Bay Bottles

Lea & Perrins, Worcestershire Sauce J.D.S. (John Duncan’s Sons)

There are several differing versions of how Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce got its start, but all seem to agree as to where it happened; namely in the drug store of John Wheeler Lea and William Perrins located at 68 Broad Street in Worcester, England. I suspect that all versions of the story are rooted in some truth but also contain a dose of marketing and salesmanship mixed in for good measure. I’ll relate the version that appeared in the July 30, 1892 edition of an English publication called “The Drug and Chemist.”

Mr. Lea was in his shop one day when an old Indian officer came in and asked for some hot sauce; he could not get any hot enough. Mr. Lea bethought himself of an old jar in the storeroom which had been neglected for years. It was formerly made for “a nobleman in the county,” but the nobleman had departed, and Lea and Perrins had a stock of it on hand. The Indian officer tried it and was delighted. He recommended it among his chums, and a demand sprang up. To meet the English palate the force heat of the original had to be modified, and Worcestershire sauce was established. This came to pass soon after the year 1830.

By the early 1900’s, the success of the sauce might best be indicated by this colorfully written paragraph that appeared in a 1916 publication called “British Industrial Expansion.”

There is hardly a locality in the world in which meals have not been flavored with Lea & Perrins’ Sauce. It has been transported in sledges across vast tracts of snow and ice to mining camps of Alaska; by caravan across the deserts of Arabia, and into the interior of Africa; by pack mule train along thousands of miles of barren land, up the Himalayas and across the Andes; by coolies to the hidden towns and villages of China and Japan; whilst expeditions to the North and South Polar Regions invariably carry a supply with which to flavor their pemmican.

That success continued up through the turn of the current century when according to a June 21, 2000 story in the “New York Times:”

Today, 25 million bottles a year are produced here (Worcester) and shipped around the world…In all, Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce is sold in 140 countries.

So, with that as background let’s go back to the beginning. According to the 1892 story in “The Chemist and Druggist,” The Lea & Perrins story got its start in the late 1700’s in the drug store of George Guise.

Lea & Perrins came into possession of the business with which their names became so intimately associated in the early part of this century (1800’s). A Mr. Guise opened the shop about 1780 and John W. Lea was an apprentice with him. He succeeded his master, and subsequently took William Perrins into partnership.

The partnership is said to have begun on January 1, 1823; a fact supported by a June 12, 1823, advertisement in Berrow’s Worcester Journal that named Lea & Perrins as Worcester’s retail agent for a product called “Robinson’s Prepared Barley, and Prepared Groats.” It’s the earliest advertisement I can find that bears the Lea & Perrins’ name.

By 1830, the Lea & Perrins’ partnership was operating a second store, this one on Vicar Street in Kidderminster. Both the Worcester and Kidderminster locations are referenced in this May 29, 1830 advertisement found in “Jackson’s Oxford Journal…”

This photograph of the Kidderminster store front appeared years later in the October 7, 1916 edition of “The Chemist and Druggist.”

Later in September, 1831 they opened a third store, this one in Cheltenham at 373 High Street. In partnership with James Perrins they conducted business under the name Perrins, Lea and Perrins, The opening of the Cheltenham store was announced in the September 22, 1831 edition of “Berrow’s Worcester Journal.”

Perrins, Lea and Perrins dissolved on September 14, 1832 and was followed by Lea, Perrins and Ormond which dissolved on April 15, 1837.

At this point Lea and Perrins partnered with Nathaniel Smith forming Lea, Perrins and Smith. According to Smith’s obituary in the November 7, 1903 edition of “The Chemist and Druggist:”

Mr. Smith was with Messrs. Lea & Perrins in their Cheltenham branch as an assistant, and in 1837 was taken into partnership…

Three years later, the first newspaper advertisements for Worcestershire Sauce appeared under the “Lea, Perrins and Smith” name. The earliest one I can find appeared in the October 17, 1840 edition of London’s “The Guardian.” The ad suggested that the sauce was being sold locally prior to 1840 (most internet accounts say 1836 or 1837).

WORCESTERSHIRE SAUCE. – So many sauces under every variety of name, have been of late contending for public favor, that we have hesitated to extend beyond our own vicinity the introduction of a new one, which has, in a very short time, become much sought after and esteemed in other parts of the Kingdom. The Worcestershire Sauce is prepared by us from from the favorable recipe of a nobleman of knowledged gout. it possesses a peculiar piquancy; it is applicable to almost every dish, on account of the superiority of its zest; the diffusible property of its delicate flavor renders it the most economical, as well as the most useful of sauces.

LEA, PERRINS & SMITH, Worcester and Chentlenham. Sold in Manchester by Messrs. Roach and Co., Market Street; Mr. Yates, Old Exchange, and Mr. Hutchinson, Old Church Yard.

The Lea, Perrins & Smith partnership dissolved in 1848 when, according to Smith’s 1903 obituary, he bought the Cheltenham branch of the business. This is confirmed by Smith’s newspaper advertisements that began appearing in the Spring of 1848. One such ad appeared in the May 27, 1848 edition of the “Cheltenham Looker-On; A Note Book of Fashionable Sayings and Doings.” It’s last line reads:

Prepared by Smith, (late Lea, Perrins, & Smith) 373 High Street, Cheltenham.

By the mid to late 1840’s Lea & Perrins’ advertisements indicate the company had agents all over England and were even making inroads in Australia as evidenced by this February 27, 1850 ad that appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald.”

By the early 1840’s, Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce had also made its way across the Atlantic Ocean to the United States, but more on that later in this post.

Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce grew rapidly until they could no longer meet the demand for its manufacture in the back of their 68 Broad Street store. So, in 1845 they established a separate factory on Bank Street, directly behind or close by their Broad Street store. Now, with an increasing focus on manufacturing, in 1865 they sold their retail drug store on Broad Street to the partnership of George and Welch. A rendering of the store front after the sale appeared years later in the July 30, 1892 edition of “The Chemist and Druggist.

As you might expect, the company’s success inspired a good deal of competition. Local Worcester High Court records, Lea v. Millar, identified a man named Batty as one of, if not the first, competitor to also use the word “Worcestershire” in the name of his sauce. As early as January 30, 1847 Batty’s Worcestershire Sauce was included in this “Jackson’s Oxford Journal” list of “Potted Meats, Pickles, Fish Sauces, etc.” (fourth from the bottom).

Another early competitor was “Greatwoods” as evidenced by this August 4, 1855 advertisement in the “Staffordshire Sentinel and Commercial.”

In order to distinguish themselves from the competition, Lea & Perrins advertisements circa 1860 began including the phrase:

Pronounced by Connoisseurs to be the “only good sauce” and applicable to every variety of dish.

The ads typically followed it up with:

The success of this most delicious and unrivaled condiment having caused many unprincipled dealers to apply the name to spurious compounds, the public is respectfully earnestly requested to see that the names of LEA & PERRINS are upon the WRAPPER, LABEL, STOPPER, and BOTTLE.

This early advertisement featuring the two phrases appeared in the March 22, 1860 edition of “The Nottinghamshire Guardian.”

Later, in November, 1874, the company took it a step further and changed their label to include the Lea & Perrins signature. Newspaper advertisements highlighting the new label began appearing shortly thereafter. A typical example appeared in the October 9,1875 edition of “Jackson’s Oxford Journal.”

Less than two years later in a July 1876 court case, Lea v. Millar, Lea & Perrins claimed they had sole rights to the word “Worcestershire.” A summary of the case was reported in the July 28, 1876 edition of the Birmingham Daily Post.”

This was a bill filed by Messrs. Lea and Perrins of Worcester to restrain the defendant from using the name “Worcestershire” in connection with a sauce made and sold by himself under the style or firm of Richard Millar and Co., such name being claimed by the plaintiffs as exclusively belonging to the sauce manufactured by themselves from a recipe imparted to their predecessors in business by a nobleman of the county about the year 1835.

The judge would have none of it.

The Master of Rolls said that he was of the opinion that the plaintiffs case wholly failed, and that Messrs. Lea & Perrins would have been better advised if they had not instituted the suit. Many years ago they might undoubtedly have succeeded in preventing other people from infringing their rights as the first makers of Worcestershire sauce, but they had allowed the maxim “Vigilantibus non dormientibus subrenit lex” to become applicable to their case. (The law favors those who do not sleep on their rights but instead seek to enforce them vigilantly.) It appeared to his lordship to be established that Messrs. Lea and Perrins’ predecessors in business either invented or obtained the recipe for an article to which they gave the name of Worcestershire sauce, and that they were the first persons to sell an article under the same name. That was about the year 1836, and within a very few, probably not more than two, years afterwards other people, of whom one Batty seemed to be the first, began to sell an article under the same name. Indeed, the name, within a very few years after it was first used by Messrs. Lea and Perrins, appeared to have become a common name in the trade…

Likely in response to this decision, sometime in the early 1880’s, Lea and Perrins’ advertisements began referring to their sauce as the

Original and Genuine WORCESTERSHIRE SAUCE

One of the earliest advertisements that include this phrase appeared in the September 13, 1882 edition of “The Derby Mercury.”

Later, in 1906, Lea & Perrins succeeded in a court proceeding that barred other sauce makers from using that phrase. The April 25, 1906 edition of “The Birmingham Post” summarized the proceedings.

Mr. Justice Swinfen Eady had before him yesterday in the Chancery Division, a motion by the plaintiffs in the action of Lea and Perrins v. Holbrook (Limited) for an interim injunction to restrain defendants from advertising Worcester sauce in a manner alleged to be an infringement of the planiff’s rights.

Mr. Sebastian who represented plaintiffs, said the matter was before the court some weeks ago, when an injunction was asked for to restrain defendants from advertising their Worcester sauce as the original, the genuine, or the only original and genuine. Defendants then gave an interim undertaking, and they had now agreed to make an end of the whole matter. It had been arranged that the motion should be treated as the trial of the action, defendants admitting that plaintiffs were the original makers of Worcester sauce. Defendants also submitted to a permanent injunction in terms which were in writing, in effect restraining them from using in connection with the sale of their sauces the words “original,” “genuine,” “the original,” or “the genuine.”

Competition notwithstanding, Lea & Perrins continued to grow throughout the latter portion of the 19th century. According to “Littlebury’s 1883 Guide to Worcester and its Neighborhood,” at some point the company added wholesale and export warehouses on the Bank Street side while continuing to maintain their offices at 68 Broad Street (likely in the upper floors). Ultimately however the entire business was forced to move and on November 16, 1895 a “Barrow’s Worcester Journal” story announced that they were moving to 3 Midland Road, outside of Worcester.

One hears sometime of depression in trade affecting Worcester china and Worcester gloves; but never that other Worcester product, sauce. In that there are no fluctuations, only a steady increase. Worcester Sauce has been come to be looked upon as a necessity in civilized countries, and, I suppose, as the world is becoming more and more civilized, the demand for sauce increases. Anyhow it is hardly a secret that the business of Messrs. Lea and Perrins has outgrown the old premises in Broad Street, and that the manufactory will shortly be transferred to a new site. The new factory will be built on a site in the Midland Road which is in every way convenient, notably for railway transit, it being close to Shrub-hill.

Opened in 1896, a rendering of the factory appears on today’s Lea & Perrins’ web site.

Ultimately, in 1930, Lea & Perrins merged with H. P. Sauce,’ Ltd. The merger was announced in the March 21, 1930 edition of several English newspapers. The “Birmingham Gazette” story follows.

The amalgamation of two Midland firms of sauce manufacturers is announced.

An agreement of amalgamation has been entered into as from 1 January, 1930, of the businesses of H.P. Sauce, Ltd., and Lea and Perrins, the well-known manufacturers of the original Worcestershire Sauce.

Both firms have been regarded as leading sauce manufacturers. The two businesses will continue to trade under their own individual managements, but it is considered that the amalgamation should be of great benefit in the further development of the twin interests of the united companies.

