ABM – Bay Bottles

Sheaffer’s Skrip, PAT’D 1759866

The bottle pictured above is two ounces in size and at one time contained a brand of writing ink called “Skrip” manufactured by the Sheaffer Pen Company.

Incorporated into the bottle itself was a small well at the top designed to facilitate the filling of a self-filling fountain pen. Invented by a man named Owen E. Raab, he filed a patent application (No. 1759866) for his bottle design on November 9, 1927 and it was ultimately patented on May 27, 1930. (Note the number “9” within the patent number embossed on the base of the bottle is reversed in error.)

The June 7, 1930 edition of “American Glass Review” provided this description of Raab’s design under the heading “NEW PATENTS.”

A bottle having a neck provided with a transverse which passes substantially through the neck in the general direction of the neck and forms an integral wall arranged to be filled by tilting the bottle, both the bottle and the well being directly accessible for the dipping of a pen thereinto through the mouth of the bottle

The well at the top of the bottle is clearly visible in this photograph of the subject bottle, looking down at the top. Embossing directly below the well reads:

This Side Down to Fill Pocket

At some point Raab apparently assigned (likely sold) the bottle’s design patent to the Sheaffer Pen Company who began utilizing it to package their Skrip brand ink in 1935. Referring to it as the Skrip-Well, Sheaffer utilized the bottle design until the early 1960’s. This depiction of the “Skrip-Well” bottle appeared as part of a full-page Sheaffer advertisement published in the May 30, 1938 issue of “Life” magazine.

The Scheaffer Pen Company had gotten its start years before the introduction of Skrip-Well when, in 1906, Walter A. Sheaffer purchased the Fort Madison, Iowa jewelry store of Myron L. Bowen and over the next 15 years sold both jewelry and musical instruments out of the store’s Second Street location. Initially partnered with a man named W. L. Saunders, this advertisement for their business appeared in the October 10, 1910 edition of Keokuk, Iowa’s “Daily Gate City.”

Sometime in 1910 the Saunders name was dropped after which the business continued to be listed solely under the Sheaffer name. As late as 1921 this advertisement touting the Sheaffer Jewelry and Music Co. appeared in the Fort Madison city directory.

According to Sheaffer’s biographical sketch found in Volume III of a 1952 publication entitled “The Story of Iowa, The Progress of an American State,” in addition to jewelry and piano’s Sheaffer also sold fountain pens out of the Second Street store and it was here that the idea of the Sheaffer fountain pen was conceived.

Mr. Sheaffer also sold the fountain pens of the day, but felt they could be much improved. As this sense of dissatisfaction grew, in the course of showing them to customers and discussing their shortcomings, he kept pondering the idea of their improvement. Finally he conceived the idea of the first lever self-filler.

That initial idea, sometimes referred to as the single bar design, was patented in August, 1908.

In 1912, four years after obtaining his patent, Sheaffer established the Sheaffer Pen Company. That first year the Fort Madison city directory listed the company at the Second Street address of his jewelry store where, according to Sheaffer’s biographical sketch:

In a small room twelve by fourteen feet, in the back of his jewelry store, seven men began to turn out the first Sheaffer self-filling pens for commercial distribution.

Years later, according to a 1930 interview with the Sheaffer Company’s advertising manager at the time, C. K. Hart, published in the March 23, 1930 edition of the “Des Moines Register,”early on the company’s marketing was accomplished solely by word of mouth.

Mr. Sheaffer, in the beginning, worked with that line of trade with which he was most familiar to get initial distribution – the jewelers. He and his assistants made it their policy to leave a Scheaffer pen for trial purposes with every jeweler they called on, even though he didn’t happen to be a prospect for a fountain pen stock. In fact they made the majority of the dealers presents of the pens.

One such dealer who did stock the pen was an Oklahoma jeweler named Dorsey who ran one of the earliest newspaper advertisements for the Sheaffer Self-Filling Fountain Pen that I can find. It appeared in several December, 1912 editions of the “Muskogee Times-Democrat.”

Sheaffer’s biographical sketch goes on to say that less than a year later, in January, 1913, he organized the W. A. Sheaffer Pen Company with an initial capital subscription of $35,000. No longer co-located with the jewelry store, the 1914 Fort Madison directory listed the company plant at 401 Front Street, with Scheaffer named as president, a position he would hold until December, 1938.

Around the same time he organized the company Sheaffer submitted another patent application. Filed on February 1, 1913 , it improved on the original design and was sometimes referred to as the double barrel design.

This October 24, 1914 item published in the “American Stationer” described how the pen worked.

Another advertisement found in the same edition of the “American Stationer” touted the self filling pen’s advantages.

By 1914, due in no small part to the pen’s popularity, the company’s capital stock was increased to $100,000 and three years later the company increased its capital again, this time to $400,000. At the same time an April 25, 1917 story in “Walden’s Stationer and Printer” announced the company had outgrown its Front Street facility and was planning a major expansion.

The W. A. Sheaffer Pen Company has recently purchased an entire manufacturing plant at Fort Madison, Iowa, including the grounds and factory buildings, comprising the greater portion of the block bounded by Front, Broadway, Second and Oak Streets…

The Sheaffer company has been operating in its present quarters at 401 Front Street, just across from the big shop which it has just purchased, but growth of the business compelled an extensive increase in its factory facilities. The new plant will give the company ample quarters, providing floor space of 290,000 square feet. New machinery has been ordered and has been installed. It is stated that the output of the company for 1917 will have to be at least 300 percent greater than last year’s output in order to supply the nominal demand…

The story included the above rendering of the new Sheaffer plant and went on to say that by 1917:

The Sheaffer Pen Company has branch offices at Chicago, San Francisco and New York. Sixteen men are now traveling for the company, covering the entire United States…

By the early 1920’s a June 11, 1921 story published in the “American Stationer and Office Outfitter” announced that even more factory space was necessary due to the recent introduction of Sheaffer’s “Propel-Repel-Expel” mechanical pencil.

Rapid Expansion of its automatic pencil business has forced the W. A. Sheaffer Pen Company of Fort Madison, Iowa, to build a modern new factory – 45′ x 140′ long, three stories, to be used for the manufacture of their new “Propel-Repel-Expel” pencil…

…The Sheaffer Pen Company has been experimenting with the manufacture of mechanical pencils for several years but has not gone very heavily into the market. Last year the new Sheaffer “Propel-Repel-Expel” pencil was perfected – samples of these new pencils were submitted to dealers all over the world and words of praise have been received by the hundreds. The mechanism of the pencil is extremely simple. There are no springs and no parts to get out of order. It will project, withdraw and expel the lead with a few turns of the cap, eliminating waste by using the last particle of lead.

The new pencil will be produced in large quantities in the new factory and it is the desire of the management to double production within the next year…

Two years later an item describing Sheaffer’s 1923 catalog, published in the September, 1923 edition of “Office Appliances,” demonstrates that in a short time both their pen and pencil designs had grown to include a wide range of styles.

This catalog contains 48 pages bound in neat covers. It lists and illustrates the complete Sheaffer line, including Sheaffer’s regular line of fountain pens in eighteen different styles, three styles of Sheaffer’s Student’s Special pens, Fourteen styles of the Lifetime pen, ten styles of the Ebony line, five styles of the No. 46 special line in red, and five styles in different barrels…

Of the Sheaffer Propel-Repel-Expel pencils no less than 70 different styles are shown…

The catalog also included mention of:

Sheaffer’s “Skrip,” a new fountain pen fluid for which many desirable things are claimed. The manufacturers state that Skrip flows evenly and smoothly without flooding; that it does not clog the feed channel nor form a gummy substance around the nib; that it starts writing the instant the pen touches the paper; that it will not deposit sediment and makes a smooth, even line without skipping. Skrip comes in several colors such as red, purple, black, blue and green.

