This 1904 image of a shop in New Lambton is a fine example of Ralph Snowball’s technical and aesthetic excellence in documenting the commercial life of his town. I have long wanted to write a story on Thompson’s store, but my knowledge to date can be expressed in a single sentence: Joseph Thompson operated a store on the south-west corner of Hobart and Wallarah Roads from 1901 to 1910.
However, as with many Snowball photographs a close inspection reveals a wealth of detail, such as the advertisements on the shed wall. Researching them led to some unexpected places. A search of the product names reveals that the United States Trading Company exhibited a collection of Nirvana Tea and Yankee Doodle Jams at the 1903 Newcastle Show. The company was run by Holmes Samuel Chipman, who proved to be a somewhat ‘creative’ entrepreneur.
Chipman was born in Canada in 1850 and moved to the United States in 1868 for study and work. In 1879 he arrived in Australia and established himself as a merchant. From 1881 he began a relentless campaign of registering a multitude of trademarks and patents for an astonishing variety of products: agricultural tools, musical instruments, medicinal remedies, cosmetics, hairbrushes, clocks, heating and illuminating oils, bicycles, carriage parts, and various foods and drinks. In 1883 he registered the trademark “Dr. Scott” to be used for “electric flesh brushes and electric tooth charms.” (The nature of these devices was one rabbit-hole too much for me and I leave them as an exercise for the reader’s imagination.)
In 1904 Chipman’s business empire crashed, having accumulated £27,500 of debt, equivalent to $5M today. In bankruptcy court Chipman admitted setting up multiple companies for the purpose of deceiving banks into providing loans. In August 1905 the US Trading Company was wound up, and Yankee Doodle Jam faded into history except for Snowball’s photo of Thompson’s store. The corner store is long gone, but unfortunately shonky businesses and financial fraud linger on.
The article above was first published in the July 2025 edition of The Local.
Joseph Thompson’s Store
John Gillespie Thompson purchased portion 1451 of the Newcastle Pasturage Reserve, on the south west corner of Hobart Rd and Wallarah Rd, in July 1891. After his death the property passed to his widow Mary in 1898, and then subsequently to her son Joseph in 1902. (Vol-Fol 1021-233)
There are only a few passing mentions of Thompson’s store in the newspapers from 1901 to 1910. These occur mostly in reports of New Lambton council meetings when referring to the location of road or drain repairs, or location of tram stops.
- 1 Mar 1901 – Alderman Shepherd suggested that the Commissioners be asked to appoint a stopping place at Thompson’s store.
- 11 Oct 1901 – Alderman Dunckley moved, “That Mr. Thompson’s offer to supply the stone for the dish gutter, opposite his premises in Hobart-road, be accepted.”
- 24 Oct 1902 – The Mayor recommended that a mitre drain be cut in Wallarah-road, near Thompson’s store.
- 1 Nov 1906 – Letter from Mr. W. Atkinson, drawing attention to the state of the crossing over the tramline near Mr. J. Thompson’s store.
- 31 Oct 1907 – Alderman Beath suggested that a load of gravel be placed near Thompson’s store.
- 28 Jul 1909 – mention of “Joseph Thompson, of New Lambton, storekeeper”
- 28 Apr 1910 – Alderman Jordan brought under the notice of the Mayor the state of Hobart-road, near Thompson’s store.
Thompson’s store was an ideal location to place full size wall advertisements, as the Newcastle to Wallsend tramline ran past the store on Hobart Rd.
Holmes Samuel Chipman
Biographical Details
Most of these details are derived from the 1920 publication THE CHIPMAN FAMILY. A GENEALOGY OF The Chipmans In America, 1631-1920.
Chipman was born in Berwick, Nova Scotia, Canada on 22 December 1850. After graduating from school he worked as a school teacher in Nova Scotia 1866-1868. He moved to Boston USA in 1868 where he studied and then taught at the Bryant-Stratton Commercial College. He then worked in a number of jobs in Michigan, New York, New England, Minnesota, and California.
