Medicine Man, Part Six: A Life of (Un)Necessary Violence (in Danville and Elsewhere)

Violet McNeal in her book, Four White Horses and a Brass Band, spoke on the dangers patent medicine pitchmen faced. We’ve already seen how they were often chased from town by citizens concerned for their more naive neighbors. On the other side of that were those who were working with the law to reduce the harm patent medicine “fakirs” could do. In the margins between these two factions was the danger wrought upon men in the medicine show business by their competition. For Nanzetta, the competition wasn’t just other medicine show salesmen, it was the managers of the Vaudeville shows, the minstrel shows, the “operas”, fair and carnival workers, druggists, pharmacies, and healers, and perhaps more poignantly … any other person of color who felt Nanzetta, who was not a white man (though he declared he was white on his 1913 marriage license), was moving his business into the hard-won spaces black citizens, particularly in Danville, had fought so hard for the right to occupy.

1905

A month after arriving in Danville, Nanzetta, as we discussed in the last episode, was in Roanoke selling medicine with Ora English, who may or may not have been an alias for Dulcie McLane, whom he would marry later that year. On June 3rd Nanzetta was in a street fight with Hunter Thorpe. Thorpe was charged a $5 fine in the police court the next day, while Nanzetta walked free with only a warning.

Nanzetta was back in Danville by the end of June, just in time to get into an altercation with another black man on the 28th for reasons unknown. The reporting on this event has not been digitized, but it is referred to in the Danville’s Register and Bee of the following Saturday. At that time, Nanzetta was conducting a medicine show “near Ballou Park”. Part of the performance included a “blood-curdling tragedy on the stage” for which Nanzetta had on him a “fierce-looking revolver”.

“The vendor of medicines had gone partly through the sale of soap, tooth powders and other goods when he was rocked from ambuscade in the bushes nearby.” The Register and Bee, July 1, 1905

The gun being nearby, Nanzetta quickly grabbed it and returned fire into the bushes, sending the assailant running. The gun being used for theatrical purposes, was full of blanks.

In August we find Nanzetta in Gainesville, Georgia according to the Gainesville News and Record of August 2, 1905. In this edition, a record of the taxes collected by the city clerk is listed. Dr. J.H. Nanzetta, “itinerant doctor”, paid $10 for a license to sell his medicines on the street. Surely it wasn’t Gainesville alone that he travelled, but it’s interesting that this is the first city away from Danville that pops up in Georgia. It was Gainesville, if you remember, where Nanzetta claimed to be from in his marriage to Dulcie in November of 1905. It makes me wonder if she is with him now, perhaps working as Ora English or under some other alias. Oddly, Nanzetta’s name, nor any of its variations, ever comes up again in Georgia, but another name does.

Charlie Carter, who says he is a full blooded Indian from India, and who calls himself “Dr.” Carter, was badly cut by an unknown [black man] last night on Decatur street. He was taken to the Grady hospital, where his wound, which was over the right eye,[caused by a pocket knife) was dressed, and then he was locked up at the police barracks on the charge of being drunk and disorderly. The Atlanta Constitution 22 August 1905

It seems the fight started when the other man called “Dr.” Carter black, though of course different language was used, too common at the time this was written, but I won’t stoop to repeat it.

“At the police barracks Carter said he was born in India,” and … “He talks with a curious sort of brogue.” One wonders if he was perceived to have spoken with an accent that was “curious” for someone claiming East Indian ethnicity or simply curious because of his Indian ethnicity.

“After the man’s wound was dressed at the hospital, he became so very boisterous that the physicians sent for the police to take him in charge. Carter was still angry about being called [black].” He was angrier still upon being confined in the black portion of the jail on account of their being no ‘Indian ward’.”

There’s no real reason to believe this is Nanzetta, but if you’ve been following along from the beginning, you’ll see some common threads in this, namely his claiming to be from India at times (or being described as someone who looks Indian as well as being described as appearing half-black), not to mention his temper. Neither is he a real doctor, as indicated by the quotation marks around his title. It’s simply a coincidence, but it does shine a light on the difficulties our Nanzetta may have faced African Americans in the south when he himself was neither black nor white, and it may go a long way to explaining why his relationship with the black population in Danville was so tenuous, despite the fact that he frequently hired men and women of color to work with him.