This advertisement, published around the same time touted their pens, pencils and ink as “A Perfect Trio.”

While the 1923 catalog suggested Skrip was a new item, jewelry and drug store advertisements for it were appearing as much as three years earlier. The earliest advertisement I can find appeared in the August 26, 1920 edition of a Colorado newspaper called the “Poudre Valley Democratic” so it had certainly hit the market by then. Run by a chain of drug stores the ad included what would become Skrip’s long running catch phrase, “The successor to Ink.”

Early Skrip advertisements listed three different sizes, 15c (2 oz), 25c (4 oz) and 50c (I suspect 8oz). The two and four ounce bottles were similar in shape to the one pictured in this March 17, 1925 “Boston Globe” advertisement.

Then, in late 1926, a December 11th item found in a publication called the “Editor & Publisher” announced the company had changed the design of their four ounce bottle making it keystone shaped.

The W. A. Sheaffer Pen Company sell a fountain pen ink called Skrip, “the successor to ink.” The company has discontinued making its conventional four-ounce bottle. Instead, it now gets out an odd-shaped, keystone bottle which permits filling a pen to the last drop.

A similar announcement in the October 1926 edition of “Typewriter Topics” provided the reasoning for the change along with a representation of the new bottle.

…The new bottle is the shape of a keystone and for that reason the small lower end will allow filling the fountain pen to the last few drops in the bottle…

About a year later Sheaffer began advertising another container, this one called Safety Skrip. It was pictured in this early advertisement published in the September, 1929 edition of the “American Druggist.”

The ad went on to pitch the new container like this:

Carry it in your bag, or to your classroom. This air-tight, practically unbreakable container won’t leak a drop of its cargo of Skrip, successor to ink. Water-Proof! Evaporation-Proof! Saves cleaning bills, saves your carpets too! You’d willingly pay a dollar for handsome Safety Skrip, but it costs 50c, Skripfilled. Refills, 3 for 25c…

By the early 1930’s other products began appearing under the Skrip name as well. This August 31, 1933 advertisement in Neenah, Wisconsin’s “News-Record” specifically mentions Skrip-Grip Liquid Paste and Skrip Mucilage along with Sheaffer’s School Paste and Sheaffer’s Paralastic.

By 1930, in a January 2nd item found in Williamsburg, Iowa’s “Journal Tribune,” Sheaffer’s New York manager Hugh O. Jones stated:

…the Sheaffer Pen Company is now doing one-third of all the fountain pen business in the country although the company is but sixteen years old. The business for 1929 was the largest in its history.

According to advertising manager C. K. Hart’s interview published in the March 23, 1923 edition of the “Des Moines Register,” much of this success was due to advertising.

Advertising is credited with an important part in the company’s success. The first newspaper advertising was run in 1919 (note: I’ve seen local ads as early as 1912) and newspapers have had a prominent place in the Sheaffer advertising program ever since. Both daily and Sunday newspapers are used, in black and white, and also in rotogravure, as well as college papers and magazines of various types…

In 1929 steady schedules were carried in more than 200 newspapers, daily and Sunday editions…

…advertising appropriations now, including all kinds of media and the usual sales help, is “well over $1,000,000,” according to C. K. Hart, advertising manager, and for 1930 will be considerably above the 1929 figure.

Heavily exposed in magazines and newspapers, Sheaffer’s initial word-of-mouth approach to advertising was also still alive and well as demonstrated by this program described in the December 6, 1930 edition of “Sales Management.”

Approximately 1,000 sample bottles of Skrip fountain pen ink, product of the W. A. Sheaffer Pen Company, are distributed daily from an exhibition motor bus, which has covered the country from coast to coast.

The traveling exhibit not only carries samples of Skrip, but also contains a display of the Sheaffer pen line, and shows graphically the manufacture of pens.

Dealers are appraised of the arrival of the bus, which is stationed in the busiest part of each town, and are urged to notify newspapers, advertise the bus and identify their stores as Sheaffer outlets. The bus carries window displays for dealers.

Each visitor signs a register and receives a bottle of Skrip.

According to a story in the October 18, 1928 edition of the Alameda (California) “Times Star,” the vehicle was 31 feet long and cost $20,000. Its tour started in Chicago in September, 1925 and by the time it reached Alameda the bus had been exhibited in 33 states.

It was in August of 1935 that the Raab designed Skrip-Well bottle began appearing in their advertising, suggesting that it was introduced at about that time. One of the earliest ads I can find appeared in the August 20, 1935 edition of the “Oakland Tribune.”

The following year, in 1936, the company got the word out by running dealer sponsored bicycle contests across the country. One such dealer, E.E. Johnson, located in White Salmon, Washington State, advertised the contest in the October 2, 1936 edition of a local newspaper called “The Enterprise.”

In effect the contests instantly recruited and assembled a nationwide Skrip sales force consisting of thousands of school aged boys and girls. Johnson, in the October 23rd edition of the same newspaper described how the contest worked.

BICYCLE CONTEST ON AT JOHNSON’S

Each boy and girl that is in this contest is given information and sales talk to give to the public in regard to Sheaffer products and to tell them about the wonderful ink and the new Skrip-Well bottle.

This bottle according to Mr. Johnson of E.E. Johnson & Co., is far superior to anything that he has seen yet, in the way of enabling everyone to use the very last drop of ink and also to keep the fingers clean.

For the benefit of those who do not know, the boys and girls in this contest go out and sell this ink and Wasp pencil, and every article that they sell they not only are given a number of votes toward winning the bicycle, but are also given a cash commission.

Another Contest this one touted in the August 27, 1936 edition of the “Redmond (Oregon) Spokesman” published the prize schedule.

The schedule also serves to point out that the Skrip-Well bottle was sold in 15c, 25c and 50c sizes.

In 1941 the Sheaffer company modified a good portion of their facilities in support of the war effort. According to a June 25, 1944 story in the “De Moines Register:”

The pen and the sword came off the production lines in the same cluster of white brick buildings fronting along the Mississippi here.

After making instruments of peace exclusively for 28 years the W.A. Sheaffer Pen Co. started manufacturing for war in midyear, 1941, several months before Pearl Harbor.

The first war goods contract came from the signal corps in September, 1941. It was a kind of “educational” contract for management and employees. With its lesson learned, the company received its first contract soon after Pearl Harbor.

An investigation several years before the war started showed that the company was capable of producing ordinance fuses for artillery and bombs and it received a contract. Procurement of equipment and facilities was started early in 1942.

What had been a warehouse was rebuilt for manufacturing and equipment installed. Production of fuses was underway by May and the company never has missed a schedule since…

Building of an intricate precision instrument for the signal corps and the navy was begun in December, 1942, under other contracts. The instrument requires nearly 1,000 parts, chiefly of stainless steel, and all of them so finely machined that the instrument will function in temperatures down to 50 below zero centigrade.

The story went on to say:

Manufacture of fountain pens and pencils continues on a limited scale and the company still makes its patented version of ink, and adhesives for civilian use, for the army quartermaster corps and navy ship stores. Under current WPB quotas, it may make 481,000 pens a quarter.

They must have made enough pens and ink for civilian use to keep advertising them as evidenced by this May 22, 1944 ad that appeared in “Life” magazine.

Ten years after the war ended things began to change in the pen and ink market when Sheaffer introduced their new “Fineline Cartridge Pen.” This introductory advertisement began appearing in newspapers all over the country beginning in the late summer/early fall of 1955.

