Food and Beverage – Bay Bottles

Chandler & Rudd, Cleveland, Ohio, American Club House Cheese

American Club House Cheese, manufactured by the Chandler & Rudd Company of Cleveland, Ohio, was described like this in an October, 1895 advertisement found in “Cosmopolitan” magazine.

AMERICAN CLUB HOUSE CHEESE is a soft, rich cheese, unexcelled for lunch or dinner in private houses, clubs, restaurants and hotels. Put up in hermetically sealed glass jars, it is especially adapted for traveling or excursion luncheons.

It’s trademark was registered on December 20, 1891 and I suspect it was popular during the mid-1890’s when it was advertised in several national magazines including “Munsey’s,” “Cosmopolitan,” ” Life”and “Good Housekeeping.” Advertisements, both national and local to Cleveland, disappear by 1906, so it’s not clear if it remained on the market after that time.

Many American Club House Cheese advertisements, like the one below, found in the December, 1894 edition of “Good Housekeeping,” made the following offer.

A miniature jar of the Cheese will be sent to any address upon receipt of 10 cents in stamps, large size jar 50 cents, by express, prepaid.

The subject jar, containing approximately 3 liquid ounces, is likely the miniature version.

While the history of American Club House Cheese may have been relatively short, the history of its manufacturer, Chandler & Rudd was certainly not. Their story starts with George H. Chandler who, according to his biography found in “A History of Cleveland and its Environs,” published in 1918, was born in Stroud, England on May 6, 1835. At the age of 22 he set out for America where he settled in Cleveland, Ohio and began working with his uncle, Charles Chandler, a fruit and seed merchant. This May 14, 1858 advertisement for his uncle’s business found in the “Cleveland Plain Dealer,” was likely published around the time George joined the business.

Twelve years later, in December, 1870, George Chandler, along with another of Charles Chandler’s employees, Joseph Abbott, formed a copartnership and purchased the stock and good will of a grocery business called Jones, Potter & Co. Established several years earlier, in 1864, Jones, Potter & Co. called themselves “Dealers in Fine Groceries” in this advertisement that ran in several editions of the “Cleveland Plain Dealer” during the Fall of 1870.

On December 31, 1870 the Chandler & Abbott partnership along with their newly acquired grocery business were introduced to the public in the “Cleveland Plain Dealer.”

NEW GROCERY STORE AT THE OLD STAND. – Mr. G. H. Chandler and Mr. Joseph Abbott, both experienced grocery men, having been for many years with C. Chandler, have formed a copartnership under the name of Chandler & Abbott, and have purchased from the assignee of Jones, Potter & Co. the whole stock of choice groceries, etc., and will continue the business at No.86 Public Square. They will immediately open a stock of fresh goods of everything in the grocery and provision line; also all kinds game, fish and fowls, and in fact everything in their line is first class. Messrs. Chandler & Abbott hope that by their thorough knowledge of the business, and by giving careful attention to all customers, to keep a store that will merit a liberal share of public patronage.

The copartnership was initially listed at the 86 Public Square address in Cleveland’s 1871 city directory.

That said, it would be the partnership’s one and only listing in the Cleveland directory. Sometime during that first year Abbott either retired or simply left the business and was replaced by William Cullen Rudd.

The change had certainly occurred by November 4, 1871 when this “Cleveland Leader” advertisement listed the partnership of Chandler & Rudd at the 86 Public Square address.

Chandler & Rudd operated out of this location until the fall of 1876 when the November 18th edition of the “Cleveland Leader” announced that they were moving next door.

FROM 86 TO 88

Messrs. Chandler & Rudd’s Removal to Their New Store

For over five years the firm of Messrs. Chandler & Rudd have been doing business at No. 86 Public Square, but to meet the demands of their increasing patronage they have long felt the need of more room and better facilities. These they are now happily prepared to enjoy, and when the doors open on Saturday morning it will not be at No. 86, but at the “next door,” No. 88, in the elegant new quarters prepared and fitted for them and their business. “No. 88” is larger in every way than “No. 86,” (the rear of which is made a part of the new store), and has ample warehouse and storage facilities. The store proper is perfect in all its appointments, and affords all desirable conveniences for proprietors and patrons.

The stock – much of which is new – has been bought for the new place, and, if such a thing is possible, is finer and better than even the old stock…

This photograph of their 88 Public Square storefront appeared years later in the January 17, 1951 edition of the “Cleveland Plain Dealer.”

The caption below the photograph identified the man with the beard in the doorway (far left) as George Chandler.

On a side note: In 1882, a re-numbering of the street system changed the company address from No. 88 to No. 116 Public Square. The change was reflected in Cleveland’s 1882-1883 directory.

The November 18, 1876 “Cleveland Leader” story went on to describe a sampling of the products offered by the company at around the time they moved next door.

The display of goods is simply elegant. The stock of canned goods is made up of the choicest brands of Fruits, Vegetables, Soups, and the like, with new lines especially in Pears in gallon and half-gallon jars. Many of these they have also in glass, in which form they also show immense quantities of Preserves, Marmalades, Pickles, and other rare goods. An extra stock of Teas are also provided, and fancy Biscuits, Macaroons, etc., of the Kennedy and Marabou brands, hold a prominent place. Cheese of the famous Roquefort, Stilton, Cheddar, and other brands, are in stock, while Straight’s Sweet Clover Creamery Butter retains its former prominence and favor. For holiday supplies they have made ample provisions. Crystalized Fruits, Finest Raisins, Figs, and other Fruits are in abundance with delicacies in Chocolates, etc., that will please all.

Never was a place better supplied with finer or better goods, and never was a house in better shape for doing justice to patrons than in that of Chandler & Rudd, No. 88, Public Square. We can only say in addition, look in on them, and leave orders if you want good things.

Making use of their added space the company announced in the December 15, 1876 edition of the “Cleveland Plain Dealer” they were adding candy to their inventory.

SPECIAL NOTICE – HOLLIS CARAMELS AT CHANDLER & RUDD’S – Having room and facilities in our new store, we have decided to put in a stock of Candies, and have just made arrangements with Mr. Hollis for his noted Caramels, Creams, etc. These goods need no recommendation to those who know them and many of our customers will be glad to learn they can again procure them without crossing the river.

Later, according to a June 21, 1878 “Cleveland Leader” advertisement they even added lake ice to their inventory.

In addition to an expanding inventory the company was also expanding their reach within the Cleveland area. This led to the opening of a second store to service their East Cleveland patrons. Located at Euclid Avenue and East 55th Street, the announcement appeared in the March 1, 1888 edition of the “Cleveland Leader.”

We Open Today

Beginning Thursday morning, March 1, we shall open an up-town store at Euclid Avenue Station. We have purchased of Messrs. Smith Bros. their stock, fixtures and good will of the business, and have also secured the store adjoining them formerly occupied by Mr. William M. Cope as a drug store. As soon as possible these stores will be thrown into one large store, where we shall keep the same line of goods as we do down town. No expense will be spared to make this store as attractive and complete as possible, and by being so much nearer to our East Cleveland patrons we shall be able to fill their orders more promptly than ever before. There will be no interruption in the business while the necessary changes are being made. We trust that the patrons of Messrs. Smith Bros. may favor us with their patronage, and we shall endeavor to give them entire satisfaction.

CHANDLER & RUDD

At this point, the company’s October 12, 1888 “Delivery Schedule” published in the “Cleveland Leader” suggests they were servicing a significant portion of Cleveland and even doing some business out of town.

It was around the same time that a November 23, 1888 story in the “Cleveland Leader” announced that plans were in the works to replace the Public Square store with a new and larger facility.

Chandler & Rudd, the grocery firm on Monumental Square have leased for a term of ten years the store and basement of the old firm of Cobb, Andrews & Co. on Euclid Avenue a few doors east of their present location. The firm will also control all the floors above the store… After New Years the work of remodeling will begin and in February the present store will be abandoned all together for the new quarters.

Listing an address of 22 and 24 Euclid Ave., (it would later change to 234 Euclid Avenue when Cleveland adopted a unified street address system in 1907) the new store’s opening was announced in the “Cleveland Leader” on April 5, 1889.

…The architect, Mr. Charles F. Schweinfurth, has succeeded in producing not only the handsomest store in Cleveland, but one of the finest in the country, and his efforts have been faithfully seconded by Colonel A. McAllister, the builder. The counter, shelves, and other woodwork are in solid oak, finely carved and polished, and the counter tops are of polished mahogany throughout. Beveled plate mirrors are used with fine effect. The new store was thrown open to the public last evening for the first time, and from 7:30 until a late hour was fairly thronged with visitors, thousands availing themselves of the opportunity to inspect the establishment at their leisure…

The story went on to provide this verbal tour of the store.

Upon the left as you enter is the very extensive confectionery department replenished hourly from their finely equipped factory on the second floor. On the right is the cigar department, a special feature of the business.

Passing along, the visitor notes on the left a unique and exceedingly attractive waiting-room, with cozy seats, tiled fire place, and adjoining toilet-rooms for the use of the ladies. Also a very complete stock of druggists’ sundries. Along the right is a long row of handsome new cans containing full lines of teas, coffees, spices, and farinaceous goods. Through the center of the store are several important departments, each complete in itself. The cracker stock, embracing Kennedy’s goods and many others, is a noteworthy feature. Then comes the vegetable stock, hams and bacon, and a most admirably arranged and perfectly equipped butter and cheese department, with its mammoth glass front cooler. The butter counters, unlike the others, have marble tops. Throughout the store the scales, scoops, candy pans, etc., are all silver plated assuring the utmost cleanliness in everything.

The steady stream of visitors to the candy-making rooms on the second floor found the rows of marble cooling tables covered with choice confections fresh from the kettles, and it was noticed that very few declined the cordial invitation to taste as well as look.

The offices and cashier’s desk are near the rear of the store and easily accessible by stairway. The receiving and delivery department, so arranged that the teams can drive in at one door, load or unload at the platform, and out at another, is a marked improvement. Taken altogether the new store is unquestionably a success both from an artistic and practical point of view, and the Chandler & Rudd Co. cannot fail to largely profit by this exhibition of their enterprise and liberality.

At this point the company’s inventory had grown to such an extent that its catalog of products required a full page of the “Cleveland Leader” on June 11, 1889.

It was also sometime in the late 1880’s that the business incorporated as the Chandler & Rudd Company with Rudd and Chandler serving as president and vice president and their sons serving as secretary and treasurer respectively. The change was reflected in the company’s listing in Cleveland’s 1890/1891 directory.

Several years later, in 1895 George Chandler, along with his son, left Chandler & Rudd to start their own business. Located at 139-141 Euclid Avenue, the announcement appeared in the February 25, 1895 edition of the “Cleveland Press.”

A NEW GROCERY

It will be located in the Big Ohio Building

Cleveland is to have another large grocery store on Euclid Ave., in the new Ohio building. Geo. H. Chandler and his son Geo. N., in company with F. P Rust, will form the principal stockholders. The company is incorporated with a capital of $50,000.

According to a September 30, 1898 “Cleveland Press” story, in addition to a full line of groceries Chandler’s store carried a

splendid variety of wines and liquors for family and medicinal use.

Several internet sources suggest it was Rudd’s refusal to add wine and liquor to the Chandler & Rudd inventory that led to Chandler’s departure.

After Chandler left, the Rudd’s continued to use the Chandler & Rudd name and a September 30, 1898 description of the business in the “Cleveland Press” suggests that the business continued to flourish without the need to sell liquor.

There are five departments, and some 128 employees. While the business is staple and fancy groceries, fruits and vegetables, the candy and baking departments are very important. The former was established in 1885, and has won a phenomenal success, and the latter was organized in 1893 and the results were eminently satisfactory.

Chandler’s business, on the other hand, was short-lived, and four years later he sold out to Chandler & Rudd and retired. The announcement appeared in the December 18, 1899 edition of the “Cleveland Press.”

BUSINESS CHANGE

Chandler & Rudd Have bought out Geo. M. Chandler

The grocery house of Chandler & Rudd have bought the business and stock of Geo. H. Chandler, further up Euclid Ave., and the latter will retire from business. Geo. H. Chandler’s clerks were notified, Wednesday, that the store will be closed Saturday.

Geo. H. Chandler said, Thursday, that he was anxious to get out of business and Chandler & Rudd would take his stock, Jan. 1.

Shortly after the turn of the century Chandler & Rudd added a third store location, this one announced in the June 6, 1902 edition of the “Cleveland Leader.”

FAIRMOUNT STORE

“Opening Day” of the Chandler & Rudd Co.’s New East End Store – Flowers and Music.

The Fairmount Store of the Chandler & Rudd Co. gave an opening yesterday and last evening to acquaint the people of the East End with the beauties and convenience of the new store. It is at 2279 Euclid Avenue, where Messrs. Wood & Co, formerly kept a grocery. But the old store has been remodeled, both outside and inside… Last evening, Miss Dora A. Moody’s mandolin orchestra of eight pieces furnished music; a candy machine in the window pulled molasses candy, to the delight of the children and many older visitors; the candy department, meat department, bakery department, and butter department gave souvenirs in their line to visitors, and the tea and coffee departments gave hot coffee and cream to all who cared to refresh themselves.

It was also around the turn of the century that the company began advertising the concept of a “box lunch.” An advertisement sounding introductory in nature appeared in the June 13, 1904 edition of the “Cleveland Press.” It was headlined:

The ad went on to say:

Last week a party of ladies had a picnic, and when they were talking over the way of providing food someone suggested “a box lunch.” “What’s a box lunch?” was immediately asked, and the explanation was that instead of each one taking something in a basket, a box containing a complete lunch could be taken for each one, and all the work connected with serving the refreshments would be passing the boxes.

This was immediately decided upon. We prepared the lunches, and the ladies were delighted. No hard work devolved on anyone and all had time to enjoy the outing.

We believe that this plan of providing refreshments is going to grow into great favor for both small and large parties, as it makes the entertainment so easy; 25c gets a good lunch – all that many care for, but special things are often ordered, which brings the price higher, sometimes as much as 50c for each one in the party. The same kind of box lunches are put up for the boat or train.

We expect to put out thousands of them this summer for those going to St. Louis.

There are many ways in which these box lunches will be found a great convenience. Any one who entertains can use them at times. We shall talk further about them.

This 1906 advertisement found in a Cleveland Opera program suggests that the concept had certainly caught on by then.

In 1910 the company closed their East End Store on 55th Street and moved to 6000 Euclid Avenue.

The announcement appeared in the November 15, 1910 edition of the “Cleveland Press.”

