Representative Ray Vaughn Pierce

Ray Vaughn Pierce (August 6, 1840 – February 4, 1914) was an American physician, patent medicine manufacturer and marketer, entrepreneur, automobile pioneer, New York state senator, and U.S. representative from New York. Born in Stark, Herkimer County, New York, he was the second of four children of Duane Pierce and Mary (née Morse) Pierce. He attended public and private schools in New York and, as a young man, taught school before deciding to pursue a career in medicine. During the Civil War era he registered for the draft in Pennsylvania; at that time, he was 23 years old, unmarried, and listed his occupation as “Physician.”

Pierce studied eclectic medicine, a then-prominent alternative medical system, and graduated in 1862 from the Eclectic Medical College of Cincinnati, Ohio. Immediately after graduation he began the practice of medicine in Titusville, Pennsylvania, where he worked from 1862 to 1866. In 1867 he moved to Buffalo, New York, which became the center of his medical, commercial, and later political activities. In Buffalo he transitioned from a conventional medical practice into the manufacture and sale of proprietary, or patent, medicines, a field in which he would achieve national prominence and considerable wealth.

An Eclectic Medical College of Cincinnati graduate, Pierce earned millions of dollars selling patent medicines, first primarily by mail and later over the counter through an extensive network of agents and druggists. He engaged in the manufacture and sale of patent medicines and established the Invalids’ Hotel and Surgical Institute in Buffalo, which combined a treatment facility with a powerful marketing platform for his remedies. His manufacturing business began with “Doctor Pierce’s Favorite Prescription,” advertised especially for “women’s complaints,” and he followed it with other widely promoted preparations, including “Smart Weed” and “Dr. Pierce’s Pleasant Pellets.” His venture proved a success, with nearly one million bottles of Dr. Pierce’s Smart Weed and other preparations shipped annually. Pierce claimed his “treatments” could cure many diseases and medical conditions, including consumption (tuberculosis), blood and liver problems, as well as a variety of gynecological and nervous disorders. His aggressive advertising and extravagant therapeutic claims led many critics and medical professionals to refer to him as “The Prince of Quacks,” even as his products remained popular with the public.

With the profits from his patent medicine empire, Pierce expanded his business interests into a series of interlocking enterprises. He invested in related manufacturing and distribution concerns and in other speculative ventures. One of the most significant of these was his role in funding the Big Bend Tunnel and Mining Company in Butte County, California, organized to exploit supposed gold deposits in the gravel bed of the North Fork of the Feather River. Thomas Edison had suggested that the riverbed should be explored for gold, and the project required the construction of a dam that formed a two‑mile lake and diverted the river’s water into a 12,000‑foot tunnel, thereby exposing nearly a mile of riverbed thought to contain rich deposits. Pierce held “sixty to seventy percent” of the operation’s $20,000,000 capital stock (equivalent to $699,925,926 in 2024) and personally underwrote the Big Bend Tunnel project for $750,000 (equivalent to $26,247,222 in 2024). The undertaking, begun in 1892 and completed in 1897, also required the construction of an electric generation station to power mining equipment and pumps, and the construction site was among the first to use night illumination provided by Edison. Despite the engineering success, gold was not recovered in quantities sufficient to make the project profitable, and the reported net loss was $2,000,000 (equivalent to $69,992,593 in 2024). Reflecting on the failure, Pierce acknowledged, “…after all our efforts and much as we regret to acknowledge the fact, yet we are quite prepared to admit that at present we see no prospect of realizing our former expectations with respect to these mines.”

Pierce also became an early automobile pioneer. In 1900 he incorporated his automobile business as the “Dr. Pierce Auto Manufacturing Company” in Newark, New Jersey, while building the vehicles in Buffalo. He began manufacturing with the Pierce electric wagon, designed for delivering newspapers. This vehicle had a load capacity of 1,000 pounds, used two 10‑horsepower electric motors governed to three forward speeds (3, 4½, and 10 miles per hour), and had a range of 25 miles. In 1901 he moved production to Bound Brook, New Jersey, where he could source electric motors from his nearby American Engine Company. He expanded the range of electric vehicles to include light delivery trucks and several open‑top “phaeton” models. Pierce described his automobiles as “built as attractively as is possible without a sacrifice of strength to beauty, which would be dangerous to the stability of the vehicle or perilous to the life of its occupants… Our automobiles have not any of the sulky or spider effect, but are good, staunch‑looking vehicles, ready for any test or ordeal.” A 1904 Pierce phaeton cost $1,600 (equivalent to $55,994 in 2024). He later reorganized and renamed the automobile company the “Pierce Electric Company”; the firm was dissolved in 1904. His automobiles had no connection with the Pierce‑Arrow line of automobiles, which were also built in Buffalo but by George Norman Pierce.

In addition to these enterprises, Pierce directed his son Valentine Mott Pierce to secure a reliable source for the millions of glass bottles required for the company’s patent medicines. Acting on this charge, in 1904 V. Mott Pierce leased the Eagle Glass Works at Brockwayville, Pennsylvania, and in 1905 purchased the St. Marys Glass Company at St. Marys, Pennsylvania. The business was renamed the “Pierce Glass Company.” Its success was such that it not only supplied bottles for Dr. Pierce’s own products but also produced custom bottles for other patent medicine manufacturers and competitors, including Pond’s Extract, Lydia Pinkham, and many others, making it a significant player in the glass container industry.

Parallel to his medical and business career, Pierce entered public life as a Democrat in New York. He was elected to the New York State Senate, representing a Buffalo‑area district, and served in the State Senate in the mid‑1870s. Building on his prominence, he was elected as a Democrat to the Forty‑sixth Congress and served as a U.S. representative from New York from March 4, 1879, to March 3, 1881. In Congress he represented a Buffalo‑based district and served one term, after which he declined to seek renomination and returned to his business interests. His congressional service coincided with a period of intense national debate over economic policy and regulation, including issues affecting interstate commerce and the patent medicine trade, though he did not achieve major legislative distinction.

In his personal life, Pierce was married to Mary Jane Smith. They were the parents of five children, three of whom reached adulthood: Valentine Mott, known as V. Mott; Hugh C.; and Ralph Waldo, known as Waldo. In 1907 Pierce purchased St. Vincent Island, located near Apalachicola, Florida, intending that it remain an unsullied game preserve. The island was frequently visited by him, his family, and guests. In 1908 he imported four East Indian sambar deer—three does and a buck—from the Bronx Zoo to the island, adding to its character as a private wildlife refuge. After his death in 1914, St. Vincent Island remained in the Pierce family until 1948.

Ray Vaughn Pierce died on February 4, 1914, at his winter home on St. Vincent Island, Florida. His body was taken to Buffalo, New York, where it was cremated, and funeral rites were held at his home on Monday, February 9. His ashes were interred at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Buffalo, in Section One, Lot 127.