The ad lead with the catch phrase:

Put the ink in the pen…not the pen in the ink.

and went on to say:

Gives you true pen point writing PLUS convenience of mess-proof cartridge filling!. No more messy ink bottles! Just pop a transparent Sheaffer’s Skrip cartridge into the barrel…and write!

Recognizing that the Skrip-Well bottle design was predicated on “putting the pen in the ink” it appears that it’s days were numbered, and six years later with the cartridge pen gaining popularity the last Sheaffer advertisement I can find that mentioned Skrip-Well appeared in the June 12, 1961 edition of New York’s “Daily News.”

The Sheaffer family retained control of the company until 1966 when it was acquired by Textron, Inc. The acquisition was reported in the March 1, 1966 edition of the “Des Moines Tribune.”

The W.A. Sheaffer Pen Co. was acquired Tuesday by Textron, Inc., for approximately $19.5 million. The transaction was closed here (Fort Madison) where Sheaffer has its headquarters…

…Textron is a diversified manufacturing company with headquarters in Providence R.I. and operates in five basic product groups, aerospace, agrochemical, consumer, industrial and metal products.

Later, in 1987, Textron sold their Sheaffer Division to Gefinor, Inc., an investment banking company headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. Then, in 1997, the “Des Moines Register” reported that Sheaffer had been acquired by BIC, for $33 million. At the time, Shaeffer was the fifth largest pen brand in the world.

Less than 10 years later, the January 4, 2008 edition of “The (Waterloo, Iowa) Courier” announced that BIC was closing Sheaffer’s long running Fort Madison plant.

Sheaffer Pen Factory in Fort Madison to Close in Spring

FORT MADISON – Nearly a century of making pens in this southeast Iowa city will end this spring.

BIC USA Inc. plans to complete the shutdown of the Sheaffer Pen factory by the end of March, affecting about 40 workers, officials said Thursday.

“This has been a challenging transition over the past few years, and we thank the Sheaffer work force for their dedication and patience.”said Ron Davanzo, general manager of Sheaffer Pen in a press release.

Sheaffer fountain pen point assembly department will be moved to a third-party manufacturer in Asia. Customer service, purchasing, information technology, warehousing and distribution operations, packaging and quality control will go to Slovakia.

Service and repair will be handled by Sheaffer’s distributor, Hampton-Haddon Marketing Corp., in Philadelphia.

Sheaffer’s product development department, which has three employees, moved to another facility in Fort Madison in December.

Although their Fort Madison factory is long gone, the Sheaffer name remains in the pen and ink market to this day. According to Sheaffer’s website:

A significant chapter in Sheaffer’s rich history was written in 2022 when the company was acquired by William Penn, a company based in Bangalore, India, and a respected name in the world of luxury writing instruments. The acquisition marked a new phase of growth and potential for Sheaffer, as the combined strengths of both companies aim to forge a new path, offering patrons an expanded portfolio of premium cutting-edge products that carry forward the Sheaffer legacy.

Their product line continues to include ink sold under the Skrip name.

Paterson Brewing & Malting Co., Paterson, N.J.

Established in 1899, the Paterson Brewing and Malting Company was the culmination of a roughly ten year process that brought all six of Paterson New Jersey’s major brewing interests together under one corporate umbrella. So it stands to reason that the company history begins, not in 1899 but much earlier with its predecessors, the six individual breweries that made up the corporation. So with that in mind I thought it important to begin this post with a brief history of each of those breweries. Much of that early history was included in an 1890 publication entitled “Paterson, New Jersey, Its Advantages for Manufacturing and Residence: its Industries, Prominent Men, Banks, Schools, Churches, etc.” by Charles A. Shriner, and is presented below in quotes. Quotes from other sources are specifically referenced in the text.

THE BRAUN BREWERY

In 1855 Mr. Christian Braun, father of Messrs. Christian and Lewis F. Braun, started a brewery on the corner of Braun and Marshall Streets and conducted the business with increasing trade and success until the year 1870, when he leased the business to Sprattler & Mennel. Mr. Braun died in 1876 and his sons took possession of the business… The brewery was increased until they had a structure 75 x 200, three stories high, equipped with all the latest improved appliances for the production of a superior grade of lager beer; the capacity of the brewery is 60,000 barrels per year…

This business card advertisement for Braun’s Brewery appeared in the January 31, 1886 edition of Paterson’s “Morning Call.”

THE SPRATTLER & MENNEL BREWERY

Mr. Gustav Sprattler and Mr. Christian Mennel established the brewing of lager beer in Paterson in 1870, having leased the brewery up to that time operated by Christian Braun… In 1876 they took possession of a new brewery, which they erected for that purpose and which at the time had a capacity of 8,000 barrels per annum. In the succeeding years enlargements of the plant were made and new buildings erected until the brewery is one of the most complete in all respects in New Jersey, having a capacity of 40,000 barrels per annum. The plant covers an area of 185 x 200 feet, upon which are erected ice houses, brewery and malt houses, store houses, etc. Mr. Sprattler died in October, 1883, after which the business was conducted by his estate and Mr. Mennel…

Paterson’s “Morning Call” ran this advertisement for Sprattler & Mennel’s “Extra Lager Beer” in their December 25, 1885 edition.

PASSAIC SPRING BREWERY (GRAHAM & CO.)

The early history of the Passaic Spring Brewery was found in James A. Graham’s obituary published in the March 26, 1909 edition of a Paterson, New Jersey newspaper named the “Morning Call.”

The father of James A. Graham, whose name was also James managed his brother’s brewery on Hamburg Avenue, while the latter was in the Civil War. Their father, Archie Graham, was also engaged in the same business over seventy-five years ago, winning an enviable reputation for his excellent brew and ale.

When still a young man, while living on a farm, James A. Graham was induced to take charge for a short time of his Uncle Archie’s brewery on Hamburg Avenue, to close out the business, which was rapidly failing. So successful was he that he built up the business and was given a third interest in the concern by his uncle.

Sometime in the late 1870’s Graham’s uncle Archie passed away leaving the business to a partnership of James A. and Sarah J. Graham. A story in the October 1, 1886 edition of “The Morning Call” picks up the story from there.

The place has been modernized and enlarged until it has grown entirely out of all resemblance to the quaint little snuggery that occupied that location for many years. The extension completed in 1881 is a brick structure four stories high, with a cellar underneath that is equivalent to another story… With exceptional facilities the best of ale is made in this old facility.

This Passaic Springs Brewery’s business card advertisement appeared in the January 31, 1886 edition of Paterson’s “Morning Call.”

THE GRAHAM BREWERY (JAMES A. GRAHAM & CO.)

In 1886 James A Graham left the Passaic Spring Brewery in the control of Sarah A. Graham who I suspect was his sister-in-law. The dissolution notice appeared in the November 20, 1886 edition of Paterson’s “Morning Call.”

James A. Graham then went on to establish his own brewery the following year.

… In 1887 Graham concluded to go into business for himself. For this purpose he purchased a tract of land lying on Cedar Street and running from Straight Street to Ramapo Avenue. This gave him a very desirable location, lying in the center of the city and adjoining the tracks of the New York, Lake Erie and Western Railroad… The building is three stories high, built of brick and has a frontage of 40 feet and a depth of 100 feet…

The opening of Graham’s new brewery was announced in the April 19, 1887 edition of Paterson’s “Morning Call”

For the first time the engine in the new brewery of James A. Graham was in operation yesterday, and all the belts and wheels which go to complete the operating machinery were revolving as rapidly as those of any of our silk factories. Despite the cold breeze and drizzling rain and snow men were busy working on the huge mash tubs and at different other occupations which are necessary in the process of producing the anti-prohibitoion liquid. “Jimmy” does not intend to make any deliveries this week, but next week, his drivers expect to have a busy time rolling barrels of XXX into the cellars of hundreds of saloons.

