Shirey & Brown


Company Names, addresses, dates:
  Shirey & Brown, 21st Street opposite Post Office, Buena Vista VA
  Shirey & Brown, 21st Street Under Colonade Hotel, Buena Vista VA

Notes:
William Hampton Shirey (1865-1915)1 and William Madison Brown (1862-1944)2 were the proprietors of the Shirey & Brown manufacturing pharmacy in Buena Vista VA.
I don't know what year Shirey & Brown got started. Both Shirey & Brown were listed as druggists living in Buena Vista in the 1900 census, so I suspect their parntership had started on or before that year.
After Shirey's death in 1915, the firm continued using the name "Shirey & Brown", as that name shows up in various Virginia Drugstore directories I have access to, as late as 1938. In fact, it seems to have continued even after Brown's death in 1944, as it was sold in 1947 - sold by L.E. White to Charles F. Morgan3.

Two of the bottles below have addresses for Shirey & Brown. One says "21st Street Opposite Post Office" and the other says "21st Street under Colonnade Hotel". The later is depicted on an 1891 map on the North side of 21st Street between Sycamore Avenue and Business 501. That building is gone now.

The first bottle below is embossed "Shirey and BROWN / ARNICA CREAM / Buena Vista Va.". There is also a bottle embossed with "Shirey and Brown / ARNICA CREAM / ARNICA CREAM CO. INC. / ROANOKE VA". - see this link.
That bottle is somewhat of a mystery to me. Roanoke is about 20 miles from Buena Vista. The Arnica Cream Company of Roanoke was incorporated in 1919 with Charles D. Fox as the president, Philip Glore as secretary, and F.M. Mahood as treasurer4. By then Shirey had passed away, and I find no evidence that Brown was a part of that company. So did Brown later buy into that company? Or does their bottle just mean that Shirey & Brown stopped selling their own brand of Arnica Cream and started selling said cream from the Arnica Cream company in Roanoke?


Bottles:

shirey_03 Clear 4.3" bottle embossed:
vertical: Shirey and Brown / ARNICA CREAM / Buena Vista, Va.
shirey_04 Clear 3.7" (1 oz) bottle embossed:
horizontal: 3i
vertical: Shirey and Brown / PHARMACISTS / BUENA VISTA, VA.
shirey_05 This is a clear 5.3" (3 oz) bottle that is embossed, and has a label from a different pharmacy (front & rear shown). It says:
embossed horizontally: III
embossed vertically: Shirey & Brown / PHARMACISTS / BUENA VISTA, VA.
printed on the label: ESSSENCE LEMON / ALCOHOL, 90 PER CENT. / THE CORNER DRUG STORE / PRESCRIPTION DRUGGIST / BUENA VISTA, VIRGINIA
I don't know if this means that "the corner drugstore" was affiliated with "Shirey & Brown", or if they just happened to slap a corner drugstore label on a Shirey & Brown bottle.
shirey_01 Clear 5.3" unembossed bottle with a label:
label: SHIREY & BROWN / PHARMACISTS / 21ST ST., OPP. POST OFFICE BUENA VISTA, VA.
shirey_02 Clear 5.3" unembossed bottle with a label:
label upper left: (picture of skull & cross bones) / POISON
label lower left: (picture of mortar & pestal)
label right side: SHIREY & BROWN / PHARMACISTS / 21ST St., opp. Post Office / BUENA VISTA, VA.
shirey_06 Clear 4.5" (2 oz) unembossed bottle with a label:
label left edge: (mortar & pestle with the word "ACCURACY" in a ribbon)
SHIREY & BROWN / Pharmacists / 21st St. Under Colonade Hotel / BUENA VISTA, VA.


1 Find-a-grave entry for William Hampton Shirey
2 Find-a-grave entry for William Madison Brown
3 Richmond Times Dispatch, 9-Aug-1947, page 3. Article heading: 'Drug Firm Sold'
4 Richmond Daily Dispatch, 5-Mar-1919, page 12


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This page last updated on June 4, 2021.