The firm of Lea Perrins is being converted into a private limited company of the same name whose shares will be acquired by H.P. Sauce, Ltd…

In Britain, Lea and Perrins Worcestershire Sauce is still made to this day by Kraft Heinz at the same Midland Road factory that opened in 1896. This current photograph of the factory is courtesy of “The Worcester News.” Other than a car replacing the horse and wagon not much else has changed in relation to their 1896 rendering.

As early as the 1840’s Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce was making its way across the Atlantic Ocean to the United States where a firm named John Duncan & Son was named as Lea & Perrins’ U.S. agent.

According to a feature on the Duncan’s published in the July 28, 1911 edition of the “Grocers Advocate,” John Duncan had established the business which dealt in rare and fine groceries, wines and liquors in 1819. Located in New York City, this June 20, 1829 advertisement in the “Evening Post,” located the company in lower Manhattan at 407 Broadway, between Walker and Lispenard Streets.

In 1840, Duncan formed a partnership with his son David, changing the name of the business to John Duncan & Son. The co-partnership notice was published in several February, 1840 editions of the “Evening Post.

Later, about 1850, Duncan admitted a second son, John P. Duncan to the partnership, changing its name to John Duncan & Sons.

In January, 1843 John Duncan & Son ran the first U. S. newspaper advertisement (that I can find) for Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce in New York’s “Evening Post.”

At the start Duncan imported the sauce in bottles directly from England where it was shipped in the transatlantic ocean liners of the day, one of which was the “Great Western.”

In fact, not only could Worcestershire Sauce be found in the cargo hold of the Great Western, but on the dinner tables of the liner’s passengers as well. According to this excerpt from a November 7, 1844 John Duncan & Sons advertisement:

“GREAT WESTERN STEAM SHIP,” 6th June, 1844 – “The cabin of the Great Western has been regularly supplied with Lea & Perrins’ Worcestershire Sauce, which is adapted for every variety of dish – from turtle to beef – from salmon to steaks – to all of which it gives a famous relish. I have great pleasure in recommending this excellent Sauce to Captains and Passengers for its capital flavor, and as the best accompaniment of its kind for any voyage. (signed) JAMES HOSKEY

On occasion, John Duncan’s early newspaper advertisements would announce the arrival of their trans Atlantic sauce shipments. One such shipment that included 500 dozen bottles arriving on a ship named the “Universe” was announced in the August 8, 1850 edition of the “Evening Post.”.

While their Lea & Perrins business was certainly increasing, their wholesale and retail business in general remained quite strong, as evidenced by this advertisement that appeared in the June, 1856 issue of Hunt’s “Merchants’ Magazine and Commercial Review.”

Eventually, the company outgrew their Broadway facilities and moved to One Union Square in 1860. Later, sometime around 1870, they added a second Manhattan location at 30 South William Street which later moved to 29 Murray Street in 1878 and 29 College Place in 1879. By this time, John Duncan, Sr. had passed away (in 1864) changing the firm name again, this time to John Duncan’s Sons.

In 1877, the Duncan’s were still importing Lea and Perrins Worcestershire Sauce in bottles when, in concert with Lea & Perrins’ English operation, they implemented a change that was described like this in an August 21, 1899 story published in the Buffalo (N.Y.) “Courier Express:”

…a change in practice was begun by Lea & Perrins and John Duncan’s Sons, by which, instead of sending over here the sauce finished, bottled, labeled and ready for use, it was sent over in a partially manufactured condition in casks, and the Messrs. Duncan finished the sauce here according to formula furnished them by the English house, and bottled and put it up for sale.

The story went on to say

This course had certain obvious advantages. It saved the firms from paying duty on bottles, labels, straw and finishing expenses, and avoided breakage. `

At least a portion of these savings were passed on to the customers, as evidenced by much of their late 1870’s and early 1880’s advertising which touted:

Great Reduction in Price of Lea & Perrins’ Celebrated Worcestershire Sauce thus giving the consumer not only the Best, but the most Economical Sauce.

As far as I can tell, up through 1886, Union Square served as the company’s retail location, while Murray Street and later, College Place housed their wholesale business and the manufacturing operation associated with the Lea & Perrins sauce.. Then, in 1887, the company discontinued their retail business and moved the wholesale and manufacturing operations to 43 Park Place in Manhattan. A photograph of their Park Place building appeared in an 1895 publication entitled “Kings Photographic Views of New York.”

Twelve years later, in 1899, John Duncan’s Sons began to manufacture Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce in its entirety. The change was brought about as the result of a suit brought by the U.S. government over the valuation of the imported products. The particulars were spelled out in a story found in the August 18,1899 edition of the “Birmingham (Alabama) News”

The firm of John Duncan’s Sons, of New York, are the agents in this country for Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce, and for more than twenty years has engaged in a part of the work of preparation of that sauce – the English house sending the sauce over in casks, in a partly manufactured condition, and Messrs. Duncan finishing it here according to a formula supplied from England. By this method the cost of transportation and the duty on bottles, labels, straw and the liability to breakage were avoided. The United States Government levied an import tax of 3 schillings 4 pence per gallon on the unfinished sauce, which was considered sufficient, as the stuff has no marketable value. When appraiser Wakeman came into office, however, he raised the duty 500 percent, but this being contested he finally was required by the department to reduce it to 200 percent. The appraiser then charged Duncan’s Sons with under appraisement and made a seizure of an importation. A suit followed in which the firm came out victorious, the Government withdrawing from its untenable position.

Meantime, however, the duty of 200 percent proved to be prohibitive and the London house decided to send the whole formula to John Duncan’s Sons, and now the sauce is made in this country, instead of imported in the partly finished state.

At the same time they moved into a new factory building that occupied the entire block between Canal and York Streets. It was described like this in the June 17, 1899 edition of “Brooklyn Life.”

How pleasing it is to visit an establishment as that of John Duncan’s Sons, at 392 Canal Street and 11-13 York Streets, New York, where the American output of the world-famous Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce is prepared for market.

Here is a building of eight stories, recently constructed, and modern in every particular. It was planned and built solely for the purpose to which it has been put, consequently every detail of construction and interior arrangement has been studied for utility and comfort…

The vaults in the basement, in which are stored the ingredients in bulk, are large and airy, each cask is labeled and numbered and has its own place, so that it can be readily found. Several of the floors above are also utilized for the same purpose.

The bottling department is an interesting one. The liquid is brought from properly placed casks on the floor above through silver tubes to the bottling machine which works automatically. When a row of empty bottles is placed in position the machine allows only just enough of the sauce to flow in to just fill them, and then stops. There is no ladling out or measuring by hand – nothing comes in contact with the liquid except the wood of the casks and the silver tubes. Each bottle is then carefully wrapped in the familiar paper that we all know and is then taken in hand by the packers who deftly fill the boxes according to sizes, and so it goes to the shipping room. The room fronts on York Street and occupies the entire ground floor, except for the small portion on the Canal Street side which is used for general offices.

An unusual fact in connection with this factory is that even the paper of the wrappers is manufactured expressly to order, as are also the corks and the red twine used to tie around the neck of each bottle and which is one of the distinguishing features of the brand of goods.

As modern and large as the factory was, within a decade it was outgrown, forcing the company to move again, this time to a nine story, 80,000 square foot building at 237-241 West Street on the corner of Hubert Street. The building was depicted in the 1911 feature published in the “Grocer’s Advocate.”

Always a devoted advertiser, according to a story in the June 14, 1923 edition of an advertising publication called “Printer’s Ink,” up through the early teens Duncan’s advertisements were designed simply

to remind people of the fact that the sauce was good for soups, gravies, steaks, chops and fish, and keeping the name and trademark in the public’s eye.

The story went on to say:

But in 1915 an educational campaign was inaugurated to tell about new uses. For the first time in its history the company hunted for reasons why the dining public should desire “Lea & Perrins’ Sauce, the original Worcestershire.” Over a hundred recipes were prepared to which the sauce should be used, not merely by its addition as seasoning at the table, but in preparation during the cooking of foods. These recipes were printed on a hanger which could be placed in the kitchen, and they were offered free in the company’s advertising…More than 150 uses have been discovered and more are being found constantly.

One recipe, this one for Fish Hash appeared in the October, 1915 issue of “The Ladies Home Journal.” The ad went on to tout their “Kitchen Recipe Hanger” as well.

Likely as a result of the amalgamation with H.P. Sauce, Ltd., Lea & Perrins, Inc. filed as a domestic business corporation in the U.S. on April 1, 1930. From this point on the business was listed in the U S. directories and telephone books as Lea & Perrins, Inc. at the 241 West Street address. That’s not to say that the Duncans weren’t involved. In fact as late as 1978 a “New York Times” story in their April 18th edition referred to Ransom Duncan, the great-great-grandson of John Duncan, as the technical director of the American firm of Lea & Perrins.

In 1958, Lea & Perrins, Inc. was planning to move out of New York City, and in October obtained approval to build a new plant in Fair Lawn, New Jersey. The approval was announced in the October 22nd edition of Paterson New Jersey’s “Morning Call.”

The construction of a Lea & Perrins plant, sauce manufacturers, in Industrial Park, was approved last night by the planning board.

It was reported that the plant will employ a maximum of 100 persons working 9 to 5 shifts only.

The one story masonry structure will front on Pollitt Dr., adjacent to the Erie Railroad. It will be 364 feet long and 241 feet wide.

The 1960 New York Telephone Book indicated that by then the company had removed to Pollitt Drive in Fair Lawn New Jersey, suggesting the move occurred sometime in 1959.

In 2005, H. J. Heinz Co. acquired Lea & Perrins when they purchased the HP Food Group. The purchase was reported in the August 17, 2005 edition of “The Hackensack (N.J.) Record.”

H. J. Heinz Co. completed its purchase of HP Foods Group on Tuesday, but the deal left in doubt the future of the company’s North American headquarters in Fair Lawn and the 50 employees there.

The $820 million deal with France’s Group Danane S.A. gave Heinz the HP brand and Lea & Perrins – maker of the world’s No. 1 Worcestershire sauce – as well as a license for Amoy Asian sauce in Europe.

As part of the purchase, Pittsburgh-based Heinz gained two British manufacturing plants and the Fair Lawn location, which includes a factory for making Lea & Perrins and HP sauces.

Heinz spokesman Robin Teets said the company would conduct a detailed analysis of the newly acquired assets to determine how they fit into existing Heinz operations…

“The Fair Lawn facility remains open,” he said, “Until that assessment is completed, we don’t expect any changes.”

The Fair Lawn factory remained open for roughly another 10 years, until 2014 or 2015. Where exactly it’s made today in the U. S. is not clear.

I’ve found a total of three Lea & Perrins bottles over the years. All have the letters J D S in some arrangement embossed on the base. These letters are certainly the initials of Lea & Perrins’ long time U. S. agent, John Duncan’s Sons. The Duncan’s initially imported the sauce in bottles from England and it wasn’t until sometime in 1877 or 1878 that they began bottling it in the United States. Logically, this establishes 1877 as the earliest year any bottle with those initials was produced.

One bottle is mouth blown and roughly 10 ounces in size. The other two are machine made; one is 6 ounces the other 10 ounces. The website glassbottlemarks.com suggests that the mouth blown bottles were produced abundantly until the 1910’s before a switch was made to machine made bottles.

Base photos of both 10 ounce bottles are shown below.

Mouth Blown

Machine Made

Emil Schlicher, Farmingdale, L.I.

