John Henry Pinkard

Dr. John Henry Pinkard (1865 - January 8, 1934) was a businessman, banker, and herb doctor in Roanoke, Virginia. He was also known as a "...clairvoyant, herb doctor and spiritualist."[1] Other people considered him a practitioner of Quackery and a Charlatan. At one time he was the richest black man in town.

Dr. Pinkard was born in Franklin County, Virginia during the last year of the Civil War. Because of his family's poverty in rural Virginia during the Reconstruction, he quit school at the age of eleven to earn some money for his family. By the age of fifteen, he was a supervisor of a "dirt cut" crew for the Norfolk and Western Railroad.[2] He lived in Philadelphia and perhaps other places for a while, but moved back to Roaonke where he spent the last 27 years of his life.

Banking and Real Estate

Dr. John Henry Pinkard also ran three banks, mostly dealing in banking for blacks. During this period of segregation before the Great Depression, it was difficult to obtain credit for black families, especially from white owned banks. Many of the banks operated for black clientele specialized in small loans, crop loans, and savings. One of these banks was the "Acorn Small Loan Company", which was licensed by the Commonwealth of Virginia in Roanoke.[3] He evidently also ran his "Acorn" Drug store in the next building at 1018-1020 Salem Street.[4]

He also was the president of the Afro-American Bank on Salem Avenue in Roanoke.[5]

Dr. Pinkard also had extensive holdings in Florida real estate.[6]

Medical Work

Although there is no evidence he ever received medical training, he called himself "Doctor", and was locally known as a "yarb doctor," a colloquial name for "herb doctor".[7] He was also known as a "...clairvoyant, herb doctor and spiritualist."[8] However, he was tried in 1917 for practicing medicine without a license, but was acquitted. "Dr. Pinkard was acquitted but he faced similar legal problems on one and possibly two other occasions. The Roanoke Academy of Medicine, the professional organizatin of white physicians, may have been involved in instigating legal action against Dr. Pinkard in at least one case."[9]

He was able to diagnose his patient's illnesses without asking question or examination. He held a reputation as a clairvoyant as well as a physician among his thousands of black and white patients.[10]

By 1919 it was reported that he had both black and white patients in at least fifteen states, and he had sales of between $1,000.00 and $1,500.00 a week.[11] He had a variety of potions and remedies that he prepared and sold out of his drugstore and shipped across the country. Some of the names were: "Pinkard's Hydrastic Compound" (evidently made from Goldenseal or "Hydrastis canadensis"), "Pinkard's Great Liniment" and "Pinkard's Sanguinaria Compound". Some of Pinkard's Sanguinaria Compound, made from bloodroot or bloodwort, was seized by federal officials in 1931 for violating the Food and Drug Act. He plead guilty and was fined $25.00.[12] Many of his concoctions were based on slave medicine, traditional rural Virginian medical practices, and Native American herb lore.

Pinkard Court

During the 1920s, he developed "Pinkard Court", a housing area expressly for blacks in segregated Roanoke.[13] It was based on 25 acres of land he purchased on the National Highway, about a mile outside of Roanoke. He also built and equipped the Pinkard Court Filling Station and Tourist Camp.[14]

Pinkard Court School was a one level circular building built for blacks. When segregation was no longer lawful, it was converted to a special needs school for the county.[15]

Death and Burial

He died of tuberculosis in 1934, and is buried in Franklin county, Virginia.[16][17]

References

  1. ↑ Margaret Claytor Woodbury and Ruth Claytor Marsh. Virginia kaleidoscope: the Claytor family of Roanoke, and some of its kinships, from first families of Virginia and their former slaves. M.C. Woodbury, 1994. Page 408. http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/34546014
  2. ↑ The Roanoke Valley's African American Heritage: A Pictorial History. By Reginald Shareef. Donning Company Publishers, 1996. Page 39.
  3. ↑ Annual Report of the Banking Division of the State Corporation Commission Showing the Condition of the Incorporated State Banks Operating in Virginia at the Close of Business... Virginia. Bureau of Insurance and Banking, Virginia. Banking Division, Virginia. State Corporation Commission. Division of Purchase and Printing, 1920. Page 14.
  4. ↑ Roanoke City Directory. 1920. Page 114.
  5. ↑ Roanoke City Directory. 1920. Page 116.
  6. ↑ "John H. Pinkard Dies at Home on Rocky Mount Road." Roanoke Times. January 8, 1934. Page 20.
  7. ↑ "Yarb Doctor" definition: "The itinerant patent medicine salesmen – the charlatans, who boasted of the miraculous cures produced by their various liquids and salves often said to contain curative herbs, roots, leaves (cocaine), etc..."
  8. ↑ Margaret Claytor Woodbury and Ruth Claytor Marsh. Virginia kaleidoscope: the Claytor family of Roanoke, and some of its kinships, from first families of Virginia and their former slaves. M.C. Woodbury, 1994. Page 408. http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/34546014
  9. ↑ Shareef, Reginald. The Roanoke Valley's African American Heritage: A Pictorial History. Virginia Beach, VA: Donning Co, 1996. Page 40. http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/34690904
  10. ↑ "John H. Pinkard Dies at Home on Rocky Mount Road." Roanoke Times. January 8, 1934. Page 20.
  11. ↑ Shareef, Reginald. The Roanoke Valley's African American Heritage: A Pictorial History. Virginia Beach, VA: Donning Co, 1996. Page 39. http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/34690904
  12. ↑ Case #19890. Misbranding of Pinkard's sanguinaria compound. U. S. v. John Henry Pinkard. Plea of guilty. Fine, $25.
  13. ↑ Roanoke Times. Discover History & Heritage: Exploring the People and Places of Southwest Virginia. 2015. Issue 3 originally published with the copyrighted February 25, 2016 edition of The Roanoke Times. Page 57.
  14. ↑ Shareef, Reginald. The Roanoke Valley's African American Heritage: A Pictorial History. Virginia Beach, VA: Donning Co, 1996. Page 39-40. http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/34690904
  15. ↑ Wade, Louise. Melody's Gifts: An Inspirational Story of a Family's Determination That Neither Cerebral Palsy. [S.l.]: Xlibris Corp, 2009. No page given. http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/659711587
  16. ↑ "Dr. John Henry Pinkard".
  17. ↑ "John H. Pinkard Dies at Home on Rocky Mount Road." Roanoke Times. January 8, 1934. Page 20.

Bibliography

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