- Title
- Our State
-
-
- Date
- May 2002
-
-
- Place
- ["North Carolina, United States"]
-
Our State
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RAMEDRUG
Pcp-to-Celery. Vapomentha
Salve. Sewing Machine Oil.
and Norwegian Cod Liver
Oil are just four of the
products sold under the
Brame label in 1913.
Brame Drugs
For almost a century, this North Wilkesboro pharmacy
manufactured, dispensed, and distributed a wide variety
of Frame-brand patented powders, lotions, ami salves.
by Chari i s Dickson
Sometimes the most fascinating
history can take place in the most
ordinary-looking places. This is
certainly the case with a turn-of-thc-
century brick building in downtown
North Wilkesboro. By its bold charac¬
ters on the front of the store and large,
painted letters still visible on the side
of the building, visitors to this pic¬
turesque mountain town of some
3,300 inhabitants are immediately
made aware of the presence of a vener¬
able institution — Brame Drugs.
The business was started in 1907 by
Dr. P.J. Brame and J.B. Norris. Dr.
Peter Brame arrived from Winston-
Salem shortly thereafter to join them.
Brame Drugs would become more than
just a local corner drugstore, claiming
a history that lasted until the mid-
1990s when Phil Brame, its last resi¬
dent pharmacist, retired.
In the early 1900s, Dr. Marvin
Brame began developing popular reme¬
dies that were distributed to pharma¬
cies throughout the Southeast. These
included Brame's Vapomentha Salve.
Brame's Cream l iniment. Dr. Brame's
Antiseptic Healing Oil, Calc-So-Phen
Antacid Powder, and Brame's Pain
Killer. All of these items carried notices
at the bottom of the labels stating that
they were “manufactured and distrib¬
uted by the Brame Drug Company,
North Wilkesboro. N.C
Accidental love
Dr. Marvin Brame arrived in
Wilkes County in 1 899 and spent the
rest of his life there in the drug busi¬
ness. A local history, Land of Wilkes,
contains an interesting anecdote of
how he met his future wife when he
went to her family farm to hunt, lie
was apparently an excellent shot and
enjoyed quail and duck hunting.
According to family legend, the
future Mrs. Brame really captured his
attention when she accidentally
almost shot him in the leg.
The Brames were certainly not
without competition, for what was
then two small villages — Wilkesboro
and North Wilkesboro — boasted no
less than nine other pharmacies that
were also wholesale distributors of
various kinds of remedies. Jerry
Houghton's interesting monograph
(N.C. Methanes. Preparations anti
\ Remedies for Humans and
% Animals) on old North
\fiiv 2002 Our Mate 29