Here follows the story of Mrs. Ada Lord of 45 George Street (now 45 Charles Street) and the wonderful results she obtained from taking Dr Morse’s Indian Root Pills (there is more information about Dr Morse’s Indian Root Pills here). These advertisements ran from about March 1910 to November 1913:
Ovens and Murray Valley Advertiser (Beechworth, Vic) Thursday, 6 April 1911
As the present building on the site is a relatively new build, here are some photos from the City of Sydney Archives showing the house as it once stood:
45 Charles Street Erskineville circa 1977-1980 City of Sydney Archives CRS 1140: BM 333
45 Charles Street Erskineville circa 1977-1980 City of Sydney Archives CRS 1140: BM 360
The Sands Directories show Mrs. Ada Lord residing at 45 George Street for two years only, in 1908 and 1909.
Alright, I may be speculating a little, but ultimately it might have transpired that the return to good health experienced by Mrs. Lord may not have been shared by her nephew who recommended them to her in the first place. The next time we see a reference to Mrs. Ada Lord in the newspapers is in 1914, in relation to her invitation to the funeral of her nephew, George Alpha Martin:
Sydney Morning Herald Monday, 27 July 1914
The link between Mrs. Ada Lord and the Bayley family can be established via two references appearing in 1904 (here and here) in relation to Mrs. Ada Lord (formerly Bayley) of Alexandria (and her six children) and her divorce from Henry Edward Lord (Justice Walker hearing the proceedings is said to have described Henry Lord as having conducted himself more as a fiend than a man).
Assuming the Mrs. Ada Lord of 45 George Street is the same Mrs. Ada Lord attending the funeral of George Alpha Martin (and in small-town south Sydney I think we can), a link can be established to the Martin family of nearby 2 Knight Street, Erskineville. A check of the NSW Registry of Births Deaths and Marriages shows Ada (born 1870) was number seven of nine children to John and Margaret Bayley. One of Ada’s older sisters was Mary A. Bayley (born 1862) who, married to John Martin, were the parents of George Alpha Martin. George himself was married (to Mrs. George Martin) and it would seem that around mid 1910 they became parents to a baby boy.
In 1911 Mrs. George Martin decided to put pen to paper too. The following endorsement ran from about August 1911 until about May 1913 featuring (on the basis of the above) the story of George Alpha Martin’s son, young George H. Martin:
Punch (Melbourne) Thursday, 7 September 1911
The Sands Directories show Mrs. Mary A. Martin residing at 2 Knight Street from 1909 to 1918. Like 45 George Street, 2 Knight Street has been replaced with a new build. In the absence of a photograph of the house here it is featured on a map published in 1895:
Sheet 12 – City of Sydney section Erskineville Surveyor General Map 1895
As for Cuticura Soap, there is more information here, and it is still commercially available today.
So how did Mrs. Ada Lord fare at the end of the day? The Registry of Births Deaths and Marriages records the marriage in the District of Newtown of Ada Lord to Mark Heslop in 1916. Ten years later Ada passed away on 31 May 1926 aged 56, with memorials inserted by her children the following year in 1927:
Sydney Morning Herald Wednesday, 2 June 1926
