In 1883 James T. Weeks partnered with Capt. Thomas E Hawkins and together they manufactured and bottled soda and mineral water in Bayport, Long Island for twelve years under the name of Hawkins & Weeks.
In September, 1894 Weeks in an effort to pursue other interests, sold his share of the business to Hawkins. More on Hawkins & Weeks can be found in another post on this site. Hawkins & Weeks
A feature on Weeks, published in the June 24, 1898 edition of the Suffolk County News picks up the story from there.
In the spring of 1895 James T Weeks, who had for a number of years been a member of the firm of Hawkins & Weeks engaged in the bottling business in Bayport, retired from the firm and established the South Side Bakery on Main Street in that village and also began the manufacture of ice cream on a large scale.
An advertisement for both the bakery and ice cream business appeared in the June 14, 1895 edition of the Suffolk County News.
The Feature on Weeks went on to say:
The bakery he disposed of the following year to Mr. Joseph Douglass but the ice cream business he retained. He removed his family to Rockville Centre where he is engaged in the business of bottling soda and mineral waters and has a large and growing trade. He gives his personal attention to both establishments dividing his time between the places and his efforts to cater to the public are ably seconded by his estimable wife who resides in Bayport and has charge of the ice cream factory and of the parlors connected with it where ice cream, soda water, fancy cakes and confectionery are on sale.
The “Annual Report of the Factory Inspectors of the State of New York in 1898 indicated that Weeks’ mineral water business had 3 employees during that time, all male (no address). The same report in 1903 showed water bottling at a Centre Avenue location in Rockville Centre (no employee information).
James T Weeks listed his occupation as mineral water manufacturer and as soda water in the 1900 and 1910 census records respectively. In the 1920 census, he was back in Bayport, employed as a driver.
Based on this information, his Rockville Centre bottling business was operational from roughly 1896 until sometime in the 1910’s.
All the bottles I’ve found were mouth blown: two 27 oz with a tooled blob finish, several 8 oz tooled crowns and one siphon bottle. Haven’t seen a machine made bottle, even on the Internet. This supports the time frame of the business as estimated above.