The barrels were certainly rolling by May, 1887 at which time Graham was advertising his Standard Ales in the Passaic “Daily Herald.”

KATZ BROTHERS BURTON BREWERY

Katz Brothers, Phillip and Bernard…began brewing in July 1877, on the corner of Goodwin and Bridge Streets, where their capacity was twenty-five barrels a day. The only difficulty they experienced was that they could not supply the demand for their product. While they were contemplating the erection of a new brewery or looking for some way in which their establishment could be increased so as to meet all the demand upon it the Burton Brewery was offered for sale… In liquidation…it was purchased in 1882. Their XXX and Canada Malt Ale and other brands were in such demand wherever they had been introduced that the firm soon found it necessary to open stores in New York and other cities and their renown as brewers ceased being provincial or local and became national. From all parts of the United States came orders for Katz Brothers’ ales and porters. Having met with this almost phenomenal success in the brewing of ales and porters they concluded to undertake the brewing of lager beer…

Their move into lager beer brewing was announced in the July 27, 1887 edition of Paterson’s “Morning Call.”

A New Lager Beer Brewery

The Katz Bros. propose to go extensively into the business of lager beer brewing in the near future. Mr. Phillip Katz is now in Bohemia, where he has engaged the services of an expert brewer, and has also purchased twelve hundred bales of the Saaz Bohemia hops. The Katz Bros. have been remarkably successful in the ale brewing, having in a few years succeeded in building up a reputation for fine ales that has caused a demand and sale of nearly one hundred thousand barrels during the last twelve months. From this we may judge what the Katz Bros. will do in the brewing of lager beer.

The 1890 History of Paterson picks up the story from there.

For this purpose they erected a substantial addition to their already large establishment… Their brewery has a frontage of 200 feet on Straight Street, 300 feet on Governor Street and 300 feet on Harrison Street; it has annual capacity of 130,000 barrels.

According to a November 19, 1888 story in the “Morning Call” the company began the manufacture of lager beer on that day and by the spring of 1888 a May 17th advertisement in the “Passaic Daily News” announced that their “Bohemian Lager Beer” was “Ready for Consumption Now.”

HINCHLIFFE BREWING AND MALTING COMPANY

In 1861 Mr. John Hinchliffe leased the old “Archie” Graham brewery; having a practical knowledge of brewing he established the business under the title of Hinchliffe & Co; he subsequently associated himself with John Shaw, a fellow countryman… The lease having expired Mr. Graham recommenced business and the firm of Hinchliffe & Co. established an agency for Cox’s then celebrated ales until they could erect a suitable brewery for themselves. In 1867 the present Eagle ale and porter brewery was built; they then admitted a new member to the firm, Mr. Thomas B. Penrose, a practical brewer… and the firm name was then changed to Shaw, Hinchliffe and Penrose. In 1872 to meet the requirements of their increasing trade and to enable them to insure a constant supply of the best malt they erected the extensive malt house which stands in the rear of the property; it is a massive brick structure 150 x 75 feet, six stories high, with slated roof… The capacity of this house is over one hundred and fifty thousand bushels of malt per season.

Penrose retired in 1878, Shaw passed away in 1881 and John Hinchliffe passed away in 1886. This left the brewery in the hands of Hinchliffe’s three sons, John, William F. and James C. who on January 1, 1887 began business under the name of Hinchliffe Brothers. An announcement to that effect appeared in the May 26, 1887 edition of the Passaic “Daily Herald”

At this point the brothers decided to add a lager beer brewery to their plant.

With this end in view they consulted the well known firm of Charles Stoll & Son, brewery architects of Brooklyn, who soon had plans and specifications drawn for the largest brewery of its kind in the city and they immediately began to tear down old buildings and prepare for the new and model ones… After eight months had gone by they had completed the lager beer brewery which is shown in the engraving as taken from the front elevation of the architect’s plans.

The storage and brew-house is five stories high built of brick and iron trimmed with granite…in the rear is a three-story ice factory… These buildings and two smaller ones constitute the lager beer brewery, which is said to be the heaviest building in the city.

The capacity of brewing is about 75,000 barrels per year. The brewery is under the direct supervision of the company, which is composed of John Hinchliffe, president; William F. Hinchliffe, vice president, and James C. Hinchliffe, secretary and treasurer, who own equal shares of stock.

In 1890, all six breweries were up and running when four of the six joined together and incorporated the predecessor to the Paterson Brewing and Malting Company. Called the Paterson Consolidated Brewing Company, the reasoning behind its formation was explained in the 1890 Paterson, New Jersey publication.

During the year 1889 representatives of an English syndicate made overtures to a number of the brewers in Paterson to purchase their entire establishments for the purpose of forming a stock company and disposing of the stock in England. After long and tedious negotiations the project fell through, but it had not been without fruit. The negotiations had brought the brewers closer together and they recognized the benefits to be derived from concerted action among men having an identity of interests. The result was the formation of the Paterson Consolidated Brewing Company.

The formal announcement appeared in the March 4, 1890 edition of the “Passaic Daily News.”

A certificate of incorporation of the Paterson Consolidated Brewing Company was filed yesterday morning in the clerk’s office of Passaic County. The capital stock is fixed at $1,000,000. The action completes a combination of four out of six breweries in Paterson. The concerns in the combination are those of Katz Brothers, ale and lager beer brewers; James A. Graham, ale, and Sprattler & Mennel and C. Braun, lager beer. The two Katz brothers, Phillip and Bernard hold 5,350 shares; Christian Mennel surviving partner of Sprattler & Mennel, 1500; Christian & Louis F. Braun, 750 each and James A. Graham, 1,000. The capitalization of $1,000,000 represents only a fraction of the aggregate value of the four breweries, but the combination is a close corporation, intended for mutual benefit and not to sell stock, and the figure is therefore made nominal. The combination is the result, indirectly, of the negotiations for the sale of the Paterson breweries to the English syndicate. The deal with the Englishmen fell through, but in the numerous meetings while the negotiations were going on the brewers found the advantage of combination, and decided to take advantage of them without the aid of any foreign capital.

Four months later, the Paterson Consolidated Brewing Company announced a major expansion of the Braun Brewery. The announcement appeared in the July 30, 1890 edition of the “Passaic Daily News”

A Monster Brewery at Paterson

The Paterson Consolidated Brewing Company has decided to erect a large brewing-house to be added to the Braun Brewery. The building will be one of the finest of its kind in the State. The main structure, which is to be built of brick, with stone trimmings, will be 42 x 44 feet in dimension and five stories high. From its top will arise a malt tower, which will have a capacity of 10,000 bushels. The addition will increase the capacity of the brewery so that it will produce 150,000 barrels of lager per year.

A rendering of the improved Braun Brewery appeared in the 1890 Paterson New Jersey feature referenced at the beginning of this post.

Three years after formation of the Paterson Consolidated Brewing Company the February 3, 1893 edition of the “Passaic Daily News” announced that the Passaic Spring Brewery had also joined the fold.

THE HINCHLIFFE’S ALONE NOW

All the Rest of the Big Paterson Brewers Have Entered the Combine.

A deed of conveyance of the property of Graham & Co., proprietors of the Passaic Spring Brewery, to the Paterson Consolidated Brewing Company was recorded yesterday at the County Clerk’s office. About two years ago all the Paterson breweries, excepting the Hinchliffe Brewery and The Passaic Spring Brewery united in a corporation as the Paterson Consolidated Brewing Company. At that time an effort was made to have all unite, but the Hinchliffe brothers and Mrs. Sarah H. Graham who is practically the sole owner of the Passaic Spring Brewery, would have nothing to do with the movement. A few days ago, however, Mrs. Graham agreed to join the majority, so that all the Paterson brewers, excepting the Hinchliffes are now united.