In a follow up article a few days later (The Atlanta Journal 25 August 1905) an item is reprinted from The Journal of Dallas, Georgia, wherein “Dr. C.C. Carter, the West Indian doctor” was sent back to Dallas (Georgia) by train and put in jail there on account of a complaint from R.W. Watkins “a negro barber, who alleges that the Indian secured $12 from him under false statements”. The article goes on to describe how Dr. Carter had located there a few weeks ago “for the purpose of practicing medicine, claiming to be an expert at curing cancers, bunyons and corns, and many other diseases of a like nature, but with the use of roots, herbs, and barks. Those who had expected to be cured by the attentions of the learned doctor will regret to hear of the sudden termination of his medical career in this territory.”

Again, note the similarities with regards to his claims and the source of his treatments in comparison to some of Nanzetta’s earlier appearances, despite the fact that “West Indian” is a misnomer, whatever the author meant by it. Again, this could be anyone, and there were certainly plenty of long-haired “Indian doctors” around, but regardless, it does shed some light on the potential source of some of his difficulties.

In October, back in Danville, the boarding house on Main Street where Nanzetta was staying caught fire, and in November he’s married in North Carolina.

In December, the old advertisement appears once more in the paper in an absolute wave of appearances, more than a hundred times over the next several weeks beginning on the 21st, mainly focused on Midwest cities.

This is similar to the advertisement which described him vaguely “in the west” and which appeared in similarly inflated numbers in the weeks and months shortly after his marriage to Presha Posey.

One can only suppose he is preparing to go on the road again, this time to the Midwest, but is he using that old name? Nanzetta, nor any of its variants, does not appear in the papers of this region of the United States, not, at least, in the digitized archives, although research is still ongoing.

1906

Nanzetta seems to have been working the fairs in 1906. In early October, he was at the fair in Lynchburg. “Professor Nanzett, besides pulling teeth gratuitously in front of his tent, will conduct an old-fashioned ‘plantation show’, with free concerts daily.”

Weeks later, he’s at the Henry County Fair in Martinsville. Here he ran into a little trouble when, on his way home from the fair, traveling by train in a car heavily loaded with other fair-goers, the watches, wallets, and overcoats of several passengers went missing. When Townes Wimbish noted that his coat was missing, Nanzetta spoke up and stated that he though two gentlemen on the train were culprits. He further stated he’d seen them place the item in their own luggage. The men rebutted this accusation, and a fight broke out on the train causing great excitement and distress. In Police Chief Morris fashion [1], Nanzetta was declared the hero of the event, and the two men were arrested. Others traveling with the men took the next train out of town and did so in a hurry.

No other mentions of Nanzetta are made that year, except for an entry for him in the Danville directory. As his business address is given as being on Craghead street, the directory was likely compiled the year prior. It’s interesting that his home address is listed as 304 Wilson Street, likely in the upper floor of a shop or warehouse. Whiskey River is now on the Craighead side of that building. Also in the directory entry, his name is given as James H. Nanzetta. Was he trying a new name on upon arriving here? It’s not likely a misprint, but who knows his intention in giving that name. (Don’t forget that J.H. Nanzetta first appears in Vermont in 1904, which adds a bit of a wrench in this theory of “trying on names”.

1907

Throughout 1907, the papers have little to say about Nanzetta. Is he using an alias on his travels? Or is he simply staying clear of the law?

A legal notice in the April 1st edition of the Norfolk, Virginia Ledger-Star announces Nanzetta’s plans to “conduct a hotel at Pine Beach.” The notice is interesting for several reasons.

As you can see, he’s now claiming to be a member of the Choctaw tribe, likely hoping that having a local affiliation will help him win the approval (perhaps in more ways than one) that he seeks. The description of his clothing is interesting, too. This very well may be a reference to the suit he wore and kept as part of his Wild West Shows. In fact, I’ve often wondered if that was not, after all, where he got his start, either working with Buffalo Bill or the Kickapoo Medicine Company. The costume represents no authentic native tribe, by the way, and is merely a western interpretation, but it clearly meant something to him, as images of it pop up throughout his career, sometimes worn by himself, at other times worn by associates.

***Note that the costume in the photo to the left is distinctly Mexican in style. The costume on the right is the same but with fringe added. See below and in “Notes” for a third costume, clearly made of buckskin, but with similar split-front emblems on the chest. I’ll make a more thorough comparison of his costumes in another post, but for now, it’s important to point out the Mexican flavor of the first image.

