Bottle collecting is an exciting hobby for many. Most are low cost at places like eBay. But the cost is even lower if you know of old dump sites in your area. Most folks of yesteryear used to toss their trash in their yards, down a hill, at the base of trees, in alleys, in their piles of coal and wood ash, down old outhouses, and along the shorelines, as horrible as that sounds. It is still being done today as we watch plastic trash destroy fish habitats. 

This bottle is Foss 2 oz. Liquid Fruit Flavor. Full Strength, Standard Quality, c1890s. The company was based out of Portland Maine. This antique bottle is 4 3/4" by 1 3/4" and is one of several we have found in our area, half in and half out of the ground.  

Vegetables, fruit and fish canning were an important part of Portland, Maine's economy in the 1890's. Below is a note of interest from www.mainememory.net. Note Foss in an earlier business with Schlotterbeck. 

Schlotterbeck & Foss bottle, Portland, ca. 1900Item 100193 info 
Maine Historical SocietyBottles that survive from Portland's industrial past reflect the variety of manufacturing in the city in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The square, brown glass bottle is embossed, "Schlotterbeck & Foss Co., Manufacturing Chemists, Portland, Maine."
(See bottle at their website: www.mainememory.net)
Augustus G. Schlotterbeck and Charles S. Foss founded Schlotterbeck & Foss Company in Portland in 1866.

The company began as a prescription apothecary shop, moving to patent medicines and flavoring extracts.
 

USE DILLS FAMILY EXTRACTS. (Paper labels were on the front of this bottle, embossing on the side.) This bottle 1890-1900.

We may all, at one time or another, have a moment or two of being upset with government regulating foods and drugs via the FDA but when I read some of the ingredients pedaled to the common people in yesteryear, you can see where there had to be some form of oversight. 

Professor Dill, (He was 21 when the Civil War ended) and he then started calling himself Professor Dill . I have no idea if he went to any college or taught. It doesn't appear so. He started his business right after the war ended in 1865.
WW DILL'S cough syrup had a claim (patent since 1907) to use his signature WW DILL on his label. You can see the actual paper label online at www.antiquemedicines.com or on Ebay or in my slideshow.

The label reads:
Dill's, Cough Syrup, WW Dill, 2 1/2 M. Chloroform in 1 OZ. Fluid of Alcohol 1%. A useful preparation for colds, coughs, hoarseness. Directions: Doses for adults 3/4 to 1/2 teaspoon every 1 to 2 hours. Doses for infants 5 to 10 drops. 5 to 10 years old 10 to 20 drops. SHAKE WELL BEFORE USING, Prepared by The Dill CO. Norristown, PA. 

Gee, honey, the kids are sleeping like logs!  (CHLOROFORM! & Alcohol!)

Noted online at www.werelate.org for WW DILL. (born 1844, died 1923)
During the Civil War, W. W. enlisted as a private with the 28th New Jersey Infantry for a nine month term. It was mustered in at Freehold, New Jersey and spent some time in the defense of Washington D.C.
W. W. fell ill there and was treated in "Lee House Hospital" for four months. On April 16, 1863 W. W. received a disability discharge for severe rheumatism from exposure. (I note he was only 19 years old in 1863)
After the war he became a patent medicine man, and marketed himself as "Professor W.W. Dill." Later he started the "Dill Medicine Company" of Norristown, Pennsylvania, and sold products like Dill's Pills, Healing Salve, Balm of Life, and Royal Cough Cure from which he built a fortune.

The Professor is mentioned in Appendix 2 of Bean's 1884 History of Montgomery Co, PA. The Chief Marshal listed the order of the parade for the honor of the centennial of Montgomery county on Thursday, September 11th, 1884. At the very end of the parade was Prof. Dill's Balm of Life wagon with red tent and blue banner.
He also advertised in a Montgomery County Directory as a "Patent Medicine Manufacturer" at Marshall and Stanbridge
.
Prof. W. W. Dill was involved with a splinter Mennonite group called Evangelical Mennonites (later renamed to the Bible Fellowship Church).

On a personal note: I have to mention, in having researched numerous bottles, I come across these deeper types of religious affiliations that several of the bottlers of 'cures' had... ever so tightly religious connections as they accumulated massive wealth. 

The Swamp-Root bottle was made in a sample, small and large size.

What was Dr. Kilmer's Swamp-Root? It was a diuretic for the kidneys and a mild laxative. I would call it the Go & Flow medicine of its day. Nothing has changed much in our needs.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION of Ingredients:
alcohol 10% (drug active ingredients)
buchu leaves (drug active ingredients)
scullcap leaves (drug active ingredients)
golden seal root (drug active ingredients)
colombo root (drug active ingredients)
valerian root (drug active ingredients)
cinnamon (drug active ingredients)
oil of juniper (drug active ingredients)
oil of birch (drug active ingredients)
balsam copaiba (drug active ingredients)
balsam tolu (drug active ingredients)
venice turpentine (drug active ingredients)
peppermint herb (drug active ingredients)
rhubarb root (drug active ingredients)
mandrake root (drug active ingredients)
sassafras (drug active ingredients)
cape aloes (drug active ingredients)
(The National Museum of American History)  

If you go to Bottles.com you can read an extensive history of Andral S. Kilmer. He was known as the 'Swamp-Root King.' That website has several paragraphs noted from History of the Kilmer Family in America by Charles H. Kilmer 1897. 

Around 1878 Andral set up a practice and dispensary in Binghamton, NY. His brothers Jonas and Andrew joined the lucrative firm, as well as his nephew Willis, son of Jonas who had taken courses in modern advertising for the times at Cornell. He placed his Uncle Andral likeness on the products boxes and in the pamphlets. It was a financial boon. By 1895, it is noted that the company sold 18 different medicines. The best sellers was Swamp-Root. But it seems Andral was cast aside or 'brought out' unwillingly by his wonderful relatives in 1892. GREED. It seems to always rear its ugly head... Dr. Andral sued his relatives 'bitterly complaining about his being disenfranchised.' Jonas and his son Willis ran the company until Jonas died in 1924.

Noted: Willis bought estates, an ocean-yacht, and a stud farm. A patron of the arts, won the Kentucky Derby, exhibited at Madison Square Garden, introduced golf to his area of NY, founded a newspaper, and left his widow 10-15 million dollars. 

At www.sueyounghistories.com: Frederick K. Humphreys 1816-1900. In 1844 he practiced medicine with his father, Dr. Erastus Humphreys, then after in 1848 he attended the Pennsylvania  Homeopathic Medical College in Philadelphia where he earned a title of Doctor of Homeopathic Medicine. By 1854, living in New York City, he started Humphreys Homeopathic Medicine, and by 1856 he made medicines called Homeopathic Specifics for animals, and continued to do so until his death.  

At www.verterinarycollectibles.com: The Homeopathic Specifics for animals had a range of 15% to as high as 52% alcohol in the bottle! Depending on which bottle was bought, the medicines treated a range of livestock issues: Distemper, colic, strangle, convulsions. lung congestion, belly ache, wind blown and fever in livestock.

I imagine there were plenty of drunk livestock meandering about back in those days. 

These bottles are most likely 1856 to 1900.