Born in 1854 on a farm near Selma North, Carolina is the enterprising pharmacist who invented Vicks VapoRub.
The youngest of five, Lunsford experienced the dreadful effects of the War of Northern Aggression firsthand. He dreamed of one day establishing a business that would help the state prosper again. After graduating from Davidson College with honors, he worked as a school principal but then fatefully switched careers.
Using his savings, he bought a drugstore in Selma and began concocting home remedies, then he sold the store in Selma and bought a drugstore in Greensboro.
His children inspired him to create Vicks VapoRub, after they came down with colds and he felt he could improve upon the traditional treatment of the day. He eventually came up with the medicine that combined menthol, camphor and oil of eucalyptus in a petroleum salve that made breathing easier. He named it Vicks because he had a brother-in-law by that name, and he though it would be easy to remember.
A little known fact about Lunsford is that in 1905 he convinced the postal service to allow him to mail his advertising circulars to "Boxholder," rather than individuals. Thus he was the first to use such mailings making him also known as the "Father of Junk Mail".
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