The M stands for Mason O Fuller. The Brooklyn City Directory’s for 1862 and 1863 listed him under Soda Water with an address of 75 Remson. The Brooklyn City Directory’s for 1865 and 1866 listed him under Soda Water Manufacturer at 67 Remson. Strangely he was not listed in the 1864 Directory.
We know he was in business in 1861 (the year is embossed on the bottle) but he’s not listed in the 1858 Directory, so the business likely started sometime between 1858 and 1860.
Sometime in the late 1860’s Fuller turned the business over to Theron Neff, who at the time was an employee of the business. According to Neff’s obituary, published in the April 5, 1906 edition of the Brooklyn Times Union:
Mr. Neff came to Brooklyn in 1865. He went to live in the Fifteenth Ward and accepted a position with Mason O. Fuller…Mr. Neff worked worked for Mr. Fuller for three or four years, and finally obtained control of the business and afterwards conducted it under the name of T. L. Neff.
The business continued under Neff and later his sons, Louis and Edwin, up until 1935.
Today both 67 and 75 Remson are old brownstones with a cellar under the main entrance stoop. Its likely that this was Fuller’s residence or possibly a retail location. According to the Neff obituary the plant at that time was located in Grand Street near Grahm Avenue.
The bottle is a pony with an applied blob finish.