Folklore and Rural Remedies

As I walked out of my bedroom I saw a small glass container that once held baby food. It was a gift from my neighbor Fred Brown. He operated a butcher shop in the basement of his small mercantile store. He cut up an entire beef or hog for customers. He would also render the fat and tallow for lard. Sometimes he would save bits, add ingredients and make a “drawing” salve in small batches. When it was smeared on a wound, it would draw out splinters, thorns, and bacteria. The salve was thicker than axle grease and much darker too. It was almost black as tar, but it did seem to work. I never knew his secret ingredients, but I still keep some as a memory of him.

Another solution I was given for “drawing” a splinter or deeply imbedded thorn was shared with me by an older lady. Mrs. Leah Geary described that she used a fresh slice of bread soaked in milk before she applied it to a wound, then tying it into place with a cloth. She would allow the poultice to cover the wound overnight and it would draw out the thorn.

As I drove the church van the other evening, my friend and I were talking. Right now he has a cough at the end of an upper respiratory tract infection. He mentioned using Vicks Vapo-Rub. I said my mom Sybil Miner Beck used that too, but hated it when she used Musterole. To me it smelled like rotting onions. I told him about a remedy my grandmother Rebecca Rugg Miner kept on hand in old horseradish jar. My uncle Dale Miner kept some moonshine for her. If you came into her house coughing, she’d give you some. Initially it made you cough, but after that fit, the cough was gone.

She also had a remedy for a sore throat. She’d stitch a thick-cut fatty slice of bacon onto a piece of flannel cloth. She would sprinkle coarse salt onto the bacon, then drizzle turpentine onto the salt. The cloth was wrapped around the sore throat and safety pinned into place. The heat concoction generated dove deeply into the neck. It did seem to ease the symptoms.

One remedy I wouldn’t recommend was one I encountered while a working as med/surg. floor nurse. A family brought an older gentleman into the hospital with a severely infected foot. As we washed the accumulated crud, we noticed worms. When we asked the family how they were treating his foot at home, they said, “Cow manure poultices.”