Name James Ayer | ||
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Died July 3, 1878, Winchendon, Massachusetts, United States Education University of Pennsylvania | ||
James Cook Ayer (5 May 1818 in Groton, Connecticut – 3 July 1878 in Winchendon, Massachusetts) was the wealthiest patent medicine businessman of his day. Dr. Ayer was also brother of wealthy industrialist Frederick Ayer.
Biography
At the age of 13, he moved to Lowell, Massachusetts, and resided there with his uncle. His education was obtained at the public schools, where at one time he was a classmate of Gen. Butler, and subsequently at the Westford Academy, after which he was apprenticed to James C. Robbins, a druggist in Lowell. While there he studied medicine, and later he graduated from the medical school of the University of Pennsylvania.
Ayer never practised medicine, but devoted his principal attention to pharmaceutical chemistry and the compounding of medicines. His success in this line was very great, and soon led him to establish a factory in Lowell for the manufacture of his medicinal preparations, which became one of the largest of its kind in the world, and was magnificently equipped. He accumulated a fortune estimated at $20,000,000.
Much of his success was due to his advertising, on which he spent $140,000 a year, and he annually published an almanac, distributing 5,000,000 copies each year. Editions in English, French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish, were regularly issued. In 1874 he accepted the Republican nomination for the United States Congress in the 7th Massachusetts District, but was defeated.
In addition to his patent medicine business, Dr. Ayer was involved in textile production in Lowell, Massachusetts with his brother. He died in an insane asylum on July 3, 1878 and is interred at Lowell Cemetery. His son, Frederick Fanning Ayer, born 1851, became a lawyer and philanthropist, and was director or stockholder of many corporations.
The town of Ayer, Mass., was named after him.