Emil Schlicher was the successor to the Farmingdale, Long Island mineral water and bottling business of Schnaderbeck and Runge. A nephew of Richard Runge, Schlicher likely took over the business sometime in 1908. That year he’s included on a New York State listing of liquor tax certificate holders with an address of Fulton and Main, the former address of Schnaderbeck and Runge. More information on Schnaderbeck and Runge can be found in another post on this site. Schnaderbeck & Runge

Referring to the business as the “Enterprise Bottling Works” during 1909 and much of 1910 Schlicher ran this advertisement on an almost weekly basis in Belmore, Long Island’s local newspaper, the”South Side Messenger.”

In 1920, census records continued to list Schlicher’s occupation as “soda water manufacturer,” so it’s reasonable to assume that he was still in business during the early 1920’s. Then, on January 16, 1925, a legal notice published in the “Farmingdale Post” announced that the business, now located on Elizabeth Street in Farmingdale, was up for sale.

This dates Schlicher’s proprietorship to the 17 year period from 1908 to 1925. That being said the Enterprise Bottling Company survived the sale and was still active in the Spring of 1928 when this advertisement appeared in several editions of the “Farmingdale Post.”

I haven’t been able to find any record of the business in the 1930’s.

The bottle I found is mouth blown with a blob finish. It’s a shade under 11-inches tall and roughly 3-1/2 inches in diameter. It likely dates to the early Schlicher years, say 1908 to 1912.

I’ve also found the lower portion of a smaller bottle that would have been approximately 7 – 8 inches tall and likely had a crown finish.

Mimnaugh Bottling Co., Far Rockaway, L.I.

The name Mimnaugh in Far Rockaway dates back to at least 1867 when Curtin’s Long Island directory named James Mimnaugh as the proprietor of a “country store.” He’s not listed in the 1865 directory suggesting that the Mimnaugh business got its start sometime in the mid-1860’s.

At some point in the early to mid 1870’s it appears that his son, also named James, joined the business at which time it operated under the name “J & J Mimnaugh”until 1887 when James Mimnaugh, Sr. left and turned complete control of the store over to his son. An announcement to this effect, dated June 3, 1877, appeared in several editions of Freeport Long Island’s “South Side Signal.”

JAMES MIMNAUGH, JR., would inform the public that he has assumed entire control of the store business conducted under the firm name of J. & J. Mimnaugh.

The announcement referred to the business as:

…and went on to say:

A year later Mimnaugh still owned the business when it was burglarized on a Sunday morning. The burglary was reported in the March 13, 1878 edition of the “Brooklyn Daily Eagle.”

At one 0’clock on Sunday morning thieves effected an entrance to the store of James Mimnaugh, in Far Rockaway. They bored holes around the lock, knocked the wood out and thus were enabled to unlock the door. The hand of one of the men was cut in the operation. They had a wagon and one horse, and carried off dry goods, boots and shoes and groceries to the amount of $680. The burglary was not discovered until seven o’clock the next morning.

Up to this point it’s clear that the business was still operating as a general or country store, so it’s possible that Mimnaugh was selling bottled beer and soda, however, if he was it certainly wasn’t apparent in his advertising. In fact, I can’t connect the Mimnaugh name with bottling until 1889 when this item appeared in the July 13th edition of the “South Side Signal.”

On complaint of Charles L. Looker, agent of the Bottler’s Association, Henry Lotz, of Rockville Centre, and James E Mimnaugh of Far Rockaway, were arrested on the charge of using and trafficking in bottles belonging to Pflug and Ackley and E. Matthews, bottlers , of Hempstead. They were tried before Justice B. V. Clowes and found guilty. Lotz was fined $65 and Mimnaugh $10. Lotz had 198 bottles in his possession and Mimnaugh 20.

Subsequently, in the 1890’s, I’ve been able to find three Far Rockaway business listings for James Mimnaugh all of which suggest bottling. In 1890, he’s listed with the occupation “liquors” with an address of Central Avenue, near Cornaga Avenue. Later, in 1898 and 1899, he’s listed as a “bottler of lager beer” at the corner of Carleton Avenue and R.R. Avenue. During the same 1890’s period there’s no listing I can find that associated Mimnaugh with a general store, dry goods or groceries. By 1900, census records list Mimnaugh’s occupation as a day laborer and business directories in the early 1900’s don’t associate him with any bottling related categories.

This all suggests that Mimnaugh got out of the country store and established a bottling business sometime in the 1880’s and continued it until 1900 at the latest.

The bottle I found is a mouth blown champagne style with a blob finish. It fits the late 1880’s to 1890’s time frame when Mimnaugh was certainly in the bottling business.

Sammis & Hentz, Hempstead, L. I.

Sammis & Hentz was a Hempstead, Long Island sarsaparilla and soda manufacturer that was active under that name for much if not all of the 1860’s and early 1870’s. It appears that throughout its history the business was closely associated with the Sammis Tavern.

The name Sammis in Hempstead dates back to the mid-1600’s when the family arrived on Long Island from England. A history of “The Boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, Counties of Nassau and Suffolk, Long Island, New York, 1609 to 1924” by Henry Isham Hazelton, published in 1925, made it clear that the Sammis family’s tavern had a long and rich history on Long Island.

The Sammis tavern at Hempstead was built in 1680 and at the time it closed its doors a few years ago it was the oldest inn in the United States. The first member of the Hempstead branch of the Sammis family came to this country from England in 1650, and bought land from the Indians. While his name is not known, his son, Nehemiah, built the inn…

Seven generations of the Sammis family were born in the place, and the very rafters spoke of Indians, of Dutch and English quarrels, of the days of British occupation of Long Island, of Washington as a guest; of the War of 1812, of the Mexican War and the day when Lincoln issued his first call for volunteers, and the boys of Hempstead went there to enlist. A. H. Sammis, the last owner of that name, was of the sixth generation. He was born in the room where his father and grandfather both first saw the light of day.

It stood laterally on Fulton Avenue near the railroad station. The original site was at Main Street and Fulton Avenue. The Avenue was the main coaching road between New York and the eastern end of Long Island.

The tavern, circa 1860, was the subject of this John Evers painting, a reproduction of which was found in the January 1, 2023 edition of Long Island’s “Newsday.”

Born in 1827, it was Lawrence Seaman Sammis who was the early proprietor and possibly founder of the sarsaparilla business. According to the “History of Long Island from its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time,” published in 1903, it was Lawrence Seaman, who:

after attaining manhood was engaged for a number of years in the manufacture of mineral waters.

Census records suggest this occurred as early as 1850 when Lawrence Seaman, then 23 years old, listed his occupation as “merchant.” His younger brother, Charles Augustus, then 18, also listed his occupation as “merchant” suggesting that the brothers may have been in business together at that point.

The 1903 “History of Long Island” goes on to say that Lawrence Seaman subsequently moved to Jamaica for a short time and later Brooklyn, before ultimately settling in Mineola, Long Island in 1877. He’s listed in the Brooklyn directories as early as 1856, suggesting he had vacated Hempstead by the mid-1850’s.

This apparently left the sarsaparilla business in the hands of Charles Augustus, who in the 1859 Long Island directory (the earliest I can find) was listed as a “sarsaparilla manufacturer,” with an address in the same general location as the Sammis Tavern at “Main Street, opposite the R.R. Depot.”

Sometime in the early 1860’s, Charles Augustus, having been appointed as a sheriff in Queens County, apparently formed a partnership with Henry Hentz to manage the sarsaparilla business. Long Island directories from the 1860’s that I’ve been able to find (1864-65, 1865-66, 1867-68, 1868-69) all list Sammis & Hentz as a “sarsaparilla manufacturer” with an address of Main St., opposite the R.R. Depot. That being said, in 1860, Henry Hentz listed his occupation as “manufacturer” in census records, so it’s possible, even likely, that the Sammis & Hentz partnership began as early as 1860.

Sammis & Hentz was still listed on Main St., opposite the R.R. Depot in the 1871 -72 Long Island directory.

The bottle I found is a mouth blown pony. Sadly it’s broken off at the neck and the finish is missing. It dates to the Sammis/Hentz partnership, sometime in the 1860’s or early 1870’s.

One final note of interest; the bottle’s actual embossing misspelled the name “Hempstead” as “Hemstead.”

I’ve chosen to spell it correctly in the title of this post.

Pluto Water, America’s Physic

Pluto Water got its name from a naturally occurring mineral spring also named Pluto whose waters were thought to restore good health to those with a wide range of illnesses. Located in Orange County, Indiana, the Pluto spring was named for the Roman god of the underworld, a reference to the water’s subterranean source. A resort called French Lick Springs grew up around the Pluto spring, and the water named after it was bottled and sold locally and later nationally from 1890 to 1973.

Over the years bottled Pluto Water was primarily advertised as a natural cure for constipation, with newspaper advertisements as early as 1904 referring to it as “America’s Physic.” Sometime around 1920 this iconic slogan began appearing in their advertising.

A tagline that sometimes drew the sarcastic response:

When Pluto Won’t, Make Your Will.

The story of Pluto Water and consequently French Lick Springs began in the early 1830’s when Dr. William H. Bowles, purchased the land where the mineral springs were located from the State of Indiana. According to the “History of Lawrence, Orange and Washington Counties, Indiana,” published in 1884:

At this sale, Dr. William A. Bowles…either by himself or agent, succeeded in obtaining a considerable tract of this land upon which were situated the principal of these mineral springs now so widely known as the French Lick Springs. Soon after this, in partnership with John Hungate, he began a mercantile trade there…

A history of French Lick Springs, published in the July, 1902 editions of several Indiana newspapers, picks up the story from there.

Perhaps as early as 1839 Bowles erected a two-story frame building on the present site, but it had no occupant as it was not finished until 1845 or 46, when Dr. John A. Lane, a genuine “down-easter,” who at the time was traveling in the interest of Dr. Brandeth of “Brandeth Pill” notoriety, chanced to stop for the night with Mr. Hungate, who resided near the springs. Dr. Lane, who was a man of quick perception and foresight, coupled with indomitable energy, became enamored of the place and in 1846 leased the springs of Bowles for a period of five years, and in the spring of that year completed the house and at once opened it for the accommodation of the public.

By 1851, Lane was advertising his resort in nearby Louisville, Kentucky, as evidenced by an announcement of his seasonal opening that appeared in the July 5th and July 14th editions of the “Louisville Courier-Journal.” The announcement suggested that 1850, not 1846, may have been French Lick Springs inaugural year as a formal resort, so suffice to say, the resort was certainly up and running by 1850.

FRENCH LICK SPRINGS

These Springs, located in Orange County, Indiana, ten miles west of Paoli, were offered to the public as a place of resort and the means of the cure of disease last summer for the first time we believe. For the present season the proprietor opened his doors for the reception of visitors on the first of the present month, June.

There are a number of springs affording almost every variety of sulphur and chalybeate water, which scientific men pronounce of great value to the sick and afflicted. The country around is wild and romantic, and abounds in various kinds of game, such as deer, turkeys, pheasants, quails, squirrels, etc. The man of business, tired of the cares and turmoils of city life, can here find a place of retreat and amusement. If fond of hunting, he can take his gun along with him, and after arriving at the springs and partaking, if he chooses, of the healing waters which they afford, head to the surrounding hills and hunt to his heart’s content. If the visitor be an angler, and takes pleasure in catching the “finny tribe” with the “baited hook,” Lost River is nearby, and he too can enjoy his favorite sport. And those fond of fancy amusements can also be accommodated to their liking on the grounds about the springs…

This rendering of the initial hotel appeared in a feature on French Lick Springs that appeared in the October 18, 1902 edition of the “Boston Home Journal.”

In case you’re interested, a letter published in the August 19,1851 edition of the “Louisville Daily Courier” made it clear that the 80 mile trip from Louisville to French Lick Springs could be accomplished in one day.