It was during the summer of 1907 that the Jamestown Ter-Centennial Exhibition was held marking the 300th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown. The exhibition opened in April and ran through November, but on opening day, only a third of the fair’s attractions were ready to receive guests. The Washington Post of August 8, 1907 announced that the exhibitions were “practically” in place. The event was not a success. The exhibition was meant to showcase Virginia’s history and its evolution, but, in the hopes of drawing a larger crowd, many attractions chose to highlight national accomplishments in addition to celebrating all the state had achieved.. (Encyclopedia Virginia; Jamestown Ter-Centennial Exposition of 1907)

Among the catastrophes was a fire which broke out on Pine Beach on the 26th of June, just outside of the Jamestown exhibition, where guests could stay in various hotels of differing sizes and levels of luxury. The fire started in the Berkely hotel and swept the area, destroying at least seven other hotels. At least 40 other structures were consumed by the blaze, and 1,000 were left homeless. The buildings were mostly of temporary construction, built for the exhibition and meant to be torn down afterward.

It’s unclear which hotel Nanzetta operated for the exhibition or how successful he may have been nor what else he may have been doing there. Did he have an exhibition, one wonders? It’s impossible to say without further investigation, but one can bet, at this juncture in his career, he was not simply letting rooms, even if they were at inflated prices (as all were accused of charging during the event).

In November, he was hopping trains and abandoning his Vaudeville troupe (and his wife–see previous chapter of this series) at a railway station in Charlotte, perhaps in an effort to recoup some of his losses at Pine Beach by refusing to pay his employees.

1908

Next we hear of Nanzetta, he’s back in Virginia and back in the news, this time for insulting a woman audience member in Lynchburg.

J.H. Nanzetta, who represents himself as an Indian doctor, was before Mayor Sinclaire Friday afternoon charged with using profane language. The medicine man failed in his efforts to pass out, for cash, as many packages of his preparations as he calculated, became angry and characterized the audience in which were several women, as a set of stingy devils, emphasizing his declaration.

Nanzetta put in the plea that he meant no insult and simply said what he did to amuse the audience and to provoke laughter. Upon this plea, which was regarded as an apology, Mayor Sinclair dismissed the case.

This scene reminds me of that in Marshall, Missouri when he insulted his audience in regards to religion, though that might have been Van Santen (it might also have been both of them, since they performed several times a day, several days in a row and therefore may have taken shifts).

In June we find Nanzetta a victim of theft.

According to the newspapers, Nanzetta, “a traveling Indian doctor” [2] was working his spiel through Fauquier county, extracting teeth “either false or real, without pain” [3] and traveling with a group of men who were part of his minstrel show, including one gentleman named James Monroe. It was the minstrels, in this instance (and presumably in many instances previous) who provided the “ballyhoo”, and “their particular stunt was to draw and entertain a crowd for the ‘doctor’, soothe with their music the individual who was willing to have his teeth extracted in the presence of the grinning public, or, if necessary, furnish a toothache”. [3] As Violet McNeal described it, sometimes the music was merely to drown out the cries of the patient as well.

All went well, according to Monroe’s story, until Fauquier county became their scene of action. Another “doctor” was working that territory. The latter, Monroe says, soon realized that music has charms, and the result was that Monroe left the “Indian doctor” without the customary two weeks’ notice. Subsequently he was arrested on the charge of approprating some of the “Indian doctor’s” medicines.

This episode is comical, but it’s also noteworthy. In three of the four articles which relate this episode, Nanzetta remains unnamed and is simply described as an “Indian doctor”. The article of July 19 which was reprinted in the San Francisco Examiner, as well as several other papers, desribes him colorfully as “the ‘doctor’ whose name is almost as long as his flowing black hair”. I wish very much they had included his name, but when I first found this I couldn’t help but wonder if it was the enormously long name of Prince Nanzeta Pehassnee Montezuma. That which was printed by the Alexandria Gazette (and that paper alone) on the 26th of June identifies him clearly as J.H. Nanzetta. Is that a very long name indeed? I wonder.

Monroe was supposed to have been returned to Warrenton, the county seat of Fauquier county, but the arresting officer needed to make a telephone call and entered a store to do so, telling Monroe to wait outside. [3] He later told police that, after waiting about fifteen minutes, he simply walked away and thought nothing more of it until he was arrested the following day. [4]

A few days later, Nanzetta was fined for “interfering with a chain gang”. I’m of the mind to suspect he was taunting Monroe, but there’s really no knowing.

In September, Nanzetta was at the Galax fair. We know this because it was mentioned in a newspaper article of September 9, 1912 (Richmond Times-Dispatch) which reads:

This is the seventh consecutive annual fair on these grounds, and in all these years the only thing that has ever borne the slightest semblance of tragedy was precipitated by Nanzetta, an Indian medicine man, who refused to submit to arrest four years ago for certain violations of his contract with the fair association, and which ended with the Indian being stabbed and otherwise disfigured.

