Lotions and Potions

By Susan Zehnder, Education Director

Did you know a fragrant pink lotion and Elmira's Civil War Prison Camp are forever linked?

Both are part of the story of Clayton Wood Holmes, a druggist from Elmira. Clayton W. Holmes was born in northeast Pennsylvania in 1848. His father was a physician who privately tutored him with hopes he would follow him into medicine.

In college Clayton excelled in his studies and had a very active social life. He was a member of a number of clubs including a charter member of a campus fraternity. He did intend to study medicine after graduation, but things changed for him when his father died unexpectedly. Needing to make money, Clayton returned to his hometown and started working in the retail drug business. He married, began a family, and four years later moved his young family to Elmira. In Elmira, he opened a wholesale drug manufacturing business on Lake Street. The business did well until a devastating fire in 1885 burned the building down. Clayton was forced to relocate and rebuild, and he moved his business operations to West Gray Street. There, at the rear of his family home, he built a new factory. It was here that he began to focus most of his business on making a popular fragrant pink lotion he had invented years earlier.

Frostilla factory workers

Unlike many of the lotions and potions of the day, Clayton never made claims that his lotion contained secret or miraculous ingredients, or that it solved a long list of complaints. It seems he didn’t need to, as demand for the lotion was immediate. In 1914 a drug trade magazine published a claim that the lotion’s ingredients contained glycerin, quince seed, water, deodorized alcohol and perfume “as desired.” This claim was never disputed. As demand for the pink lotion grew, he received orders from people in other states and in other countries. By 1888 the lotion was so popular that he sold off the drug manufacturing part of his business, to start an ingenious advertising campaign for the pink product he now called “Frostilla.” 

Clayton Holmes claimed that he started the practice of providing customers with free product samples and advertising. It’s hard to substantiate, since the practice caught on and spread quickly. Regardless, Frostilla was a big success. The company produced other personal care products like Frostilla Brushless Shave Creme and Frostilla Sunfilter Creme, but neither came close to the success of the pink fragrant lotion. 

The hand lotion was Clayton’s main business, but not his only business venture. He was manager of the daily Elmira Advertiser, and eventually became the paper’s owner and publisher. He was founder and president of Elmira Cooperative Savings & Loan Association; an organizer and board member of Chemung Valley Mutual Loan Association; and president of the local electric company and water board. He owned and operated a furniture business in northern Pennsylvania. He belonged to the Elmira Automobile Club, the Automotive Club of America, and the Geneva Rotary. Professionally, he was a member of the NY Pharmacists Association, known to advocate for establishing a druggists’ mutual insurance fund to protect others who might experience fire loss like he had. Civically minded, he was a member of Elmira’s City Council; a member of the Elmira School Board; an officer of the first Baptist Church of Elmira; a trustee of the YMCA; City Club; Century Club and the Masonic Club. He was an active member of the Sons of the American Revolution, the Newtown Battlefield Chapter, and Sons of Veterans. This last association is the link to Elmira’s Civil War Prison Camp.

Clayton had always been interested in genealogy and history. He had traced his own lineage back to the 1600s, and published a book on his ancestors. Tapping into his various interests, writing skills and civic mindedness, he wanted to improve the public image of the Civil War Prison Camp, and how it reflected on the people of Elmira. He compiled The Elmira Prison Camp, and recorded first-hand accounts of Union and Confederate soldiers. He produced what is considered an early authority on the subject. Today, some believe his version doesn't quite reflect the camp's true complexity.

In 1919, when he was seventy years old, Clayton W. Holmes died of a heart attack. He left behind a wife, daughter, and son-in-law. He is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery.