You can leave Louisville at 5 o’clock in the morning in one of Mr. Eastham’s fine daily coaches, with good horses, and very prudent and accommodating drivers, and arrive at New Prospect by 4-1/2 in the afternoon. This is two miles from the Springs, where the traveler falls into the hands of our very worthy and obliging friend, the Postmaster of New Prospect, Mr. Techemacher. He is a Polander and his history is full of interest, and he, together with his learned dog, attracts a great share of the attention of the visitors. You pass over a beautifully romantic country for two miles, crossing the celebrated Lost River, and reach the Springs, where I hope many of your readers may arrive safely, and realize the same amount of benefit which the writer has received for the last few weeks from use of the water.

Lane was still managing the resort for Bowles as late as 1853, as evidenced by this June 28th “Louisville Courier-Journal” advertisement announcing the resort’s seasonal opening that year.

Then, sometime in the mid-1850’s, Lane left French Lick Springs and established another resort nearby, calling it “West Baden Springs.” A story announcing what appears to be West Baden’s grand opening appeared in the July 20, 1857 edition of the “Louisville Daily Courier.”

Dr. J. A. Lane, formerly of the French Lick Springs, Orange County, Indiana, but now the owner and proprietor of the “West Baden Springs,” which are situated about a mile from French Lick, was in the city Saturday last, and informs us that he is putting up good improvements for the accommodation of his old friends, and will be ready and glad to see them on or about the 15th of August next. The mineral water, in that section of Indiana, cannot be excelled in the Union.

This July 8, 1859 item in the “Louisville Daily Courier” makes it clear that by then, stages from Louisville were servicing both French Lick Springs and West Baden Springs. The two resorts would remain competitors well into the next century.

Meanwhile, back at French Lick Springs, Bowles, now apparently managing the resort himself, added a “Bathing Establishment to the resort. His August 4, 1859 advertisement in the “Louisville Daily Courier”read in part:

…To the former accommodations and advantages of this place, there has been added an extensive “BATHING ESTABLISHMENT, where every variety of Bath can be had that are usual at Watering places, and some that cannot be had elsewhere…

According to the 1902 History of the Springs, in 1864 Bowles turned management of the Springs over to Dr. Samuel Ryan who went on to manage it for the next 15 years. This change in management was reflected in a July 14, 1865 item published in the “Louisville Courier-Journal,”

The reasoning for this change is quite evident considering this notice that appeared in the Evansville (Indiana) “Daily Journal.”

General Order No. 27 Headquarters District of Indiana, Indianapolis, May 9, 1865

In accordance with General Court Martial Orders No. 214 dated War Department, Adjunct General’s Office, Washington, May 2, 1865, to wit:

William A. Bowles, citizen of the State of Indiana, will be hanged by the neck until he is dead, on Friday, the 19th day of May, 1865, between the hours of twelve o’clock P.M. and three o’clock P.M., on the parade ground between Camp Morton and Burnside Barracks, near the city of Indianapolis, Indiana. Brevet Brigadier General A. A. Stevens, commanding Camp Morgan and Burnside Barracks, is charged with the execution of this order, and will make report thereof to the Commanding General.

Bowles’ troubles were summarized in a story published years later in the April 2, 1873 edition of Bloomington Illinois’ “The Pantagraph.”

When the rebellion broke out Bowles was suspected of being in secret communication with the Confederates, and…had organized and armed a large number of men belonging to the secret order of the Sons of Liberty, and had planned an attack upon the Government arsenal at Indianapolis, and upon Camp Morton near that city, where 7,000 Confederate prisoners of war were confined under guard. The plot also involved the assassination of Governor Morton, the release and arming of the prisoners, and the inauguration of an insurrection in aid of the Confederates throughout the Northwest.

The story went on to say:

President Johnson stayed the execution of sentence until the Supreme Court should pass upon the validity of the judgement pronounced by the military commission. The Supreme Court decided, after a full hearing, that the sentence of the commission was void; that the defendants should have been tried in the United States Court at Indianapolis, and there was no emergency justifying a resort to military law…

This meant that Bowles, along with two coconspirators, had not been convicted by any legal authority and so they were released from prison in April, 1866. A follow-up story in the January 11, 1867 edition of the “Evansville Daily Journal,” announced that the United States Court at Indianapolis would not prosecute the case, effectively putting the issue to bed. Bowles lived out the rest of his life at French Lick Springs, passing away in March, 1873.

Ryan managed French Lick Springs for Bowles, and later, for his estate up through the late 1870’s. Throughout most of the late 1860’s it was managed under the partnership of “Ryan & Adams” when, according to their opening day announcement in 1868 you could stay for:

$12 per week, $45 per month; children under 12 years of age and servants half price…

In 1869 Adams was replaced by E. Tucker, with the announcement appearing in the January 7, 1869 edition of the Evansville “Daily Journal.”

By 1871, according to their June 26th Evansville “Daily Journal” advertisement, the hotel was open year round with amusements that now included billiards, bowling, pigeons and croquet as well as a “good string band.”

After Ryan’s lease expired in the late 1870’s, the Bowles estate managed the Springs until 1881 when they sold it to Ryan and two others, Hiram Elwood Wells and James Madison Andrews. The sale was reported in the March 10, 1881 edition of the “Mitchell (Indiana) Commercial.”

The French Lick Springs property, including 320 acres of land…was permanently sold Saturday to J. M. Andrews and H. E. Wells, of Paoli, Orange, County, and Dr. S. Ryan, former lessee of the springs. The 320 acres, including the springs and hotel, cost about $30,000. They take immediate possession, and contemplate extensive improvements the coming season.

In 1888, Ryan was no longer involved and the business began operating as the French Lick Springs Company, with Wells serving as president. By then, according to a September 1, 1888 story in the “Boonville (Indiana) Enquirer,” access to the resort had significantly improved with the addition of a rail branch to the Springs.

…Of the wonderful improvements made in and about the springs is in the way of reaching here, was manifested by the enterprise of the Louisville, New Albany and Chicago, Railroad Co. (Monan Route) in building a branch of their splendidly equipped railroad from Orleans through Paoli to the springs, enabling passengers to reach here with comfort and pleasure and at reduced rates making three trips per day in close connection with the main line and to all points south, north, east and west.

That same year, the French Lick Springs Company invested upwards of $100,000 for improvements to the resort itself.

Subsequently, the upgraded resort was described like this in an August 13, 1891 story in “The Evansville Journal.”

It may not be generally known that there are three large hotel buildings here with a capacity for 400 guests. They are arranged in a section of a circle of which the principal spring is the center. These buildings are all the property of the French Lick Springs Company of whom Mr. W. S. Miller, Jr., is manager. The center one, “Windsor,” contains the office, dining-hall, bathrooms and many lodging rooms; the east one, “Pavilion,” a large well-lighted and well-ventilated music and dancing hall on ground floor and lodging rooms in two stories above; the west building, “Clifton,” is connected with the “Windsor” by a covered, latticed promenade, and has three stories with lodgings for guests. The grounds, 300 acres in extent, are composed of hilly and level ground with abundant shade from grand old forest trees. There are pleasant paths here and covered galleries at the houses for rest and exercise. A fourth, smaller building, the “Arno,” can be used for lodgings when necessary.

At a convenient distance are buildings for the help, for laundry, electric lighting and bottling the water for shipment away. In the hotel there is a resident physician, news and cigar stand, telegraph office, annunciator connecting with electric bells, barber shop and other conveniences so that guests can enjoy the conveniences of life as well as in the city.

Just before the turn of the century, the Windsor suffered a devastating fire that completely destroyed the Springs’ main hotel building. The fire was reported in the October 12, 1897 edition of the “Muncie (Indiana) Morning News.”

At 1 o’clock this morning, an alarm of fire was sounded at French Lick, and in less than two hours time the Windsor, the largest hotel and principal building there was a mass of smoldering ruins. The fire originated at or near the bakery, and made such rapid headway that the origin and cause can only be conjectured. In the burned building were located the hotel office, cigar and newsstand, telegraph office, dining room, kitchen, cold storage, bakery, bath rooms and store rooms. No casualties are reported among the guests or employees.

The contents of the building was almost a total loss, but little of the furniture or fixtures being saved. The buildings left standing are the Clifton and the dancing and amusement pavilions, which escaped owing to the fact that they are detached, and located some little distance from the Windsor. The amount of insurance on the property could not be ascertained. The loss is estimated at $40,000…

The next year, an August 14, 1898 story in the Courier-Journal made it clear that the fire had negatively impacted business.

The policy of the management of this popular resort has been to keep as quiet as possible this season as the buildings destroyed last winter by fire have not yet been replaced..

The fortunes of the resort changed three years later when the French Lick Springs Company sold the Springs to a newly formed company called the French Lick Springs Hotel Company. Headed by Indianapolis mayor (and later Senator from Indiana), Thomas Taggert, the company’s incorporation notice was published in the June 25, 1901 ” edition of “The Indianapolis News.”

The French Lick Springs Hotel Company, in which Mayor Taggert is interested, incorporated today with a capital stock of $600,000. Mayor Taggert and his associates in the company have gone to Louisville to make arrangements incidental to the final closing of the deal by which they become owners of the French Lick property.

Two days later the new corporation owned French Lick Springs. The closing of the deal was described like this in the June 27th edition of Bedford Indiana’s “Daily Mail.”

Mayor Thomas Taggert, of Indianapolis, came to Louisville about 7 o’clock yesterday morning with certified checks for over $400,000 in his pocket. When Mr. Taggert and his companions left for French Lick at 2 o’clock yesterday afternoon $294,150 of these checks had become property of Louisville businessmen and Mr. Taggert carried the deed to all the property of the French Lick Springs Company. The Columbia Finance and Trust Company has $86,000 more of Mr. Taggert’s money which will be used to redeem the bonds of the old company on July 1. The payment of this money opens a new era for French Lick Springs…

The property which changed hands yesterday consists of 320 acres, three hotels, the famous Pluto Spring and a number of minor springs, bath houses, bottling works and a number of other buildings. Work on the new 300 room stone hotel will begin at once. The old hotels will be remodeled and numerous other improvements will be made.

Within a year, this June 22, 1902 “Chicago Tribune” advertisement announced that the new brick (not stone) hotel was now completed and open for business.

A feature on French Lick Springs published in the October 18, 1902 edition of the “Boston Home Journal” announced that the upgraded resort now afforded accommodations for no less than seven hundred guests. The 1902 feature went on to provide this panoramic view of the resort.

The hotel office and dining room were also pictured in the feature.

By 1902 Taggert had also added a nine hole golf course.

Under Taggert’s ownership the resort continued to grow, with an August, 1916 story in the “National Drug Clerk” describing it like this:

French Lick Springs Hotel is a city within itself. The power plant not only furnishes the hotel light and power, but supplies the city of French Lick with light and power. The street car service between French Lick and West Baden is operated on the power generated at the Hotel Power House.

An 18-hole golf course and tennis courts serve as diversion, and the horseback riding is made a delightful exercise.

Three hot houses furnish the flowers for the interior decoration of the hotel and the pleasure of the guests.

A modern dairy is operated and comprises a fine herd of cows, which produce cream and milk under the most up-to-date and sanitary methods, and the butter is also made. All the dairy products on the dining room table are therefore of the best.

A modern up-to-date laundry is also run in conjunction with the hotel and the service is perfect.

The baths under the careful direction of the experienced attendants have a rejuvenating effect on the human system. As high as 175 baths a day are given in the men’s section, and 90 per day in the ladies’ section.

According to another feature on French Lick Springs, this one found in the June, 1923 edition of the “Practical Druggist,” sometime in the early 1920’s Taggert turned management of the business over to his son, Thomas D. Taggert, Jr. The family would remain in control of the property for another 20 plus years.

Sometime in the early 1890’s, prior to Taggert purchasing the Springs, the French Lick Springs Company began bottling their Pluto Water for sale outside the limits of the resort. The afore mentioned August 13, 1891 description of the resort in “The Evansville Journal,” included mention of a building for

bottling the water for shipment away

That building was likely the one pictured on this postcard that was recently offered for sale on the internet.

