RS16a D.S. Barnes & Co. Medicine Stamp

Demas S. Barnes, born in Canandaigua Township, New York, 1827, opened a wholesale drug firm in New York City in 1853, later establishing branch offices in San Francisco, New Orleans and Montreal. He served as agent for a variety of proprietary medicines including Drake’s Plantation Bitters, Wynkoop’s Pectoral, Lyon’s Magnetic Powder, Lyon’s Kathairon, Mexican Mustang Liniment, Hagan’s Magnolia Balm and Marchisi’s Uterine Catholicon, among others. In 1866 Barnes was elected to a term in the U. S. Congress from Brook­lyn and two years later sold his wholesale firm to John F. Henry. Barnes retired in 1870, but retained financial interest in a variety of enter­prises including the drug firms of Lyon Manufacturing Co., P. H. Drake Company, A. L. Scoville Company and The Centaur Company. Barnes died May 1, 1888.

(Holcombe, Henry W., Weekly Philatelic Gossip, 34: 153-154, 202, 207