Joseph Ernest Meyer
(1878 - 9th March 1950)
Joseph Meyer was a Hammond, Indiana 'renaissance man,' having achieved fame as a botanist, a mail-order dealer, author, bank president and as an exposer of crooked gambling methods. Meyer began his working life as a printer, having been taught the trade at a Milwaukee, Wisconsin orphanage. He worked as a newspaper reporter in Chicago and Hammond, Illinois. His first book, typeset on the coated, yellow paper intended for the printing of labels, was Protection—the Sealed Book, published in 1901. Meyer not only did the reporting and research, but he typeset and printed the book himself. To avoid possible reprisal from gamblers and purveyors of crooked gaming supplies, whose methods he exposed, he listed his place of business as Milwaukee. Meyer found success marketing herbs and herbal products, founding the Indiana Botanical Gardens, which is still in business. At his death, Meyer was said to be the world’s largest supplier of medical-grade herbs. He also founded Meyer Publishing (now MeyerBooks), and the Calumet National Bank. Among Meyer's other books are The Herbalist and Herb Doctor (1918), The Herb Doctor and Medicine Man (1922), and Nature's Remedies (1934).