That same year, June, 1891 advertisements in the “Louisville Courier-Journal” announced the company had opened a sales office in downtown Louisville.

So they were certainly bottling and distributing their water locally by then. That being said, there’s no evidence that suggests that its distribution extended much beyond the Louisville city limits. That situation began to change in the late 1890’s when the Henry Pharmacal Co., of Louisville was named the sales agent for “Pluto Water.”

The announcement was initially published in the August, 1899 issue of the “Louisville Medical Monthly,” a reprint of which I found in the September 22, 1899 issue of the “Virginia Medical Semi-Monthly.”

The French Lick Springs of Indiana, according to the Louisville Medical Monthly, August, 1899, have passed under the control of Mr. Frank A. Henry, of the Henry Pharmacal Co., of Louisville, who intends to bring the strong saline sulphur water, “Pluto,” to the attention of the medical profession. Too often, the therapeutic value of American mineral springs has been lost under the guise of fashion or summer recreation. The French Lick Springs have always maintained their medical reputation parallel with their celebrity over the United States. It is Mr. Henry’s intention to bring the merits of Pluto Springs to the attention of the medical profession through the medical press, and to show that the resort compares most favorably with the most famous of similar establishments abroad.

Also called the Henry Drug Co., of Louisville, around the turn of the century the company registered two labels with the United States Patent Office, one for “Pluto Natural” the other for “Pluto Concentrated.”

No. 7232 ” Pluto Concentrated” for bottled mineral waters on Dec. 12, 1899

No. 7560 “Pluto” for natural spring water on May 26, 1900

The very bottom of this early label for “Pluto Concentrated clearly identifies the Henry Drug Co., Louisville Ky. as the product’s “Sole Agents for the U.S.A.”

The need for “Pluto Concentrated,” as explained years later in the June, 1923 edition of the “Practical Druggist,” was one of economics.

…guests who came from many states to drink the water suggested that it be bottled so that they could get it at their own homes. This at first proved a costly venture until it was suggested by some learned chemist that it could be boiled down and concentrated.

That being said, both natural and concentrated versions were mentioned in this advertisement that appeared in several 1903 editions of “The Indianapolis Star.”

The Henry company’s relationship with French Lick Springs and Pluto Water continued throughout most of the first decade of the 1900’s. According to the 1923 “Practical Druggist” story

The product was marketed to the medical and drug trade through the selling agents of the Henry Drug Company of Louisville until the company retired from business; then the distribution was attended to direct from headquarters…

The Henry company was last listed in Louisville’s 1909 city directory, suggesting that this transition had occurred prior to 1910.

By this time, Taggert had pretty much abandoned the distribution of “Pluto Natural” in favor of “Pluto Concentrated.” According to the March 29, 1913 edition of the “American Medical Journal:”

To the average person the composition of the “natural” Pluto Water is largely a matter of academic interest, for practically it is only the so-called “concentrated” Pluto Water that is found on the market.

…While it is doubtless possible to purchase the “natural” Pluto Water by ordering it specially, we believe that not one drug store in a hundred carries anything but the so-called “Concentrated” Pluto Water.

The A.M.A went on to point out that the concentration process resulted in a beverage whose chemical make-up bore little resemblance to the natural water produced by the spring.

The public and the medical profession are led to believe that “concentrated” Pluto Water is identical with “natural” Pluto Water except that the former has been boiled down until it is ten times as strong. With this in mind, study the following analysis which the company issues as representing the composition (parts per thousand) of the “concentrated” Pluto Water: Sodium sulphate (Glauber’s Salt)…50; Magnesium sulphate…30.97 (Epsom Salt); Calcium sulphate…2.81; Sodium chloride (salt) and Magnesium carbonate…0.35.

From this, it will be seen that, even according to the company’s own figures “concentrated” Pluto differs from “natural” Pluto in that it has more than eighty times as much Glauber’s Salt; nearly 100 times as much Epsom Salt; less than twice as much calcium sulphate, only a trifle more sodium chloride and less magnesium carbonate than is found in the “natural.”

What does this mean? it means that “concentrated” Pluto bears but a slight relation to “natural” Pluto, and it means that, for all practical purposes, “concentrated” Pluto Water is essentially a solution of Epsom Salt and Grauber’s Salt in the proportion of three of the former to five of the latter.

Taggert neglected to mention any of this in his labeling and advertising. In fact, reading this excerpt from a December 31, 1917 advertisement found in the “Indianapolis Star” you’d have to think that the natural spring water and the bottled water were one and the same.

The A.M.A. summed up the issue like this:

One wonders whether the contempt which the label of Pluto Concentrated Spring Water shows for “Food Inspection Decision 94” bears any relation to the fact that the French Lick Springs Hotel Company has for its president – Thomas Taggart – a politician whose influence at Washington is such as to make it unnecessary for the company to worry about such trivial things as mislabeling.

Mislabeling not withstanding, the sale of Pluto Water grew exponentially during the teens, much of it fueled by advertising, a fact Taggert made clear to retail druggists in the May, 1918 edition of a publication called “The Spatula.”

The French Lick Springs Hotel Company are conducting a campaign in which they utilize the biggest newspapers, nationally circulated magazines, leading medical journals, street cars and subway trains to send customers around to their drug stores for Pluto Water. A tremendous demand has already been created as indicated by the millions of bottles sold last year, and the druggists who are reaping the richest harvests from this publicity and sales promotion work, are the druggists who link up with the campaign and let their customers know they carry Pluto Water in stock, through window and counter displays.

The druggist who feels he should be getting more of this business can get all the cooperation he wants providing he shows a willingness to do his part. Attractive window display material, show cards and interesting literature for distribution will be promptly supplied on request to the French Lick Springs Hotel Co., French Lick, Ind.

Taggert also employed some less conventional methods of advertising as well. According to the 1923 “Practical Druggist” feature:

He catered to commercial men to come to French Lick for the weekend and not more than fifteen years ago these people were put up over Sunday for $2 and $2.50 a day including room and three meals; then they went out covering many states and talked and boomed the French Lick Springs and Pluto Water. It was advertising that could not be purchased…

A story in the Aug-Sept, 1915 edition of a publication called “Square Deal,” mentioned that even World War I contributed to the growth of Pluto Water.

One rather unexpected increase in business due to the conflict is in the bottling and sale of Pluto Water, obtained at French Lick, Ind. The amount of business is double this year what it was last year. That is due to cutting off much of the foreign water.

The demand associated with this growth was addressed with the opening of a new $185,000 bottling plant at French Lick Springs in 1914.

It was described like this in the January, 1914 edition of the “American Druggist and Pharmaceutical Record”

The outside is finished with buff brick and the entire inside is white. The water is pumped from the Pluto Spring to the fifth floor of the building, where it begins a process of filtration and condensation and is finally delivered sparkling and clear to a glass receptacle in the main bottling room, whence it is piped to the bottling machines. The bottling process is on the continuous operation plan and the latest types of machinery are used throughout. Empty bottles are taken from the cars, subjected to a thorough sterilizing and taken to the main bottling room. This room is finished in white enamel brick and is provided with a gallery for visitors. After the bottles are filled they are sealed and taken by automatic conveyors to the cars for shipment. The new plant has a daily capacity of 1,000 cases. A complete printing plant is run in connection with the bottling house.

A January, 1916 “National Drug Clerk” story added:

There are facilities for loading three cars at a time. Pluto Water is shipped in special Pluto cars; twenty of these cars are used exclusively for transportation of Pluto Water.

By the 1920’s, in addition to their headquarters at French Lick Springs, the company maintained branch offices in New York, Chicago, New Orleans and San Francisco and according to the 1923 “Practical Druggist” feature:

The distribution of this famous water is now so complete that the writer saw it in Colorado Springs, Yellowstone Park, all large cities on the coast, at Victoria, Vancouver, Banff, Montreal and Quebec.

This claim is further supported by advertisements for Pluto Water found in small “off the beaten path”places like Twin Falls, Idaho where this advertisement appeared in the June 27, 1918 edition of that city’s “Times-News.”

The Practical Druggist feature went on to say

There is perhaps no drug store of any size in the United States that does not have in stock this famous water. The company has a large foreign business in Cuba and in many large companies in South America. Last year the writer saw it in Paris, Lucerne, Lake Como and Milan. There is also an agency in Japan that looks after its distribution in the Oriental countries.

In 1920 their famous slogan “When Nature Won’t Pluto Will” began appearing in newspaper advertisements. One of the earliest I can find appeared in the January 13, 1920 edition of the “Pittsburgh Press.”.

In 1930 the company began advertising a crystalized version of Pluto water called French Lick Salts. According to this 1933 advertisement:

The same essential minerals contained in the famous Pluto Water have now been concentrated into pleasant tasting effervescent laxative crystals known as FRENCH LICK SALTS.

Other advertisements, like one published in the July 1, 1931 edition of “The Indianapolis Times,” touted it for weight loss.

Why allow yourself to be overweight and unsightly? You can so easily have slim ankles, graceful hips, a stylishly slender form. French Lick Salts works wonders.

French Lick Salts gets right at the causes – clears out stagnant body wastes that impair health and cause unhealthy fat…Take a little French Lick Salts every morning. Watch your weight go down and your health improve. Dropped in cool water, French Lick Salts effervesces delightfully, is as pleasant to drink as a fountain beverage! A generous bottle is only 50 cents at any drug store.

Short-lived, as far as I can tell ads for French Lick Salts disappear by the early 1940’s.

In 1946 a hotelier and business man named John B. Cabot bought the hotel along with the bottling works and began operating them under two newly established corporations called the French Lick Springs Hotel Company, Inc., and the Pluto Corporation. The sale was reported in the November 30, 1946 edition of the “Louisville Courier-Journal.”

A New York hotel syndicate tonight purchased French Lick Springs Hotel, nationally famous spa in southern Indiana.

The purchasers were the French Lick Springs Hotel Company, Inc., and the Pluto Corporation of Delaware, headed by John B. Cabot of New York…

The hotel was part of the estate of the late Thomas D. Taggert, Sr., former United States Senator and former Mayor of Indianapolis. The heirs included Thomas D. Taggert Jr., a son, and four sisters…

Although the consideration was not announced, it was reported to exceed $4,000,000.

The story went on to describe the property at the time which had certainly continued to grow under the Taggerts.

The sale includes the 600-room hotel, 1,800 acres, three swimming pools, two golf courses, an airport, a riding stable, three mineral springs and the Pluto Water Bottling Works, and a large dairy and two herds of Jersey and Holstein cattle.

This photograph of the hotel accompanied an “Indianapolis News” story regarding the sale.

Six years later, Massachusetts Mutual Insurance Company, who helped underwrite the sale and held a $1,550,000 mortgage on the hotel took over sole possession of the property. The take-over story appeared in the October 29, 1952 edition of Munster Indiana’s “The Hammond Times:”

Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company today announced that it will continue to operate the French Lick Springs Hotel as a resort and convention site.

The insurance firm assumed possession of the famous Southern Indiana hotel when New York – Florida hotel man John B. Cabot was unable to exercise an option to pay indebtedness and buy off the firm’s $1,550,000 mortgage.

Insurance company Vice President J. Truman Strange said present French Lick policies will be continued and improved service will be offered. He also said the company is willing to negotiate for sale of the 600-room hotel and 2,000 acres of land but that no negotiations are under way.

Negotiations must have started shortly after the above story was written because within a year Mass Mutuel sold the hotel and bottling works to separate entities. A story in the October 15, 1953 edition of the “Indianapolis Star” reported both transactions.

Purchase of French Lick Springs Hotel by a New York City corporation was announced yesterday. The reported price was approximately $2,000,000.

The nationally-known southern Indiana convention center and health resort was purchased by Tishman Realty and Construction Company Inc. from Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company.

