Lincoln pharmaceutical manufacturer turns 100 -- 3/2/2008

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By Jim McKee/For the Lincoln Journal Star

Business started by three local residents in 1908 has changed a lot over the years.

   In 1906, the Lincoln City Directory lIn 1906, the Lincoln City Directory listed William C.N. Smith's occupation as "traveler," Thomas G. Dorsey worked as a packer for the Crancer Piano Co., while William M Widener was vice president of the Lincoln Drug Co. at Eighth and P streets.

   In 1908, the three pooled their talents and resources, incorporating Smith-Dorsey Chemists. Widener, primarily the financier of the company, stayed at Lincoln Drug Co., becoming president of the new firm while Smith was elected vice president.

   Their first offices were on the southwest corner of 10th and O streets in a three-story building that also housed the Chapman Drug Store, a jeweler, Lincoln Traction Co. and Lincoln Heat, Light & Power Co. Next door to the west was Wells & Frost shoes.

   The following year Dorsey sold his interest back to Smith and Widener and left Lincoln. With Smith on the road selling, sales totaled about $10,000 for the year, enabling them to move to a 25-foot-wide office space at 210 S. 12th St., which also afforded them the luxury of a back room.

   With a doubling of sales, they moved to the second floor of 1427 M St. in 1912.

   In 1914, Smith-Dorsey took over an entire floor of the Farmers & Merchant's Insurance Co. building on the southeast corner of 15th and O streets, a space that at one point also housed the Nebraska Dental College.

   Customers who were shown photos of the building sometimes assumed they occupied the entire structure, an assumption that was not discouraged. In its first decade the firm moved 10 times.

   In 1917, they bought an empty lot at 233 S. 10th St. for a little more than $4,000. The space was just south of Bohanan's Livery Stable and north of a horseshoer and a cigar manufacturer.

   With the construction of their own building, they were able to begin manufacturing most of the products they sold, and sales approached $35,000 a year.

   One of their employees in this new building was Mari Sandoz who was working her way through the University of Nebraska.

   Smith and Widener had sold their stock in the company, leaving none of the original investors, but the name remained Smith-Dorsey.

   In 1925, the company acquired the adjacent properties of Lincoln Welding and Barlow Harness Shop, allowing an expansion of the building, with another following in 1933. In 1935, Smith-Dorsey stopped selling directly to consumers and began marketing to druggists and physicians, becoming what is known in the trade as an "ethical" pharmaceutical producer.

   In 1940, a third addition to the original building was completed. Shortly after the war, Fred Misch set out to "extract [an] estrogenic substance from pregnant mare's urine." This meant bringing large quantities of the "raw material" to the offices, which would be heated to drive off unwanted water and leave the desired chemicals behind.

   The vent from the basement distillation processes discharged into the alley, producing a less than desirable aroma in the vicinity while they were "cooking." Employees told of a truck of race horses driving past on their way to the fairgrounds. When the truck got to the neighborhood of the 10th Street plant, all hell broke loose, with the stallions nearly destroying the truck. Production ceased.

   In 1948, a final expansion filled the quarter block and a new façade gave the building the look of having been built all at one time.

   In 1950, Smith-Dorsey sold to Wander Drug Co. of Chicago, becoming known as Dorsey Laboratories, a division of the Wander Co. The building on 10th Street at one point was home of the Lincoln Police Department.

   Dorsey Labs bought 420 acres of land northeast of Lincoln on U.S. 6 and a built a 330,000-square-foot facility in 1962.

   In 1986 the Sandoz name appeared on the firm - no relationship to Mari.

   Name and product changes flowed through recent years, with the U.S. 6 plant today the sole producer of such familiar names as Triaminic cough and cold products, Maalox, Excedrin and Bufferin.

   Now known as Novartis, the company marks its 100th anniversary this month. Today, three shifts work five days a week to produce 770 million units of drugs, which are distributed throughout the United States.

   What would Smith, Dorsey and Widener think?

   Historian Jim McKee, who still writes with a fountain pen, invites comments or questions. Write in care of the Journal Star or e-mail to jim@leebooksellers.com.