Submitted Photo Vince Martonis, left, holding a bottle of Dr. Pettit’s Blood Purifier and Eber Pettit’s 1880 book on the Underground Railroad. Joe McFall, Dunkirk-Fredonia Rotary President, is holding a book entitled “The Horse Fiddle.”

Vince Martonis, Hanover historian, was the guest speaker at a recent meeting of the Dunkirk-Fredonia Rotary Club. His program was “Chautauqua County Curiosities.”

The first curiosity centered on Dr. Pettit’s American Eye Salve Company of Fredonia. Items on display included a circa 1845 Dr. Pettit’s Canker Balsam bottle, a Pettit’s Blood Purifier bottle with original label and contents, three Dr. Pettit’s American medicine tins, four 1880’s advertising cards related to the products, an Eye Salve flyer, and a billhead showing the company building on the corner of Main and Water streets. He also displayed two large color posters featuring Dr. Pettit’s products and the Independent Watch Company which was connected to the medicine business.

Martonis explained how Eber Pettit, son of James who started the business, sold the medicine rights to the four Howard brothers of Fredonia, who also made and sold pocket watches. He related how Mark Twain invested $5,000 in the company and his name was placed on the movement of a watch. Also interesting was the fact that a man named Sears bought Independent watches and sold them. His successfully partnered with Roebuck, and a new American business began.

He further detailed how both James and Eber Pettit were conductors on the Underground Railroad, operating URR stations in Cordova, the Chestnut and Matteson streets area, and Versailles in Cattaraugus County. Eber later compiled his harrowing stories of escaping slaves in an Underground Railroad book.

Pettit’s American Eye Salve had an 1807 start and was still being sold in area drug stores in the 1980’s. Martonis purchased a tube of Dr. Pettit’s Eye Salve at a pharmacy in Fredonia in 1983, making it one of the oldest patent medicines in the United States.

The second curiosity was the incredible Amos Sottle Horse Skull Fiddle. Sottle settled at Cattaraugus Creek in June of 1796, making him the first non-Indian settler of the county. His wife was a woman who was half Indian and half Black. He erected the first cabin in the county and had the first farm, worked for the Holland Land Company during the Great Survey of 1798-99, and served two terms during the War of 1812.

The fiddle was made in the early 1800’s. The scroll of the fiddle features a beautifully carved tiger maple horse’s head. The bow is made of a leg bone. The case represents a coffin.

Local author Paul Leone compiled a book of short stories entitled “The Horse Fiddle.” In it, Leone surmises in the title story what may have compelled Sottle to create such an unusual instrument. Leone also reprinted Pettit’s book on the Underground Railroad. Martonis assisted Leone with both publications and had them both on display.