The Glory Regiment

By Rachel Dworkin, archivist

What do Denzel Washington, Mathew Broderick, and Elmira have in common? The 54^th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry! Formed in February 1863, the regiment was the second African-American regiment formed in the north and by far the most famous. They participated in operations around Charleston, South Carolina, including the Second Battle of Fort Wagner (July 18, 1863), and in the Battle of Olustee (February 20, 1864) in Florida. Twenty-four Chemung County residents, mostly from Elmira with two from Horseheads, served in the regiment. 

Lithograph of the storming of Fort Wagner by the 54th Mass, 1890

 The men of the 54^th were fighting a war on two fronts. At the time of their enlistment, they were promised pay equal to their white counterparts at $13 a month. Instead, once they were officially mustered into Federal service, they were paid $10 with $3 withheld for clothing, while white soldiers had nothing withheld for the cost of their uniforms. This was immediately protested, by the soldiers themselves, their white officers, and supporters back home. The state of Massachusetts promised to make up the difference, but the entire regiment, officers and enlisted both, instead refused to accept any pay but what they had been promised. Despite the hardship for their families back home, the regiment refused to back down, even marching into the Battle of Olustee to the cry of “For Massachusetts and seven dollars a month!” Eventually, Congress passed a law to ensure equal pay, including back pay, for all troops who had been free men prior to April 19, 1861. Following some creative oath-taking, the men of the 54^th Massachusetts received their pay for the first time in eighteen months.

Twenty-four Chemung County men served in the regiment. The youngest, Miles Moore of Elmira, was 16. The two eldest, both 39, were also both blacksmiths: Wesley Armstrong of Horseheads and Andrew Miller of Elmira. Both men were wounded at the battle of Fort Wagner. Of the 600 members of the regiment at the start of the battle, 30 were killed outright, 24 died of wounds, 15 were captured, 149 were wounded, and 52 were missing in action and never accounted for. Of the Chemung County men, five were wounded and three of them later died as a result. George Moshroe was captured. Although the Confederacy had declared their intention to execute any Black man found in Union uniform, he survived and was exchanged two years later. Overall, all but three of the Chemung County men survived the war to return home.

One of the three dead was Private William R. Lee of Elmira. Born in Baltimore, Maryland, he’d worked as a weaver at an Elmira textile mill and married a local girl, Sarah J. Dunham of Corning. They had four children, Estella, Elva, Mary, and William. He wrote home throughout the war, updating Sarah on his activities, and also those on the other local men. His last letter was sent from a hospital in Beaufort, South Carolina, where he’d been sent after being wounded at Fort Wagner. “We must put our trust in that kind Providence which is able to bring good out of all our woes and will bring us together again, if not in this world, I trust in the Heavenly land. I pray God, my dear wife that we will be permitted to be again reunited,” he wrote in his final letter shortly before being loaded on a hospital ship bound for home. He never made it, dying at sea, two days into the voyage. The letters have remained in the family for three generations and they were kind enough to give the historical society copies. 

Letter from William Lee, 1863

Another Elmira man, Stephen Swailes, faired considerably better. At the time the unit was set up, only white men could serve as officers, but, on March 11, 1864, Swails was commissioned as second lieutenant in the 54^th Massachusetts by Governor John Andrew himself. However, the War Department would not initially give him the discharge needed to be commissioned in Federal service, so he didn’t receive his official promotion until April 28, 1865. Following the war, Swails chose to remain in South Carolina, working for the Freedman’s Bureau, rather than return home to his wife and children in Elmira. He helped provide assistance and education to the newly freed, and they rewarded him by electing him to the South Carolina State Senate in 1868. From then until his death in 1900, he was a prominent member of the African American community of Williamsburg, South Carolina and a major player in the Republican Party. 

Stephen Swailes, ca. 1860s

 In 1989, the exploits of the 54^th Massachusetts were immortalized in the Academy Award-winning film Glory starring Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman, Cary Elwes, and Andre Braugher. None of the Chemung County men were portrayed in the film, but it’s still worth a watch.  For Massachusetts and seven dollars a month!