The announcement included the company’s telephone numbers and the need for their inclusion was explained in the September, 1911 edition of “Bell Telephone News.”

ORDER TABLE TAKES WELL IN CLEVELAND

The Chandler & Rudd Company, Grocers, Employ Sixteen Telephone Salesmen

Sales by telephone have grown to such proportions in Cleveland that enterprising merchants are installing special facilities for handling telephone orders. The equipment of several of the largest retail establishments in the city now includes a special type of order table designed by the engineering department of The Cleveland Telephone Company. It consists of a semi-automatic switchboard which combines a lamp-signaling device and a Type Number Two switchboard for each salesman…

Such a telephone order system was installed late in 1910 in the retail grocery store of the Chandler & Rudd Company, 6000 Euclid Avenue, where it has demonstrated its efficiency to the eminent satisfaction of the manager, Vincent Meakin.

“The installation of the telephone order board has been one of the most profitable innovations ever made by the company,” said Mr, Meakin recently. “We feel that we are pioneers in this direction, and we have been very much gratified at the results…”

“Telephone orders now constitute a large part of our business at this store. The daily averages for the first six months of this service were as follows: December, 1910, 616; January, 1911; 594; February, 646; March, 687; April, 666; May, 637.

Fourteen years after opening the Fairmont location it was lost to a major fire in 1916. The fire was reported like this in the January 20th edition of Akron, Ohio’s “Evening Times.”

Fire starting from an explosion at 10:05 last night destroyed the Chandler & Rudd Co.’s Fairmount store, 10609-11 Euclid Avenue, wiped out five other buildings, damaged a half dozen more and threatened the Hotel Regent and the yards of the Harner-Mead Lumber Co.

At 2 this morning Fire Chief George A. Wallace estimated the total loss of $75,000. He said it was impossible at that hour to accurately apportion the loss, but that the Chandler & Rudd Co., whose buildings and stock were destroyed, sustained by far the greatest portion of the loss.

Over the next 15+ years Chandler & Rudd operated out of their two other locations, 234 Euclid Avenue and 6000 Euclid Avenue. Then on May 28, 1932 a “Cleveland Plain Dealer” item announced the opening of a new branch store.

OPENS HEIGHTS STORE

Chandler & Rudd Co. Proud of New Member of the Chain

Harry D. Simms, president of Chandler & Rudd Co., yesterday announced the opening of a new store for the convenience of Heights shoppers at 2289 Lee Road, Cleveland Heights. It will be the third store operated by Chandler & Rudd.

It has been equipped and decorated according to the latest in food merchandising ideas.

“We are exceptionally proud of this new addition to our family,” Sims said. Every effort has been made to make this a truly delightful place to shop for baked goods, candies nuts and specialties.

The rationale behind the opening of a Cleveland Heights location was addressed several days later in a June 1, 1932 story published in the “Cleveland Press.”

CHANDLER, RUDD TESTS NEW IDEA

Branch Store in Heights May Lead to 100

An experiment that may result in the establishment of as many as 100 neighborhood stores in Greater Cleveland was being introduced today by the Chandler & Rudd Co., now in its 68th year.

Establishment of the firm’s specialty shop, which was formally opened Saturday at 2289 Lee Road, Cleveland Heights, marks a new era in merchandising based on the theory of taking goods to the customer, according to President Harry D. Sims, who has contemplated the idea for sometime.

“We may have 10 or we may have 100 of these stores making our service and merchandise available on our fine baked goods, candies, salted nuts, meats, mayonnaise and other specialties in neighborhoods where they are in demand,” Sims said today.

Deliveries of staple and other items will be continued from our central distributing center at 6000 Euclid Avenue.

The specialties are kept fresh all during the day, Sims explained. Mayonnaise is manufactured every hour and the nut supply is salted and replenished as often, he added.

True to their word, by the fall of 1932, a September 22nd “Cleveland Plain Dealer” story announced that several more locations were in the works.

Further expansion of the Chandler & Rudd Co.’s grocery store system by the addition of the new specialty food shop at 13018 Buckeye Road S.E. on Saturday and several other stores in the near future was announced yesterday by Harry D. Sims, president.

The concern already has established two specialty shops on the Heights at 2289 Lee Road and 3487 Lee Road, in addition to its principal stores at 6000 Euclid Avenue and 234 Euclid Avenue.

Leases for additional units at E. 124th Street and Superior Avenue N.E., 117th Street and Clifton Boulevard N.W., and Shaw and Hayden Avenues, East Cleveland have been signed and work has begun on stores for those locations. All are to be distinguished by their modern fronts of aluminum with red and blue trimmings.

Two years later an October 28, 1934 advertisement in the “Cleveland Plain Dealer” listed a total of nine branch locations in addition to their two primary locations at 234 and 6000 Euclid Avenue.

Not long after the above advertisement was printed it appears that a combination of increasing downtown rental costs, more competition and a change in the shopping habits of their customers brought about a series of organizational changes. The first came in 1936 when a June 25th item in the “Cleveland Plain Dealer” announced that the company was closing their Distributing Center at 6000 Euclid Avenue and centralizing their distribution operations at 234 Euclid Avenue.

This follow-up advertisement appeared in the”Cleveland Plain Dealer” on June 29 1936.

Four years later the 234 Euclid Ave location was closed with the company moving their operation to 1252 Euclid Avenue. The announcement appeared in the January 18, 1940 edition of the “Cleveland Press.”

Formal opening of the new Chandler & Rudd Co. store at 1252 Euclid Avenue, in the Winous Building, will be held Thursday, Heber Harter general manager of the store, announced today.

Around $10,000 was spent for interior remodeling and equipping the store which is “a model modern food store,” Mr. Harter said.

The removal of the store from its former location near Public Square marks the end of a half century of service in the old location. The Chandler & Rudd Co. recently celebrated its 76th year in business…

Around the same time the company began closing some of the branch stores that had been established in the early 1930’s. An auction notice associated with one such closure appeared in the August 11, 1940 edition of the “Cleveland Plain Dealer.”

Eighteen years later most of the branch stores had disappeared and the company’s Euclid Avenue operation was moving again, this time to smaller quarters at 1290 Euclid Avenue, while at the same time increasing the focus on gifts and specialty items. The reasoning behind this latest move was explained in the March 7, 1958 edition of the “Cleveland Press.”

Chandler & Rudd Plans “Gift Shop” on Euclid Ave.

“It became too expensive to have a grocery store on Euclid Ave. Buying habits have changed immensely so that people don’t shop for groceries downtown any more.”

Harry D. Simms president of Chandler & Rudd Co. which has sold groceries downtown since 1864, gave this reason today for the company’s changeover to gift and specialty foods.

Chandler & Rudd is moving into a smaller store at 1290 Euclid Ave., not far from its large grocery store at 1252 Euclid.

The new “gift shop” will handle candy, wines, gifts of fruit, imported delicacies and some health foods and spices and herbs. Chandler & Rudd also operates a supermarket at 20128 Kinsman Rd. Shaker Heights.

The change in focus was reflected in this December 7, 1958 “Cleveland Plain Dealer” ad.

Two years later, the company abandoned downtown Cleveland altogether, moving the operation to their Kinsman Road (renamed Chagrin Blvd in 1959) branch in Shaker Heights. The move was announced in the “Cleveland Plain Dealer” on January 29, 1960.

“It’s tough selling groceries on Euclid Avenue explained Harry D. Sims, Chandler president. “Our sales couldn’t keep up with downtown rents.”

Chandler’s downtown rent was eight to ten times higher than at their Shaker Heights store, 20128 Chagrin Boulevard, where business was better. Sims said Chandler & Rudd will leave its downtown quarters by the end of the month.

It was around this time that the company, long held by the Rudd family sold the business to the company’s produce manager, Fred Marino. Up to this point William C. Rudd, his brother, George and George’s son-in-law, Harry D. Sims all served terms as president.

A December 7, 1964 “Cleveland Press”story celebrating the company’s 100 year anniversary emphasized the fact that Marino continued the company’s focus on specialty foods and gift baskets.

“We at Chandler & Rudd strive to carry the finest foods and meats and fancy trade canned goods. Our steaks for instance, are all prime beef and we are among the few places left who will prepare such gourmet cuts as crown roast of pork or lamb.”

Two areas of exceptionally strong growth for the concern is its packaging of gourmet food gift baskets and boxes and its burgeoning catering services.

“We custom pack a great many baskets and boxes of foods to order for industrial and commercial concerns and individuals”

The story also confirmed that telephone orders and delivery schedules remained a big part of the business plan.

Twice a week a delivery truck from the Chandler & Rudd Co. leaves its store in Shaker Heights and heads across the city to the West Side to deliver groceries. Some of the people who receive these orders have been dealing with the firm for many years, but have never seen the inside of the store…

Since 1910 the store has had a telephone ordering system – still a strong point today. Deliveries are made three times daily in the Heights area, and twice a week outside the area….

Marino, and later, his son, Fred Marino, Jr., ran the business until it ultimately closed in 2009. A November 15, 2009 “Cleveland Plain Dealer” story described the issues faced by the company at the time it was closed down.

…Lately, requests for both Chandler’s signature gift baskets and specialty foods have dried up as companies cut back on thank you gifts and families buy their groceries elsewhere.

“The larger supermarkets have the gas promotions, their offers of 10 items for $10,” Fred said.

“The BJ’s and Sam’s Clubs of the world, they’re selling things for less than what we’re buying them for…” Carrying staples such as cereal, cleaning supplies and vegetables helped tide them over, but they couldn’t buy in enough quantities to keep prices low.

The “Plain Dealer” story went on to provide the final chapter in the company’s history , a history that began in 1864 (if you count the Jones, Potter years).

Specialty grocery Chandler & Rudd Co. built its business by catering to affluent customers and surprising them with imported delicacies they couldn’t get anywhere else. But owners Ruta and Fred Marino’s reputation for exemplary customer service and incredible attention to detail ultimately couldn’t compete with the larger chain supermarkets in an especially brutal recession. On Nov. 2, after 145 storied years in the food business, the Marino’s gathered their seven employees, handed out paychecks and told them it was over. “We came to the conclusion that it just wasn’t working for us anymore,” Fred Marino said. We were putting too much money into the store to keep it afloat. It was becoming increasingly difficult to be competitive with the larger markets because of their buying power.” The Marino’s gave their bread, produce, milk and other perishables to the City Mission, turned off the lights and put a “Closed” sign on the door…

Re Umberto (Olive Oil)

The subject bottle exactly matches the one pictured on this circa 1940 advertising card so it almost certainly contained Re Umberto Olive Oil.

The words Re Umberto are the Italian equivalent of King Umberto, a reference to King Umberto I, the second King of Italy, who reigned from 1878 until his assassination in 1900. Much of the brand’s advertising capitalized on this theme referring to Re Umberto as the “King of Olive Oil.”

Always ask for RE UMBERTO and just look for the king with the big mustache

Infinitesimally small lettering embossed on one face of the bottle states:

Imported and Packed By United Pure Food Co., N.Y., N.Y., U.S.A.

Established in 1911, the United Pure Food Company was the Registered Trade Name for a company called Strohmeyer and Arpe, an importer and wholesale grocer who also did business under the United Pure Food Company name from 1911 up through the late 1960’s.

Strohmeyer & Arpe, was established by a man named Frederick Gottfried Strohmeyer a good twenty years before the Re Umberto brand was born . According to Strohmeyer’s obituary in the February, 1931 edition of a publication called “Groceries:”

Mr. Strohmeyer was born in Bremen, Germany, and established himself in the wholesale grocery and specialty lines here in 1882. Mr. Arpe came to him as a partner sometime later.

The business, originally called F.G. Strohmeyer & Co., was first listed in New York City’s 1883/1884 directory as “merchants” with an address of 55 Pine Street. Herman Arpe, who according to 1900 census records arrived in the U.S. from Germany in 1883, was also listed in the same directory as a “merchant” at the 55 Pine Street address. So, while not a partner, it’s likely Arpe, if not an original employee of the firm was certainly close to being one. Five years later, in 1888, the New York City Copartnership and Corporation Directory officially named him as a principal of F.G. Strohmeyer & Co.

Located in Lower Manhattan for 90 years, early on the business changed locations quite frequently, listing addresses of 172 Front Street (circa 1885-1887); 122 Water Street (1887-1892); 120 Pearl/84 Water Streets (circa 1892-1894) and 33 Water Street (circa 1894-1901)

Around this time an advertisement found in the October 29, 1889 edition of the Springfield (Mass) “Daily Republican” referred to the business as:

Sole Importers of German Peat-Moss and Dealers in Honey, Maple Syrup and Wax of all kinds.

Several directory listings around that time suggest the company also dealt in “cork,” and by 1893 an August 16th classified ad found in New York’s “Evening World” indicated the company was dealing in smoked and preserved fish as well.

SALESMAN WANTED for New York City, Brooklyn, Jersey City, Hoboken, Newark and Paterson, acquainted with delicatessen, grocery, hotel and restaurant trade, well recommended and able to handle delivery wagon, to sell smoked and preserved salmon and other fish; also parties having an established route and own wagon; liberal inducements will be given. Apply in person between 4 and 6 P.M. every week day except Saturday, F.G. Strohmeyer & Co., 120 Pearl St.

Sometime in 1894 or 1895 the company officially changed its name to Strohmeyer and Arpe and in 1900 the business incorporated under that name. The incorporation notice published in the July 20th edition of the “New York Times” named Frederick Strohmeyer and Herman Arpe along with a man named Victor Porges as directors.

New York City’s 1901 Copartnership and Corporation Directory named Strohmeyer, President; Arpe, Treasurer and Porges, Secretary. The following year the company moved again, listing 64 Pearl Street as their address in the 1902 Copartnership and Corporation Directory.

It was later in the decade that Strohmeyer & Arpe added olive oil to their list of imported goods. According to the United States Patent and Trademark Office website, in February 1908 the company registered the name Re Umberto as a trademark.

The above records indicate that the Re Umberto name was first used in December 1903. That being said, it doesn’t begin to appear in grocery store advertisements until several years later. One of the first I can find appeared in Elmira, New York’s “Star Gazette” on January 23, 1907.

Based on this it’s safe to say the Re Umberto brand got its start mid-decade, sometime between 1903 and 1907.

Initially advertised in 1/2 gallon and gallon cans, soon after it was also being offered in small glass bottles and fancy tins, as evidenced by this February 1, 1910 price list published in Washington D.C.’s “Evening Star.”

