This is Amy Wagenaar from the Historical Society of Michigan with a Michigan History Moment. The book was a best seller, and no American household could be without a copy. In its day, the only book that sold more copies per year was the Bible. Alvin Wood Chase was born in Cayuga, New York in 1817. He made his living peddling groceries and household drugs, an occupation that brought him into contact with people from all walks of life. In talking with customers, Chase picked up a wide variety of useful home remedies and household hints. He and his family settled in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1856, hoping to earn a medical degree from the University of Michigan. He audited his classes since he had never learned the Latin that U of M then required for its medical school. The medical profession was not rigorous in those carefree days of the mid19th century. After completing a four month course at the Eclectic Medical Institute in Cincinnati in 1857, he returned to Ann Arbor as Dr. Alvin Chase. But Dr. Chase would earn fame and fortune not as a physician, but as the compiler and publisher of a book. When he had first moved to Ann Arbor in 1856, he had published a little pamphlet with 17 of his favorite home remedies and sold it for a dollar. In 1858, he produced a larger pamphlet titled A guide to over 100 recipes for saloons, Innkeepers, Grocers, Druggists, Merchants and for families generally. By 1863, Dr. Chase's Recipes had become a 384 page book with some 800 recipes in its pages. Readers could find recipes and hints for such things as bread making, furniture stain and a wide variety of medicines for both humans and animals, ways to detect counterfeit currency, and the means to prevent steam boiler explosions. People said that every pioneer family heading for the west carried in its covered wagon a copy of Dr. Chase's Recipes. By late 1868, the book had sold more than 325,000 copies. Plagued by ill health, Alvin Chase sold his business in 1869 for $35,000 cash and $30,000 worth of Minnesota real estate. He moved to Minnesota, but soon returned to Ann Arbor. Dr. Chase died in 1885, with the final edition of Dr. Chase's Recipes debuting shortly after his death. By 1931, the book had sold some 4 million copies. This Michigan history moment was brought to you by michiganhistorymagazine.org.