The story went on to say:

Sale of the Pluto Corporation, bottlers of water from mineral springs on the spa property, to an Illinois businessman, also was disclosed yesterday.

New owner of the 50-year-old Pluto Corporation is Maxwell R. Hott, Monticello (Ill.) patent medicine tycoon. The price was reported to have been between $100,000 and $200,000.

Shortly after purchasing the hotel Tischman closed it for three months during which time they remodeled it to the tune of $1,000,000. The hotel reopened in March, 1955 and was ultimately sold to the Sheraton Corporation in September of that year.

Hott’s plans for the Pluto Corporation were outlined in a March 7, 1954 “Terre Haute (Ind.) Tribune” story.

Pluto Water under the ownership and direction of Maxwell R. Hott, is pointing for a bigger share of the laxative market with a test campaign in selected markets including Terre Haute. The revitalized company is testing a series of 80-100 line newspaper ads with frequent insertions to establish a national pattern.

Mr. Hott purchased the rights to Pluto Water which was formerly owned by the French Lick springs Hotel. One of their prime reasons of buying was the discovery of the fact that although the product has not been actively promoted for almost 20 years, there has been a continued steady demand for Pluto Water and evidence of a loyal market for the product nationwide. A pilot study revealed a tremendous sales potential, particularly among middle-aged persons many of whom were introduced to Pluto Water through visits to the mineral springs in French Lick, Ind.

Hott apparently liked the results of the test campaign and followed it up with a series of long winded newspaper advertisements. One, found in the February 27, 1955 edition of the Cincinnati Enquirer opened with this clear reference to the hotel and its mineral springs.

The Pluto Corporation was sold again in 1963. The transaction was reported in an April 25, 1963 story in the “Indianapolis Star:”

Purchase of the Pluto Corporation of French Lick, Ind., for an undisclosed price was announced yesterday by a group of Cincinnati businessmen.

Arthur H. Friedman, head of the Cincinnati group, said the firm would continue to bottle and sell spring water from its six-story plant…

Over the next ten years the Pluto Corporation reinvented itself, ultimately discontinuing the production of Pluto Water in favor of cleaning products. What might serve as Pluto Water’s obituary can be found in the September 28, 1994 edition of Bedford, Indiana’s “Times-Mail.”

The once worldwide market for Pluto Water diminished over the years, and sales declined to the point that in 1973 production ceased…

Pluto Water may be a thing of the past, but the Pluto Corporation here is going strong in the production of household cleaning products.

On a final note, according to a book called “Sanitariums, Hospitals, and the Belladonna Cure,” by Kenneth Anderson, published in 2022:

The myth that Pluto Water was taken off the market because it contained lithium is nothing more than an urban legend; the trace amounts of lithium found in Pluto Water were too small to be meaningful. Moreover, Lithia Springs Water, which has a much higher quantity of lithium salts, is still sold today.

Over the years, I’ve found several Pluto Water bottles, all machine made with the same embossing on the base.

One is quart size with no additional embossing on its sides. It exhibits a finish that suggests it was sealed with a cork. The others all exhibit a crown finish and are embossed Pluto Water America’s Physic” on the side.

The cork closure was still being utilized for Pluto Water in August, 1916 when this description of the bottling and labeling process appeared in a publication called the “National Drug Clerk.”

Each individual bottle is sterilized under pressure of steam and thoroughly rinsed, placed on the filling table, which works automatically, moving forward until the bottles are directly under the filling tank, which then descends, filling twenty-four bottled with one operation…

In the workings conveyors are timed to move according to the capacity of the cooling machines, which is fifty bottles a minute. On account of the rapidity of motion and the strain, these operators are relieved every 30 minutes. In a storage room above, the corks are washed, trundled in revolving machines, and passed in front of powerful blowers to remove dust and particles from crevices of the corks. They then descend to the machines through an inverted U shaped arched chute.

After corking, and before the labels are attached, the bottles pass under a plate glass hood. Here they are subject to a needle spray bath of scalding water and steam, under pressure of one hundred and ten pounds, which cleanses the exterior and prepares the bottle for labeling. The neck and body labels are attached in one operation. The operator of these machines, like those of the corking machines, are relieved every thirty minutes.

The crown closure had certainly replaced the cork by 1923 when this description of Pluto’s apparently updated bottling process appeared in the January edition of a publication called the “Glass Container.” It specifically references a “crowner.”

…Rotary filling machines are capable of filling and delivering bottles to the crowner at the rate of 125 per minute with the half pint size, and 80 per minute with the quarts. Separate machines are utilized for each size. Before being labeled the bottles are conveyed beneath a needle spray bath of steam under pressure of 120 lb. which completely rinses the exterior. Only one operation is necessary in order to put two labels on each bottle, and from the labeling machine they are conveyed to the packing and shipping room.

This dates the transition from cork to crown sometime between the 1916 “National Drug Story” and the 1923 “Glass Container “story. An unscientific review of their newspaper advertising serves to narrow the range further. Using the “Kansas City Times” as an example, this March 25, 1918 ad exhibits the cork closure…

…while a little over a year later, the December 19, 1919 edition of the same newspaper ran an ad exhibiting a crown closure.

That likely puts the transition from cork closure to crown sometime in 1918 or 1919. The crown closure was still being used as late as 1940, as evidenced by this advertisement that appeared in the June 23, 1940 edition of the “Tampa Bay Times.”

At some point in the 1940’s Pluto Water transitioned to a screw top container as evidenced by this March 5,1947 advertisement in the “Buffalo Evening News.”

Another screw top version can be found in a January 29, 1956 “Pittsburgh Press” advertisement.

E. Hartshorn & Sons, Established 1850, Boston

E. Hartshorn & Sons manufactured both patent medicines and flavoring extracts in Boston, Massachusetts from 1870 up through 1930. The roots of the business however date back to the 1850’s and a physician named Edward Hartshorn.

Born in 1817 in New Hampshire, by the late 1830’s Hartshorn was living in Reading, Massachusetts where, according to his biographical entry in the “History of the Town of Berlin, Worcester County, Mass., from 1784 to 1895”

Edward walked back and forth from there to the Medical College of Harvard University; graduating there in 1840. He settled in Berlin the same year, being 23 years of age, the youngest physician in the county.

Embossing on the subject bottle suggests that 10 years later, in 1850, he established his manufacturing business. That being said, I suspect that any manufacturing done during the early 1850’s was quite limited and simply done in connection with Hartshorn’s medical practice.

That apparently changed sometime in 1854 when Hartshorn went into a short-lived partnership with another Harvard educated physician, Dr. Lemuel Gott. According to Gott’s biographical entry in the “History of Berlin:”

…He practiced in Rockport from 1836 to 1854; at the latter date he removed to Berlin and went into partnership with Dr. E. Hartshorn in the manufacture of medicines and family extracts, and also in medical practice. They soon dissolved the copartnership and (Gott) continued as the sole resident physician (in Berlin) to the time of his death.

While Gott continued as Berlin’s sole resident physician, Hartshorn also remained in Berlin and continued to manufacture medicines and extracts. Then, sometime in 1866 or 1867, Hartshorn opened what appears to be a retail store at 132 Water Street in Boston Massachusetts. This advertisement in the 1867 Boston city directory named him the “proprietor” of “Hartshorn’s Family Medicines.”

Around the same time that that he opened up shop in Boston advertisements for one of his family medicines, ” Hartshorn’s Bitters,” began appearing in several New England newspapers. Touting the bitters as the “Key to Health, the ads appeared in several local newspapers in Massachusetts, Maine, Connecticut and Vermont. The following was found in the June 19, 1868 edition of Bedford, Maine’s “Union and Journal.”

At this point, Hartshorn’s sons, Edward H. Hartshorn, Jr., and William H. Hartshorn, were also involved in the business; both listed with the occupation “clerk” at the 132 Water Street address.

Three years later, “Dr. E Hartshorn & Sons,”was established with sons Edward H., Jr. and William H. named as partners. Located at 18 Blackstone Street in Boston, the partnership was listed for the first time in Boston’s 1870 city directory. That year their directory advertisement no longer mentioned a Berlin laboratory so it appears by then the entire operation had been consolidated in Boston.

In the early 1870’s the company’s menu of “Family Medicines” included products with names that included “Dr. Hartshorn’s Cough Balsam,” for all pulmonary complaints; “Dr. Hartshorn’s Never Failing,” for every pain…

…and “Dr. Hartshorn’s Peristaltic Lozenges,” the most perfect, agreeable and effective cure for every form of Indigestion and the only cure for the Piles, either bleeding or otherwise.

That being said, an advertisement that appeared in the 1871 Boston Almanac suggested that their bitters was at the top of the “Family Medicine” list.

In case you’re interested, the advertisement followed up their sales pitch with this list of ingredients. (What’s not mentioned is the fact that the bitters also contained over 22% alcohol by volume.)

The company only remained at the 18 Blackstone Street address for several years, moving to 71 Blackstone Street, sometime in the mid-1870’s where they shared a building with a brewery. A description of the building appeared under the heading “Real Estate Matters,” in the June 16, 1891 edition of the “Boston Evening Transcript.” The building’s size suggests that Hartshorn’s operation was not all that large.

The building is a four-story brick store with granite front, and is numbered 69 and 71 Blackstone Street, and extends through to North Centre Street. Its measurement front and rear is practically twenty feet, while the building extends back about seventy-two feet. It is now occupied by the Norfolk Brewing Company and Edward Hartshorn & Sons, manufacturers of medicines and flavoring extracts, the annual rental paid on the building being $2,575.

By the 1890’s newspaper advertisements for “Hartshorn’s Bitters” had pretty much vanished (likely due to pressure from the temperance movement), while advertisements for “Hartshorn’s Cough Balsam” were beginning to gain traction. This ‘Hartshorn’s Cough Balsam” ad touting the company’s 40 year history appeared in several December, 1892 editions of the “Fall River (Mass) Daily Herald.”

A Tree Planted Forty Years Ago!

Is Now Bearing Wonderful Fruit.

The company also continued to manufacture extracts as evidenced by this 1892 advertisement that appeared in the The Somerville Journal’s Semi-Centennial Souvenir edition.

Around 1910 the company moved from its long time home on Blackstone Street to 220 Milk Street, where they were first listed in the 1911 Boston city directory. This advertisement exhibiting their Milk Street address appeared in the 1914 “ETA Cook Book.”

Up through the mid-1920’s the company remained closely held by the Hartshorn family. Edward, Jr. had passed away in 1887, leaving William as the sole surviving partner. Edward, Sr., apparently semi-retired, continued to be listed at the 71 Blackstone Street address as a physician through much of the 1890’s. He ultimately passed away in 1906.

William H. Hartshorn remained at the head of the firm until he passed away on February 3, 1926. That same year, likely as a result of his death, the business incorporated under the name E. Hartshorn & Sons, Inc. The 1926 Boston city directory named William’s son, James H. Hartshorn, as the corporation’s treasurer. He had joined the business as a clerk sometime in the mid-1890’s; the third generation of Hartshorn’s to be involved with the business.

A list of Hartshorn products on the market at around the time the business incorporated appeared in Randolph, Vermont’s “Herald & News.” They could be purchased at W. F. Blood’s North Main Grocery Store in Randolph.

As far as I can tell, the great depression put an end to the Hartshorn business. Hartshorn advertisements, as well as their product listings in local drug and grocery store newspaper advertisements, completely disappear in 1930 and by 1931, a June 13 item in the “Boston Globe” indicated that the business was in receivership.

In 1932 and up through 1935, the business did continue to be listed in the Boston city directories at 220 Milk Street with J. Gordon MacLeod then named as both president and treasurer. That being said, I can’t find any evidence that the business was active during this period. By 1936 the company’s no longer listed in Boston.