By 1909 the company was building a new ten-story building at 139-141 Franklin Street, a building they would occupy for the next 60 plus years. The building then under construction was described like this in a July 4, 1909 “New York Times” story.

Warehouse on Franklin Street

An interesting feature about the new ten-story offices and warehouse building which Maynicke & Franke are building for the Strohmeyer & Arpe Company in the heart of the wholesale grocery district, at 139 and 141 Franklin Street, is the fact that almost 400 piles of hollow steel filled with concrete have been used in the foundation of the building to prevent the frequent settling to which buildings in this neighborhood are subject. The tract between Duane and Watts Streets was formerly marshy meadow land, and though it was partially filled in with sand, builders digging twelve feet through the sand still reach the primal bog.

The new building is situated on a plot 50 by 100 feet, between West Broadway and Greenwich Street. Nearby are the Welsh, Lipton, Leggett, and other large wholesale grocery warehouses and offices. It is constructed of the heaviest material to fit the bulky storage uses to which it will be put. The Strohmeyer & Arpe Company will occupy the entire building. It is thought that the warehouse will be completed in four months

This rendering of the new building accompanied the “New York Times” story.

Less than two years later, in August 1911, Strohmeyer & Arpe established the United Pure Food Company as a subsidiary. It’s incorporation notice was referenced in the August 18, 1911 edition of Brooklyn’s “Daily Times”

United Pure Food Co of New York City , organized with the State Department with a capital of $500 to deal in foods, Liquors, etc.

Subsequently, both Strohmeyer and Arpe and the United Pure Food Co. were listed in New York City’s 1912 Copartnership & Corporation Directory, each with the same address of 139-141 Franklin Street and each with F.G. Strohmeyer named as president.

During this time the olive oil’s distribution was spreading across the country. As early as 1912 it was being advertised in far away places like Missoula, Montana where a July 14, 1912 grocery store ad pitched it as part of a “Nifty Salad” you might take on a fishing trip.

While most people were putting the olive oil on their salad, if I’m to believe the following story, some Tampa, Florida barbers were putting it on people’s hair. The story appeared as part of a department store advertisement found in the January 1, 1911 edition of the “Tampa Tribune.”

The latest scientific success

R. U. OLIVE OIL SHAMPOO

We were surprised ourselves to see this sign in some of the most prominent barbershops of a fashionable pleasure resort, says STROHMEYER & ARPE CO., makers. The barbers claim to have had an enormous success with the R. U. SHAMPOO, not only saving and strengthening the hair, keeping the scalp in perfectly healthy condition but they claim to even grow hair with the R.U. SHAMPOO although we will not guarantee that, but it shows that the RE UMBERTO OLIVE OIL can be sold to the best barber shops because of its purity.

RE UMBERTO OLIVE OIL is the best Virgin Pure Italian Olive Oil that the world produces.

We carry it in stock in both tin and glass.

Over the next 60 plus years Stohmeyer & Arpe along with its subsidiary, the United Pure Food Company, remained headquartered at 139-141 Franklin Street. All the while, their olive oil continued to appear in grocery story advertisements and the occasional corporate advertisement. One such corporate advertisement appeared in several 1952 editions of New Jersey’s “Trenton Times.”

During this time olive oil wasn’t the only product marketed under the Re Umberto brand as evidenced by a Walgreens advertisement in the March 13, 1957 edition of the “Yonkers (NY) Statesman” that included a pitch for Re Umberto Maraschino Cherries.

Another “Yonkers Statesman” ad, this one found in their July 19, 1951 edition, touted their Spanish olives suggesting they be served on what the ad called the “Smartest Idea of the Year,” a plastic olive tree.

In fact, according to Strohmeyer & Arpe’s various patent applications over the years the brand also encompassed onions, peppers, mushrooms, string beans, peas, artichokes, sardines and macaroni.

The company renewed the Re Umberto trademark for a third time on February, 18, 1968 however by then it appears changes were in the works. In the early 1970’s the company apparently moved out of their long time Franklin Street facilities, listing 260 West Broadway as their address for several years before ultimately moving to Milburn, New Jersey. At the same time, the United Pure Food Co. disappeared from the directories all together and newspaper advertisements referencing the Re Umberto brand were becoming few and far between. One of the last ones I can find appeared in the April 30, 1974 edition of the “Fresno (California) Bee.”

This all suggests the end of the brand came sometime in the mid-1970’s. Ultimately, the trademark expired on November 3, 1992 after it was not renewed.

Strohmeyer & Arpe, still in existence today, is now headquartered in New Jersey. According to their corporate profile found on bestfoodimporters.com:

Strohmeyer & Arpe, along with their sister firm C.M. Goettsche, is a leading importer of mountain wax and other natural waxes, as well as a supplier of Kings Pantry and private label canned fruits, vegetables and seafood to top food chains in America. With a history dating back to New York and now headquartered in Short Hills, New Jersey, the company’s mission is to provide high-quality products at competitive prices for customer profitability. With over a century of experience, Strohmeyer & Arpe is a trusted resource in the industry.

The bottle I found is machine made, 5-1/4 inches tall and contains a little less than 2 ounces. It’s packaged in the company’s familiar pyramid shape bottle and includes this phrase embossed in small letters on one face.

Imported and Packed By United Pure Food Co., N.Y., N.Y., U.S.A.

Recognizing the United Pure Food Company was established in 1911, the bottle was certainly manufactured no earlier than 1911. That said, another face of the bottle is embossed with the phrase “PEER-AMID BOTTLES.” According to the 1955 renewal of this trademark (I can’t find the original 1935 information) it was registered on August 6, 1935 (upper right-hand side).

While it’s possible the bottle type was in use prior to its trademark registration, I suspect that 1935 is much closer to the year the PEER-Amid bottle type was introduced.

The type apparently utilized prior to the PEER-AMID is exhibited on this bottle recently offered for sale on e-bay.

On a final note: The building built by Strohmeyer & Arpe at 139-141 Franklin Street that housed their operation for 60 plus years remains to this day. According to a July 23, 2025 article on the New York YIMBY web site, the building was recently acquired for a planned residential conversion.

A joint venture of Broad Street Development and TPG Angelo Gordon has acquired 139 Franklin Street, a ten-story commercial structure in Tribeca Manhattan, with the intention of converting it into a residential building. The 56,384 square foot structure is currently occupied by a 74-unit self-storage facility… the developers purchased the property for $43.5 million from the Sofia family, longtime operators in the self-storage market, in a deal arranged by JLL Capital Markets…

Here’s today’s view of the building courtesy of the YIMBY web site.

The building’s exterior hasn’t changed much from the 1909 rendering pictured in the “New York Times.” Sadly, the only thing missing is the flag pole.

Colin D. Mawer Company, Brooklyn, New York, Grandee Brand Capers

Our story actually starts, not with capers and not in Brooklyn, but across the Atlantic Ocean in an area of Southern Spain famous for its olives. It was described like this in a March 15, 1925 “Brooklyn Citizen” story.

The earth of ours is dotted with favored spots, as if only here and there soil and clime combine to give man Nature’s treasures.

In all the world there is but one spot where green olives will grow to satisfactory sizes and flavors for eating. It is just a handful of land – not more than some thirty-odd miles square in the southwestern corner of Spain. But it is there that the sun is kind to this delectable fruit. Under it the olives grow to wonderful fullness before they ripen. They retain that firm meaty succulence that is part of their charm. Spanish olives are more than a condiment, they are a delicious and nourishing food. The flavor is used to embellish a myriad of appetizing dishes.

The Colin D. Mawer Company and later Mawer-Gulden-Annis, Inc. of Brooklyn, New York, made a specialty of importing these olives and packing them in the United States such that, by the mid 1920’s they were the largest olive-packing firm in the country. To a lesser degree they also dealt in cherries and capers among other things, marketing them all under the “Grandee” brand name.

As shown in the above photograph the subject bottle does not exhibit the Grandee brand or Mawer company name. However, its unique eight-sided shape and deep green color exactly match a labeled Grandee Brand Capers bottle recently offered for sale on the internet.

As a result, I feel relatively safe in the assumption that the subject bottle once contained capers packed by a Mawer business.

So, with that as background, what follows is more on the history of Colin D. Mawer and his importing/packing businesses.

`According to a feature on Mawer published in the May, 1928 edition of “The Glass Container,” his story begins about 100 miles north of New York City in Liberty, New York.

Both of Mr. Mawer’s parents were born in Scotland. In 1950 they came over to America and settled on a farm near Liberty, N. Y. Here their son Colin D. Mawer was born…

Liberty, N. Y. was only a small town, and like all towns of its size boasted few stores. One store, the general county store, catered to the modest demands of its inhabitants. So it was only natural that when young Mawer found that he had to leave school and help to keep the family going that he should seek a position in this store. After some years he became heart and soul in the wholesale grocery business, and to this day has never strayed far from the field…

After leaving Liberty and arriving in New York City he was initially associated with the wholesale grocery company of Francis H. Leggett & Company and later became manager of the olive department of Alart & McGuire before establishing the Colin D Mawer Company in 1907. The incorporation notice appeared in the July 5th edition of the “Brooklyn Daily Eagle.”

BROOKLYN CORPORATION

A certificate of Incorporation has been filed with the Secretary of State by the Colin D. Mawer Company of Brooklyn, which propose to deal in grocer’s specialties. The capital stock is $15,500 and the directors are Colin D. Mawer, Edward H. Douglas and Herbert E. Sparks, of Brooklyn.

Trade Mark records indicate that the “grocer’s specialties” mentioned in the above notice included Olives, Olive Oil, Stuffed Olives, Olive Butter, Minced Olives, Peanut Butter, Prepared Cherries, Minced and Crushed Cherries and Capers, all marketed under the brand name “Grandee,” a name he began using at the very start of his business.

The company headquarters was always located in Bush Terminal, a complex of over 20 blocks located along Brooklyn’s waterfront. Its location relative to lower Manhattan is depicted in this circa 1915 map published by the Bush Terminal Company. It can be found in the New York Public Library’s Digital Collections.

Within Bush Terminal, the company was initially listed with an address of 253 36th Street (Building 3). Later, in 1912, they leased space in what would become their long-time headquarters at 87 34th Street (Buildings 7 and 8). Their lease at that location was announced in the May 10, 1912 edition of the “New York Times”under the heading “Commercial Leases.”

The Bush Terminal Company reports the following leases in its loft buildings in South Brooklyn: …to Colin D. Mawer & Co., importers and bottlers of olives, 5,000 square feet in Buildings 7 and 8…

The location of both 34th Street and 36th Street within Bush Terminal can be found in this close-up of the Bush Terminal Company’s 1915 map (near the top)

The 34th Street address was featured in their business card found in the 1920 “Victory Memorial Cookbook,”published by the Women’s Auxiliary of Victory Memorial Hospital.

By then the company had expanded their packing operations up the east coast to include a Boston facility as well. This series of classified advertisements that appeared side-by-side in the May 28, 1920 edition of the “Boston Globe” located it at the “Foot of State Street,” with an address of 69-70 Long Wharf.

At the beginning of 1921 the Mawer company merged with Ralph B. Annis, Inc. and the olive packing division of Chas. H Gulden, Inc., forming Mawer-Gulden-Annis, Inc. The merger was announced in the December 31, 1920 edition of the “Brooklyn Daily Eagle.”

BIG LOCAL COMBINE FORMED TO SUPPLY GREEN OLIVE TRADE

Starts Business Tomorrow in Bush Terminal – Includes Well Known Importers

Quite a stir has been created in the imported green olive trade by the announcement of the formation of a new corporation which will be known as Mawer-Gulden-Annis, Inc., and will begin business Jan. 1, 1921. The main office will be located at 87 34th St., Bush Terminal Building No. 7, Brooklyn N. Y.

This consolidation will be composed of the following: Colin D. Mawer, of Colin D. Mawer Co., 87 34th St., Brooklyn; Franklin Gulden, of Charles Gulden, Inc., 48 Elizabeth St., Manhattan; Ralph B. Annis of Ralph B. Annis Co., Inc., 33 34th St., Brooklyn.

These three incorporators, who will constitute the Board of Directors, have been engaged in the Spanish green olive business for years and are well known in the trade both in this country and Spain. It is anticipated that the combination of these three large concerns under one head will reduce in a considerable degree the cost of production and it will be the aim of the new company to supply the wholesale trade of the United States with Spanish green olives at the lowest prices consistent with quality.

For the present they will operate four large factories, two of which are located in Brooklyn, one in Manhattan and one in Boston, Mass., and will probably find it advantageous later to place one or two more in different parts of the country to take care of contiguous territory. The new concern, besides taking over the olive interests of the constituent companies, will also pack maraschino style cherries, olive oil, olive butter, peanut butter, capers and other kindred lines.

Gulden mustard will be conducted as before by Charles Gulden, Inc., 50 Elizabeth St., Manhattan.

The Colin D. Mawer Company’s 34th Street facilities in Bush Terminal went on to serve as the headquarters for the new corporation with Mawer serving as it’s first president. Their Boston facilities were also retained.

Three years later, in 1923, a January 7th item in the “Brooklyn Daily Eagle” announced that the company was doubling its capitalization from $250,000 to $500,000.

This increase in capital certainly suggests that the company was doing well, and an April 16, 1924 story in the “Brooklyn Daily Eagle” serves to back up that suggestion.

An exceptionally heavy shipment of green olives, consigned to the Mawer-Gulden-Annis Company of 87 34th St., is being unloaded at the piers of the Spanish Line, on Beard’s Dock near the Hamilton Ferry. All the available space has been utilized with the result that the thousands of stacked hogsheads give the docks the appearance of a thick, stumpy tropical forest less its foliage.

Two vessels from Spain, carrying approximately 6,000 hogsheads and 6,000 barrels of green olives each, docked at the breakwater last week. The entire shipment, as are all the shipments of green olives to the United States, was produced within a radius of 100 miles of the city of Seville.

These hogsheads of olives, packed in brine, are being transported to the Mawer-Gulden-Annis Company, where they are being packed and sent out to the trade in small labeled bottles at the rate of 60,000 bottles of olives a day or 27,000,000 olives.

While olives was certainly the chief article put up by the concern, they continued to be packers of other products as well. Their business card, found in several 1925 editions of the “Brooklyn Daily Eagle” mentioned peanut butter, olive oil, cherries and capers.

A number of these products were touted in the May 15, 1925 edition of the “Brooklyn Citizen.”

In the warm days of the summer time the appetite is not tempted by heavy meats, but one craves appetizing foods of a lighter kind. Whether an occasion be a picnic party or a home luncheon, nothing is more satisfying than a dainty sandwich with a salad prepared with Grandee olive oil.

