Copied from Beneath Ben Lomond’s Peak: A History of Weber County, 1824-1900, pg 327-328
Pioneer Medicine
The majority of the settlers in this frontier wilderness were left to their own initiative to develop remedies and cures for disease. They learned from the Indians regarding the herbs and methods of curing diseases that the natives had used, and they developed many new ideas of their own — some of them erroneous, however. These were freely passed from one pioneer home to another. Some of their remedies seem rather amusing to us.
Onions were used in several different ways. In the words of Mary A. Jost, “Onions were used as poultices. Putting sugar on them and placing them in slow heat, a syrup was drawn off that had great medicinal value.” They were also placed in a fire of red coals and when hot the hearts of the onions were placed between flannels and put over the ear to cure earache. Asafetida was placed in small bags and hung around the neck to prevent sickness.
The following are some of the roots and herbs used from their medicinal value: Horehound, for colds and coughs; flaxseed, for poultices; arnica, in making ointment and liniment; marshmallow, hops, and wild mustard seed, for poultices; dandelion root, blood purifier; dandelion beer made from the plant and hop leaves, sassafras and senna, sulphur and molasses, all used as spring tonic; burned sulphur for house disinfectant; chopped raw carrots mixed with coal oil, for croup; hop blossoms put in a bag under the pillow for headaches.
A number of herbs and plants were steeped into tea and used to cure various ailments. Some of them were: the leaves of wild sagebrush used on hot cloths for fevers, chest colds, sprains and bruises for man and beast, the tea drunk to purify the blood; smartweed, used for fever; catnip and peppermint, used for colic; wormwood, used for fever; wormwood, given for worms, smallpox, and measles; tansy and yarrow, for cramps; saffron, for babies with rash; wild cherry bark, mountain grape, quaking aspen bark, black willow root, roots from yellow dock, nettles, and Indian root, all used as tonics; and the nervine plant — blossoms and leaves — used as a liniment.