T & W was the trademark of a New York City company called Taylor & Wilson. A manufacturer and bottler of mineral water as well as a bottler of ales and porters, the firm operated under that name from approximately 1860 to 1880. The roots of the business however date back a decade earlier to a man named Monroe (sometimes Monro) Battell.
As early as 1850 Battell was listed in the New York City directories with the occupation “soda water’ and an address of 116 Wooster Street. Sometime around 1852 he moved the business to 127 Reade Street and partnered with James B. Haight and John Taylor forming the business of Haight, Battell & Taylor.
As early as 1852, this June 26th advertisement in the “Poughkeepsie Journal” announced that Haight, Battell & Taylor’s “Sarsaparilla and Soda,” as well as their “Bottled Porter, Pale Ale and Cider” were being sold as far as 100 miles north of New York City in Poughkeepsie, New York.
A year later, Haight left and the business continued under the name of Battell & Taylor until 1859 or 1860. At that point Battell left to pursue an interest in photography (daguerreotypes) and Taylor partnered with Thomas B. Wilson and together they established Taylor & Wilson.
Around this time a story in the July 20, 1863 edition of the “Brooklyn Daily Times” made it clear that one of their primary clients was the United States Army.
The firm of Taylor & Wilson have a large Mineral Water establishment…who supply the army with mineral water, porter, etc., to the amount of several thousands of dollars a month…
As far as I can tell, Taylor and Wilson sold to civilian merchants called sutlers who in turn supplied U. S. military installations throughout the country. In this series of advertisements found in the March 16, 1862 edition of the “New York Daily Herald,” Taylor & Wilson touted their bottled Porter, Ale, Lager, Cider, Sarsaparilla and Lemon Soda to sutlers who were serving no less than four separate Union facilities: General Sherman, Port Royal Department; General Burnside’s Headquarters; Porter’s Mortar Fleet in Key West and Ship Island Station in the Gulf of Mexica.
The Civil War years must have been good to Taylor & Wilson as evidenced by the fact that their bottling operation was running 24 hours a day. In fact, according to this classified advertisement the company was willing to pay double to those who worked the 10 P.M. to 6 A.M. shift. The ad appeared in the August 11, 1863 edition of the “New York Daily Herald.”
Sometime in late 1862 or early 1863 the company moved their operation to 139 – 141 Franklin Street. Their property, located in the block between Franklin Street and West Broadway, was depicted on the following plan found in New York Supreme Court records, “Henry Welsh vs. John Taylor.”
The court records indicate that initially their facility consisted of a single building that occupied the large, roughly square parcel facing Franklin Street. Later, in 1873, a four-story brick warehouse that encompassed much of the two back lots and the rear end of the alley was added.
The property was owned jointly by Taylor and Wilson until October 9, 1877 when, according to the court records, Wilson released his interest in the property to Taylor. Two years later, by 1880, the partnership was no longer listed in the directories, all suggesting that it was dissolved sometime in the late 1870’s.
Taylor continued to be listed individually as a mineral water manufacturer at the 139 – 141 address up through 1883. At that point he apparently relocated to 64 N. Moore Street where he was listed until 1888.
The subject bottle was blown in a mold, is pony sized and embossed “T & W” on one side and “141 Franklin St. on the other side.
As early as 1860 Taylor and Wilson’s bottling notice, published in the April 26th edition of the “New York Times” makes it clear that while continuing to use bottles embossed with the trademark “B & T (Battell & Taylor), the company had also begun to use bottles that were embossed with the T & W trademark and the 127 Reade Street address.
…Some of the bottles for said mineral and soda water are stamped and marked B & T., and others stamped and marked T & W.; and said bottles so used by us for porter and ale are stamped and marked T & W., No. 127 Reade-St., New York, and on the opposite side XX porter and ale.
Recognizing the subject bottle includes the embossed address of 141 Franklin Street, not 127 Reade Street, it certainly wasn’t included in the initial batch of bottles produced for Taylor & Wilson in 1860. This almost certainly dates it between 1862 or 1863 when the business moved to Franklin Street and the late 1870’s. It doesn’t exhibit an “XX” so it likely contained mineral water or soda.
The entire April 26, 1860 “Bottling Notice” appears below.
On a final note: Today, Varick Street has been extended and it now runs through the Franklin Street intersection, terminating at West Broadway one block to the south. This now puts 139 – 140 Franklin Street near the southwest corner of Varick and Franklin . The building located there today is a 10-story building built in 1915 so it doesn’t date back to the time frame of the Taylor & Wilson business.