A more perfect garnish for salads than Grandee olive butter, manufactured by Mawer-Gulden-Annis, Inc. would be difficult to find. It is nicely prepared and saves the housewife undue labor. The butter is made with Spanish green olives, combined with Spanish sweet peppers, spices and other ingredients.

Another product of this firm is bottled cherries, which has been increasing in sales in the last few years at a very rapid pace. This is due to the quality of the cherries and to the fact that housewives of today realize the attractive appearance these cherries add to a table when placed on grapefruit or fruit salads. A table must have a touch of color to make it complete, and cherries accomplish the effect.

When the ball of the earth had been nicely rounded and it was being examined for the depositing of various gift lands, as the southern tip of Africa for diamonds, Alaska for gold, the plains of middle America for corn and the shorelines of the Asiatic for tea, the magic, kindly eye must have surely rested on southern Spain for olives, where Mawer-Gulden-Annis’ high-grade olives are grown.

Another mid-1920’s advertisement, this one found in the August, 1924 edition of a trade magazine called “The Spice Mill,” pictured the packaging for several of these items. (Spanish Olives are pictured at each end, while in the middle are, left to right, cherries, olive oil and olive butter). Unfortunately, capers were not included..

In 1935, the August 3rd edition of the “Chicago Tribune” reported that the company was opening a branch plant in Chicago.

Mawer-Gulden-Annis, Inc., of Brooklyn yesterday leased space for a branch plant in the building at 589 East Illinois Street from the North Pier Terminal Company for a term of years.

Ten years later they expanded to the west coast as well. According to the January 31, 1945 edition of San Francisco’s “Call Bulletin:”

Mawer-Gulden-Annis, Inc., one of the largest factors in the country in the packing of olives and exporters of olives and specialties have entered the west coast field by conclusion of two deals for the opening of a plant at Fairfield in the upper bay area which will be the largest on the coast, it was learned today. Nucleus of the new operation will be the large plant formerly operated by Hunt Brothers in Solano County, which was purchased by the pioneer Brooklyn firm together with the plant, equipment and business of the Albers Packing Company of Riverside, in southern California. The deal ran into several hundred thousand dollars.

Under plans of Mawer-Gulden-Annis, the Riverside plant will be moved to the upper bay for inclusion into an expanded and modernized plant for the handling of olive packing, specialties and fruit products.

The story went on to say:

A large number of persons will be necessary in the processing and packing of California ripe olives and other lines.

Whether this was in addition to or, in lieu of, imported olives is not clear.

Ultimately, in 1962, a February 13th “Associated Press” item announced that Mawer-Gulden-Annis merged with Charles Gulden, Inc. and the Mawer-Gulden-Annis name was to disappear.

Officers of Charles Gulden, Inc., Saddle Brook, N. J., and Mawyer-Gilden-Annis, Inc., of Brooklyn, disclosed the two companies will merge. The surviving company will be Charles Gulden, Inc.

Gulden makes mustard while Mawer-Gulden-Annis distributes olives, cherries and olive products.

The story went on to say that Colin D. Mawer, who, after 42 years was still serving as president of Mawer-Gulden-Annis, went on to become a director of Charles Gulden, Inc. He passed away three years later in 1965.

While not one of their marque products, Grandee Imported Capers continued to occasionally appear in advertised grocery store price lists throughout the 1950’s.

Later, in 1970, several grocery store advertisements associate the Grandee brand with “Durkee” so it’s likely that at some point they acquired the brand. This mention of “Durkee Grandee Imported Capers”appeared in the September 23, 1970 edition of the New Orleans “Times-Picayune,” where it was included in the “Gourmet and Delicatessen Department” of a supermarket called “Langenstein’s” (2nd from the bottom).

Our subject bottle was blown in a mold suggesting it was made early on by the Colin D. Mawer Company, prior to the Mawer-Gulden-Annis consolidation.

On a final note, the Bush Terminal buildings occupied by the business apparently remain to this day. They’re pictured below, courtesy of Google Maps.

253 36th Street

87 34th Street

Hires Household Extract, Manufactured By Charles E. Hires Co., Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.A.

The Hires name has been directly associated with root beer for well over 100 years. Back around the turn of the century it wasn’t uncommon for the family to gather together and enjoy home brewed root beer made with Hires Household Extract. The extract, in liquid form, was purchased in three-ounce bottles exactly like the subject bottle pictured above.

When combined with water, sugar and yeast, our three-ounce bottle of liquid extract produced five gallons of root beer that was then bottled and stored in the cellar to be used as wanted. As time went on Hires Root Beer also became available in carbonated form, both by the glass at the local drug store counter and in the bottle at the local grocer. That being said, as late as 1960 ten percent of Hires Root Beer sales were still in extract form for home use.

The root beer’s originator and namesake was Charles Elmer Hires who was born on August 19, 1851 on a farm near Roadstown, New Jersey. The son of a farmer, according to his August 2, 1937 obituary published in a New Jersey newspaper called “The News of Cumberland County,” his mother was a descendant of Martha Curtis, the wife of George Washington.

This photograph of Hires appeared in the 1925 edition of “Who’s Who in Philadelphia” (Vol II).

Hires’ early life was succinctly summarized in an item found in the November 1, 1923 edition of the “Pittsburgh Post.”

He owns one of the biggest beverage companies in the country, but he didn’t look much as though he was going to when he was 12 years old, for at that time he was just a kid working in a drug store for $1 a week and board, in Millville, N.J. John A. Wright was the name of the druggist who employed him.

“I loved the work,” he says, “that is, after I was relieved of the most menial part of it, such as cleaning and washing up bottles, mortars and pestles, and often doing housework for the family. When the four years apprenticeship was up I came to Philadelphia and obtained a clerkship as a full-fledged pharmacist, and then later went into business for myself when only 18 years old, at Sixth and Spruce Streets.”

Although by most accounts he started his business in December, 1869, I can’t find Hires listed in the Philadelphia directories until 1873. That being said, his business was certainly up and running in the early 1870’s as evidenced by this item that appeared in the May 1, 1872 edition of Bridgeton N.J.’s “Advertiser and Review ”

We recently visited the drug store of Mr. Charles E. Hires at 602 Spruce Street Philadelphia. His store is a perfect gem. Mr. H. is a native of South Jersey, and is known to many of our readers. When visiting Philadelphia give him a call, he will be glad to see you, he sells wholesale and retail…

Later that year his advertisement appeared in several editions of the same newspaper…

…and by 1874 he was advertising in the Philadelphia city directory as well.

It wasn’t until later in the decade that he formulated the idea for his root beer and, while there are several different versions of the story detailing its origins, I’ll stick with the one I found in Hires’ own words. It appeared as part of an interview he gave to an advertising publication called “Printers’ Ink” that appeared in their July 24, 1913 edition.

…Centennial year, I think – my wife and I were boarding at a farmhouse in the country, over in Jersey. The farmer’s wife was accustomed to gather teaberry leaves, sassafras bark and berries, and to steep them, making a tea. The result, when fermented with yeast was called “homemade root beer.” I conceived the idea of putting a similar product on the market, and after a great deal of experimenting I hit upon what I considered the right combination of roots and barks to produce a flavor which would please at the moment and would also send the customer back for more…

Hires went on to say:

I sold the dry herbs in a package with directions to the purchaser to steep them, later adding the yeast and sugar just as it was done by the farmer’s wife in Jersey.

Initially called “HIRES ROOT BEER PACKAGE,” Hires began promoting it in newspaper advertisements sometime in 1877. A local Philadelphia newspaper called the “Public Ledger” claimed to be the first newspaper to run advertisements for Hires’ Root Beer, a claim supported by Charles Hires himself in his “Printers’ Ink” interview. An advertising item run years later by the “Ledger” claimed their inaugural Hires’ ad appeared in the September 1, 1877 edition.

That being said, either their timing was off by a year or they were stretching the truth because because earlier that year, in May and June of 1877, this newspaper advertisement for “HIRE’S ROOT BEER PACKAGE” was already appearing not only in a local Oxford, Pennsylvania newspaper, but local newspapers in Bayonne, New Jersey and Bennington, Vermont as well.

Several years later, according to the “Printers Ink” interview, Hires, in order to save the customer the trouble of boiling and straining the dry herbs, put it up in liquid form as well. This July, 1883 advertisement published in “The Druggist Journal”, was the earliest one I could find offering it in both “Dry and Liquid Form,” (lower left-hand corner).

Later advertisements described how the liquid, later branded “Hires Household Extract,” worked.

It is so easily and quickly made. Just stir together five gallons of pure water, four pounds of sugar, half a yeast cake and a bottle of Hires Extract. Bottle with tight corks and forty -eight hours after mixing, your root beer is sparkling and ready to drink.

If your corks weren’t tight enough to deal with the pressures developed during fermentation, Hires had an answer for that, the Hires Patent Bottle Stopper. Quite substantial, examples of it still appear for sale on the internet today.

Later in the decade, not only was the root beer available in both liquid and dry form for family use, but it was also available as a concentrated solution in larger sizes for commercial use. The 1887 “Druggist’s Ready Reference” published by Morrisson, Plummer & Co., listed sizes as large as five gallons.

According to the fine print below the price list.

If you want the most profitable trade with your fountain or bottling business, manufacture and run Hires Improved Root Beer.

Country merchants can make money by making it up in a keg or bottling and selling it at five cents a glass.

In support of these early bottlers, Hires’ manufactured what he called the “Hires’ Bottle Filler.” This advertisement for it appeared in several 1883 editions of “The Druggist Journal.”

Ten years after introducing his root beer, a June 23, 1888 item published in the “Philadelphia Times,” described a healthy, growing business that owed much of its success to advertising.

A FAMOUS DRINK

How Charles E. Hires Built Up a Demand for his Beverage

One of the most popular non intoxicating drinks of the day is Hires’ root beer. It is known all over the world and there is as great a demand for it in Australia and other distant countries as there is in America. Its growth has been sure and steady. It was about ten years ago that Charles E. Hires began making root beer extract. He advertised it extensively, but for the first four or five years his receipts fell short of his expenditures, and it looked as if the experiment would prove a failure. But Mr. Hires was too enterprising to be easily discouraged and he kept using printers’ ink in advertising the qualities of his root beer, and he soon built up a demand for it…

Last year his business was simply wonderful and this year he expects to treble last year’s figures. His headquarters are in the big four-story building at 119 Arch Street, where the manufacturing business is carried on. He is a heavy advertiser and already this year he has paid out $30,000 in advertising, giving out one contract of $9,000 alone. Mr. Hires has ten men on the road, putting up large and beautiful hangers in many colors and distributing picture cards and small books for children. He has distributed about 600,000 little illustrated books of rhymes and stories to children, besides using 4,000,000 books with another house, each dividing the advertising expenses.

One of his children’s stories “Happy Hours in Fairyland,” was featured in this June, 1888 advertisement found in “The American Magazine.”

The story also mentioned picture cards, an avenue of advertising that Hires mentioned in his 1913 “Printers’ Ink” interview.

In the 80’s and early 90’s the druggist, and to a lesser extent the grocer, were regular distributing factors for manufacturers’ literature. How much of it was effectively distributed was a question, of course, but there was almost always a pile of cards or booklets or almanacs in the store from which customers were at liberty to help themselves.

One such card entitled “An Uninvited Guest,” caught my attention.

Customized, the card not only included the Hires name and marketing message on the reverse side, but it highlighted a local Vermont grocer as well.

As the above 1888″Philadelphia Inquirer” story suggests, at this point the Hires business was operating out of a four-story building at 119 Arch Street. An engraving illustrating this location can be found in the Tredyffrin Easttown History Quarterly (Vol. 53, No. 1).

As far as I can tell the company moved to Arch Street in 1888 after occupying 602 Spruce Street (circa 1869 – 1876), 9 Letitia Street (circa 1877-1878), 215 Market Street (circa 1879 – 1880) and 48 N. Delaware Avenue (circa 1881 – 1887).

In 1890, Hires incorporated the business under the “Charles E. Hires Copmpany” name. The incorporation notice appeared in the August 22nd edition of the “Philadelphia Times.”

A ROOT BEER BOOM

A Largely Capitalized Company to Do Business in This City

Charles E. Hires, the widely known root beer manufacturer and importer of vanilla beans, of 117 Arch Street, this city, has through his counsel, Benjamin B. Wilson, filed a petition asking the State to grant articles of incorporation to the Charles E. Hires Company. The new company will manufacture on a large scale Hires’ root beer, cough cure and other preparations.

The incorporators of the company are Charles E. Hires, William A. Ingersoll, William N. Hires, Joseph H. Ingersoll and D. Kelsey Whittaker. The cash capital stock of the company is $300,000, which is full paid in. The business will remain under the direct supervision of Charles E. Hires, who owns the greater part of the stock.

As early as 1895 the company experimented with putting out their root beer ready to drink, in bottles. According to Hires’ in his 1913 “Printers’ Ink” interview:

The household extract, which needed preparation and a certain amount of aging before it was ready to drink was naturally a seasonal product, and it was thought that by putting the goods in bottled form, more or less of a sale could be induced the year round.

This early advertisement featuring their pint-sized bottle appeared in the July 3, 1897 edition of “Harper’s Magazine”

Hires went on to say:

The experiment was not a success on account of the price we put on the bottled goods. Transportation charges were too heavy, and we found it much more economical to license the bottling privilege to local concerns as we are doing today.

A significant transition period in the business came in the early 1900’s when the bulk of the soft-drink trade shifted from the cellar at home to the soda fountain on the corner. As early as 1908 this July 4th “Philadelphia Inquirer” advertisement bragged, “At All Soda Fountains.”

That being said, the transition did not come without its problems, one of which was substitution. The other, was described by Hires in his interview.

I felt that it was necessary to the success of the drink that the syrup and water be mixed more accurately than the average soda clerk is accustomed to handle them.

Both problems led to the development of a dispensing machine called the “Munimaker.” which made its appearance sometime in 1908. According to Hires:

It mixes the syrup and the soda water automatically and instantly in exactly the right proportions. It identifies the resulting drink as Hires, for the dealer would be a bold pirate indeed who would venture to serve any other kind of root beer syrup through the machine.

This picture of the “Munimaker” appeared in the December, 1908 edition of the “Bulletin of Pharmacy.”

Though spelled “Munimaker,” it was certainly pronounced “money maker,” and that’s how he promoted it to the local drug store owner, as evidenced by the following advertisement that appeared in several 1908 editions of “The Bulletin of Pharmacy.”

