Businessman manufacturer physician
James Cook Ayer was born on May 5, 1818 at Ledyard, Connecticut, United States. His father, Frederick Ayer, owner of a saw and grist mill, died when the child was seven years old.
After the death of her husband, Ayer's mother, born Persis Cook, moved to the adjacent town of Preston where her father operated a small flannel-mill.
Ayer had his first mechanical training in the grandfather's factory. He also attended the school there and in Norwich.
Then Ayer was sent to his uncle, James Cook, in Lowell, Massachussets where he continued the studies at the Lowell High School. He desired to enter college but his relatives were against. He entered the apothecary shop of Jacob Robbins and simultaneously began to study medicine with Dr. Samuel L. Dana, a local practitioner. This preparation enabled young Ayer to gain his M. D. degree from the University of Pennsylvania.
In 1841 Ayer bought the Robbins drugstore for $2, 486. 61 with money borrowed from his uncle which he repaid in three years. He devised a remedy, reputed to be beneficial for pulmonary troubles, which he placed on the market as "Ayer's Cherry Pectoral, " a pioneer among the now multifarious American patent medicines. Discovering that advertising pays, the young physician-manufacturer pushed the sales of this first preparation, and added sugar-coated pills (1854), extract of sarsaparilla (1855), an ague cure (1857), and "Ayer's Hair Vigor" (1869). A brother, Frederick Ayer, was admitted to partnership in 1855.
The company at first occupied various rented quarters, but in 1857 it bought the property between Middle and Market Sts. , Lowell, at which location the manufacture was still, in 1928, conducted. In his shop Ayer was master of every process. His versatility and mechanical ingenuity were remarkable; there was scarcely a machine in the entire establishment outside of the printing department which was not wholly invented by Dr. Ayer or improved by his changes and additions.
A fast-growing bank account enabled Ayer to invest in textile enterprises, in several of which he became the largest shareholder. In their management he took little interest until 1857, when the collapse of companies at Lowell and Lawrence led to his investigating the conduct of their officers. An exposure was written by "Historicus" (Charles Cowley) from material furnished by Ayer. Feeling ran high, and a personal encounter ensued between Ayer and Richard S. Fay, treasurer of the Middlesex Company.
In 1863 Ayer published Some of the Usages and Abuses in the Management of Our Manufacturing Corporations. He personally combined the Tremont and Suffolk Mills at Lowell, which, under a treasurer of his choice, entered on a period of prosperity. A feud concerning freight rates subsisting between Ayer and the Boston & Lowell Railroad led to his building the Lowell & Andover Railroad, connecting with the Boston & Maine and providing a parallel and competing service between Lowell and Boston. This was opened in 1874.
Ayer had meantime become interested in mining. In 1865 he was awarded patents for orereducing processes. He bought into the Lake Superior Ship Canal & Railroad & Iron Company, which he successfully financed. He acquired timber lands in Florida and erected on them saw-mills which he operated from Lowell.
The Ayer town hall, dedicated in 1876, was a gift of the Ayer family to this town. A project to build an interoceanic canal over one of eight proposed routes located between Panama and Tehuantepec was cut short by Ayer's death, which occurred at Winchendon, Massachussets, July 3. 1878, as the result of many years of continuous overwork.
Being the owner of the Robbins drugstore, Ayer devised a remedy, reputed to be beneficial for pulmonary troubles, which he placed on the market as "Ayer's Cherry Pectoral". After his first European journey, in 1866, he presented to Lowell, Massachusetts, the Victory monument now standing before the Lowell city hall. On March 6, 1871, the town of Groton Junction, Massachussets, was renamed in his honor.
Working in his shop, Ayer was master of every process. His versatility and mechanical ingenuity were remarkable; there was scarcely a machine in the entire establishment outside of the printing department which was not wholly invented by Dr. Ayer or improved by his changes and additions.
On November 14, 1850, Ayer married Josephine Mellen Southwick.
The family settled in an old stone tavern on Pawtucket St. , Lowell, United States.
Mrs. Ayer, who outlived her husband many years, became a prominent figure in New York and Paris society.
He was his younger brother.
He was a manufacturer and one of the early mayors of the newly established city of Lowell, Massachussets, United States.