The bottle I found is a small pharmacy bottle. Mouth blown it likely dates to the late 1800’s/early 1900’s. Newspaper advertising for Hartshorn’s Cough Balsam was increasing at that time so it’s certainly one possibility for its use. It could also have contained one of their flavoring extracts.

Wm. R. Warner & Co., Philadelphia

William R. Warner is one of several individuals recognized as pioneers in the manufacture and distribution of sugar coated pills in the United States. According to a feature on Warner found in a publication entitled: “First Century of the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy,” published in 1922:

Like the process of percolation the sugar coating of pills was discovered in France but was developed in America by the labors of Warner, Bullock, Wiegand and others.

Born in Caroline County, Maryland in 1836, Warner first entered the drug business with the Easton, Maryland firm of Chamberlain and Anderson. His experience there apparently inspired him to attend the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy where he graduated in 1856. Shortly afterwards he opened his own retail pharmacy at Second Street and Girard Avenue in Philadelphia.

According to his son, William R. Warner, Jr., who was quoted in the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy story, it was at the Second Street pharmacy that Warner began the manufacture of sugar coated pills. That being said, initially they were not distributed under the Warner name.

My father conceived the idea of sugar coating pills when a lad in the drug store at Easton, Md., and accomplished the feat though somewhat crudely. I am inclined to believe that he perfected his process of covering pills with sugar shortly after 1856, or probably the next year. He made and sold them to Bullock and Crenshaw in bulk and they put them up and marketed them as their own, such is now done by druggists under “buyers name.” My father was not known by the profession as the real maker of sugar coated pills at that time.

It appears that Bullock and Crenshaw began selling Warner’s sugar coated pills under their name sometime in 1858 as evidenced by this notice dated May, 1858. Sounding introductory in nature, the notice starts out with:

The attention of Druggists and Physicians is particularly invited to the Pills of our Pharmacopeia, coated with sugar, which we are now able to supply…

This situation changed in the mid-1860’s when Warner purchased the wholesale drug business of John C. Baker at about the same time that his contract with Bullock and Crenshaw expired. Located at 154 North Third Street in Philadelphia, it was here that according to William R. Warner, Jr., his father began to manufacture and market his pills under the name and label of William R. Warner and Co.

The change had certainly occurred by 1867 as evidenced by this Warner advertisement that appeared that year in the “Handbook of the Great Manufacturers and Representative Mercantile Houses of Philadelphia.”

That same year, now in direct competition, both William R. Warner & Co. and Bullock and Crenshaw, exhibited their sugar coated pills at a September, 1867 exhibition sponsored by the American Pharmaceutical Association. In fact, both firms were listed directly adjacent to each other in the exhibition summary .

Warner remained on North Third Street for the next 10 years during which time he frequently marketed his sugar coated pills to the medical profession. An example of his marketing pitch appeared in the 1870 edition of the “Humboldt Medical Archives” under the heading “Notice to Physicians.”

The solubility of Officinal and other Sugar Coated Pills as made by us, is an indispensable quality, and a matter of so much importance as to command your special attention. An experience of thirteen years, with careful attention and study, has enabled us to achieve a perfection otherwise unattainable.

We claim this art of Sugar Coating, avoiding the necessity of drying so hard as to render them insoluble and inert make them permanent.

Being extensively engaged in the Wholesale Drug business, and in the manufacture of Standard Officinal Preparations, and New Remedies, in our own Laboratory, affords us facilities for supplying Physician’s orders with all articles of the purest quality at the lowest prices.

A discount of 25 percent will be made to Physicians on all orders for Pills amounting to $10.00 net. Less quantities will be sent by mail or express pre-paid on receipt of catalog prices.

Please specify our make (W. & Co.) when it suits your convenience to order elsewhere. Half freight paid on shipments of Drugs to distant points

A good customer could even get a “Pill Globe and Sample Bottle” along with his 25% discount..

It was also during this time that the company began to expand its product line well beyond sugar coated pills to include elixirs, fluid extracts and medicated lozenges among other things.

The company’s success on North Third Street ultimately lead to a period of expansion that began in the 1870’s. This expansion was documented in a January 9, 1908 feature on the business published in “The Pharmaceutical Era.”

In 1876 the business having outgrown the quarters on Third Street, the fine large building at 1228 Market Street was purchased, elegantly fitted up and occupied. About this time, on account of the extensive growth of the business, branches in London, England and New York City were opened, and these were soon followed by branches in Chicago, New Orleans, Atlanta, St. Louis, Denver, Portland, Ore., and Minneapolis, Minn.

In 1886 a large laboratory building at Broad and Wallace was erected and put into use, the business having outgrown its quarters on Market Street.

Renderings of both Philadelphia locations were included in the ninth edition (1897) of “Wm. R. Warner’s Therapeutic Reference Book for Physicians.” The top view depicts the Broad Street laboratory while the lower view is of Market Street.

The business operated out of both locations until 1899 when the Market Street building was completely destroyed by fire. The fire was described like this in the February 17, 1899 edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Snow on many roof tops proved to be a blessing in disguise last night, when a great fire raged at Thirteenth and Market Streets, calling forth every energy of those who were battling with it to save a vast amount of property on all sides that for a time seemed doomed to destruction. It was a fire that brought out the entire department, that swept away an immense six-story building, or rather three in one, entailing a loss estimated at from $400,000 to $500,000….

The story included this sketch of the Warner building in flames.

As early as the next day the company had formulated a plan to move on as evidenced by this February 18, 1899 story in the “Philadelphia Inquirer.”

In regard to the future plans of the firm of William R. Warner & Co., Mr. William R. Warner, Jr., said last evening: “All the employees of our Market Street store, numbering some fifty, have been notified to report at our laboratory, at Broad and Wallace Streets. Those that are available for work in that line will be given employment immediately and the others will be kept on full pay. The laboratory will be made headquarters for the firm and all the offices will be removed there. We intend to rebuild at 1228 Market Street as soon as possible, but as to the size of the new building or its equipment I am not able to speak as yet. All the old men will thus be retained and none of them will suffer by our misfortune.

Less than a month later, on March 13, 1899, an item in the “Philadelphia Inquirer” announced that the company was fully back in business, now filling orders at their Broad Street laboratory.

Around the same time, a March 18, 1899 “Philadelphia Inquirer” story announced that Warner was planning a new 10 story building at 1228 Market Street, however, it appears the company never followed through on those plans and a year later, in June, 1900, the Montana Diamond Co. ran a ‘Philadelphia Inquirer” advertisement announcing their plans to move into a newly constructed eight story building at the 1228 Market Street location.

As far as I can tell William R. Warner & Co. never reopened another location in Philadelphia but instead continued to operate solely on Broad Street.

When Warner passed away in April, 1901, he left the company to his son, William R. Warner, Jr., who, as early as 1880 had been associated with the business, first as a cashier and later as a partner/principal.

In 1908, Warner Jr. sold the company to Henry & Gustavus Pfeiffer, who, at the time, owned a drug business in St. Louis. The Pfeiffer’s retained the William R. Warner & Co. name and continued to operate the business out of Philadelphia where, in 1910, it was listed with William R. Warner, Jr. as president, Henry Pfeiffer as vice president and Gustavus Pfeiffer as secretary/treasurer.

As late as 1916 the company was in the process of constructing a new headquarters in Philadelphia when the Pfeiffer’s acquired the Richard Hudnut Company of New York City. The acquisition was reported in the August, 1916 edition of the “Pharmaceutical Record.”

An announcement of interest to the trade was recently made by Richard A. Hudnut, who has sold substantial interest in Richard Hudnut to Messrs. H. Pfeiffer, G. A. Pfeiffer and G.D. Merner, of the firm of Wm. R. Warner & Co., of Philadelphia and St. Louis. Mr. Hudnut continues as president, and the business policies that have made the name “Richard Hudnut” famous in the perfume and toilet goods world will be continued…

The acquisition of Hudnut apparently motivated the Pfeiffer’s to change course and headquarter both the Warner and Hudnut companies in New York City. This led to the purchase of a large property on West 18th Street in Manhattan. The announcement appeared in the October 26, 1916 edition of the “Philadelphia Inquirer.”

W. R. Warner & Co. Leave City

Having purchased the whole of the old Altman store, 113 to 123 and 131 to 143 West Eighteenth Street, and 110 to 124 West Nineteenth Street, New York, William R. Warner & Co., manufacturing chemists, employing about 500 persons, will abandon their property at 639 North Broad Street, this city. The price paid for the new location is said to have been approximately its assessed valuation, $1,100,000, all of which was paid in cash…

Three days later, another announcement in the “Philadelphia Inquirer” put their new Philadelphia building, still under construction, up for sale.

This building is now being constructed on Willow, Seventh and Marshall Streets, Philadelphia, by Wm. Steele & Sons Co., for Wm R. Warner & Co., Manufacturing Pharmacists.

Their move to New York, as announced, will bring into the market for sale this new modern six-story, heavy concrete, sprinkled, loft building. The fact that the building is now under construction enables you to adapt it to your needs…

We are also offering for sale an unexpired lease on the present Wm. R. Warner & Co. plant at 639-41-43 N. Broad St. which continues for a term of years.

The building that was under construction 100+ years years ago, remains to this day. Here’s today’s view courtesy of Google Maps. It appears that a seventh story was added, taking the place of the roof top “Wm. R. Warner Co.” sign.

As early as 1917, the New York City directories listed both Wm. R. Warner & Co. and Richard Hudnut, Inc. at the West 18th Street address in Manhattan.

Both continued to be listed under their respective names at that location until 1950, when they were combined under a new corporation called Warner-Hudnut, Inc. At that point both Warner and Hudnut were listed as separate divisions under the Warner-Hudnut umbrella.

Five years later Warner-Hudnut merged with the Lambert Co., makers of Listerine, forming the Warner-Lambert Pharmaceutical Co. The merger was announced in the February 9, 1955 edition of the “Philadelphia Inquirer.”

Directors of Warner-Hudnut Inc., and Lambert Co. approved plans for a merger of the two companies, with the new concern to be known as Warner-Lambert Pharmaceutical Co.

The new company would have estimated annual sales of $100,000,ooo and assets of $45,000,000.

On the same day the merger was announced, plans to build a new factory in Pennsylvania were unveiled. According to the February 9, 1955 edition of Lancaster Pennsylvania’s “Intelligencer Journal” the plant was slated to replace the company’s West 18th Street facility.

The new plant, according to a Warner-Hudnut spokesman, will replace one operated in New York by the company. It will manufacture the firm’s nationally-known line of “Richard Hudnut” hair preparations and toiletries..

Last November the company announced it had contracted to sell its New York buildings to Webb & Knapp, Inc.

The new factory opened in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania in November, 1956. By then, the corporation was completely out of New York, having also moved their offices to Morris Plains, New Jersey earlier that year. The company had announced the move to New Jersey in the February, 1956 editions of several local newspapers.

When completed in mid-summer, this modern air-conditioned building will be the new headquarters of Warner-Lambert Pharmaceutical Company, now located in New York City. It is being built on a knoll across Mt. Tabor Road from Warner-Chilcott Laboratories, our ethical drug division.

The site will be the administrative center of our world-wide organization. From here we shall direct our five divisions in the United States, as well as our manufacturing plants in twenty-two foreign countries, and our sales agencies in one hundred more.

Over the next several years Warner-Lambert continued to grow through acquisition. According to a December 15, 1967 story in Philadelphia’s “Intelligencer Journal,” between 1955 and 1962 they acquired a number of well known brands that included Bromo Seltzer, Chiclets, Dentyne, Rolaid’s and Clorets.

Warner-Lambert merged with Park-Davis in 1970, ultimately becoming part of Pfizer in 2000.

Over the years I’ve found two Wm. R. Warner bottles. Both include “Philadelphia” in their embossing, dating them no later than 1916 when the company moved their headquarters to New York City.