Hires went on to say that it was a “money maker” for his business as well..

Best of all the Munimaker has opened up a great many new channels for the sale of the goods – in places that do not provide regular soda fountains. We have installed a great many machines in department stores, in Y.M.C.A. buildings, and even in saloons.

As far as I can tell the company was located in Malverne, Pennsylvania for a time during the early 1900’s, before returning to Philadelphia, where they began listing their address as 210 Broad Street about 1905. Ten years later they were planning another move, this time to what would be their long-time home on South 24th Street. The announcement appeared in the April 14, 1914 edition of the “Philadelphia Inquirer.”

Though he continued to be associated with the business until 1925, Charles E. Hires, according to his obituary, quit active work in 1916. At that point he turned the business over to his sons, with Charles E., Jr. becoming president and J. Edgar and Harrison S. assuming vice presidencies. This photograph of Charles, Jr. appeared in the April 6, 1929 edition of Harrisburg Pennsylvania’s “Patriot-News.”

As far as I can tell, it was during Charles, Jr.’s presidency that the company began to increase their focus on bottled root beer. Evidence to that effect, not surprisingly in the form of advertising, began appearing in the 1920’s. One such ad appeared in the May 14, 1925 edition of the “Philadelphia Inquirer.”

By 1925 even their delivery trucks were promoting Hires in the bottle as evidenced by this July 16, 1925 advertisement for “Autocar.”

That’s not to say the company was abandoning their “make it yourself at home” extract, now called Household Extract, as evidenced by this May 21, 1925 “Pittsburgh Post” advertisement.

In fact, the June 30, 1931 edition of the “Philadelphia Inquirer” touted Hires fountain, extract and bottled root beer all in one advertisement.

By 1940, the Charles E. Hires Company’s entry in Standard & Poor’s corporate directory described a large corporation that in addition to using franchised bottlers was now back bottling the root beer themselves as well.

Company manufactures Hires Fountain Syrups, used in the making of Hires Root Beer dispensed over the counter, and Hires Root Beer Extract, used to flavor beverages for home consumption. These products are distributed through wholesalers and chain store organizations. It also makes and sells direct to bottlers, under franchise, a solution used to make carbonated Hires Root Beer. All these products are distributed throughout the United States and in certain foreign countries.

Either directly or through its Canadian subsidiary, company also operated bottling plants of its own for manufacture of Hires Root Beer, the output of which is sold through wholesalers and retailers.

As late as 1960, an August 30th feature found in the “Cleveland Press,” described a company that was still heavily involved in all aspects of the root beer business.

Hires reportedly does 25% of the nation’s root beer business. Some 1,000 competitors account for the remainder – mostly on a local basis.

Root beer not only is consumed as a bottled, canned or fountain drink. A surprisingly large amount is still being made in the homes (mostly rural) from household extracts.

Hires estimates that about 10% of its business is in household extracts, 40 % in fountain syrup and 50% in bottled and canned sales through it’s eight plants and 400 franchised bottlers in the U. S. and Canada.

The story went on to say that the Hires family had just given up control of the business selling their stock to Consolidated Foods.

Consolidated Foods, yesterday acquired 58% of Hires common stock for about $4,200,ooo. Consolidated, which paid $19 a share for the Hires family interest, is making an offer to all Hires stockholders at the same price.

Two years later, the June 30, 1962 edition of the Yonkers “Herald Statesman” reported that Consolidated Foods merged their Hires operation with Crush International.

Merger of two soft drink organizations was completed today. Crush International acquired Consolidated Food Corporation’s Hires Division, and Hires Co., Ltd. of Canada.

J.M. Thompson, president of Crush International, said the merger brings his firm 600 franchised bottling operations in the United States and 115 in Canada, with several others in foreign countries.

As far as I can tell, Hires Root Beer was advertised along with Crush soda products up through at least 2006. One of the last of their combined newspaper ads that I can find appeared in the March 1, 2006 edition of the “Houston Chronicle.”

Three years later, in 2009, the last mention of Hires Root Beer that I can find in a newspaper advertisement appeared in the February 26th edition of Harrisburg Pennsylvania’s “Patriot-News.”. That year you could pick up a 1.5 liter bottle at “Family Dollar” for $1 (bottom row, 2nd from left).

I’ve found three “Hires” bottles over the years. Machine made, they all contain three ounces and exhibit embossing that includes the phrase “Hires Household Extract.” According to the February 19, 1909 edition of “The Reatail Grocers Advocate,” the company began using that product name around that time.

Hires Root Beer is now called Hires Household Extract to comply with the Law.

In addition, all three bottles were manufactured to accommodate a cork closure. An unscientific review of their advertising suggests the company used this type of closure up through at least 1929. This likely dates the bottles to sometime between 1909 when they began using the phrase “Hires Household Extract,” and the early 1930’s when I’d expect to see a screw-top.

Bireley’s (California Orangeade)

The name Bireley embossed in script on the subject bottle is the last name of Frank W. Bireley who in 1924, at the age of 25, established a local citrus juice business in Hollywood, California.

Manufacturing his signature drink, a non-carbonated orangeade, Bireley ultimately grew the business into a multi-million dollar company that by 1936 was the largest single buyer of oranges in the United States.

A May 4, 1937 feature on Bireley and his company published in the “Hollywood Daily Citizen,” gets his story started.

Frank W. Bireley, former Hollywood High School student, and a schoolmate, Harold Peery, now European representative of the company, bought a squeezer and a few crocks and began selling orangeade to defray their Stanford University education expenses.

Within two months business had grown so fast they took a leave of absence to keep up with it. The next year, in 1924, the fast growing infant enterprise was transferred to Hollywood and a small plant opened at 6619 Santa Monica Blvd.

Initially called the Golden Bear Orange Products Company, over the next two years while marketing primarily to schools and sporting events demand for their beverages grew rapidly. This snapshot of their early clientele was found in an August 14, 1926 story published in the “Hollywood Daily Citizen.”

During the school session the Golden Bear Orange Products Co. serve their fresh fruit orange drinks to one hundred and thirty-two schools throughout the Southland (Los Angeles, Hollywood, Pasadena, Eagle Rock, Glendale, Burbank, Sawtelle, Westwood, Santa Monica, Venice, Palms, Culver City, Alhambra) because of the cleanliness and purity of their drinks and the high percentage of vitamins. At the fights at the Hollywood Stadium, Olympic Auditorium, Vernon arena and at Wrigley’s ball park, Golden Bear drinks are the most popular sellers in the house. Last week alone at the Hollywood Stadium more than 2,000 bottles of Mr. Bireley’s fresh fruit drink were sold.

At the same time the company also operated two “Golden Bear” retail stands in Hollywood. They were described like this in an October 29, 1926 “Hollywood Daily Citizen” story.

His fresh fruit drinks, which consist of Orangeade, Grapeade, Lemonade, Grapefruitade and pure Orange Juice are sold to the public at two Golden Bear retail stands in Hollywood. One is located next door to the Hollywood Theater and the other is at the corner of Cahuenga Avenue and Hollywood Boulevard. Malted milks and sandwiches are also sold at these stands which have become quite popular during the lunching hour.

In August, 1926, due to increasing demand the company was breaking ground for a new Hollywood factory to be constructed just north of Santa Monica Boulevard at 1117 North Milton Way (later 1117 Mansfield Ave.). The August 14th “Hollywood Daily Citizen” story included this photograph of the ground breaking.

A little over two months later another “Hollywood Daily Citizen” story, this one published in their October 29th edition, announced construction was complete and the company was in the process of moving in. The story included the following promotional photograph of their new facility describing it as…

…a two-story Class A brick structure, equipped with elevator and cold storage plant, the upper floor being used exclusively for storing, squeezing and mixing the fruit, while the lower floor is given over to the bottling, bottle washing, cold storage plant and loading departments. The total floor space utilized by the Golden Bear Company is over 9,000 square feet.

Also pictured in the lower right-hand corner was their Hollywood Boulevard retail stand.

By this time Bireley’s sister Ruth (also pictured) was involved, managing both the office and bookkeeping departments.

Also visible in the photograph was the company’s fleet of delivery trucks one of which was featured in the November 3, 1926 edition of the “Hollywood Daily Citizen.”

The caption below the photograph reads:

One of the specially designed Graham Brothers Trucks employed by the Golden Bear Orange Products Co. to deliver 40,000 fresh fruit drinks daily to more than 150 schools throughout the southland. There are 10 similar trucks in the Golden Bear fleet, which is one of Hollywood’s most active industries.

This advertisement exhibiting their new address appeared in the February 4, 1927 edition of the “Hollywood Daily Citizen.”

Later that year the Golden Bear Orange Products Company name was dropped in favor of the Frank W. Bireley Company (later Bireley, Inc.) and throughout the rest of the 1920’s the company continued as a successful local business under that name.

Then in the early 1930’s the company transitioned into a national enterprise when it began providing concentrated orange juice to dairy companies who would then bottle and distribute it. By 1934 promotional announcements like this one found in the September 13th edition of the “Montgomery (Alabama) Advertiser,” were appearing in newspapers across the country.

Announcing a vigorous advertising campaign on Bireley’s California Orangeade, C. H. Sanford of the Dixieland Dairy, distributors, yesterday declared his company had been encouraged to do so by the widespread approval with which the new beverage has been perceived.

“Since becoming distributors for Bireley’s California Orangeade in this territory” said Mr. Sanford,”we have been delighted with the popularity which it has already received. Our experience, we find, is duplicated by dairies all over the country who have taken on the distribution of Bireleys”

The announcement went on to describe the dairy’s relationship with Bireley’s.

One of the unique features of Bireley’s Orangeade is that its final preparation and bottling is done only by dairies. This enables us to know exactly what the quality of the product is and to guarantee its purity and freshness to our customers.

The orange juice from which Birley’s Orangeade is made is extracted from oranges of standard quality at the Bireley plant in Southern California. Special equipment, operated under immaculately sanitary conditions makes it only a matter of moments from the time the juice is taken from the fruit until it is mixed with pure cane sugar and packed in hermetically sealed, enamel lined tins ready for shipment. No artificial flavoring or preservatives are used. Lemon juice is also added in order to give the beverage a delicious tang. By using only oranges of uniform quality, fresh picked and by handling the juice so rapidly, the full tree-ripe flavor of the fruit is retained.

“Bireley’s is not carbonated. The final preparation takes place in our own dairy and the bottling is done by the same methods and with the same care as our milk. It is bottled tonight for delivery tomorrow morning,”

Bireley’s comes in quart bottles for home delivery by the Dixieland Dairy milkman and in five-cent bottles for sale at restaurants, lunch counters and wherever beverages are sold…

…It is only comparatively recently that the idea of getting national distribution for Bireley’s Orangeade through dairies was conceived. The dairies have accepted it readily because they can bottle it during the period when their machinery would otherwise be idle, and can deliver it to homes and to drink stands with their milk on their regular routes…

This Dixieland Dairy advertisement touting Bireley’s ran in several editions of the “Montgomery Advertiser” around that time.

What was happening in Montgomery, Alabama was happening all over the country such that by 1937, a May 4th story found in the “Hollywood Daily Citizen” announced:

Three thousand dairies in the 48 states, Canada and Alaska buy concentrate from the company for dilution into a beverage and…more than 250,000,000 individual bottles of the Bireley product sold in 1936.

According to a story in the August 24, 1940 edition of the “Wisconsin State Journal” the dairies were serviced by a series of warehouses located throughout the country.

Present consumer demand for Bireley’s Orangeade is met by the shipment monthly from the Hollywood California plant of 40 freight cars of concentrated, flash-pasteurized orange juice in hermetically sealed No. 10 cans according to Bireley officials. The juice goes to 30 warehousing points throughout the country, from whence it is distributed to leading dairies all over the United States and Canada.

Needless to say, meeting this demand required expansion of their Hollywood plant from time to time. According to a June 25, 1936 story in the “Hollywood Daily Citizen”

Today this firm is celebrating the completion of its greatly enlarged and remodeled plant on N. Mansfield Ave. near Santa Monica, a plant which provides a capacity eight times that of the old, covers a floor space of 75,000 square feet and occupies property with a 240 foot frontage and a depth of 147 feet.

This photograph of the enlarged plant appeared in the May 4, 1937 “Hollywood Daily Citizen” story.

The story went on to say that the expanded facility had a capacity for handling 300 tons of oranges daily and employed 150 to 250 people depending on the season. At the same time the company also operated seven bottling plants and seven sales offices from coast to coast. All of which made the Bireley company the largest single buyer of oranges in the United States at twenty thousand tons annually.

And while orangeade was their signature product, the “Wisconsin State Journal” story made ir clear that it wasn’t their only product, naming five others, grape, grapefruit cocktail, tomato cocktail, pineapple and lem-o-nip, all of which were non-carbonated. This August 22, 1941 advertisement in L. A.’s “Highland Park News-Herald” also included “Berry” on the menu.

In 1943, the March 24th edition of the “Hollywood Daily Citizen” announced that Bireley’s, Inc. was acquired by the General Foods Group.

Bireley’s, Inc. Joins General Foods Group

Bireley’s, Inc., of Hollywood, Calif., pioneer manufacturer of citrus fruit beverages and other fruit products has joined the General Foods group of companies.

The announcement was made today jointly by C. M. Chester, chairman and Clarence Francis, president of General Foods Corp. and Frank W. Bireley. Mr. Bireley, founder of the California company, will continue as general manager of the newly created Bireley’s Division of General Foods Corp.

It wasn’t long before General Foods was expanding operations overseas as evidenced by a story that appeared in the “Honolulu Star-Bulletin” on September 15, 1949.

Bireley’s Orange Begins Operations at Kobe, Japan

News has been received that Bireley’s Orange Japan, Ltd. began its operation in Kobe, Japan, Wednesday.

The Kobe plant will service Tokyo as well as other areas… Bireley’s plants are already successfully operating in Manilla and Cebu in the Philippines… Birelley’s Division General Foods Corp. extended franchises to the foregoing operations.

Ten years later, a May 15, 1959 story in the “Mount Vernon Argus” included this “end of the decade” status of the business that described even further expansion outside of the United states.

The Bireleys division, headquartered in Hollywood, California, produces an orange soft drink concentrate which is sold to franchise bottlers throughout the United States. It exports to franchise operators in Mexico, Hawaii, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Guam, Bangkok, Singapore, Thailand and Saigon, and a concentrate plant in Japan serves franchise operations there.