Finally in 1899 the Hinchliffe’s agreed to join and the new combination was reorganized under the Paterson Brewing and Malting Company name. The announcement appeared in the June 23 1899 edition of Paterson’s “Evening News.”

After negotiation extending over a period of nine years the consolidation of the Consolidated Brewing Company and the Hinchliffe Brewing Company effected yesterday afternoon and the continued interests will immediately be reorganized under the name of the Paterson Brewing and Malting Company with a capital of $6,000,000.

A month later it was announced in the August 2, 1899 edition of Paterson’s “Evening News” that all the brewery properties were now owned by the new corporation.

Notice is hereby given that the brewery plants of the Paterson Consolidated Brewing Company and the brewery plant of the Hinchliffe Brewing and Malting Company have been sold and conveyed to a new corporation just formed and known as the Paterson Brewing and Malting Company…

Not long after, a June 23, 1900 “Passaic Daily News” story announced that the Passaic Spring Brewery was to be shut down.

TRUST CLOSES A BREWERY

It is Not a Temperance Measure But a Practical Economy

On July 1 the old Passaic Spring Brewery in Paterson will close its doors. This is brought about by the consolidation of all the local concerns into a brewery trust. The plant has outlived its usefulness, and could not be worked to advantage, because of its distance from the railroads. The machinery that is good for anything, with the brewers and other workmen, will be transferred to Hinchliffe’s Brewery…

Over the next 17 years or so the trust, comprised of the five breweries, not only dominated the manufacture of beer in Paterson but according to the July 14, 1908 edition of Paterson’s “Morning Call,”controlled Paterson’s saloon business as well.

Sensational in some respects were the facts brought out yesterday at the inquiry of the state excise commission into the manner in which the excise laws of the state are being observed in Passaic and Bergen Counties and particularly in this city and Passaic.

Paramount in importance was the revelation that 335 of the 494 retail liquor licenses for saloons in this city are absolutely owned and controlled by the Paterson Brewing and Malting Company. Into this phase of the excise situation the state probers delved with surprising result, showing that the brewery holds the power of attorney for nearly all the licenses issued to the men who conduct the saloons in which their beer is sold.

It was shown in Passaic as well as in this city all prosecutions for violation of the excise laws are disposed of in the police court, the police authorities having grown weary of bringing cases before the grand jury and the licensing bodies only to get rebuffed.

Another story covering the inquiry, this one in the July 14th edition of the “Passaic News” revealed that the company, though not exclusive, was heavily entrenched in Passaic as well.

Fifty-one saloons, exactly half the number in the city, are owned by brewers, but there is no exclusive brewery monopoly as there is in Paterson. Of the fifty one brewery-owned saloons in Passaic, twenty-eight are owned by the Paterson Brewing and Malting Company, seventeen by the Hygeia Brewing Company, three by Peter Hauck and three by Ballentine’s, the two latter being Newark concerns.

As late as 1917 all five of the company’s breweries were in operation as evidenced by this advertisement that appeared in the July 13th edition of Paterson’s “Evening News.”

That said, changes were on the horizon as the U. S. entered WWI and resultant government restrictions began taking their toll on the brewing industry.

The first came in the Fall of 1917 when the company made the decision to expand into the cold storage business. The announcement appeared in the November 21st edition of Paterson’s “Morning Call.”

BREWING COMPANY TO CHANGE CHARTER

The stockholders of the Paterson Brewing and Malting Company at a meeting Tuesday afternoon in the Katz building decided to change the charter of the corporation and enter in the cold storage business. Brewing will be given up at the Hinchliffe Brewery and the building will be remodeled for cold storage purposes.

Contracts for the conversion were announced the following Spring in the “Morning Call’s” April 5, 1918 edition.

Contracts were filed with County Clerk John J. Slater yesterday, made between the United Cork Companies of New York and the Paterson Brewing and Malting Company, for the alteration of the Hinchliffe Brewery at Governor Street and the Erie Railroad. It is proposed to build over the interior of the plant to make it into a cold storage plant. The contract price is $18,465.

Many of the compartments and rooms of the brewery are suited for the purpose and the alterations are mainly to make it air-tight to conform to the new business for which it is to be used. Composition floors of cork, asphalt and concrete will be installed, and alterations made to partitions, ceilings and doors. William T. Fanning is the architect.

Later that year the company announced that two of its four remaining breweries were closing. The first, announced in the July 9, 1918 edition of Paterson’s “Morning Call,” was the James A. Graham Brewery.

The James A. Graham Brewery, Straight and Cedar Streets, one of the first establishments of its kind in the city, but in recent years a part of the Paterson Brewing and Malting Company, is to cease operations. It was ordered yesterday at the plant that no more beer is to be brewed there and the brewery will practically be closed this week. Another one of the three remaining breweries is also to be closed.

“The Graham Brewery will practically be closed this week,” said Mr. Hinchliffe, “and is in fact for sale now.”

Two days later the “Morning Call” announced that the Braun Brewery was closing as well.

One more local brewery was abandoned by the directors of the Paterson Brewing and Malting Company at their meeting yesterday afternoon. It was voted to close the Braun Brothers’ Brewery on Marshall Street at once. The company had already ceased to brew beer there. It is not the intention to dismantle the plant, but rather to keep it in condition to operate again should it be deemed advisable.

The trade which was provided for at the Braun Brewery will now be divided between the Sprattler & Mennel Brewery, Marshall Street and the Katz Brothers’ Brewery, Straight and Governor Streets. No further reductions to breweries are contemplated at this time.

The reasoning for the closures was explained in the April 9th story.

The shortage of coal which all breweries in the country are facing since restrictions were placed on their output is said to be responsible for closing the plants. James C. Hinchliffe, treasurer of the consolidated company, when asked as to the reason for closing the Graham Brewery said it was because of the curtailment of fuel to breweries by the government, and that they were allowed now but fifty percent of the former supply of coal…

Since the country’s entrance into the war the output of breweries has been regulated and curtailed. A short time ago a cut of 30 percent was ordered. Now another cut has been ordered into effect July 1, which reduces the output now to fifty percent of what it formerly was in normal times.

Later, in the June 25th edition of the “Evening News” the company announced that the James A. Graham Brewery, along with the old Graham & Co. Passaic Spring Brewery that was closed years ago, were both sold.

Confirm Report Silk Men Buy Breweries

Confirmation of the exclusive report published in the News several days ago that two old breweries in this city have been sold to silk firms was given this morning by the Paterson Brewing and Malting Company.

The James A. Graham Brewey of Straight and Cedar Streets, which has been closed for several months was sold to Janowitz Brothers Silk Co. for $40,500.

The old Graham Brewery on Hamburg Avenue and Matlock Street was purchased by Jackman & Miller, silk manufacturers for $17,000. The building has been used recently by Carlock & Co. Inc., plumbers.

Shortly after the start of National Prohibition the Paterson Brewing and Malting Company got into the silk business as well when a February 24, 1920 story in Paterson’s” Evening News” announced they were refitting the old Braun Brewery for that purpose.

One of the largest and most up-to-date silk hose manufacturing plants in the State, one that will contain the most modern and complete machinery in the country, will be put into operation at the old Braun Brewery on Marshall Street, this city, within the next four or five weeks.The project, which is being furthered by the Paterson Brewing and Malting Company at a cost of approximately $800,000, will provide employment for over 200 men and women when completed.

