Milton Sterling Speissegger was born on July 23rd, 1901 in New Augustine, Florida. His parents were Richard Taylor Speissegger and Mary Jane Hughes. He never married; however, he spent a good portion of his life helping co-own and restore the Oldest Store attraction, along with his brother Richard Alston Speissegger.
The Speisseggers claim that, because their family would never get rid of anything, it was easy to reopen their 100-year-old drugstore as a medical museum once it closed in the oldest city in America. The brothers stated that their grandfather started the company after moving to Florida to grow oranges and opened the pharmacy because “he almost starved to death because it took so long for the trees to grow.” Supplies were plentiful, as the distributor would throw in a medicine cabinet when a large amount was purchased. The brothers would often utilize purchasing in large quantities for this very reason.
DID YOU KNOW?
Milton Speissegger was drafted and served during World War II.
The drugstore’s shelves were crammed with an overwhelming number of patent medications. Some of these medicines have long since been phased out of the market, such as the 1875 Shaker’s Liniment. Once revived as the “Authentic Old Drugstore,” it still had 76 varieties of castor oil on its shelves, along with a variety of other medications, from tooth soap to a veterinary medication marked “bad conditions” — a medication Milton Speissegger would recommend when a customer had a sick animal inquiry and they were unsure what was wrong. Milton and his brother Richard Alston resided in and ran the drugstore together for years.
On New Year’s Day in 1973, a devastating fire destroyed their home. Milton Speissegger, then 72 years old, and his brother made the decision to sell the pharmacy to a tourism firm.
In October of 1980, Milton Speissegger passed away at the age of 79.
