The Amazing IONACO

The Amazing IONACO

In 1928, Thomas M. Fisher and his family were living and working in McKinney, Texas. With two sons and two daughters still at home, there was more than enough to keep him and his wife, Frances, busy making ends meet. The older sons, Benton, Claude and Connie were married and starting their own families. Bert, Bea, Chester and Kathlyn were the children at home and things were about to change again in the Fisher family. The cotton mill where they worked was a typical textile factory where raw cotton was "carded" to lay the fibers out straight and parallel and then sent through a series of machines, gradually spinning them into thread which was then woven into fabric. Bert manned one of these machines where thick, soft strands of cotton fiber were spun tighter on their way to fine thread. Machine jams were frequent and Bert would quickly clear the jam, splice the fibers and get the process moving again. In the course of doing this, he got into the habit of sticking the balls of cotton fiber, pulled from the machine, into his mouth and chewing it like a wad of gum. Once, just after accumulating a good wad of cotton in his mouth, he unexpectedly and violently sneezed. The force of the sneeze drove the cotton fiber into his nostrils and the area was immediately inflamed. It bothered him so bad that he went to the doctor the next day. The doctor found the area embedded with fibers, many of which had already been "ingrown" as the surrounding tissue tried to cope with the situation. The fibers that could be reached were hard to pull out and the effort was bloody and painful. The problem grew worse and soon Bert was diagnosed with cancer.

He began to make weekly trips to Dallas for radiation treatments, when it became obvious that these treatments were doing no good, the family began to seek alternative treatment. Connie, who had married Leta, had moved to work in the Pioneer Mills cotton mill in Guthrie, Oklahoma. He wrote to his father, Tom Fisher, saying there was a doctor in that area who was having some success treating cancer, so Tom took Bert to Guthrie. Treatment was expensive and the whole family helped out. At one point, knowing they needed cash, Chester went to his boss at the McKinney mill and asked for an advance on his pay. The foremen told him he couldn't draw his pay unless he quit. That's what Chet did. He drew his pay and took money to Tom in Guthrie. The foreman in McKinney understood the situation and held his job for him till he came back. On one such trip, his Mother, Frances, wrote to him from McKinney informing him that he should find work in Guthrie because his job had been given to someone else. It wasn't long before the whole family had moved to Guthrie and been put to work in the cotton mill there. Frances was put in charge of the Pioneer Mills boarding house. Bert's condition continued to worsen. He kept working because he said it kept his mind off his problems. The family's religious life was a bit varied. Frances leaned toward her Mother's roots in the Church of Christ and the Christian Church. Claude, Chester and Kathlyn had been saved and baptized in the Pentecostal Church. Bert was saved in the Baptist Church and was counseled regularly by the local Baptist minister. This was the topic of conversation one day in the kitchen at the boarding house and Kathlyn asked the black lady who worked with them there what church she belonged to. "Oh", she said, "I'm a Baptist. It's the only church it says to join in the bible. The bible says, 'Join the Baptist'".

As the summer of 1928 came to a close, it became all too obvious that nothing was going to stop the cancer that was killing Bert. In desperation, Tom Fisher bought a contraption that was advertised as a cure and marketed by a fellow in California. The IONACO ad, below, appeared in several magazines across the country and Tom Fisher answered an ad just like this one. The device costs about $5.75 to manufacture and the price was $58.50 cash or $65.00 on the convenient payment plan.

This ad was provided by The Museum of Questionable Medical Devices, Minneapolis, MN

Tom used it some and always said it seemed to soothe his aches and pains. Acceptance at last settled in and Bert made his final wishes known. He wanted to go back to Bemis with Benton and he wished to be laid to rest at Bonham, Texas. So Tom went with Bert back to Tennessee to stay with Benton and his family. On September 30, 1928, Bert passed away. They took him back to Texas and buried him in the Willow Wild Cemetery at Bonham. 

Link to the last letter Bert wrote home.