew, chuckling in his sleeve at the prospective verdict of a jury in his favor, awarding him damages for his lacerated feelings inasmuch as the Society is incorporated. In his exuberance, he repaired to an oyster-house and treated three of his friends to a supper of Eastern bivalves.”
Mayhew would marry Alida Jane Bailey, a native of Pittsburgh, on June 6, 1874, in Alameda County, California. They would have three daughters: Jennie, Nannie and Sadie Mayhew. The family lived at 806 Howard in the 1880s, while Mayhew had his drugstore at 144 Fourth Street. Over the years, Mayhew had “drugs, medicines or chemicals” next to his name in various city directories.
See the Museum example of a Crane & Brigham San Francisco Bay Rum bottle.
See the Museum example of a Redington & Co. (monogram) Bay Rum bottle. (coming soon)
Primary Image: William E. Mayhew San Francisco Bay Rum bottle imaged by Eric McGuire, FOHBC Virtual Museum West Coast Studio.
Support Image: Crane & Brigham, Redington & Co. and W.E. Mayhew Bay Rum bottles grouped together compiled by the FOHBC using bottles from the McGuire collection.
Support Image: “W E M (monogram) Florida Water San Francisco” bottle from the Eric McGuire collection.
Join the FOHBC: The Virtual Museum is a project of the Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors (FOHBC). To become a member.
