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Haller Proprietary Company

The Haller Proprietary Company Plant, on West Nebraska St., (formerly one of the locations of the Horse Collar Factory,) compounds a variety of medicines and extracts, and manufactures the Porter Incubator, the invention of a Blair Resident. — Nebraska: A guide to the Cornhusker State. Compiled by the Federal Writers’ Project. 1939.

Washington County Line, May 1993  Vol 2, Issue 9.  Mercury Media, Ltd.  Thomas S. Nielsen Editor, page 20 & 21

Haller Proprietary Company

“The stamp of quality and service”
by Tom Nielsen

What began as a dream and a line of six products eventually expanded into a booming business with a line of over one hundred products and a staff of salesmen visiting pharmacies and farmsteads all over the Midwest.  W. D. Haller operated a pharmacy in Blair where he put his vast knowledge of drugs to use in producing new products for his cliental.  Originally Haller produced six different products including Haller Pain Paralyzer.

In 1888 Haller along with his brothers Theodore and Frank, James and Edward Stewart, F. M. Casttetter, F. H. Clardge and W.H. Belknap, started the Haller Proprietary Company.  The goal of the company was to produce Haller’s products in large quantity so that they could be made available to more that just the cliental of Haller’s store.  The company was incorporated and expanded in 1897.

From the original six products the company diversified to produce such lines as home remedies, extracts, spices, food products, and toilet articles as well as poultry and veterinary remedies.   The company used all the marketing techniques of the day.  The products were sold in drug stores but they were also sold door-to-door.  Travel was not an easy matter for the hardy families who lived on the farms scattered across the Midwest.  Those farm families welcome the salesman who traveled the dirt roads and brought with them a suitcase full of such products as Green Salve, Oil Amber Compound, Toilet Cream, Vanilla, Insect Powder, and Chic Doc.  The time of mail order bridges and Sears Catalog houses was also a good time for marketing mail order drugs.

The Haller Company received mail orders for their products form all over the United States.  The Haller Building was located on Washington Street in Blair, and there the wide variety of liniments and home remedies were mixed and bottled.

The Haller Company worked hard to build a reputation, and it was said that the name Haller on a bottle was “the stamp of quality and service.”

With the advent of modern drugs, The Haller Company closed its doors and took its place in the history of Washington County.  Occasionally bottles and signs bearing the company name can be found at auctions or antiques stores. The Washington County Historical Museum presently has an exhibit of articles relating to the Haller family and business.