Meanwhile back in the U.S., by the late 1940’s Bireley’s had expanded their bottling franchises to include soda companies as well as dairies. One of the first that I can find went to the “Pepsi Cola Bottling Company of Los Angeles.” The announcement appeared in the January 23, 1949 edition of the “Santa Barbara News-Press.”

Acquisition of the Los Angeles County franchise for Bireley’s bottled beverages by the Pepsi Cola Bottling Co., has been announced by Darrell Ingalls, General Manager of the Bireley’s Division, General Foods Corp., and James F. McGregor, president of the Pepsi-Cola Bottling Company., of Los Angeles.

Pepsi-Cola will bottle Bireley’s orange, grape, grapefruit and berry drinks in its plants at Los Angeles, Long Beach and Glendale. Distribution will be consolidated with trucks carrying both Bireley’s and Pepsi-Cola throughout the territory.

Other local soda bottlers that got involved included one’s associated with Squirt and Dr. Pepper. This announcement, awarding a franchise to a local Dr. Pepper Bottling Company in Kentucky appeared in the February 6, 1959 edition of the “Mayfield (Ky.) Messenger.”

As late as 1959 Frank W. Bireley was still serving as the head of General Food’s Bireley division when it was acquired by the Krim-Ko corporation. The July 15th edition of the “Chicago Tribune” made the announcement.

Krim-Ko corporation, a leading dairy supply company with headquarters in Chicago, said Tuesday it has acquired the Bireley division of General Foods corporation for an undisclosed amount of cash.

Bireley is the name of a line of non carbonated soft beverages with distribution and franchise operations in many parts of the United States. George F. Gallagher, president of Krim-Ko, said Bireley’s Hollywood California headquarters will be moved to Chicago.

The acquisition is part of Krim-Ko’s expansion plans, Gallagher said. Krim-Ko, which has plants at the four principal United States ports of entry and another unit in Canada, plans to widen distribution and franchises of Bireley beverages to other parts of the country and also to Canada.

Krim-Ko, founded thirty years ago by Gallagher, is not new to the franchise bottling business, the executive said. This company sells chocolate and other supplies to dairy companies.

Gallagher said Krim-Ko will maintain a Bireley export office, citrus division, and franchise office in Hollywood. He added that many key Bireley employees will relocate in Chicago and continue with the company.

I suspect that it was this development that triggered Frank Bireley’s retirement and sadly, a year later, in October, 1960, he died of a stroke.

In 1965 the August 27th edition of the “Los Angeles Times” announced that Krim-K0 merged with the National Sugar Refining Company.

NATIONAL SUGAR REFINING CO. announced Thursday in New York, a merger agreement has been signed by its directors and Krim-Ko. …Krim-Ko makes nationally distributed chocolate and eggnog flavorings for milk and Bireley’s soft drinks and institutional flavorings.

Though infrequently, Bireley’s products continued to appear in U.S. grocery store advertisements up through the late 1970’s. As late as September 27, 1978 their orange drink was still available in a grocery store called “McCoy’s Market” in Rodondo Beach,California for 59c a half gallon.

Today, it’s still marketed in Japan by Asahi Soft Drinks.

The bottle I found is machine made and contains 12 ounces. The maker’s mark embossed on the base indicates it was made by the Illinois Glass Company in 1957.

It matches exactly the bottle pictured in this July 3, 1958 “Chicago Tribune advertisement.”

I. Rokeach & Sons, Brooklyn N. Y., Refined Oils

Israel Rokeach is credited with organizing the first kosher soap company in America. During the first half of the 20th Century his company, I Rokeach & Sons, evolved from simply a manufacturer of kosher soap and vegetable oil into a business that, according to a 1950 “Asbury Park Press” story:

produced everything used in the kitchen from cleaning to eating.

Products are still sold today under the Rokeach name.

Israel Rokeach’s career began, not in America, but overseas in Lithuania where he was born in 1841. According to a feature on the Rokeach business written years later in the January 20, 1980 edition of the “Asbury Park (N. J.) Press:”

Rokeach discovered in 1870 that soap could be made from vegetable oil rather than non-kosher lard. Orthodox Jews were prohibited from using the traditional cleaning product.

But with Rokeach’s discovery a ready market was eager to purchase the firm’s new product guaranteeing the company’s initial success.

Several internet sources and even some Rokeach advertisements produced years later also indicate that his soap hit the market as early as 1870. While this may be true on a small scale, the “Statement of Facts” in a 1935 case heard in the Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court made it clear that it wasn’t until 1884 that Rokeach actually established a company to sell the product.

Israel Rokeach established in 1884 in the City of Kovno, Lithuania, the business of manufacturing and selling white oblong cakes of Kosher soap and originated and popularized the idea of putting three Hebrew letters either in red or blue coloring spelling the word “Kosher”all the way through the soap.

This early pictorial representation of Rokeach’s soap cake was found in the April 18, 1924 edition of “The Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle.”

The court records go on to say:

In 1894 said Israel Rokeach came to the United States and became a resident and citizen thereof. In that year he commenced, in the City of New York, the sale of Kosher soap… and also commenced the sale of vegetable oil for domestic use.

Their vegetable oil, available in both tins and bottles, was depicted in another “Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle” advertisement, this one in their June 13, 1924 edition. The ad touted it as:

Best for baking, frying and salads.

Several Internet sources suggest that Rokeach arrived in the United States, not in 1894, but as early as 1890, while 1910 census records record his arrival in the U. S. as 1891. That being said, the first directory entry I can find for him was in 1893/1894, when he listed a Manhattan address of 30 Suffolk Street and the occupation “soap.” So, suffice to say, his U. S. business was up and running sometime in the early to mid-1890’s.

Up through the early 1900’s Rokeach was apparently content to only supply the Jewish population of New York’s Lower East Side with his soap and vegetable oil. During this time he listed lower Manhattan addresses of 48 Market Street in the late 1890’s and 8 Birmingham Street in the early 1900’s.

Then, in 1906, according to the court records, Rokeach formed a partnership consisting of himself and his three sons, Aaron, Louis and Levi, calling it “I. Rokeach & Sons.” At this point, his “Rokeach Hand Soap” was apparently gaining traction in other parts of the City as evidenced by this February 10, 1906 advertisement for a Brooklyn department store named Lautman’s. The ad, partially reproduced below appeared in a Brooklyn newspaper called “The Chat” (his hand soap appears on the lower right-hand side).

Shortly after this advertisement was published the company moved to Brooklyn where they listed their address as 29 Ten Eyck Street in Brooklyn’s 1908 directory. By 1910, they had moved to 409 Hewes Street, also in Brooklyn.

Five years after forming their partnership the business incorporated as I. Rokeach & Sons, Inc. The notice of incorporation appeared in the December 14, 1911 edition of the “Brooklyn Times Union.”

The corporation styled “I. Rokeach & Sons, Inc.,” of Brooklyn has been chartered with a capital of $25,000, divided into shares of $100 each, to make and sell soap, scouring powder, etc. The directors are Israel Rokeach, Louis Rokeach and Levi Rokeach of Brooklyn.

Around the same time the company also began to expand its product menu, periodically adding new items to complement their kosher soap. By the early 1930’s the company was manufacturing a menu of “Household Products” that, according to this July 19, 1935 advertisement in the “Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle,” will:

Keep Your Home Clean and Kosher

Likewise, another “Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle” advertisement, this one in their August 8, 1935 edition, made it clear that their vegetable oil was now one of a number of:

Pure and Kosher Food Products

Later, the company even added wine to the menu as evidenced by this licensing notification that was appearing in the “Brooklyn Daily Eagle” as early as January, 1941.

This selection of their wines appeared in a March 20, 1945 “N. Y. Daily News” advertisement for Hearn’s Department Stores under the heading “Fine Passover Wines & Liquors.”

As the company’s product menu expanded so did their facilities. As early as 1913, a May 31st article in “The Chat” announced that they were moving to a new location on Hewes Street (No. 345).

The six-story and basement brick factory building, formerly occupied by the Thomas Shoe Co., and located at the southwest corner of South Fifth and Hewes Streets, was sold during the past week. The factory is of heavy mill construction, with boiler, engine, elevators, being built on a plot 75×100…

The purchasers, I Rokeach & Sons, Inc., are the largest bottlers of salad oil in Greater New York. They are also extensively engaged in the manufacture of scouring powder. The concern was established in 1891, and their business has grown to such an extent that they will now utilize the entire building for the manufacture and distribution of their products.

They contemplate making many alterations and improvements to the building.

An item in the October 4, 1928 edition of the “Brooklyn Daily Eagle” announced that the company was on the move again, this time to a newly constructed building at 240 Wythe Ave, also in Brooklyn.

I. Rokeach & Sons, Inc., awarded the building contract for a new factory at N. 3rd St. and Wythe Ave. to Turner Construction Company. Construction will start immediately. The building will be four stories and basement in height, 200 x 90 in plan, reinforced concrete throughout.

A decade later, in 1940, the company added a second location to the business, this one in New Jersey. The announcement appeared in the April 11, 1940 edition of the “Asbury Park Press.”

I. Rokeach and Sons, Brooklyn, has purchased the Farmers and Packers plant at Farmingdale, N. J., for establishment of a new business in canning soups and other products…

The plant has not been operated for about a year. It includes a one-story building, contains 20,000 square feet of floor space, on a three-acre plot.

The Rokeach’s will employ about 75 persons in the new enterprise…

The reasoning behind the new location was explained years later in the October 19, 1952 edition of the “Asbury Park Press,” by William I. Rokeach, a grandson of Israel Rokeach who at the time was a vice president in the firm.

Until 1940 all production was done in New York. But high costs of water and shipping vegetables to the city prompted the firm to hunt for a new location.

“We settled on Farmingdale,” said Mr. Rokeach, “because it is right in the heart of a great farming area. We are now able to obtain all our fresh vegetables within 30 miles of the plant.”

Within several months of the announcement the company was already soliciting local farmers for their vegetable crop as evidenced by this advertisement for carrots in the September 27, 1940 edition of “The Freehold (N.J.) Transcript.”

…which led to among other things a variety of canned soups.

On a side note: ironically, during World War II, German prisoners of war actually worked alongside local workers at the Farmingdale facility. According to a January 20, 1945 “N. Y. Daily News” story headlined “Hey Adolf – This Kosher?”

Farmingdale, N. J., Fifteen German prisoners of war, quartered at Fort Dix, are packaging kosher food products at the I. Rokeach & Sons plant here, it was learned today. They’ve even developed a fondness for the kosher food, fellow workers reported. The prisoners are employed to help meet the manpower shortage under contract between the company and the government.

In 1950, I. Rokeach & Sons decided to expand the Farmingdale plant and consolidate the entire operation there. The announcement appeared in the December 10, 1950 edition of the “Asbury Park Press.”

Work has been started on a 40,000 square foot addition to the I. Rokeach and Sons plant at Chestnut and Water Streets.

William Rokeach, vice president of the firm, which prepares foods and manufactures cleansers, said that when the expansion is completed all production at the company’s 75 year-old Brooklyn Plant (not sure how they came up with that number…they operated in Brooklyn for roughly 45 years so maybe its a typo?) will be transferred here.

Mr. Rokeach said the present staff of 40 employees will be increased to 100 when the new facilities are completed….The new building will triple the company’s capacity here.

The company’s production includes “everything used in the kitchen from cleaning to eating,” Mr. Rokeach said.

The announcement included this rendering of the expanded New Jersey facility.

A year later, an October 19, 1952 story in the “Asbury Park Press” referred to the company as “the world’s biggest manufacturer of kosher food products.”

The company, which processes 50 different products, is the world’s biggest manufacturer of kosher food products. Its most widely distributed items are soap, canned soups, borscht, gefillte fish, scouring powder and silver polish.

From 50 to 150 persons work at the one-story plant, depending on the season.

This detailed listing of the company’s early 1950’s offerings appeared in the March 24, 1953 edition of the “N. Y. Daily News” under the heading “Your Passover Shopping List!”

Up to this point, over the course of three generations the Rokeach family remained active in the company business. This changed in 1956 when, according to a feature on the Rokeach business published in the January 20, 1980 edition of the “Asbury Park Press:”

An 86-year tradition was broken in 1956 when the firm was sold to a Wall Street group and a Rokeach no longer was listed among officers on the company letterhead.

This change apparently led to a diversification of the business that four years later resulted in the sale of the kosher food business.” The August 12, 1960 edition of the “Buffalo Jewish Review” announced the sale in a story under the headline: “Company Plans Shift From Borscht to Bras.”

I Rokeach & Sons Inc. announced that it will sell its Kosher Food Division to Crown Products Corp. and will continue negotiations for acquisition of Exquisite Form Brassiere, Inc.

Benjamin C. Wheetler, Rokeach president, said the Kosher Division, which had sales under $3 million a year, had been unprofitable for the past six years. Crown will acquire the Rokeach Kosher food products plant at Farmingdale N. J., existing inventories and the right to use the Rokeach name. The sale must be approved by the Rokeach stockholders.

Two months later, according to a story in the October 14, 1960 edition of the “Bridgeport (Conn) Post:” the stockholder approval of the sale was obtained along with approval of a corporate name change.

L Rokeach & Sons, Inc., shareholders at a special meeting today approved proposals designed to merge Rokeach with Exquisite Form Brassiere, Inc… They also voted to change the name of I Rokeach to Exquisite Form Industries, Inc.

The new company will devote its energies primarily to the manufacture of women’s foundation garments, a spokesman said. Rokeach, which had been engaged both in food manufacturing and production of women’s undergarments, sold its food business recently. A spokesman for Exquisite Form said that Exquisite Form’s sales, plus the non-food business of Rokeach totaled “in the area of $25,000,000.

Crown Products apparently continued the kosher food business under the I. Rokeach & Sons name with Monroe Nash now serving as president of the subsidiary. The 1980 “Asbury Park Press” feature on Rokeach mentioned that at the time, the company had a total payroll of 120 employees and was manufacturing more than 75 kosher products that were distributed to about 1,000 accounts. Sales during the 1978 fiscal year were reportedly $9 million, and sales had recently increased when the company acquired Mother’s Food Products, Inc., and its Newark N. J. production facility in January, 1979. By then, the company also maintained a corporate office in Englewood Cliffs with 15 employees.

That 1980 feature went on to say that the company remained true to its kosher roots.

Rokeach continues to follow all prescribed religious practices for the production of kosher products which allows it to display The Union of Orthodox Congregations’ endorsement on its packaging.

Only kosher ingredients are used by Rokeach. It observes all Jewish religious holidays, including the Sabbath, by halting production.

