Biography:Mrs. Joe Person
Mrs. Joe Person
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| Given name: | Alice |
| Middle name: | Morgan |
| Family name: | Person |
| Place of birth: | Petersburg, Virginia |
| Place of death: | Santa Fe, New Mexico |
| Year of birth: | 1840 |
| Year of death: | 1913 |
| Profile: | Musician |
| Source of information: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice Morgan Person |
Biographical notes
'Mrs. Joe' was Alice Morgan Person (1840-1913), born in Petersburg, Virginia, who in 1857 married a wealthy North Carolinian named Joseph Arrington Person, of a prominent family with a Franklinton (near Raleigh) estate. After her ill third daughter was given a Native American remedy by a neighbor the child recovered and Alice swore the elixir had restored her to health. She herself started making it for family, friends and neighbors, touting its health benefits. The young family's fortunes changed when Joseph suffered a stroke; coupled with the ravages of the Civil War, it left the family without ability to derive income from their farm. In desperation, Alice thought to transform her home remedy into a business, and began to produce quantities which she sold door-to-door and in drug stores. She and her sisters had been well-educated, and Alice was an accomplished pianist, a talent that she employed as a demonstrator of pianos for keyboard instrument vendors at county fairs and similar venues throughout the south. She also toured, playing and selling her medicine (which consisted of bitters, parts of seven native plants in a 20% alcohol base. There were various spurious health claims made for the tonic but it proved effective for scrofula, a form of tuberculosis. Meanwhile demand developed for her music, largely taken from blackface minstrelsy, but which also included folksongs and traditional music as well as other influences.