Still in the brewing business as well, on April 7, 1920 Paterson’s “Morning Call” included both of the Paterson Brewing & Malting Company’s remaining breweries on a list of “Beer Bottler’s License Renewals.”

Later that year they introduced a “near beer,” with less than 0,5% alcohol, called “James A. Graham’s XXX Pale.” Introduced in September the brew was advertised in the local newspapers during the Fall and Winter of 1920. This advertisement featuring their labeled bottle appeared in the December 8, 1920 edition of Paterson’s “Evening News.”

Another brand, Salvator, was specifically referenced as a Sprattler & Mennel product in this December 22, 1920 “Evening News” advertisement. It was available on draught and in bottles.

Their newspaper advertisements disappear at the end of 1920 so how long the Paterson Brewing and Malting Company continued to brew “near beer” is not clear. That said, it’s quite possible that the company continued to brew the real product up until at least October of 1923, at which time Herbert Katz, then secretary/treasurer of the company, was arrested and charged with bribing federal prohibition agents. The story made national news with Patersons “Morning Call” reporting it in their October 19th edition.

HERBERT KATZ, LOCAL BREWER, STATE OFFICIAL,PASSAIC MAN, AMONG 11 TAKEN IN HUGE U.S. RUM DRIVE.

The federal government today fired a double barreled charge into wet forces alleged to be drenching New York and New Jersey with illicit liquor. With one charge federal agents, working under orders from Washington, brought down a bag of eleven alleged conspirators, rounded up in the Hotel Pennsylvania and elsewhere and alleged to have been using $80,000 to bribe prohibition agents not to stop the brewing of real beer in New Jersey, not to intervene with the converting of industrial alcohol into strong liquor and to break the flooding of New York and New Jersey with beer from rival vats in Pennsylvania…

Trap is Set

The round-up at the Hotel Pennsylvania came at the close of the day. Federal prohibition and treasury agents, on appointment made with the alleged bribers, waited in several rooms and took their guests into custody one by one as they arrived. It was stated that a regular weekly bribe of $4,500 was accepted by one of the agents before making the arrests.

The men arrested were Harry J. Foley, former secretary to Senator Edwards and when the latter was governor, and now state superintendent of weights and measurers of New Jersey; Herbert Katz, of Paterson Brewing and Malting Company; Edward Butler of the Peter Breidt Brewing Company of Elizabeth, N. J.; Herbert Muller of the Hygeia Brewing Company, Passaic N. J.; George Seeber of the Rising Sun Brewing Company, Elizabeth, N. J….

Five months later Katz was acquitted of the bribery charge. That said, according to this March 21, 1924 “Morning Call,” story even though he was acquitted of bribery that didn’t mean that he hadn’t been brewing beer in violation of the Volstead Act.

The acquittal of Major Herbert Katz, the Paterson Brewing and Malting Company, and J. Harry Foley, superintendent of weights and measures for New Jersey, after a trial on charges of having bribed prohibition agents to permit them to manufacture and sell beer containing a larger percentage of alcohol than the law permits will probably come as a surprise to many, especially in view of the fact that Mr. Katz admitted having paid bribes to agents of the government.

Acquittal was undoubtedly due to the charge of the trial judge, who told the jury that if they believed the statements of the defendants that the government agents had deliberately sought to make criminals out of innocent men, and to that end had solicited bribes from the defendants, then the latter should be acquitted.

According to the judge, the defendants were not on trial on charges of having violated the prohibition law, but that the charge against them was bribery. It is evident, then, that the jurors believed that the defendants had been solicited for bribes, and on the basis of the judge’s instruction on this point the verdict should be no surprise.

The mistake made by the government was in trying to catch violators of the prohibition law in the act of bribery, instead of going about the business for which its agents are appointed, the detection and arrest of violators of the law…

Not long after Katz’s acquittal a May 2, 1924 story in Paterson’s “Morning Call” announced that the Paterson Brewing and Malting Company had abandoned the business of brewing altogether.

TWO PATERSON BREWERIES LEASED

Sprattler & Mennel Plant and Katz Building in Control of New Corporations.

Coupled with the filing in County Clerk John McCutcheon’s office yesterday morning of certificates of incorporation by the Paramount Malting and Beverage Company and the Hazel Brewing Company came the announcement that the Paterson Brewing and Malting Company will no longer engage in the brewery business and has leased to the newly organized concerns the old Katz Brewery at Governor and Straight Streets and the old Sprattler and Mennel Brewery at 236-248 Marshall Street, respectively.

The Paramount and Hazel corporations were organized, their certificates state, for the manufacture and sale of near beer and near ale, etc. Each has an authorized capitalization of $50,000…

Surprisingly, or maybe not surprisingly, less than three months later both breweries had been seized by prohibition agents. According to a July 10, 1924 story in the “Evening News:”

Prohibition agents, working under the direction of R. Q. Merrick, divisional prohibition chief raided the plant of the Hazel Brewing Company, on Marshall Street yesterday and seized beers and equipment said to be valued at $200,000. This marks the second raid to be conducted on breweries here during the past few months. A short time ago the Paramount Brewing Company plant , at Straight and Governor Streets, was seized by Director Adrian Chamberlain…

The bottle I found has a a crown finish and is embossed with the “Paterson Brewing and Malting Company” name. Machine made it likely dates to the latter half of the company’s history say 1910 – 1921. Also embossed on the bottle are the initials “H – K.”

While I can’t be certain, I suspect the letters H – K refer to the breweries of Hinchliffe (H) and Katz (K). According to this 1899 Sanborn Map the breweries were located adjacent to each other on either side of Straight Street, so it’s certainly within the realm of possibility that they shared a bottling department.

If Im right then the bottle likely dates no later than 1917 when the Hinchliffe Brewery was repurposed for cold storage.

On a final note, a portion of the Hinchliffe Brewery remains to this day.

While just a shell of its former self, today’s version still maintains a resemblance to the 1890 engraving prepared by architects Charles Stoll & Son.

Re Umberto (Olive Oil)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Warehouse on Franklin Street

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The latest scientific success

R. U. OLIVE OIL SHAMPOO

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

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

We carry it in stock in both tin and glass.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ROSE – X (Roselux Chemical Co., Brooklyn N. Y.)

The brand name ROSE-X encompassed several laundry products manufactured in Brooklyn, New York by the Roselux Chemical Company and later the Rose-X Chemical Company from the mid-1930’s up through the mid-1970’s. Over that time ROSE-X newspaper advertisements were almost exclusively limited to New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, so it appears their product distribution was centered around the New York metropolitan area.

The brand’s initial manufacturer, the Roselux Chemical Company, was established in 1933 with the company’s incorporation notice appearing in the October 21, 1933 edition of the “Brooklyn Times Union.”

Over the next quarter century the company made their home in the East New York section of Brooklyn, listing addresses in the Brooklyn telephone books of 1100 Rockaway Avenue (1934 to 1939); 522 Dumont Avenue (1939 – 1941) and 301 Belmont Avenue (1942 – 1960).

According to the “U S Patent Office Gazette” the company officially trademarked the term ROSE-X on May 3, 1938 but had been using the name as early as December 1, 1935.

They were certainly using the name in 1936 when their ROSE-X Bleach began to appear in newspaper advertisements run by local grocery stores. One of the first was a November 19th ad found in the Yonkers, New York “Herald Statesman” where “ROSE-X Bleach Water” was named in a “Yonkers Food Center” ad as one of what they referred to as their “All-Star Eleven.”

By 1943, grocery store ads were also including ammonia under the ROSE-X name and by 1947 a third product, liquid starch, had been added to the ROSE-X menu as well. Appearing introductory in nature, this early ROSE-X Liquid Starch advertisement appeared in the July 24, 1947 edition of the “Brooklyn Daily Eagle.”

