280  The  Nestor  of  Chicago  Pharmacy.     { Am jiSefiSSf"11* 
assumed  the  general  management  of  the  drug  business,  which  at 
that  time  was  largely  wholesale,  Mr.  Mynck  Scammon  giving  his 
attention  to  a  side  line  of  the  business,  consisting  of  daguerreotype 
material,  and  Dr.  F.  Scammon  looking  after  the  manufacture  of  lin- 
seed oil,  which  was  carried  on  extensively  at  that  time  by  the  firm 
of  Scammon  &  Haven.  The  firm  of  F.  Scammon  &  Co.  did  a  pros- 
perous business,  and  was  continued  until  1856,  when  it  was  dis- 
solved. Mr.  Sargent  associated  himself  with  Mr.  John  C.  Ilsley,  a 
clerk  of  Sears  &  Smith,  under  the  firm  name  of  Sargent  &  Ilsley,  and 
they  purchased  the  drug  part  of  the  business  of  F.  Scammon  &  Co., 
continuing  the  same  at  the  old  stand  as  a  wholesale  and  retail  drug 
business.  The  new  firm  started  out  with  all  the  prospects  of  pros- 
perity ;  times  were  good  and  business  was  good.  But  soon  the 
financial  horizon  throughout  the  United  States  began  to  darken, 
and  the  panic  in  the  fall  of  1857  burst  in  all  its  fury  over  the  North- 
west, and  many  of  the  strongest  business  firms  went  to  the  wall. 
The  young  firm  struggled  on  until  the  fall  of  1859,  when  it  was 
wound  up,  and  the  business  was  sold  out  to  Messrs.  Wright  & 
French,  formerly  of  Boston,  Mass.,  who  removed  the  retail  part  of 
the  business  to  the  northwest  corner  of  Randolph  and  State  Streets, 
and  placed  Mr.  Sargent  in  charge  of  the  same.  Through  his  efforts 
it  soon  became  one  of  the  leading  retail  drug  businesses  not  only  of 
the  city  of  Chicago,  but  of  the  Northwest. 
In  the  summer  of  1870,  Mr.  Sargent  purchased  the  interest  of  his 
partners,  and  became  the  sole  owner  of  a  prosperous  business  of 
high  reputation,  which  he  had  so  successfully  established ;  but  he 
was  not  allowed  to  enjoy  the  fruits  of  his  labors  for  any  length  of 
time,  as  the  great  fire  of  1871  came  upon  him  just  when  he  felt  that 
he  was  free  from  all  financial  entanglement,  and  the  bright  outlook 
was  again  darkened  by  the  great  calamity,  which  left  him  penniless. 
However,  with  that  indomitable  energy  that  characterized  the  peo- 
ple of  the  stricken  city,  Mr.  Sargent  began  at  once  to  re-establish 
himself  in  the  retail  drug  business  at  the  northwest  corner  of  Wabash 
Avenue  and  Sixteenth  Street,  and  very  soon  did  a  good  business. 
Here  he  added  physicians'  supplies,  including  surgical  instruments 
and  appliances,  and  remained,  in  this  location  until  1878,  when  he 
removed  to  125  State  Street,  adding  here  chemists'  and  assayers' 
apparatus  and  supplies  to  his  increasing  business,  which  became  so 
extensive  that  in  1892  he  removed  to  larger  quarters,  at  106  and  108 
