New York City in the mid-1800s was filthy. It was loud, crowded, and governed by a strict moral code that almost nobody actually followed. If you walked down Fifth Avenue, you might see a woman draped in silk and diamonds, riding in a carriage that cost more than most people earned in a decade. That was Ann Trow Lohman. But the newspapers? They called her "The Witch of New York."
She wasn't casting spells or stirring a cauldron in a hut. Honestly, she was doing something much more dangerous for the time. She was providing reproductive healthcare.
Ann Lohman, better known as Madame Restell, became the most hated and most sought-after woman in the city. She was an English immigrant with zero formal medical training who built a multi-million dollar empire out of "preventative powders" and surgical procedures. People called her a "monster" and a "hag," but those same people—the wealthy elites of Manhattan—were often the ones sneaking into her brownstone at night. It’s a wild story about power, hypocrisy, and how a woman basically ran an underground medical monopoly for forty years.
The Myth of the Wicked Witch
Calling her a witch wasn't just a catchy nickname. In the 19th century, labeling a woman a witch was a specific tactical move used to strip away her humanity. The press, led by the relentless George Matsell and later the moral crusader Anthony Comstock, painted her as a dark figure who preyed on the innocent. They claimed she had "charms" to make babies disappear.
But if you look at the actual history, Restell was just a brilliant marketer. She arrived in New York in 1831 and realized very quickly that the city had a massive, unspoken problem. Women were dying from botched at-home abortions or being forced into poverty by having more children than they could feed. Restell saw a market gap. She rebranded herself as a "midwife" and started selling "Female Monthly Pills."
She wasn't hiding. That’s what really pissed people off.
💡 You might also like: Virgo Love Horoscope for Today and Tomorrow: Why You Need to Stop Fixing People
Restell took out massive advertisements in the New York Herald. She lived in a mansion on 52nd Street and Fifth Avenue, right next to St. Patrick’s Cathedral. It was the ultimate "in your face" to the religious establishment. She’d drive her carriage right past the churches, draped in sable furs, essentially daring the law to touch her. For a long time, they couldn't. She knew too many secrets. When you're the person who "handles" the indiscretions of the city's most powerful men, you’re basically untouchable. Until you aren't.
How the Business Actually Worked
Let’s get into the weeds of how Madame Restell operated. It wasn't just pills. She ran a full-scale private hospital. If you were a wealthy socialite who found yourself "in a delicate condition," you’d check into her Fifth Avenue mansion. You’d stay there for a few weeks, receive care, and leave without a word ever being spoken about it.
She charged on a sliding scale. This is a detail most people miss. If you were rich, she’d charge you hundreds of dollars—a fortune back then. If you were a poor factory worker, she might do it for next to nothing or a very small fee.
- Product Line: She sold "Preventative Powders" and "Female Monthly Pills." These were usually made of ergot, tansy, or pennyroyal.
- Surgical Services: When the pills failed, she performed procedures.
- The Boarding House: She provided a safe place for women to stay post-op, which was unheard of.
Her branding was genius. She used the title "Madame" to sound French and sophisticated because, in the 1840s, anything French was considered "expert" in matters of the body and fashion. It was a total lie—she was from Gloucestershire—but it worked. She understood that in New York, image is everything. You can be a "witch" as long as you look like a queen.
The Comstock War and the End of an Era
Things shifted after the Civil War. The country went through a "moral panic" phase, and a man named Anthony Comstock became the face of it. Comstock was the founder of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice. He hated Restell with a burning, obsessive passion. He didn't just see her as a criminal; he saw her as the literal devil.
📖 Related: Lo que nadie te dice sobre la moda verano 2025 mujer y por qué tu armario va a cambiar por completo
In 1873, the Comstock Laws were passed, making it a federal crime to send anything "obscene" through the mail. This included information about birth control or abortion. Restell was trapped.
Comstock eventually caught her using a sting operation. He went to her disguised as a man looking for birth control for his wife. When she sold it to him, he returned the next day with the police. The trial was a media circus. The "Witch of New York" was finally going down, and the city was obsessed.
The morning she was supposed to go to trial in 1878, she didn't show up. A chambermaid found her in her bathtub. She had ended her own life with a carving knife. Her last words were reportedly that the "private's" of the city would finally be happy now that she was gone. She died one of the wealthiest women in America, worth about $1 million—which is roughly $30 million today.
Why We Still Talk About Her
Madame Restell is a polarizing figure, even 150 years later. Was she a hero for women's autonomy or a greedy opportunist who profited from desperation? It’s probably both. History is rarely clean.
She wasn't a saint. She was sharp, occasionally ruthless, and incredibly arrogant. But she also provided a service that the government and the church refused to acknowledge was necessary. She exposed the hypocrisy of the Gilded Age. The same men who signed her arrest warrants were often the same men whose mistresses she had helped weeks prior.
👉 See also: Free Women Looking for Older Men: What Most People Get Wrong About Age-Gap Dating
When we look at the "Witch of New York," we aren't looking at a supernatural story. We're looking at the history of healthcare, class warfare, and the lengths a woman had to go to in order to own property and have power in a world that wanted her to have neither.
Practical Lessons from the Restell Era
If you're researching the history of New York or reproductive rights, there are a few things to keep in mind to get the full picture of Madame Restell’s impact.
- Check the sources: Most of what we know about her comes from tabloid newspapers like the National Police Gazette. They were the 19th-century version of clickbait. Take their "horror stories" with a grain of salt; they were designed to sell papers.
- Look at the architecture: If you’re ever in New York, go to the corner of 52nd and Fifth. The mansion is gone, but the proximity to St. Patrick’s Cathedral is still jarring. It helps you understand just how much she was "trolling" the establishment.
- Read the Comstock Laws: Understanding the legislation that brought her down explains a lot about how censorship worked in the U.S. for the next century. Many of those laws stayed on the books until the 1960s.
- Visit the New-York Historical Society: They often have exhibits on the "underworld" of old New York, including Restell's tools and advertisements.
Madame Restell wasn't a witch. She was a woman who saw a city full of secrets and decided to charge admission. Whether she was a villain or a visionary depends entirely on who you ask, but one thing is certain: she owned this city in a way few people ever have.
To understand the real history of New York, you have to look past the "witch" label and see the businesswoman underneath. Start by researching the "Restell-Comstock War" in the digital archives of the New York Public Library. It offers a raw look at the court transcripts that the newspapers of the time were too scared to print in full. You can also look into the history of the "Female Monthly Pills" to see how early pharmaceutical marketing actually functioned before the FDA existed.