After 48 years, in 1988 the company shut down its Farmingdale N. J. plant consolidating the entire Rokeach operation at the Mother’s Food Products plant in Newark N. J. The reasoning behind the move was explained in an August 31, 1988 story in the “Asbury Park Press.”

In separate decisions, I. Rokeach & Sons Inc., a kosher foods canner on Water Street, and Foster Canning Co., a pet foods canner on Railroad Avenue, are ceasing operations after about a half century as two of the borough’s businesses.

Rokeach, a subsidiary of publicly held Crown Cork & Seal Co., Engelwood Cliffs, has laid off 72 of its 75 workers under a plan to relocate its business to the company’s Newark plant by the end of September.

Rising water costs and an inability to attract workers for production jobs paying between $5 and $8 per hour made operations at the 48-year-old, 150,000 square foot Rokeach plant unprofitable, said Oney Sims, vice president of manufacturing.

State Department of Environmental Protection regulations that require area municipalities to cut groundwater use by 40 to 50 percent by 1990 to prevent salt water intrusion figured heavily in the decision, Sims said.

“We were considering either closing the Newark plant or the plant here,” Sims said. “When we looked at how high our water costs would be, the choice was obvious.”

Under DEP rules, enacted in 1985, Rokeach would have had to buy 100,000 gallons of the approximately 200,000 gallons of water it used daily from expensive treated surface water sources, he noted.

Ultimately, the Rokeach brand was acquired by R. A. B. Food Group in May, 2006. The company had previously acquired the Manischewitz brand in 1998. According to a December 11, 2006 story in the New Jersey “Courier News:”

In addition to new products at Manischewitz, R. A. B. Food Group’s growth comes from acquiring smaller kosher labels and the consolidation of operations at a renovated, more modern plant in Newark. This May, it acquired the 136-year-old Rokeach brand, whose holdings include Mother’s, Mrs. Adler’s and Margareten.

To this day, items are still sold under the Rokeach name.

The six-story Brooklyn building at 345 Hewes Street that I. Rokeach & Sons occupied from 1913 to 1929 remains to this day. Built in 1900, today its occupied by Bnos Chayil, a private all-girls Jewish school.

The four-story building on Wythe Avenue that the company built in 1929 also remains to this day. It’s currently a rental building with 48 units.

The company’s Farmingdale, N. J. building, pictured here (likely in the 1970’s?) looks pretty much the same today.

It’s currently occupied by Kid International.

The bottle I found is machine made and contains about seven ounces. Its embossed:

“I. Rokeach & Sons, Refined Oils, Brooklyn, N.Y.

Similar versions of the Rokeach bottle that occasionally appear on the internet include the added embossed letters “INC,” below the company name. This suggests that the embossing may have changed when the company incorporated in 1911.

If so, it’s likely that the subject bottle, which doesn’t include the embossed “INC.” dates no later than 1911 when the business incorporated in New York. That being said, recognizing its machine made I expect that it wasn’t made much earlier either, say 1905 to 1911.

The other side of the bottle exhibits the embossed outline of a crown and the Star of David. Both likely outlined paper labels that are readily apparent in the 1924 advertisement that appeared earlier in this post.

Mellin’s Infant’s Food, Doliber, Goodale & Co., Boston, U.S.

Around the turn of the century Mellin’s Food was marketed as a substitute for mother’s milk. What mother could resist the sales pitch found in a 1901 publication called “The Trained Nurse and Hospital Review.”

Children fed on Mellin’s Food have strong, rugged bodies, sound teeth, and firm flesh; they are healthy and happy, and bring comfort to the home. These results are produced because Mellin’s Food is a suitable and satisfactory food. It is not a medicine. It gives results because it furnishes suitable nutrition in a form which the child can assimilate. A full and natural development is the result…

The thousands of healthy, happy children raised on Mellin’s Food are the strongest testimonials. Hence it is said by the Mellin’s Food Company, quoting Shakespeare, “We are advertised by our loving friends.”

By the late 1890’s Mellin’s Food was being manufactured and sold world wide with Mellin Food Companies located in London, England, Boston, Massachusetts, India and Australia/New Zealand. Doliber & Goodale of Boston, later named the Mellin Food Company of North America, owned the North American rights to its manufacture and sale.

The story of “Mellin’s Infant Food” starts not in Boston but rather in London with the originator of “Mellin’s Food,” a chemist named Gustav Mellin whose early career was encapsulated in his obituary, found in the January 12, 1903 edition of the “American Druggist and Pharmaceutical Record.”

Gustav Mellin….was a native of Wesselburenin the Duchy of Holstein, where his father was a pharmacist. After serving an apprenticeship to pharmacy young Mellin went to London and served for a time on the apothecaries’ staff of the German Hospital. After a few years’ experience in various pharmacies in London, in 1854 he went to Roberts & Co., Paris, but he did not remain there for any length of time. Securing a position with a surgeon who conducted a pharmacy in Regent Street, it was not long before he got a share of the business, and when the surgeon died Mr. Mellin found himself in the possession of a flourishing concern. It was in that establishment that he continued his work on the preparation of infants’ food that he had begun some years before. At first he produced a liquid food, then a Baroness von Learner and her husband came to him with an introduction from Liebig…

Baron Von Liebig was a chemist who had previously devised a liquid formula for an infant’s food. That being said, the difficulties of preparation were such that it was nearly impossible for it to be made in the home. That’s where Gustav Mellin came in. According to a booklet entitled “The Feeding of Infants,” produced by Mellin’s Food Co., in 1904:

Gustav Mellin, Chemist, London, England, after years of experiment and patient effort, after many trials and many failures, succeeded in perfecting a process by which he made use of all materials used by Liebig except the milk and water, thereby manufacturing Liebig’s food in a form adapted to the limitations of the home. All that is necessary to reproduce Liebig’s original modified milk is to combine the proper portions of Mellin’s Food, milk and water.

As early as 1870 the London Post Office Directory of Chemists and Druggists named Gustav Melin as the “manufacturer of patent extract for Liebig’s infants’ food,” listing him with an address of 16 Tichborne St. W.

Recognizing that the directory was published in 1870, it’s almost certain that Mellin began its manufacture sometime in the mid to late 1860’s.(several sources say 1867).

This advertisement, found in the December 1, 1871 edition of “The British Homeopathic Review” suggested that in the early 1870’s the operation was still quite limited with the food both manufactured and sold locally on Trichborne Street, likely in the drug store Mellin had inherited when his partner, the surgeon, passed away.

It was at Tichborne Street where, in 1876, Mellin met Thomas Doliber. Born in Marblehead, Massachusetts, A feature on Doliber in the November 1, 1891 edition of “The Pharmaceutical Era” provides a recap of his early life.

When fifteen years old he began to give such hours as the school sessions would permit to the services of the local apothecary, (of) John Roundy… Soon he was permanent clerk in Mr. Roundy’s store, but like thousands of other New England boys, in a few years, his native town became too small for his growing ambition and his thoughts turned citywards. So, early in 1855, he was to be found in the best of Boston’s stores – Metcalf’s.

The feature went on to say that on January 1, 1863 he became the junior member in the apothecary business of Theodore Metcalf & Co. and by the early 1870’s was in personal charge of the company’s manufacturing department. It was in this role that Doliber became acquainted with Gustav Mellin and his food for infants.

Doliber picks up the story from there in his own words found in the November, 1894 edition of the “American Druggist and Pharmaceutical Record.”

“The way of it was this,” said Mr. Doliber. “While I was with Theodore Metcalf & Co., a lady, one of our best customers, came into the store one day and said she wanted us to put up some “Mellin’s Food” for her. It was an English preparation discovered by Gustav Mellin of London, who had worked it out on the principles advanced by Liebig. The lady, who is still alive and living in Boston, had had it prescribed for her sick baby while she was over in London.

On her return she brought over with her what she thought would be a sufficient quantity. But her supply gave out, and then she came to us. There was none in the country; in fact, no one in America knew anything about it. But the lady, who was rich, said she must have it without delay, and instructed us to cable for it.

This was in 1874. Our order came, and we got such good reports from it that we went for more. The sale increased so rapidly that in 1876 I went to London and made a contact with Mr. Mellin for the exclusive American agency…”

The 1891 Pharmaceutical Era feature on Doliber described their initial meeting.

He found Mr. Mellin not in a mansion, but in the back room of a small London pharmacy, which had been his headquarters since 1866. Mr. Doliber asked if he would give to Metcalf & Co. the exclusive rights for the sale of Mellin’s Food in America. After thinking awhile Mr. Mellin answered in the affirmative, conditional with the firm agreeing to at least take a stated quantity each year.

Almost immediately after securing the U. S. rights to sell “Mellin’s Food'” Thomas Metcalf & Co. began advertising it to the medical profession. As early as May 4, 1876 this advertisement was appearing in “The Boston Medical & Surgical Journal.”

Within a year they were also advertising it to the general public as evidenced by the following ad that appeared in several July, 1877 editions of the “Boston Evening Transcript.”

If we are to believe this January 1, 1885 “Boston Globe” advertisement the sale of “Mellin’s Food” in the United States grew exponentially over the next several years; growth that would ultimately transition a mother’s simple request into a successful, independent manufacturing operation.

That transition began in 1880 when Doliber revisited Mellin in London and obtained the rights to manufacture the food, not just in the United States, but in all of North America. According to the 1891 “Pharmaceutical Era” feature:

When the necessary papers were being drawn, Mr. Doliber said: “But see here, Mr. Mellin, what in your mind constitutes North America?”

“From the North Pole to Panama inclusive,” came the quick response.

The feature went on to say that on January 1, 1882 Doliber established the Mellin’s Food Department of T. Metcalf & Co., opening a separate laboratory at 41 Central Wharf in Boston.

Within a year the department had outgrown this space, forcing them to expand into the adjoining building at 42 Central Wharf.

A year later, Metcalf and Doliber dissolved their partnership and went on to establish two independent companies. One, run by Metcalf in partnership with Frank A. Davidson, called Theodore Metcalf & Co., remained on Tremont Street and continued the pharmacy business, while the other, run by Doliber in partnership with Thomas Goodale, called Doliber, Gooddale & Co., continued the “Mellin’s Food” business on Central Wharf.

The legal notices announcing these changes, all dated August 1, 1883, appeared in the August 8, 1883 edition of the “Bost0n Evening Transcript.”

The breakup was certainly amicable as Metcalf went on to articulate his best wishes to Doliber and Goodale in the same edition of the “Evening Transcript.”

I take this opportunity to give public expression to my good wishes for the success and prosperity of the new firm of DOLIBER, GOODALE & CO.

Of Mr. Doliber it is sufficient to say that he has been my business associate for over twenty years. Mr. Goodale has been with us for the past twelve years, and has had charge of our Pharmaceutical Laboratory. The Mellin’s Food business has received Mr. Doliber’s personal attention since its inception; and since the establishment of our Mellin’s Food Department at 41 Central Wharf in January, 1882, it has been in his entire charge, with Mr. Goodale as Superintendent. Of the merits of Mellin’s Food it is needless for me to speak. It has far exceeded my most sanguine hopes in winning the confidence of the community. I cordially commend the new firm to the favor of the trade, the medical profession and the public.

Within two years , the company added two more buildings to their Central Wharf facilities as evidenced by their advertisement that appeared in Boston’s 1885 directory.

Not long after, they would add a fifth (No. 44) as well.

Ultimately in 1888 Doliber, Goodale & Co. incorporated with both the 1889 and 1890 Boston directories naming Goodale, president and Doliber, treasurer. Then in 1892, with Goodale apparently having left the firm, Doliber was listed as both president and treasurer; titles he would hold until his death in 1912.

Closely aligned with Mellin’s Food, it’s no surprise that on May 16, 1898 the company changed its name to the “Mellin’s Food Company of North America.” The legal notice announcing the change appeared in the May 21, 1898 edition of the “Boston Evening Transcript.”

By this time, in addition to their Central Wharf manufacturing facilities, the company had established corporate offices at 291 Atlantic Avenue in Boston that would later move to 177 State Street.

Much of Mellin’s Food’s” success during the late 1800’s and early 1900’s is attributed to Doliber’s approach to advertising, an approach described like this in the July, 1905 edition of “Success Magazine:”

Today Mellin’s Food is one of the most extensively advertised products in the world. It uses pages in all leading magazines, and it stands together with Mennen’s Talcom Powder, the Douglas Shoe, and the Eastman Kodak as a living proof of the value of advertising as connected with the use of photographic faces. The Mellin’s Food characteristic advertisement, as you undoubtedly know very well indeed, is to show a photograph of a real child which has been brought up on Mellin’s Food, and to give its name generally with a testimonial letter from the mother and the catchy phrase, “We are advertised by our loving friends.”

This example appeared in the April, 1903 edition of a magazine called “Country Life in America.”

An April 1, 1925 Topeka, Kansas newspaper called “Rural Trade,” described the predictable effect the advertising had on their targeted audience of young mothers.

To mothers the testimonials of other mothers published in the Mellin’s Food advertisements have a convincing appeal. The pictures of healthy little tots and the words, “Mellin’s Food Did It,” start more than one troubled mother to the store to buy this widely used food for children. It is advertising that establishes confidence at the first reading.

To dealers who handle Mellin’s Food this advertising has an untold value. It may be safely considered the basis of at least 75 percent of the Mellin’s Food sales.

The company’s Central Wharf facilities remained listed in the Boston directories up through the late 1940’s and their newspaper advertisements, though not as abundant, did continue up through 1949. This advertisement that continued to exhibit their Central Wharf facilities appeared in the June 14, 1949 edition of the “Berkshire Eagle”

It was also in the late 1940’s that the company, possibly in an effort to re-invent themselves, introduced “Mellin’s Food Energy Tablets.” This August 10, 1949 ad in the “Berkshire Eagle” touted them:

For New, Quick Relief from Stomach Distress, try these effective MELLIN’S FOOD ENERGY TABLETS, Eat like candy as often as required.

After the initial round of advertisements the tablets were never advertised again so apparently they were a short-lived experiment.

By 1953, the Mellin Food Company of North America was no longer listed in the Boston Directory however drug store price lists published in U.S. newspapers sporadically featured Mellin’s Food up through the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. In fact, as late as April 16, 1964 it was included, along with other baby foods in an advertisement for a local drug store named Carney’s published in the “Tipton (Indiana) Daily Tribune.”.