In 1870 he moved to Japan to work in printing and publishing, before returning to the USA in 1876. He moved to Australia in 1879 and set up a “general mercantile business”. Based on addresses given in trademark applications appears to have been initially based in Melbourne before relocating to Sydney in 1884. He married Julia Anna Ventrillion Tortat on 1 August 1882.
A December 1915 article about a house in Sydney that Chipman had at one time occupied, indicates that he had by this time returned to America. [Note that the 1920 genealogy says that Chipman moved to Australia “where he now carries on a business”, implying that he was still in Australia in 1920. I suspect that is incorrect, and due to the author reproducing the sentence from an earlier 1905 geneaology of the Chipmans.]
Chipman died in Oceanside, Nassau County in New York on 9 September 1941 and was then buried in the town of his birth, Berwick, Nova Scotia, Canada.
Shonky business
When I first started to write this article I was a little hesitant at characterising Chipman as a shonky businessman, but the more I learned of him the more it became clear that his entrepreneurial actions were of a highly dubuious nature.
The first suspicions arise when noting Chipman’s trademark registrations for “medicinal preparations” such as “St Jacobs Oil”, “Hamburg Tea”, and Minerva Tonic. These were stereotypical ‘snake oil’ medicines, made from inoccuous ingredients but claiming miraculuous powers to cure a wide range of ailments.
ST. JACOBS OIL, is the Most Efficacious Liniment Known. There is no Lotion or Embrocation in the world with which it can be compared, and the sale of it largely exceeds the sale of all other preparations combined which are advertised for similar use. ST. JACOBS OIL is an Established Cure of Marvellous Merit for Rheumatism, Neuralgia, Stiff Joints, Swellings, &c., and a sure relief from all aches and pains of every description. Every bottle of ST. JACOBS OIL Contains a Cure. It has never been puffed, but it has been thoroughly tried and never found wanting. It always does what is claimed for it that it will do. It has SAVED THOUSANDS OF LIVES, relieved Millions of Sufferers, and earned the Gratitude of the Nations.
Adverttisement for St. Jacobs Oil, 19 June 1897.
Many a serious illness might be spared by the knowledge that MINERVA TONIC, taken when the first symptoms of health failure manifest themselves, is a perfect safeguard in cases of Nervous and Physical Weakness, INFLUENZA, PROSTRATION, LOSS OF ENERGY, MENTAL DEPRESSION, ANAEMIA, INSOMNIA, LOSS OF APPETITE, IMPAIRED MEMORY AND VISION, AND SIMILAR WEAKNESSES OF THE SYSTEM. MINERVA TONIC restores the natural waste, and provides the requisite material for building up the system ou a sound and healthy basis. It creates a regular appetite and promotes digestion, acts on nerve and muscle at the same time, inflicts no injury on the constitution, and is in every sense of the word what its name implies – a perfect tonic that may be taken with advantage by patients of either sex. MINERVA TONIC is Necessary to Health. Strongly recommended in cases of BILIOUSNESS, TORPID LIVER, GASTRIC TROUBLES, HEADACHE, DIZZINESS, &c.
Advertisement for Minerva Tonic, 19 June 1897.
A second warning sign is the number of times Chipman is involved in court cases, either as plaintiff or defendant.
- 4 Sep 1894 – In court over damaged printing paper
- 24 Aug 1897 – Taken to court by employee for unpaid money
- 10 Mar 1898 – In court regarding a dispute over Minerva tonic
- 19 Nov 1903 – In court regarding a disputer over the supply of paper to the “Evening News”
The most damning evidence appears after the collapse of Chipman’s business empire, when he is questioned in the Bankruptcy Court over a number of days. (10 March 1905, 11 March 1905, 17 March 1905, 21 March 1905, 22 March 1905) In this testimony I found much that paralleled the actions of modern day fraudsters and failed business operators when they are brought to justice, in particular the frequent use of ‘convenient amnesia’, answering questions with “I can’t remember.” The court testimony brought to light a slew of financial irregularity and ‘creative’ accounting committed by Chipman.
