Mackintosh Flavoring Extracts Bike

Unknown boy on a Mackintosh delivery bicycle.

"Get your Flavoring Extracts Here!" Can't you hear the boy hollering as he zoomed through the streets of Downtown Erie on the way to make his next delivery for the Mackintosh Drug Store?

John Mackintosh sold a number of concoctions, including Flavoring Extracts. A couple of his hair tonics had interesting ingredients. The Dandruff Cure was made with castor oil and bay rum, and was to be "applied at night, rubbing well into the roots of hair with fingers." The Stackhouse hair tonic was made with glycerine, alcohol and bay rum, an explosive combination, if you ask me.

Before he opened a drug store, Mackintosh enlisted in the 145th Pennsylvania Volunteers as Sgt. Major in Co. D. on August 27, 1862. He was captured at Petersburg, Virginia on June 16, 1864 and held prisoner at Andersonville. He escaped from prison four times and later wrote about his exploits for an Erie newspaper. 

John C. Mackintosh was born in Toronto, Canada in 1844. He died in Erie, PA in 1924 and was buried in the Erie Cemetery. He had a store at 1002 State Street and moved to 926 Peach Street around 1909-10. Jeanne Smart bought the store from Mackintosh, and then sold it around 1947.

Enjoy more facts and photos of historic Erie, Pennsylvania at: Old Time Erie