Viewing post #1434076 by Gen

Congratulations on the pending move - going across town? or across the state? OR to another state?? Either way, I guess there is a lot of work ahead. I can't imagine having to sort thru and pack all my junk to move.....thought I was going to have to move 3 years ago and I am thankful that we didn't have to.

On the bottle: My daughter just completed her first year of pharmacy school yesterday. Our last name is Hargis. So, only 1 or 2 weeks into pharmacy school last August, she got curious if there had ever been another "Hargis" that was a pharmacist. She started googling and found an article that had been written about a woman named Modeste Hargis who was the first woman pharmacist in the state of Florida. She operated her pharmacy (multiple locations) in Pensacola. IN this article she found was a photograph of several bottles from Hargis pharmacy that were embossed with the name on the front. My daughter already had a very small pharmacy bottle collection - and of course, she wanted a "Hargis Pharmacy" bottle. So, I thought "ok, I surely can locate one of those as a Christmas surprise"..... but it was a much more daunting task than I had planned for. Turns out there are some VERY serious bottle collectors in the Pensacola area and there are just a few of them that own most of the Hargis bottles that are known to exist. About January, I decided I would be doing good to locate one by graduation!! Thankfully, I managed to make friends with a collector down there who was active in the bottle club and he went out of his way to try to help me locate a bottle for her. My husband and I had even gone to a bottle show in Jackson to try to make contacts and help reach out to people who deal in bottles. He wanted us to try to attend a show close to Mobile because several of the people from Pensacola area would be there - and he thought it would help for them to meet us in person. That show was March 25, so we decided we would attend and our daughter would be able to go with us because she was starting her spring break. About a week before that show, Richard emailed me beside himself because he had located someone who had extras of some of the Hargis bottles and they were supposed to be coming to the show. It was very back and forth as to whether they would or would not part with the extras, how much the would charge for them, exactly how many extras there were, etc........and the night before the show, Richard texted me to tell me that the guy was not actually coming to the show because of a baseball tourney that his son was playing in. I had not told my daughter about the bottles because I wanted it to be a surprise, plus, it was so 'iffy' that I didn't want to get her hopes up and then not get one. We were about 4 hrs into the trip and had stopped for lunch when Richard texted me a picture of 3!!! Bottles and he had them in his possession - and the most wonderful part was that the guy was GIVING them to my daughter and not charging her at all for them! I was TOTALLY overwhelmed and SO excited, but I managed to keep my secret and she didn't find out about the bottles until we arrived at the show the next day! So, now, she has 3 different small Hargis Pharmacy bottles and her friends are totally jealous because she has a pharmacy bottle with her name on it. As a side note, I have been watching trying to help locate a couple of her close friends bottles with their names on it, but I am finding that most of the bottles have initials on it.....ex. JM Tucker or even full names like William Tucker, etc. I have decided that because Modeste was a female (and the only female pharmacist in the state for a while) that she ONLY put the last name on her bottles so people wouldn't question if she was female! LOL So, we hit it lucky in that respect and the bottles just say Hargis Pharmacy with no first name or initials. I am currently searching for Compton or Thornton for one friend (she is marrying a Thornton in 2 weeks), Tucker for another and Hegi or Williams for a third. I thought it would make cute graduation gifts for them.......................they graduate in 2020.....not sure I am going to have much luck in locating them by then! But, I found I love the chase so to speak - so I am trying! LOL Sorry to be so off topic ....... BUT, since ya'll have such great researching techniques does anyone have any suggestions on how to locate whether old pharmacies existed with those names?? I found an old postcard that was from Northern Michigan (northport) that featured a gift shop and "Thornton Drugs" store was included in the postcard. I have reached out to several people trying to find out if that store had embossed bottles, but so far, I have not found anyone who knows. But, if not for the postcard, I would have no way to know it existed there. When I start googling - I end up with current pharmacists or towns with that name with pharmacies........if anyone has suggestions, feel free to message me as to not distract from the search for baby Keith! Thanks!!

I will keep watching this thread as your story unfolds! And, by the way, is there not a photo of each DL that is registered?? I guess I just assumed they had to submit a photo but maybe all those aren't on line??? I don't really know anything about the registering process.

Genna