Background note. Lobelia is the leaf of a tobacco plant that was used during the period to reduce the symptoms of asthma and bronchitis. Court plaster was a cloth coated with an adhesive substance used to cover cuts or scratches on the skin. Elizabeth (Liz) and Jesse Brosius were cousins of Sallie's from Octoraro in Lancaster County. Simpson Preston was from a prominent family that resided in London Grove Township in Chester County. His sister Ann was a renowned physician and founder of the Women's Hospital in Philadelphia. Ezra Gray was a family friend from West Fellowfield Township in Chester County. He would later operate a boarding school in Upper Oxford Township where Sallie may have taught in the 1860's.