I do wonder what he did that was in violation. Was it gambling, perhaps? I’m particularly curious for several reasons. Firstly, gambling was a big problem at the fairs during these years. Typically illegal in most other venues, the fair allowed for a lawlessness that was not possible elsewhere. Secondly, years from now, Nanzetta would be in trouble for just this thing, and, thirdly…

A month later, in October, Nanzetta was in Wytheville. While traveling on the road in Ivanhoe (it’s unclear by what means he was traveling; presumably by horse and wagon) Nanzetta met a constable named H.C. Allen, whom he knew. When the approach drew them within 30 yards of each other, Nanzetta opened fire and took six shots at him with his revolver. Allen, who only had one load in his revolver, took his shot. Both men missed. Nanzetta was arrested two days later in Pulaski. [5]

Once stood before a judge for the initial hearing, it became evident that Nanzetta had a grudge against Allen who had arrested him “months” prior for gambling and disorderly conduct, during which arrest, Allen, it seems, treated Nanzetta with undue brutality. Nanzetta sued Allen who was forced to take a leave of absence and spent some time in jail for his treatment of Nanzetta. Perhaps Nan saw Allen on that road in October of ’08 and thought his old nemesis was coming for him. Considering he missed all six shots, he was either not trying to kill Allen or his gun was loaded, as it was in the 1905 incident in Ballou Park, with blanks.

The event created such a sensation that crowds gathered in Ivanhoe on Thursday the 24th of August in preparation for the trial. Papers from Wytheville around this time have not been digitized, so an in person visit to the local library for further research is necessary.

In most cases, the articles named him as an Indian medicine man, but one piece referred to him as an Italian medicine man, which may well have been a typo or simply a misunderstanding. Or perhaps it was an assumption based on his name, which is interesting considering the ambiguity of his ethnical identity.

The result of the trial was that both men were charged $10 for shooting in the public highway.

1909

In April of 1909, Nanzetta is in Stanardsville, Virginia, a historic town at the entrance of the Shenandoah National Park. Here he was selling bottles of medicine and pulling teeth “free of charge and without pain”.

In May, Nanzetta had partnered with Jefferson Pharmacy in Charlottesville, Virginia.

***A clearer picture of this image is below in “Notes”.

In August, he was in Rockbridge county.

In October, Nanzetta was once more dealing with the law, but on this occasion, as with the last, he was on the right side of it. A former employee named Yellow Christian had come upon a check written by Nanzetta for his wife, and Christian stole it, forged the signature and cashed it, and then fled to Munroe. The case was reported to Police Chief Morris, and he was discovered in Lynchburg and brought back to face justice. By this time, Nanzetta’s business was on Union Street.

A few weeks later, though, on the 28th, Nanzetta got into an altercation with another employee named Clarence Miller. The fight started when Miller used “offensive language”. Nanzetta plead guilty and paid the fine.

A month later, he was in another fight.

An exciting encounter, in which brickbats figured conspicuously, occurred this morning between 10 and 11 o’clock on Spring Street, near the old Star Warehouse, the principals in the affray being dr. J.H. Nansetta, the Indian doctor, who, aside form engaged in the practice of his medical profession, is the proprietor of a … minstrel show on Union Street, and R.S. Hundley, who is a witness to the fight, which ended in Dr. Nansetta being struck over the head by a brick hurled by Hundley and the arrest of two parties by Police Officer W.H. Fuller. A trial was held before Mayor Wooding, with the result that Dr. Nansetta was fined $5 and costs and recognized in the sum of $50 to keep the peace in the future. [6]

1910

In April, Nanzetta, once again, was in trouble for assaulting one of his employees (these were all black men, by the way, though he hired women as well, both white and black).

In May, he was in Craigsville, near Staunton, though the announcement called him “Dr. Wanzetta”.

In July, Nanzetta was divorced from Dulcie on grounds of her infidelity and the allegation that “she became addicted to the whiskey habit since coming to Danville and drank freely.” (See previous post.)

Apparently during this time Nanzetta had been working with several other American Indians, one of whom was one of Dulcie’s paramours, the other, Two Moon. In July he was called back to Oklahoma to attend to his wife, who, after giving birth to their child was at death’s door. It may be him in the advertisements above and below, though it looks to me like Nanzetta.

