#Headache July 19

We may earn money or products from the companies mentioned in this post.

HEADACHES are not a common curse for me. Unfortunately I know many that suffer from migraines.

North Carolina has a rich history with HEADACHE powders. The three headache powders that have all had an important part of our state’s history are B.C. Powder, Stanback Medicine Company, and Goody Headache Powder.

During the early twentieth century, many Tar Heels moved to towns and urban areas to find work in mills and on railroads, while local pharmacists also began creating patent medicines. One such medicine, headache relief powders, became popular among mill and railroad workers who referred to them as “production powders.”  Pharmacists often compounded their own headache relief medicine in an easier-made powder form rather than in the more complex pill form.

Commodore Thomas Council created one of the most popular headache powders in 1906 at Germaine Bernard’s pharmacy in Durham. Combining their surname initials, Council and Bernard named their headache medicine “B.C. Powder” in 1910. The introduction of B.C. Powders coincided with Durham’s tobacco boom, and factory workers became loyal customers.

Pharmacist Thomas M. (Dr. Tom) Stanback created a headache relief compound at a Thomasville drugstore.  In 1911, Stanback moved to Spencer, opened a drugstore, and started a limited commercial production of the powder.  With great success, Stanback sold his headache powders to railroad workers and repairmen, who spread the word about the pharmacist’s powders as they traveled to other railroad towns.  Stanback hired his first salesman, his younger brother Fred Stanback, to sell the powders to commercial retailers. By 1931, Stanback Medicine Company opened a production facility in Salisbury, NC.

Martin C. “Goody” Goodman of Winston-Salem, sold the rights to his headache relief powder formula in 1932 to A. Thad Lewallen Sr. Lewallen soon began mixing and packaging the headache relief powder in two offices in a downtown Winston-Salem bank building. He, like Stanback, Bernard and Council, hired a traveling salesman to sell the headache powders to local mom and pop convenience stores, gas stations and grocery marts. In 1941, a growing customer base demanded larger production facilities and Lewallen moved the company to Salt Street in Old Salem, NC.

While all three brands achieved national recognition in the headache relief category, all three maintained a primary customer base in the Southeastern United States. However, Goody’s and BC Powders also acquired a national market through their sponsorship of baseball, auto racing, and country music.

Here are two TV commercials