Joseph Ernest Meyer (September 5, 1878 – March 9, 1950) was a botanist, writer, illustrator, publisher, and supplier of pharmaceutical-grade herbs and roots to the drug trade who became a prominent citizen and eventually a millionaire in Northwest Indiana.
[1][2] Meyer not only supplied large pharmaceutical firms with drug-grade botanicals, he made up and packaged medical, culinary, and magical herbs for retail sales through his mail order catalogues and yearly almanacs.
Many of the plants were raised in Indiana, but he also travelled the world to connect with growers in tropical and Mediterranean climates, and was a major importer of raw botanicals.
The Indiana Botanic Garden catalogues and almanacs were illustrated with his own artwork, both line-art and water colours, and he wrote extensively about the folkloric customs employed by herbalists from many cultures.
During the 1920s and early 1930s, prior to occupying Meyer's Castle, he and his family lived in the John Henry McClay Mansion at 226 Waltham St. in Hammond, directly across from the south end of Harrison Park.
Joseph E. Meyer's seed catalog operation, which began in earnest in 1910, was originally out of a small wood-frame building less than one block east of this home, at the SW corner of Waltham St. & Lyman Ave.