Its wonderful this new ROSE-X Liquid Starch.

Before the decade’s end, this September 16, 1949 advertisement found in New York’s “Daily News” introduced a fourth ROSE-X product, “Crisp Plastic Starch” as “its newest sensation.”

In the 1950’s the menu of ROSE-X products continued to expand with the addition of ROSE-X Fluffy Rinse in the mid-1950’s and ROSE-X All Purpose Cleaner later in the decade. Both are included along with their bleach and ammonia in this December 15, 1960 advertisement found in Long Island’s “Newsday.”

By this time it appears that corporate changes were in the works. The first indication comes in 1960 when the name of the company was changed to the Rose-X Chemical Company. The change had certainly occurred by the fall of 1960 when the new name was referenced in this coupon found in the September 8th edition of the Yonkers “Herald Statesman.”

The Brooklyn telephone books listed the Rose-X Chemical Company at the former Roselux Chemical Company address of 301 Belmont Avenue until circa 1963 at which time their listed address changed to 585 Berriman Street, also located in East New York. A coupon for their “ROSE-X Fluffy Rinse, found in the April 28, 1965 edition of New York’s “Daily News” specifically referenced that address.

By then, according to a story in the December 22, 1966 edition of Passaic New Jersey’s “Herald News,” the company was a wholly owned subsidiary of the J. L. Prescott Company.

The Prescott company operated three wholly owned subsidiaries, Arrow Container Co. of Lincoln Park, a manufacturer of blow molded plastic bottles; Rose-X Chemical Co. of Brooklyn, and Bonnie Home Products of Great Neck, L.I.

The “Herald News” story went on to describe the Prescott company as:

…one of the largest independently owned manufacturers of laundry and household cleaning products in the East.

I suspect the name change and subsequent move to Berriman Street were both related to the Prescott acquisition but haven’t been able to confirm it, so that remains conjecture on my part.

Over the next several years, products marketed under the ROSE-X brand continued to appear sporadically in local grocery store advertisements. The last mention I can find appeared in the “Staten Island Advance,” when on January 24, 1973 you could pick up a one gallon jug of ROSE-X Bleach for 39 cents.

This all suggests an end date for the ROSE-X brand sometime in the mid-1970’s.

The bottle I found is machine made; contained one quart, and has the “ROSE-X name embossed on the shoulder.

The following two advertisements that both appeared in 1956 newspaper advertisements indicate that exact style bottle was used for both their bleach and liquid starch so it could have contained either.

When exactly the Roselux Chemical Company began using this style bottle is not clear. That being said, they had certainly adopted that style by 1948 as evidenced by its appearance in this September 16th advertisement found in New Rochelle, New York’s “Standard Star.”

Recognizing that by 1960, Rose-X Chemical’s parent company, the J. L. Prescott Company, also owned the Arrow Container Company, a manufacturer of plastic bottles, suggests that Rose-X likely converted to plastic around that time. This dates the subject bottle between 1948 (and possibly earlier) and 1960.

On a Final Note: The building that housed the business at 585 Berriman Street apparently remains to this day. According to street easy.com it’s a one-story commercial building built in 1960. That would make the ROSE-X Chemical Company one of its earliest, if not its first, occupant. Today the building is occupied by a company called “Universal Beverages.”

As far as I can tell, the buildings utilized by the business prior to 585 Berriman Street are all long gone.

Acqua Lina M’F’G’ Co., Brooklyn, New York. “Acqua Lina”

Aqua Lina was marketed as a cleanser, disinfectant, germicide and deodorant from the mid-1920’s up through the mid-1960’s. Typically sold in quart bottles, it was bottled in concentrated form and had to be mixed with water before use.

As far as I can tell, it was strictly a local product that was both manufactured and exclusively advertised in Brooklyn, New York over most of its 40-year history.

The originator and driving force behind Acqua Lina was Vincent Quartararo whose family arrived in the United States from Italy in 1898, when he was only a year old. By 1920, census records indicate Quartararo was living in Brooklyn where he listed his occupation as “chauffeur for a trucking company.”

Four years later, in 1924, Quartararo was listed in the Brooklyn telephone book at 33 Wallabout Market with the occupation “grocer.” This photo of Wallabout Market taken about the time Quartararo arrived appeared in the August 10, 1924 edition of the “Brooklyn Daily Eagle.”

It was shortly after establishing what was likely a wholesale grocery business that, according to an advertisement in the July 3, 1937 edition of a newspaper called the “Brooklyn Tablet,” Quartararo began marketing Acqua Lina.

That being said, it wasn’t until 1930 that a listing for the Acqua Lina Manufacturing Co. began appearing in the Brooklyn telephone book, and when it did appear its address was the same Wallabout Market address as the grocery business. This all suggests that in its early years the operation was quite small, manufacturing just enough of the cleanser to sell through the grocery business.

Things began to change in the fall of 1935 when Quartararo filed a trademark for Acqua Lina with New York’s Secretary of State. The announcement appeared in several October editions of both the “Brooklyn Daily Eagle” and “Brooklyn Times Union.”

A little over a year later advertisements for Acqua Lina began appearing in the “Brooklyn Tablet.” The earliest one I can find appeared in their May 29, 1937 edition.

Around the same time, this advertisement disguised as a news story laid out the company’s sales pitch. It appeared in the July 3, 1937 edition of the “Brooklyn Tablet.”

“ACQUA LINA”

Man’s inventive genius, since the turn of the century, has helped greatly in relieving the dreary burden of wash day. To expedite and ease this work, there have been advances in hot water arrangements, washing machines and cleansing preparations. One of the most popular of the latter is Acqualina Washing Liquid, which has been marketed for the past ten years, with a steady increasing volume due to its efficient properties.

Acqualina can be used as a germicide, disinfectant, deodorant, cleanser and it has many other uses. Acqualina’s high quality and strong concentration makes its use very economical. The price of Acqualina is sold very reasonable and within the reach of all. It is sold only in handy quart bottles, each sealed with a special gold seal which must be broken before the bottle is opened, thereby protecting the purchaser against adulteration.

Mr. Vincent Quartararo, president of the Acqualina Manufacturing Co. of 33 Wallabout Market, has found over 1,000 uses for this fine washing liquid which does its work well, and in addition lessens the manual labor involved. The company is now serving many Catholic institutions, and has received good reports on its product from large users of this type as well as from private homes.

Acqualina Washing Liquid has many good properties as a disinfectant for personal use, as for cuts, scratches, burns and surface wounds and is excellent for baths and antiseptic douches.It is sold by leading grocers, and a call to EVergreen 8-6568 will bring the name of the nearest dealer.

Four years later, with Wallabout Market set to be razed and become part of an expanded Brooklyn Navy Yard, Quartararo bought a factory building in Brooklyn’s Fort Greene section. The transaction was announced in the May 4, 1941 edition of the “Brooklyn Daily Eagle.”

Factory Building Sold

Harry M. Lewis Co., Inc., in conjunction with John F. James & Sons, Inc., sold for estate of Thomas C. Craig to Vincent Quartararo, doing business as Acqua Lina Manufacturing Company, the two story brick mercantile structure on lot 49 x 80 feet at 368 – 370 Cumberland St., Fulton St. and Atlantic Ave. The purchaser is making extensive alterations to this building for his own occupancy.

Six weeks later, with the alterations suficiently completed, the June 14, 1941 edition of the “Brooklyn Tablet” announced that the company was moving in.

ACQUA LINA MFG. CO. IN NEW QUARTERS

The Acqua Lina Mfg. Co., formerly of 33-34 Wallabout Market, manufacturers of Acqua Lina Washing Liquid, have removed their plant to 368 -70 Cumberland St., Brooklyn.