- Setting up of shell companies to obfuscate financial dealings
- Avoiding liablities by moving assets to family members
- Setting up multiple companies to fraudulently obtain credit from the bank
- ‘Paying’ debts with worthless shares in worthless companies
- Exaggerating the prospects of company profitability
- Making ‘guarantees’ of profitability that could not be fulfilled
- Investing in mining companies that subsequently failed
- Doctoring the company balance sheet by
- Inflating the value of assets
- Counting spurious and disputed ‘debts’ owed by other companies as assets
- Hiding of debts by offloading them to an associated company in New York
- Counting debts owed to him by insolvents as assets
- Counting assets twice
- Valuing assets by what he had originally paid for them, not what they were currently worth
Amongst all of this trickery my favourite discovery was when Chipman paid a cash bonus to a relative in New York. He then included this amount in his Australian company balance-sheet as an asset, because the relative had supposedly agreed to pay back the bonus! Of course, this never happened and the ‘asset’ was written off.
Trademarks and Patents
Applications for trademarks and patents by Holmes Samuel Chipman in Australia in the period 1881 to 1903:
| Date | Type | Name | Description |
| 26/8/1881 | Trademark | St. Jacobs Oil | Medicinal preparation |
| 28/11/1882 | Trademark | Palace | Musical organs |
| 12/12/1882 | Trademark | Collins & Co. | Hardware, including shovels, spades, axes, hatchets, and other edged tools. |
| 2/2/1883 | Trademark | Buckeye | Mowing machines, combined with table rake or reaper or dropper, reaping and binding machines, threshing machines, and other agricultural implements |
| 2/2/1883 | Trademark | Hamburg Tea | Medicinal preparation |
| 22/6/1883 | Trademark | Dr. Scott | Electric hair brushes, electric flesh brushes, and electric tooth charms |
| 6/6/1883 | Trademark | Ansonia Clock Co. | Horological instruments, such as clocks, chronometers, and watches |
| 6/7/1883 | Trademark | Peep o’ Day | Horological instruments, such as clocks, chronometers, and watches |
| 6/7/1883 | Trademark | Electric | Electric hair brushes, electric flesh brushes, and electric tooth charms |
| 4/12/1883 | Trademark | Hollingsworth | Horse rakes and other agricultural and horticultural implements and machines |
| 4/12/1883 | Trademark | Taylor | Horse rakes and other agricultural and horticultural implements and machines |
| 4/12/1883 | Trademark | Moline | Ploughs and other agricultural and horticultural implements and machines |
| 4/12/1883 | Trademark | Buford | Ploughs and other agricultural and horticultural implements and machines |
| 4/12/1883 | Trademark | Goulds | Pumps and machinery of all kinds and parts of machinery including agricultural and horticultural implements and machines |
| 4/12/1883 | Trademark | Toledo | Vehicles and wood work as parts of carriages or other vehicles |
| 4/12/1883 | Trademark | Acme | Harrows and other agricultural and horticultural implements and machines |
| 9/2/1884 | Trademark | Manvel | Windmills |
| 12/8/1884 | Trademark | Colonist | Edge tools of every description, and tools or implements used in agriculture, horticulture, and manufacture. |
| 12/8/1884 | Trademark | Champion | Edge tools of every description, and tools or implements used in agriculture, horticulture, and manufacture. |
| 21/10/1884 | Trademark | CARPENTER | Musical organs |
| 4/12/1884 | Patent | Improvements in reaping and binding machines | |