Later that month, the Daily News Leader of Staunton announced Dr. Nanzetta’s arrival as the “King of Dentists”.

The doctor has ben a familiar figure around Virginia for many years and first attracted attention by his exhibition on street corners pulling teeth with his fingers, in which art, if such can be called an art, he displayed much adeptness. [7]

The announcement promised his services for three days, but then, quite unexpectedly, he was called away by some important and unexplained matter. Three days later, on the 30th of July, he was back at his office in Danville pulling teeth. He claimed to have pulled 116 that day “for the satisfaction of his customers”.

A few days after Nanzetta left Staunton in a hurry, a minister of a local Presbyterian church was driving down the road and saw an “innocent looking cigar box” on the road, and he stopped to pick it up. He opened the box to find a live rattlesnake inside. “It later became known that Dr. Nanzetti, an Indian and traveling showman, had lost a cigar box containing one fine rattlesnake.” [8]

Two months later, in September, Nanzetta was looking for new talent for his minstrel shows. [9]

Also in September, we see the reappearance of Dr. Carter, only this time he is “the Mexican world’s wonder, pulling teeth “with his fingers without pain” in Greenwood, South Carolina and curing “any and every kind of disease”. [10]

Though these two pieces ran at the same time, it’s not impossible he was in South Carolina, where, by 1913, he would make his home.

1911-1912

Things are seemingly get quiet for Nanzetta over the next couple of years, at least in as much as he is using that name. We know he has a store at 307 Union Street according to an advertisement published in the Daily Progress of Charlottesville, Virginia, and in June he announces his impending arrival in Narrows, Virginia, where he is arriving after a week in Pearisburg. It was there he had been putting on a minstrel show “in connection with dentistry” and where he claims to have extracted 500-600 teeth. Also in the notice, he announces he will be leaving on July 5th for Kentucky.

The only other point of note is an interesting one. In The Billboard of June 3rd, a notice appears:

This is a curious inquiry, and a serious one, but one I have very little information on, apart from the photograph in the notes below. [C] This Robert N. Davis is not connected in any way, it seems to Robert Meyers or his brother Will Davis but was another of Nanzetta’s black employees. His name reappears later in connection with Nanzetta when he and his bride are married on the stage of one of Nanzetta’s shows.

The only clue we have as to Nanzetta’s whereabouts in 1912 come from advertisements placed in The Billboard in which he is trying to sell certain items related to his minstrel and wild west shows, and to acquire others. Surely his is conducting his business as usual, but either he is behaving himself or he is using another name … like Carter, perhaps. The only thing we know for certain is that, at some point, he must have been spending some considerable time in New York, because in March of 1913, he is married there.

Third time is a charm, I suppose.

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Sources:

1-Refer to a previous published article on Police Chief Morris who’s real name was Edgard Stripling. Having escaped prison for murder in Georgia, he headed to Danville where he got a job as an inspector (security officer) on the railroad before being hired on to the police department where he eventually became chief of police before he was recalled to Georgia. See: https://oldwestendva.com/blog/escaped-murderer/

2-Alexandria Gazette (Alexandria, Virginia) 26 June 1908, pg. 3

3-The San Francisco Examiner (San Francisco, California) 19 July 1908, pg. 44

4-Evening Star (Washington, District of Columbia) 26 June 1908, pg. 9

5-Richmond Times-Dispatch (Richmond, Virginia) 22 October 1908, pg. 1

6-Richmond Times-Dispatch (Richmond, Virginia) 27 November 1909, pg. 2

7-The Daily News Leader (Staunton, Virginia) 27 July 1910, pg. 4

8-Staunton Daily Leader (Staunton, Virginia) 5 August 1910

9-Richmond Times-Dispatch (Richmond, Virginia) 8 September 1910, pg. 9

10-The Evening Index (Greenwood, South Carolina) 8 September 1910

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Notes:

A) For more on the Jamestown Exhibition, see this online photo album: https://library.si.edu/digital-library/book/jamestownexposi00jame or this video of vintage footage.

B) This is a clearer image of the same photo, the above being part of a newspaper advertisement, since digitized. The one below is from letterhead provided as evidence in a lawsuit that took place in 1910. This appears to fit the description of the “buckskin” suit he wore at the 1907 application for a permit to open a hotel on Pine Beach near Norfolk, NC where he claimed to be Choctaw. I can’t really tell if this is him, but I believe it is meant to represent him. The shape is right, of his hair and physique, but ever image of him is so different from the others, I just am not certain.

C)