Arnold Hager and His Famous Band

by Erin Doane, Curator

In June 1906, Hager’s Band of Elmira was the official band of the State of New York at the gigantic Old Home Week Celebration in Auburn. In just four years under the leadership of Arnold Hager, the band had gone from playing small, local performances to being one of the most celebrated musical groups in the state.  

Hager’s Band, early 1900s

Arnold Hager was interested in music from a young age. He was born in Elmira on November 26, 1873 to Frederick and Ida Hager who had come to the United States from Switzerland. His father was a musician, so it was natural for him to start taking piano lessons at age eight. He went on to learn the cornet and played with the 26th Separate Company Band before he was even a teenager. At 14 he started violin lessons and played in the YMCA orchestra. At age 17, he played his first theater engagement at the Madison Avenue Theater.

In 1892, Hager’s father died suddenly. So, at age 19, he took his music on the road to help support his family. He took a job as cornet player with the Sig Sawtelle Canal Boat Circus which traversed the Erie Canal. A year later he joined Lee’s London Circus out of Canton, Pennsylvania. Over the next few years he jumped from job to job playing music for theaters, circuses, and minstrel shows. Finally, in 1896 he returned to Elmira, took the civil service exam, and got a job as music instructor at the Elmira Reformatory.

Arnold Hager, c. 1936

When the Spanish-American War broke out in 1898, Hager joined the Thirtieth Separate Company and was appointed leader of the regimental band. When asked by a newspaper reporter why he enlisted, he answered, “To charm or rather hypnotize the Spaniards with my reformatory band.” After his service, he returned to the Reformatory and was promoted to director of the music program.

In 1902, Hager got the opportunity to become leader of his own independent band. Ten years earlier, Haytt’s Military Band was popular around the city, playing at grand receptions and balls. In 1894, there was a schism in the band. Some members wanted Ralph Mulcare to become leader rather than Professor Haytt. So, Haytt and several of his most devoted followers left and the remaining musicians became Mulcare’s Band. The new band was very active through the late 1890s and early 1900s, but finances were a persistent problem. In 1902, Mrs. Julia S. Reynolds sued Mulcare for not paying rent for eight months on a room the band used for rehearsals. Mulcare settled the case out of court, but resigned as band director.

Program from a Mulcare’s Elmira Band concert, 1901

Hager was a member of Mulcare’s Band and when Mulcare stepped down, the other band members elected Hager as their new director. Thus, Hager’s Band was born. Their first engagement was playing at the annual military ball of the Thirtieth Separate Company on Thanksgiving night, 1902. From then on, Hager’s Band grew in popularity. They played at conventions, parades, parks, and fairs throughout the state, including their highly-lauded performance at Auburn’s Old Home Week Celebration. Under his direction, Hager’s Band became recognized as one of the foremost musical organizations in the country.

Hager’s Band, early 1900s

While Hager was leading his own band, he was also a member of the Grotto Band, and offered private musical lessons on the side. And on top of all of that, he was still musical instructor and director of the Elmira Reformatory Band. In order to devote more of his time to what would become a 40-year career at the Reformatory, Hager pulled back slightly from his outside musical interests. In 1922, Hager’s Band became the Elks’ Band. The Elmira Elks Lodge took over management of the band while Hager continued to carry the baton as leader. He remained director of the 35-person band until his death.

On April 13, 1936, after several months of ill health, Arnold Hager passed away. He was 62 years old. Hundreds of people came out for his funeral including family, friends, officers of the Elmira Elks Lodge, fraternal brothers, members of reformatory staff, former music students, and members of the general public who may not have known him personally but were touched by his music. Musicians who played under his direction in Hager’s Band played a funeral march as the procession moved through Woodlawn Cemetery to his family’s plot. It was a fitting tribute to the man who had devoted his life to music.

Members of Hager’s Band leading Arnold Hager’s funeral procession into Woodlawn Cemetery, Star-Gazette, April 17, 1936