In addition, between 1955 and 1962 the Mellin name surfaced as a weight gain product.” This advertisement, found in the July 14, 1955 edition of the “Chicago Tribune” now claimed Mellins Food was beneficial to adults as well as children. It read in part:

Mellin’s Food Milk Modifier helps men, women, children and babies quickly and steadily gain in weight. It’s amazing how many millions of folks Mellin’s Food has helped to put on pounds of firm flesh and improve their strength and attractivenesss. For adults, two level teaspoons of Mellin’s Food mixed in a glass of milk, makes a delicious and inexpensive drink…You can easily gain pounds in days.

Over the years I’ve found two bottles associated with Mellin’s Food. The first is mouth blown and includes the company name of Doliber, Goodale & Co., Boston, embossed on the front. As a result it was blown sometime prior to the 1898 name change to the Mellin’s Food Co. of North America, likely sometime in the 1880’s up through the mid-1890’s, but no later than 1898. Its size and shape matches the labeled bottle exhibited in this 1884 advertisement found in the August 30, 1884 edition of a publication called “Weekly Drug News and Prices.”

The second is machine-made and embossed “Mellin’s Food Co., Boston, U.S., Small Size.” It sports a screw top and was likely made in the 1920’s or 1930’s.

On a final note: The Mellin’s Food Quotation: “We are best advertised by our loving friends,” was featured in the following “Letter to the Editor,” of a publication called “Printer’s Ink.”

Wayne County Produce Co., Greenpoint, Long Island

The Wayne County Produce Company was a manufacturer of cider and vinegar that was headquartered in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn for over 60 years

The Company’s founder and first president was a German immigrant named Peter Knecht. His obituary, published in the January 21, 1916 edition of Brooklyn’s “Times Union,” gets the company’s story started.

Mr Knecht was born in Bavaria, Germany, on May 19, 1844, and came to this country in 1855. He settled in Calicoon, Sullivan County, N.Y., and also lived in Galilee, Wayne County, Pa., before coming to Brooklyn in 1878.

According to a story published in the September 24, 1905 edition of the “Brooklyn Daily Eagle,” the company was established sometime in 1901. Initially called the Wayne County Produce Cider & Vinegar Company, it was listed in Brooklyn’s 1902 directory with an address of 202 Oakland Street. Certainly a family affair, the directory named Peter Knecht as president, his brother, Charles Knecht, treasurer and son, Peter N. Knecht, secretary.

That being said, the “Brooklyn Daily Eagle” story made it clear that while Peter was president, it was Charles who served as general manager of the operation.

Charles Knecht, who is the proprietor of the Wayne County Produce company, is a pioneer of the trade. For the past thirty-two years he has been in the business, twenty-seven of which were spent with the John Doust Company.

Two years after it was established, the business incorporated as the Wayne County Produce Company. Their incorporation notice was published in the May 14, 1903 edition of the “Times Union.”

The Wayne County Produce Company, of Brooklyn, has been incorporated with the Secretary of State. Its capital is placed at $30,000, consisting of shares of $100 each, and the directors for the first year are as follows: Peter Knecht, Charles Knecht, Peter M. Knecht and Edward F. Knecht, of Brooklyn.

At the time it appears that all manufacturing, bottling and distribution was accomplished in their factory that was located, along with their offices, in the block bounded by Greenpoint Avenue, Oakland Street, Calder Street and Newell Street. The 1905 “Brooklyn Daily Eagle’ story summarized the operation like this.

The apple juice is brought from the upstate counties, particularly from the section just north of Albany, and near the town of Raven, in barrels. The pure apple juice is of course cider. The cider is taken from the barrels, placed in a large vat, from which it is allowed to run into a generator, which is tightly packed with rattan. Sugar is also used in the process, and the combination changes the juice into vinegar…

The story then went on to provide this brief description of their Greenpoint plant.

The Wayne County Produce Company, which has a large plant at 200 Oakland Street, Greenpoint, is one of the foremost of the companies in the cider and vinegar trade in New York. In the company’s plant there are at present eight large tanks, or vats, which have a capacity of about 500 barrels. From these vats the cider, or vinegar, is barreled by means of hose, which is thoroughly sterilized before the beginning of each day’s work.

Several years later, this June 1, 1911 item found in the “Times Union” suggests by then they were manufacturing their vinegar at an upstate New York plant before shipping the product to their facility in Greenpoint, which now included a second location on Meserole Avenue, for bottling and distribution.

Bottled goods are a specialty with the Wayne County Produce Company, located at 200 to 206 Oakland Street and 179 to 193 Meserole Avenue. The concern produces cider and vinegar received from its country branch upstate, and the products are bottled and distributed from the two Greenpoint depots.

This advertisement, published in the same edition of the “Times Union,” mentioned both Greenpoint distribution points.

Around the same time their Greenpoint bottling operation was described like this in an August 31, 1912 item in the “Times Union.”

The bottling and labeling departments are conducted on the most cleanly up-to-date methods…The daily sales in bottles of Vinegar alone runs about 500 dozen. None of the empty bottles come back.

Newspaper advertisements for their cider and vinegar that ran during the 1920’s exhibit the the same ribbed style bottle as that of the subject bottle.

That being said, Thanksgiving and Christmas advertisements in 1922 make it clear that bottles weren’t the only way to get your cider.

By the mid-1920’s the company was operating as many as nine plants in upstate New York, as evidenced by this story that appeared in the October 31, 1925 edition of Brooklyn’s “Standard Union.”

At Marion, N.Y., the newest plant of the company was recently opened. Here a staff of 100 men, working under the most sanitary conditions, turn 250,000 pounds of apples into cider and vinegar each day during October, November and December.

Eighty-three tanks with an average capacity of 72,000 gallons each, store the cider and vinegar for the months when apples cannot be obtained. Others of the company’s plants are located at Highlands, Kendall, Catskill, Modena, Albion, Red Hook, Cheviot and Clintondale, all in New York State, in counties where the finest apples are grown.

That being said their main office and distributing plant remained at their Oakland Street location where, according to the 1925 “Standard Union” story:

Twenty-five horse drawn trucks operate from here, with fourteen auto trucks, delivering the bulk of apple products. Tank cars are used for shipments to the Middle West.

Around this time the company was advertising four different vinegar types; Cider, White, Malt and Tarragon, all of which are mentioned in this February 1, 1927 “Standard Union” advertisement.

In the Fall of 1929 the company began advertising apple sauce in addition to their cider and vinegar. One of the first ads I can find was this New Year’s advertisement for Wayne County Cider that appeared in the December 30, 1929 edition of the New York “Daily News.” A reference to their apple sauce which appears introductory in nature, appeared at the bottom of the advertisement.

Later, certainly by 1936, the company had added pepper relish and jellies/ preserves to the menu as well, as evidenced by this March 23, 1936 advertisement in the “Brooklyn Daily Eagle.”

The company was still advertising in the late 1950’s. This ad for their cider, now in “handy new 4-packs,” appeared in several 1957 editions of “Newsday”

In 1960, the company’s run was coming to an end. By then they had lost at least one of their upstate plants when the Marion N.Y. plant was put up for public auction. The auction notice appeared in the January 3, 1960 edition of Rochester New York’s “Democrat and Chronicle.”

Three years later the business was sold. Today the business is run under the name of “Wayne County Foods.” Their web site, http://waynecountyfoods.com, completes the story.

In 1963 the company was purchased by the Nemeth family. Vincent Nemeth, a Master Cooper had been making barrels and tanks for the wine industry in Hungary before immigrating to America with his wife Katherine after WW II. At the time of their purchase they were operating out of Brooklyn, New York. In 1969 Vincent’s son Peter joined the company, carrying on the tradition of supplying natural food products to greater New York markets. By 1975 they had outgrown their Brooklyn facility and moved to the Bronx, operating their growing business from this location for 24 years. Once again having outgrown their current facility, in 1999 they moved to their current location in New Jersey.

The bottle I found is machine made, 10 inches tall and contains 20 ounces. A little over 2-1/2 inches in diameter, its design actually consists of 10 narrow, vertical panels. The bottle matches those pictured in advertisements published during the 1920’s.

As early as 1935 and throughout the 1940’s and 1950’s their cider was available in several sizes, namely quarts, as well as half-gallon and gallon jugs. This December 18, 1947 advertisement in the “Brooklyn Daily Eagle” mentioned all three sizes.

Finally, here’s the 1940’s version of what is likely their quart size, found in the October 13, 1949 edition of the “Mount Vernon Argus.”

C. B. Ellin’s Horseradish, New York

Clifford B. Ellin was a native New Yorker born in 1880. He was active in New York City’s wholesale grocery trade during the first two decades of the twentieth century before relocating to Morrisville, in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

His business career began at the age of twenty when he partnered with Charles S. Heron forming C.B. Ellin & Company. Located in the Bronx, N.Y., the company was first listed in the 1901 N.Y.C. Copartnership and Corporation Directory at 769 East 167th Street.

A year later, the 1902 edition of the same directory listed their address as 1238 Brook Avenue. During this time N.Y.C general directories identified Ellin’s occupation as “teas.”

C.B. Ellin & Company was no longer listed in the 1906 N.Y.C Copartnership and Corporation Directory (the next one I have access to) and after 1903 Ellin’s general directory listing drops the Brook Avenue address; all suggesting that sometime between 1903 and 1905 the formal partnership between Ellin and Heron was dissolved.

Later, sometime in 1906, Ellin apparently went into business for himself as a wholesale dealer in both “pickles” and “horseradish.” Now located in lower Manhattan, the business was originally listed at 425 Greenwich Street until sometime around 1909 when it moved to 503 Greenwich Street

An item in the September, 1915 edition of a publication called “Simmon’s Spice Mill” referred to C.B. Ellin as “the headquarters for horseradish root in wholesale quantities.” The item appeared under the heading: “Queries and Answers of Special Interest.”

Fresh Horse Radish Root

“M. S.,” of Marion, N. C. asks: “Will you do us the favor of telling us from whom we may obtain fresh horse radish root?”

Ans.- C. B. Ellin, 503 Greenwich St., New York, is headquarters for horseradish root in wholesale quantities. We understand that at the present time, however, there is no actually fresh horseradish root on the market and that there will not be any root on the market until after September; but correspondent can obtain cold storage horseradish root from the above named firm.

The company remained at 503 Greenwich Street until 1918 or 1919 when Ellin apparently closed up shop.

By 1920, Ellin had moved to Morrisville, Pennsylvania where, according to a March 12, 1920 story in the Bristol (Pa.) Daily Courier, he established a business operating a bus route between Morrisville and Trenton, N.J. By then he was also serving on the Morrisville Borough Council.

The jar I found is eight-sided and measures 2-1/4-inches wide at the base. Towards the top it transitions to an approximate 1-3/4-inch round opening. It dates to the 1906 to 1918 time period when Ellin marketed horseradish. Blown in a mold, it likely trends to the early end of that range.

Leslie Dunham & Co., Brooklyn, N.Y., 1-lb. Pure Honey

Leslie, Dunham & Company were wholesale dealers in honey, maple syrup and sugar that operated in Brooklyn, N. Y. from 1888 to 1908. Ultimately the company opened another location in New Jersey where they continued in business until the mid 1920’s and possibly longer.

Their honey was sold with brand names like “Orange Blossom,” and “Choice Extra Clover,” while their maple syrup brands were, among others, “Green Mountain” and “Maple Twig.” “Green Mountain” was apparently one of their most popular.

The company’s founder and long time senior member was a native Canadian of Scottish descent named Charles G. Leslie who settled in Pittsfield, Massachusetts sometime after arriving in the United States in 1848. According to his September 27, 1907 obituary published in the “Berkshire Eagle:”

Mr. Leslie was born in St. Bridget, Canada, moving to the United States when a young man. He spent most of his life in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he was actively engaged in business, being the head of the firm of Leslie, Dunham & Co., which he established some 50 years ago.

The above obituary suggests that the business was established sometime around 1860, a fact that’s referenced in several of the company’s business cards published years later in the Brooklyn city directories.

That year census records listed both Charles G. Leslie and Darius W. Dunham as farmers living in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts. The census records, along with the obituary of Darius Dunham, published in the 1896 edition of the “Pittsfield Sun,” indicate that in 1859 Leslie married Dunham’s daughter Malissa. So the Leslie’s and Dunhams certainly had a personal relationship by then.

That being said, through the early 1870’s there’s no reference to either Leslie, Dunham or the company in the city directories for Brooklyn, New York City or even Boston for that matter, so any business apparently remained local to Pittsfield during that time.

That changed in the mid-1870’s when both Charles G. Leslie, along with Darius Dunham’s son, Jasper T., both began to appear in the Brooklyn directories with the occupation of “syrup manufacturer” and/or “honey” albeit at separate locations; Charles G. at 150 Nassau Street, and Jasper T. at 478 4th Avenue. During the early 1880’s Jasper also spent some time across the Hudson River in Jersey City where he was listed with the occupation of “honey” at 133 Coles Street.

Whether a partnership existed at this point is not clear, however by 1888 they were certainly in business together when this item appeared in the March 24th edition of the “Brooklyn Daily Eagle.”

On Greene Avenue near Grand, Messrs. Leslie & Dunham are about to build a two story brick factory 25 x 95, to cost $8,000.

Subsequently in Brooklyn’s 1890 “Lains Business Directory” the Leslie, Dunham & Company name appears for the first time with an address of 275 Greene Avenue. That year , their business card was included with the directory listing.

Also listed individually at the Greene Avenue address were both Charles G. Leslie and Jasper T. Dunham along with Leslie’s son, Merwin. The business remained on Greene Avenue for the next 20 years, listing 281 Greene as their address in later years.

Apparently a relatively small operation, the New York State Factory Inspector’s Report for the Year Ending November 30, 1900 listed seven full time employees, all working a 60 hour week.

In 1904 the company opened a second location, this one at 252 Livingston Street in Newark, New Jersey, where the 1904 Newark Directory named Merwin Leslie as “plant superintendent.”

In 1908, with Charles Leslie having passed away the year before and Dunham either retired or having taken a step back (he passed away in 1944 at the age of 96), the Brooklyn plant disappeared from the Brooklyn directories. The Newark operation, with Merwin now listed as principal, remained at the Livingston Avenue location until sometime in the mid-teens at which time it relocated to 644 Montgomery Street in Jersey City. The company was still located there in 1925 (the latest directory I have access to).

It’s not clear when the business came to an end, however, Merwin Leslie was still living in New Jersey and continued to list his occupation as “merchant, maple products” in the 1930 census records, so its possible the life of the business extended into the 1930’s.

The bottle I found is 6-1/2-inches tall with a 2-1/4-inch square cross section that transitions to an approximate 1-3/4-inch round opening. Its embossing includes the “Brooklyn, N. Y.” location, dating it between 1888 and 1908.