| 9/4/1886 | Trademark | Kismet | Watches, clocks, and all other horological instruments. |
| 30/7/1886 | Trademark | Vestal | Oils, including kerosene, petroleum, benzoline-naptha, and other heating and illuminating oils |
| 30/7/1886 | Trademark | Santa Claus | Oils, including kerosene, petroleum, benzoline-naptha, and other heating and illuminating oils |
| 30/7/1886 | Trademark | Dew Drop | Oils, including kerosene, petroleum, benzoline-naptha, and other heating and illuminating oils |
| 30/7/1886 | Trademark | Liberty | Oils, including Kerosene, Petroleum, Benzoline, Naptha, and other heating and illuminating Oils. |
| 14/10/1887 | Trademark | Snowflake | Oils, including kerosene, petroleum, benzoline-naptha, and other heating and illuminating oils |
| 4/8/1888 | Patent | Improvements in the treatment of saccharine juices and unrefined sugar. | |
| 7/12/1888 | Patent | Improvements in the undergear of buggies and such like vehicles. | |
| 13/11/1894 | Trademark | Minerva | Perfumery (including toilet articles, preparations for the teeth and hair, and perfumed soap) |
| 4/12/1894 | Trademark | Minerva | Mineral and aerated water, natural and artificial, including ginger beer. |
| 9/7/1895 | Trademark | Melba | Musical instruments |
| 17/12/1895 | Trademark | Minerva | Substances used as food or as ingredients in food |
| 13/6/1896 | Patent | An improved detective lock, principally useful for locking mail bags, cream cans, and other receptacles. | |
| 16/10/1896 | Patent | An improvement in balls for ball-nozzles for distributing water and other fluids under pressure. | |
| 27/10/1896 | Patent | An improved pneumatic carrier receiver and dispatcher for the same. | |
| 8/12/1896 | Trademark | Greyhound | Bicycles |
| 8/12/1896 | Trademark | Explorer | Bicycles |
| 5/1/1897 | Trademark | Cyclops | Cycles |
| 5/1/1897 | Trademark | Raven | Cycles |
| 5/2/1897 | Trademark | The McKinley Bicycle | Cycles |
| 12/1/1897 | Trademark | Nirvana | Arrowroot, coffee, coffee and chicory, French coffee, chicory, cocoa, dandelion coffee, dandelion cocoa, carraways, cassia, cinnamon, cloves, chillies, coriander, farine, ginger, groats, ground rice, icing sugar, mace, mixed spice, meal (a mixture of oatenmeal and wheatenmeal), meal (digestive), maizemeal, mustard, nutmegs (whole), nutmegs (ground), oats (cooked rolled), oatmeal, pearl barley, peasemeal, peppers, pimento or allspice, rice split peas, sago, tapioca, tartaric acid, cream of tartar, bi-carbonate of soda, saltpetre, wheatmeal, curry powders and paste, egg powder, jelly, pudding powders, table oils, yeast and custard powders, lime juice cordial, lemon syrup, raspberry syrup, raspberry vinegar, tea, sago, flour, tapioca flour, desiccated cocoanut, honey, cornflour, self-raising flour, flour, hops, condensed milk, condiments, salt, biscuits, infants’ and invalids’ food, tinned meat, tinned fish, dried fish, confectionery, liquorice, macaroni, vermicelli, beer preservatives, butter and food preservatives, butter colouring, malt, dried fruits, crystallised fruits, dates, dog biscuits, extract of meat, finings for beer, wine, and coffee, drink flavourings, gellatine, isinglass, bread and cakes. |
| 16/2/1897 | Trademark | Blue Mountain | Cutlery and edge tools |
| 4/6/1897 | Trademark | Kumbo | Substances used as food or as ingredients in food |
| 4/6/1897 | Trademark | Tamilah | Substances used as food or as ingredients in food |
