The controversy and the difficulties between the members of the old firm of A.J.  White & Co. of No. 50 Leonard Street, New York, being ended, we hereby notify all parties to whom MORSE’S INDIAN ROOT PILLS were sent or delivered prior to January 1, 1859, and all parties holding for collection or otherwise, any of said claims or demands for said Pills, that we the undersigned have forever relinquished, and have now no claim, right, title or interest in said debts or claims, and authorize the use of the names of said firm whenever necessary in recovering, collecting and settling such debts and claims.

The announcement was signed by Andrew J. White and Andrew B. Moore.

This should have been the end of this wearisome affair, but it was not.  It soon appeared that Moore had violated this agreement by concealing a number of accounts, together with a quantity of pills, circulars, labels, and a set of plates, and, in the words of Comstock’s complaint, transferred them “to James Blakely, an irresponsible person in Canada West.”  And Blakely evidently continued to collect such accounts for the benefit of himself and Moore.  However, the Comstocks also entered the scene of strife, and sometime during the summer of 1862 William Henry Comstock, then traveling in Ontario, collected a note in the amount of $7.50 in favor of A.J.  White & Co., as he had every right to do, but endorsed it “James Blakely for A.J.  White & Co.”  Blakely, when he learned of this, charged Comstock with forgery; Comstock in turn charged Blakely with libel.  Comstock probably defended his somewhat questionable endorsement by the agreement of March 26 of the previous year; in any event the case was dismissed by a Justice of the Peace in Ottawa without comment.  In New York City, on November 25, the Comstocks had Moore arrested again, with White at this time testifying in their support.  There was also an attempt to prosecute Blakely in Canada; his defense was that he had bought the disputed accounts and notes from Moore on March 11, 1861—­a few days before the agreement with the Comstocks—­and that his ownership of these notes was thereafter absolute and he was no longer working as an agent for Moore.

This controversy was still in the courts as late as April of 1864, and its final outcome is not known.  But in any case, aside only from Moore’s and Blakely’s attempts to collect certain outstanding accounts and to dispose of stock still in their hands, the agreement of March 26, 1861, left the Comstocks in full and undisputed possession of Dr. Morse’s Indian Root Pills.  White thereafter continued in the patent-medicine business in New York City on his own; his firm was still active as recently as 1914.  The subsequent history of Moore is unknown.

The Brothers Part Company

One would imagine that the three partners of Comstock & Brother would have been exhausted by litigation and would be eager to work amicably together for years.  But such was not to be the case.  The recovered records give notice of a lawsuit (1866) between George Comstock on the one hand and William H. Comstock and Judson on the other.  No other documents relating to this case were found, and thus the precise issue is not known, or how it was finally settled.  However, it was obviously a prelude to the dissolution of the old firm.