“I cheat my boys every chance I get. I want to make ‘em sharp.” --Dr. William Levingston
When Dr. William Levingston came to town, he arrived wearing a silk hat and peddling a cure for one of his age’s most terrifying ailments: cancer. One of his advertisements declared: “Celebrated Cancer Specialist. Here for One Day Only. All cases of cancer cured unless too far gone and then can be greatly benefited.” $25 was the cost of the cure, expensive for the time and the customers, two months pay for the mostly farmers and tradesmen of the rural countryside.
The good Dr. Levingston was a confidence man typical of mid-nineteenth-century America. A self-styled “botanic physician,” he practiced without a license or any formal medical training.
The Celebrated Cancer Specialist abandoned his first wife and their six children to start a bigamous marriage in Canada at the same time as he fathered two more children by a third woman.
His true first name was indeed William—or “Big Bill,” as he was known when he wasn’t trying to dupe gullible strangers. He took the name “Levingston” from his father’s hometown, where he grew up, and left, it is said, after being indicted for raping a girl in Cayuga, New York in 1849.
His real last name was Rockefeller.
He was father to John D., his eldest son and the creator of Standard Oil. Interestingly, the good Doctor's "cure" survived until quite recently as Nujol consisting primarily of petroleum and sold as a laxative. Nujol was manufactured by a subsidiary of Standard Oil called Stanco, whose only other product made at the same site was the insecticide, Flit.
When Dr. William Levingston came to town, he arrived wearing a silk hat and peddling a cure for one of his age’s most terrifying ailments: cancer. One of his advertisements declared: “Celebrated Cancer Specialist. Here for One Day Only. All cases of cancer cured unless too far gone and then can be greatly benefited.” $25 was the cost of the cure, expensive for the time and the customers, two months pay for the mostly farmers and tradesmen of the rural countryside.
The good Dr. Levingston was a confidence man typical of mid-nineteenth-century America. A self-styled “botanic physician,” he practiced without a license or any formal medical training.
The Celebrated Cancer Specialist abandoned his first wife and their six children to start a bigamous marriage in Canada at the same time as he fathered two more children by a third woman.
His true first name was indeed William—or “Big Bill,” as he was known when he wasn’t trying to dupe gullible strangers. He took the name “Levingston” from his father’s hometown, where he grew up, and left, it is said, after being indicted for raping a girl in Cayuga, New York in 1849.
His real last name was Rockefeller.
He was father to John D., his eldest son and the creator of Standard Oil. Interestingly, the good Doctor's "cure" survived until quite recently as Nujol consisting primarily of petroleum and sold as a laxative. Nujol was manufactured by a subsidiary of Standard Oil called Stanco, whose only other product made at the same site was the insecticide, Flit.
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