| 23/11/1897 | Trademark | Rhodia | Tea, coffee, coffee and chicory, French coffee, chicory, cocoa, dandelion coffee, dandelion cocoa, arrowroot, carraways, cassia, cinnamon, cloves, chillies, coriander, ginger, groats, ground rice, icing sugar, mace, mixed spice, meal (a mixture of oatmeal and wheatenmeal), meal (digestive), maizemeal, mustard, nutmegs (whole), nutmegs (ground), oats (cooked, rolled), oatmeal, pearl barley, peasemeal, peppers, pimento or allspice^ rice, split peas, sago, tapioca, tartaric acid, cream of tartar, bicarbonate of soda, saltpetre, wheatmeal, curry powders and paste, egg powder, jelly pudding powders, table oils, yeast and custard powders, lime juice cordial, lemon syrup, raspberry syrup, raspberry vinegar, sago flour, tapioca flour, desiccated cocoanut, honey, corn flour, self-raising flour, flour, hops, condensed milk, condiments, salt, biscuits, infants’ and invalids’ food, tinned meat, tinned fish, dried fish, confectionery, liquorice, macaroni, vermicelli, beer preservatives, butter and food preservatives, butter colouring, malt, dried fruits, crystallised fruits, dates, dog biscuits, extract of meat, finings for beer, wine, and coffee, drink flavourings, gelatine, isinglass, bread and cakes. |
| 27/9/1898 | Trademark | Quaker | Agricultural and horticultural machinery and parts of such machinery |
| 18/10/1898 | Trademark | Extermo | Insect destroying preparation |
| 22/11/1898 | Trademark | Karma | Arrowroot, coffee, coffee and chicory, French coffee, chicory, cocoa, dandelion coffee, dandelion cocoa, carraways, cassia, cinnamon, cloves, chillies, coriander, ginger, groats, ground rice, icing sugar, mace, mixed spice, meal (a mixture of oatenmeal and wheatenmeal), meal (digestive), maizemeal, mustard, nutmegs (whole), nutmegs (ground), oats (cooked rolled), oatmeal, pearl barley, peasemeal, peppers, pimento or allspice, rice, split peas, sago, tapioca^ tartaric acid, cream of tartar, bicarbonate of soda, saltpetre, wheatmeal, currie powders and paste, egg powder, “jelly” pudding powders, table oils, yeast and custard powders, lime juice cordial, lemon syrup, raspberry syrup, raspberry vinegar, tea, sago flour, tapioca flour, desiccated cocoanut, honey, cornflour, self raising flour, flour, hops, condensed milk, condiments, salt, biscuits, infants’ and invalids’ food, tinned meat, tinned fish, dried fish, confectionery, liquorice, macaroni, vermicelli, beer preservatives, butter and food preservatives, butter colouring malt, dried fruits, crystallised fruits, dates, dog biscuits extract of meat, finings for beer, wine, and coffee drink flavourings, gelatine, isinglass, bread and cakes |
| 14/3/1899 | Patent | Improvements in certain descriptions of oil-lamp burners. | |
| 17/10/1899 | Trademark | Rem-Sho | Typewriters |
| 10/04/1900 | Trademark | Vervos | Patent medicines |
| 22/01/1901 | Trademark | Vitos | Manufactured cereal products and cognate substances |
| 29/05/1901 | Trademark | Busy Bee | Sewing machines |
| 17/09/1901 | Trademark | Countess | Sewing machines |
| 20/05/1902 | Trademark | Klenzene | a liquid preparation of ammonia |
| 10/06/1902 | Trademark | Coronet | Sewing machines |
| 19/08/1902 | Trademark | Bo-Co | Substances used as food or as ingredients in food |
| 9/09/1902 | Trademark | White-Pearl | Baking powder |
| 3/02/1903 | Trademark | Tamara | Tea and all other substances used as fpod or as ingredients in food |
| 24/02/1903 | Trademark | Kandena | Tea and all other substances used as fpod or as ingredients in food |
| 24/02/1903 | Trademark | Saratta | Tea and all other substances used as fpod or as ingredients in food |
Some of the trademark applications include graphics of the product. The one for “Bo-Co” is weird and quite creepy.
