Clearwater will soon be hosting its first  occasional sale Oct. 14 and 15 from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Clearwater Lion’s building.

 

The Harvest Moon Occasional Sale will feature a variety of quality items for purchase, including collectables, antiques, vintage items, crafts, and a line of face and body products called Jennie’s Pure and Simple Products.

 

Author Cynthia Frank-Stupnik and her sister, Becky Frank, created Jennie’s Pure and Simple Products after they were inspired by a trip to the Amana Colonies in Iowa last spring. 

Driving home they started bouncing ideas off of each other, and realized Jennie Phillips, from Stupnik’s novel, Scruples and Drams, would be the perfect face for their new venture.

 

Scruples and Drams is centered around the life of Phillips, a young apprentice pharmacist in her father’s Clearwater drugstore in the late nineteenth century. 

 

While Scruples and Drams is a novel, Jennie Phillips is an actual woman who lived in Clearwater in the late 1800s and  mid 1900s. 

 

Phillips’ father owned the Phillips Drugstore that was originally located on Oak Street and then moved to Main Street in 1894-1895. She was born in 1873, and attended the St. Cloud Normal School to become a teacher. 

 

After she taught at Atwater School for a year her parents asked her to come home and help in the family’s drugstore. She did, and began working under her father as an apprentice pharmacist. 

 

In 1894 she passed all the pharmaceutical state tests, however the state wouldn’t give her a license because she was a woman.

 

Undaunted, Phillips attended Dr. Drew’s School of Pharmacy. She graduated first in her class around 1900 and became Clearwater’s first female pharmacist. After her father passed away, she took over the store which she ran until her death in 1940.

 

Along with inspiration from Phillips and the Amana Colonies, Stupnik also started making products for Jennie’s Pure and Simple line for herself. She has a number of allergies and reacts to most products sold in stores, so was looking for simple, natural products for her own use.

 

Using recipes found online, she created Jennie’s Facial Cream. It worked well for her, so she continued with other products, including body butter, salt rubs and lip gloss. 

 

Frank began making bar and facial soaps. All the ingredients both sisters use in their products are natural, and the recipes are simple.

 

Jennie’s Pure and Simple Products will be available at the Harvest Moon Occasional Sale along with Stupnik’s books, as well as totes, tea towels and postcards with historical Clearwater scenes. 

 

For product photos and updates prior to the sale, visit https://www.facebook.com/events/313572995680955/ or https://www.facebook.com/daughterofthemiddleborderbooks.