The Cure-All of
General Clingman
Ho and
мото
other notable Tar HooIn helie\ed
tobacco usn the medical discovery of the a#o.
What a blessing to humanity it would
have been hud u famous native Tar
Heel Civil Wur general successfully
established tobacco as a panacea for all
ills and injuries.
For several years in the early 1800’s
a popular and accepted treatment for
many disorders wus the tobacco "dis¬
covery" of Gen. Thomas L. Clingman.
but it was probably destined to failure
from the outset.
Though distinguished in law. sci¬
ence and war. Clingman in his late
years was considered by his contem¬
poraries as a man who had been as¬
sociated with causes that failed.
Today, therefore, he is best remem¬
bered for finding as fact that the North
Carolina mountains contained the
loftiest peaks cast of the Rockies, and
one in Swain County bears his name —
Clingman’s Dome. However, in the
1840’s he had unsuccessfully con¬
tested Dr. Elisha Mitchell's name to
the highest peak, that one in Yancey
County, sparking a long controversy
till a Princeton geologist was brought
in. and he seemed to satisfy both sides
in the dispute.
The Best Informed Man
Other Clingman successes included
establishing mica mines in Macon.
Mitchell and Yancey counties, making
known the existence of corundum, zir¬
con. rubies and other gems in Western
North Carolina, and in proving the
value of zircon in electrical and gas
illumination. Before the days of Edi¬
son, he also predicted that sound might
be transmitted with the speed of elec¬
tricity. a thought that a Smithsonian
Institution official termed "absurd."
Called by Dr. Archibald Henderson
"probably the best informed man
North Carolina ever produced."
Clingman was bom in Surry County
July 27. 1812. led his law school class
at UNC. served in the state legislature
and was elected to Congress in 1843.
serving 13 years. There he was very
active but on the losing side in states
rights and slavery skirmishes that
eventually resulted in the Civil War. in
THE state. July
Ш2
By BIIJ.Y
Л
It Til l R
which Clingman was a general on the
losing side.
In Asheville after the war. he be¬
came a one-man chamber of commerce
for Western Carolina, concentrating
on the mineral resources of the area
and scientific investigations. He too
was a frequent contributor to maga¬
zines und newspapers, lecturer on
college campuses and public speaker.
Wet Tobacco leaves
With Clingman's varied interests
and experiences, it’s little wonder he
was led to advancing tobacco as a
medical cure-all. When thrown from a
horse in 1847 and spraining an ankle.
Clingman had applied wet tobacco
leaves and had reported the pain gone
in an hour and the swelling gone the
next morning. During the Civil War
Clingman was shot in the leg and. vio-
Poitroif of Thomoi Clingmo" (pointed by William
Gorl Bro-ne) whkh hoop» with thote of other fo-
mou* Tor Heel» in the Chamber
о»
the Dialectic-
Philanthropic Society on the
сотри»
ot Chapel Hill.
Clingman wo» once colled “probably the b«»t in¬
formed man North Corolino e»or produced.'’ (photo
courtc»y of the North Carolina Collection, louit
Round Wilson Library)
lating doctor’s orders, applied tobacco
leaves. He said both pain and swell¬
ing diminished quickly. Though on
crutches several months, he became
convinced "no external wound would
ever become sufficiently inflamed to
cause mortification" if tobacco were
properly applied. He also believed "on
several occasions it (tobacco) has
saved my life." Yet. Clingman never
chewed, smoked or snuffed.
When he began promoting the to¬
bacco cure, the state press gave con¬
siderable space in the news columns,
and in 1884 "Health and Home." a
national magazine of reputed 150.000
circulation, devoted an article to "wet
tobacco as a poultice, (which) will be
instrumental in saving thousands of
lives annually." The editor was later
exposed as a "medicine man and a
quack with several aliases."
The Pamphlet
But in 1885 Clingman himself pub¬
lished a pamphlet titled "The Tobacco
Remedies — The Greatest Medical
Discovery." a copy of which together
with a processed sample plaster is in
the N.C. Collection at Wilson Library
at UNC-Chapel Hill.
The remedies were also available as
a cake of stem-free dark tobacco
leaves, which could be separated by
moistening and applied as a poultice,
and as an ointment.
The pamphlet contained testimo¬
nials from prominent Tar Heels, in¬
cluding Senator Zeb Vance to the cure
of "leg contusions"; and Gov. A. M.
Scales to bums, sore throat, sciatica
"which had been greatly aggravated
by the treatment of two physicians."
corns and bunions.
Among doctors’ testimonials was
that of Dr. J. S. Baird of Asheville that
he had cured his own recurring head¬
ache and his daughter of diphtheria,
and had used it in the "successful
treatment of cancer but the sores re¬
mained in evidence." Other physi¬
cians and lawyers testified to cures to
gout, constipation, rheumatism,
hemorrhoids, bone felons, tubercu-
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