The first is a small mouth blown vial. A little over three inches tall, it likely contained a small quantity of pills? The other, also mouth blown, is cobalt blue and six inches tall. It appears to have contained an effervescing salt called “Bromo Soda.”

The product was frequently advertised in the late 1880’s and 1890’s:

For The Speedy Relief Of Nervous Headache and Brain Fatigue.

Consumers Park Brewing Co., Brooklyn, N.Y.

Established on November 29, 1897, the Consumers’Park Brewing Company was a syndicate of saloon owners that operated Brooklyn’s Consumers’ Park Brewery from 1900 until 1913. This early 1900’s photograph of the brewery recently appeared on an internet sale site.

The circumstances that lead up to the formation of the company were laid out in a December 23, 1897 story published in Brooklyn’s “The Standard Union.”

The production of beer and ale by the large breweries during the past few years has reached an output that hardly seems possible. The output has become centered in the hands of a few large brewers, who by combination have put the output in their own control. A number of the heavy consumers, including a class of dealers who use from 1,000 to 5,000 barrels annually, conceived of an idea of forming a syndicate to manufacture for their own use beer and ale, thus accruing to themselves the profit that heretofore went to the large brewers. It was this proposition that first gave life to what has now become a regularly incorporated company since November 29, 1897, under the name of “The Consumers’ Park Brewing Company…”

The company’s plan, which included much more than just the manufacture and distribution of their own beer, was detailed in a January 13, 1898 “Brooklyn Daily Eagle” story.

The block bounded by Franklin and Washington Avenues, and Montgomery Street, is owned by the company. It is in one of the best parts of the city and adjoins Institute Park and the Botanical Gardens. It is but a stones throw from the Willink entrance of Prospect Park. On this site an immense brewery will be erected, but its promoters say there will be nothing about it in appearance that will not be in keeping with the location. Architecturally the brewery will be an ornament. The grounds around it will be beautifully laid out in walks and drives and here and there a fountain. A hotel will be built with broad verandas running around it and a band will give concerts twice a day. The cuisine will be of a high order, it is promised.

There will be a beer garden with tables under small trees, where Brooklynites can drink beer and listen to the music in the hotel. For those who care to dance there will be built a large ballroom, and there, too, an orchestra will be stationed. There will be a bicycle ring and bowling alleys. Particular attention will be paid to the class of people admitted.

Two years later, with the brewery scheduled to open in the first week of January, the company had assembled over 200 stockholders. The upcoming opening was announced in the December 31, 1899 edition of the “Brooklyn Daily Eagle.”

The new plant of the Consumers’ Park Brewing Company, the stockholders of which number more than 200 saloon keepers in this city and vicinity, and which was organized to fight the trust is to open its doors for business on January 6. On that date the first beer made by the new brewery will be delivered, and it is expected that the saloon men interested in the concern will substitute beer of their own manufacture for that of other brewers.

Advertisements for the “opening” that also included an invitation to inspect the new brewery appeared in several local New York and New Jersey newspapers that week.

Herman Raub, a restaurant owner and hotel keeper, was serving as president of the Consumers Park Brewing Company at the time the brewery opened its doors that January.

That being said, he almost didn’t make it through the opening day festivities when the temporary platform he was seated on collapsed. The January 5, 1900 edition of “The Times Union” told the story.

A bad accident marked the formal opening and inspection of the Consumers’Park Brewery at 946-973 Franklin Avenue, yesterday. The company entertained guests on Wednesday and the festivities continued yesterday afternoon. During the afternoon for the amusement of those assembled the heavy truck horses were put through their paces in the brewery yard and the trucks loaded with kegs. The guests were seated on a temporary platform where they could see. Right in the midst of the performance the platform collapsed and the occupants were thrown heavily to the ground.

Raub survived the event with a broken foot and went on to serve as president until 1907. This photograph of Raub, along with the company’s entire board of Directors appeared in the July 1, 1900 edition of the “Brooklyn Daily Eagle.”

Shortly after the brewery opened, the promised hotel, cafe and concerts were all up and running on the brewery grounds, as evidenced by announcements that began appearing in the Brooklyn newspapers in the Fall of 1901. The following, touting a concert by the “Tyrolean Zither and Warbler Sextet,” appeared in The December 22, 1901 edition of the “Brooklyn Daily Eagle.”

In case you’re interested, the show was reviewed in the January 19, 1902 edition of the “Brooklyn Daily Eagle”

The Tyrolean Zither and Warbler Sextet had made quite a hit in their Sunday concerts at the Consumers’ Park Brewery, opposite the Willing entrance to Prospect Park. They appear in national costume and the snap and sparkle of their music are very pleasing.

The above advertisement finished up with the phrase::

Always on Draught, the adjacent Consumers’ Park Brewing Co.’s AMERICAN STANDARD BEER.

A lager, according to their January, 1900 grand opening announcements, that brand was being produced at the brewery from day one.

The “American Standard” Beer, light and dark, one of the best brews in the market, will be on draught at all our customers’, on and after Saturday, January 6, 1900.

Four months later, in the Spring of 1900, the company introduced a Bock Beer as well. This advertisement inviting the retail trade to their “First Bock Beer Festival” appeared in the April 1, 1900 edition of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.”

Their Bock Beer Festival ultimately went on to become an annual spring time event, however, it was their “American Standard” that was the brewery’s number one seller. A story commemorating the company’s one year anniversary provided some details. It appeared in the January 5, 1901 issue of the “Standard Union.”

The Consumers’ Park Brewing Company’s opening a year ago will be recollected by many. Since that time the officers, headed by the president, Herman Raub, have made the company one of the leading breweries in Brooklyn. A few days ago the company published a statement which shows that the sales for the first year nearly reached 72,000 barrels, and that a dividend of 7 percent, was payable Jan. 15, 1901. This is a remarkable showing, considering that a year ago the company was a novice, and credit is due to the management for its ability and intelligence in obtaining such satisfactory results.

While the above advertisement mentioned a first year production of 72,000 barrels, an advertisement included in the same edition of “The Times Union” strove to be more accurate. It was, in fact, only 71,953 11/12 barrels.

“American Standard’s” main clientele was the company’s 200 or so stockholders, however, they did have at least one unique customer and from a marketing perspective they certainly made the most of it. Consider the following story that appeared in the February 24, 1902 edition of “The Brooklyn Citizen..”

BROOKLYN BEER FOR PRINCE HENRY

It Was Ordered from the Consumers’ Park Brewing Company and Delivered in Style.

All the beer used on board of the Kaiser’s yacht Hohenzollern is supplied by the Consumers’ Park Brewing Company, of Brooklyn. It is certainly a recognition of the progress of American industry if these German sailors select a strictly American beer to quench their thirst and the brewing company can justly be proud of this fact.

The Consumers’ Brewing Company had a wagon built specially for the purpose of sending the beer on board. The special delivery wagon attracted considerable attention going through the streets of New York and Brooklyn. Being decorated in white and gold, showing the imperial crown and the German colors on each side, it certainly presented a most impressive appearance. The brewery had no difficulty in selecting four beautiful horses from its large stable, as all the horses are first class in every respect. The horses’ harnesses are richly ornamented with silk ribbons and rosettes. In order to promptly deliver the beer the managers of the brewery had two of its best drivers, dressed in tasteful uniform, placed in charge of this fine team.

Versions of this story appeared in several Brooklyn newspapers that day each of which was followed up with this advertisement.

At some point the brewery even added a “Hohenzollern Brau,” to their beer menu, as evidenced by this October 5, 1907 advertisement found in the “Brooklyn Daily Eagle.” By that time they were also making a “Double Stout” and “India Pale Ale” as well.

In 1907, Herman Raub was forced out as president by the company’s Board of Directors, replaced by August Ludeman. Raub’s August 6, 1915 obituary in the “Brooklyn Daily Eagle” suggested that the reasoning behind his removal was never revealed:

Mr. Raub lost out in the Consumers’ Park Brewery venture. After he had organized it and had long been its president and general manager he was forced out for a reason that has never become public by the board of directors in 1907. He took the case to court at the time in an attempt to prevent his removal but was removed before he could serve an injunction he had obtained.

Six years later, in 1913, the Consumers’ Park Brewing Company merged with the New York and Brooklyn Brewing Company. The merger was reported in the January 3, 1913 edition of the “Brooklyn Daily Eagle.”

Another step toward the consolidation of the breweries of Brooklyn has been taken by the directors of the Consumers’ Park Brewing Company and of the New York and Brooklyn Brewing Company, who have drawn up an agreement for the merger of the two concerns into what will be styled as the Interboro Brewing Company.

The stockholder vote held on January 15, 1913 was unanimous and the plan moving forward was summarized in a January 23, 1913 “Brooklyn Daily Eagle” story.

The plant of the New York and Brooklyn, which in itself, represents a merger of several minor brewing companies. will eventually be shut down, all of the output henceforth to be manufactured at the Consumers plant, which is said to be one of the finest in Brooklyn. While no definite plans have yet been formulated as to the ultimate disposition of the New York and Brooklyn’s plant, it is probable that a new company may be formed and the plant converted into an artificial ice plant,

The new Interboro Brewing Company is now the third largest brewery in the borough.

Over the next several years, the brewery operated under the Interboro (sometimes Interborough) Brewing Company name. During this time, newspaper stories suggest that the former Consumers Park facility was noted more for their safety violations than for their product. The one receiving the most attention involved a smoke condition that continuously impacted nearby Ebbets Field, home of the Brooklyn Dodgers. The situation was described in a March 16, 1916 “Times Union” story.

The Interborough Brewing Company of 964 Franklin Avenue, was fined $250 today in the Court of Special Sessions for violating the Sanitary Law. Frank H. Schmitz, of 99 Hawthorne Street, engineer of the concern, pleaded guilty.

Charles Ebbett, Jr., claimed that the dense smoke coming from the plant of this company had caused $40,000 damage to Ebbetts Field.

“We had to paint all the fences and the stands,” said Mr. Ebbetts. “Because of the coating on them caused by the black smoke from this brewing company. We lost a lot of patronage too, because people got tired of having their hats and cloths ruined and getting cinders in their eyes.

Schmitz told Justices Salmon, Gavin and Edwards that he has ordered a better grade of coal, but that as yet he had been unable to have it delivered to him.

Whether the better grade of coal helped is not clear however the situation likely resolved itself when the brewery shut down sometime in 1917 or 1918. At that time the rationing of fuel as a result of World War I, not to mention looming Prohibition, was taking its toll on the brewing industry. A September 7, 1918 story in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle made it clear that the Interboro Brewing Company had been extremely hard hit.

An official of the Interborough Brewing Company, formerly the Consumers’ Park Brewing Company, said:

“The situation is very hard on us. Of course we are closed now and have been for some time. We closed because of high taxes and the lack of fuel and material. We were among the first to comply with the suggestion of the Breweries Board of Trade to consolidate and the Ebling plant has been making our beer.”

An advertisement in the May 6, 1919 edition of the “Brooklyn Daily Eagle,” signaled the official end of the plant that had opened on January 6, 1900.

Several of the original brewery buildings remain to this day. This is evident by comparing the early 1900’s photograph of the brewery with a similar view from today, courtesy of Google Maps.

The two buildings in the foreground of todays view are clearly visible as the third and fourth buildings in the older photo. The larger building is also visible in both photos however it appears that the original pitched roof has been removed.

The bottle I found is a champagne style, approximately 12-ounces in size. Machine made, it likely dates to the latter half of the 1900 to 1913 time frame when the brewery operated under that name.

The embossing on the bottle includes the company’s trademark, described like this in the November 20, 1899 edition of the “American Brewer’s Review:”

Essential Features: The representation of a broken triangular feature, composed of three diamond shaped figures, arranged with their adjacent points or apices touching.

The trademark (no. 33,658) was dated October 31, 1899 in the U.S. patent records; several months prior to the brewery’s grand opening.

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.