The firm, 15 years ago, perfected a liquid which has more than 1,000 uses. It is an efficient cleansing agent, a potent germicide, a powerful disinfectant, and an effective deodorant. One drop of this fluid mixed with water forms a cleanser whose efficiency is unsurpassed…

Around this time references to Quartararo as a “grocer” disappear from the Brooklyn phone books so I suspect by then the business was entirely focused on the manufacture of “Acqua Lina.”

Quartararo passed away in December 1952 after which it appears that the family continued to run the business. In fact, as early as 1950, with Vincent unable to work, census records named his son Leonard as “plant manager.”

The company remained active throughout the 1950’s during which they made some changes to the product’s packaging. The first came in 1951 when they transitioned to a “no deposit” bottle, as evidenced by this advertisement that appeared in the April 5, 1951 edition of the “Brooklyn Daily Eagle.”

Later, according to this September 16, 1954 “Brooklyn Daily Eagle” advertisement, the company added half gallon and gallon sizes to go along with their traditional quart bottle.

In 1961, newspaper advertisements for “Acqua Lina Bleach” began appearing in grocery store price lists outside of Brooklyn, in near-by places like Staten Island and New Jersey and as far away as Buffalo, New York. Whether the name change and expanded distribution were the result of an ownership change is not clear but by the mid-1960’s all newspaper references to Acqua Lina vanish and the Acqua Lina Manufacturing Company was no longer listed in the Brooklyn telephone book.

The bottle I found is machine made and the company’s typical quart size. The company information is embossed on the base and the words “Acqua Lina” also appear on the shoulder.

I suspect it was manufactured sometime between 1930, when the company name began appearing in the phone book, and 1951 when they switched to a “no deposit” bottle, at which time I would expect to see those words embossed somewhere on the bottle.

The makers mark of an “F” inside a hexagon found on the base serves to further narrow down the range. According to http://glassbottlemarks.com the mark refers to The Fairmount Glass Company who, according to their trademark application, first used the mark on November 6, 1933 and used it up through the late 1960’s.

This puts the bottle’s manufacture sometime between 1933 and 1951.

A. Bauer’s Sons, Inc. (Mustard)

The bottle’s namesake, August Bauer, followed by several generations of his family, operated a Williamsburg, Brooklyn and later, Ridgewood, Queens food business that manufactured and bottled mustard, horseradish, relish, pickles and beets. In business for well over 100 years, their marquee product was called “Bauer’s Mustard.”

August Bauer (sometimes Baner) was born in Germany in 1853 and arrived in New York sometime in the mid-1880’s (1883 in the 1900 census or 1885 in the 1910 census). He initially settled in Williamsburg, Brooklyn where as early as 1886/1887 he was listed in the Brooklyn directories with an address of 110 Hopkins Street and the occupation “horseradish. By 1889/1890 he had moved to 139 Meserole Street where, up through 1904, the directory’s listed his occupation as either “horseradish” or “pickles. At the same time, 1900 census records indicate that the same Meserole Street address also served as Bauer’s residence, suggesting it was a small, local business.

Sometime in the mid-1900’s the business moved to Ridgewood, Queens where, by 1909, it was listed in the Brooklyn/Queens telephone book at 1446 Metropolitan Avenue. Sometime in the mid-to-late 1920’s, renumbering of the Queens street system changed the address to 5338 Metropolitan Avenue.

Early on, August’s 19 year-old son had gotten involved in the business as well, listing his occupation as “delicatessen laborer” in 1900 census records, and “bottler pickle works” in 1910 records. At some point, another son, Rudolph, also joined the business and, by 1920, census records suggest the sons were running the business. This was certainly the case in 1927 when this advertisement found in the June 23rd edition of the “Brooklyn Times Union” listed the company name as A. Bauer’s Sons, Inc.

The above advertisement suggests that by then their mustard was the company’s most notable product and it became even more so when, in 1932, Bauer’s mustard won the grand prize at a Paris, France exposition. A story in the February 15, 1932 edition of the “Brooklyn Daily Times” made the announcement.

WINS PARIS MEDAL

August Bauer’s Sons, Inc. Sweep Salon With Their Mustard

August Bauer’s Sons, Inc., of 5338 Metropolitan Ave., manufacturers of prepared mustard, horseradish and pickled condiments, have been awarded the grand prize medal and diploma for the quality and flavor of their mustard, which they entered in the International Commercial and Industrial Exposition, in Paris, Dec. 1931, at the Salon Du Progress.

August Bauer, now retired, started the business more than 30 years ago and only through quality, reputation and service has grown to its present size.

The concern, now called August Bauer’s Sons, Inc., has a very large trade in mustard and other products, particularly in the Metropolitan area.

The company soon followed up with a local advertisement that touted the mustard’s grand prize award.” It appeared in the February 25, 1932 edition of the “Brooklyn Daily Times.”

The Bauer’s didn’t advertise much in the local newspapers but they did continue to take advantage of their Paris success and over the next three months occasionally ran these advertisements in the Brooklyn newspapers.

In 1940, Rudolph and Fred continued to run the business, each listing their occupation as “manager wholesale foods” that year in census records. By then the census records suggest their sons, August’s grandsons, also named Rudolph and Fred, had joined the business as well, listing their occupations as “labeler” and “wholesale clerk,” respectively.

As far as I can tell, over the next 50+ years, the company remained active in Ridgewood with their mustard occasionally appearing in newspaper advertisements for grocery stores and delicatessens. As late as April 21, 1994, a Poughkeepsie, New York delicatessen called Metzger’s included a bratwurst club sandwich with Bauer’s mustard as part of their “Travelers Lunch Express.”

At the turn of the century, the company was still active, though just barely, and still located at 5338 Metropolitan Avenue, in Ridgewood. At the time, according to an April 20, 1999 story in “Newsday” it was run by a fifth generation family member, Bart Druery. According to “Newsday:”

After illness forced Druerey’s bachelor great-uncle, Fred Bauer, to retire from the business in 1989, Druery visited the factory for the first time in 15 years… A check of the books showed that Bauer’s was in Druery’s words, “an old popular name without a company behind it.” For several years, Fred Bauer and a single employee had made just enough mustard to pay the bills.

The factory showed its age in every corner, from the stamped-tin ceilings to the worn floors, from the rusting fire escape to the aged brick-patterned asbestos siding that covered its brick walls. The machinery was old to ancient.

But for Druery, it represented an opportunity to run his own business… Druery rebuilt most of the machines but didn’t tamper with the old Bauer family recipe. “The mustard I make is the same mustard they were making here in 1920,” he says. Almost all of the production is what the trade calls a Dusseldorf mustard – hot but full-flavored, with a balance of sweet and bitter and sour, heightened with a dash of horseradish….

The story went on to say:

Now, Druery says, the mainstay of the business is “gallon containers that end up in delis.”

Bauer’s small jars do appear on store shelves as far away as Alaska, though most of them are sold in Nassau, Suffolk and Queens. King Kullen supermarkets carry it, so do some Karl Ehmer stores. In summer, demand in the Hamptons helps boost Bauer’s sales 20 percent…

Druery sells 10,000 to 15,000 cases a year, more than double what the company sold when he took over….The price is a killer, but its the quality of the mustard that’s keeping me in business.

As far as I can tell, at some point the manufacture of Brauer’s mustard was moved from Ridgewood to Long Island where Industrynet.com listed a company called A. Bauers Mustard, Inc. with an address of Brooklyn Rd., in Hempstead. As early as 2016, this November 20th story found in New York’s “Daily News” referred to the mustard as “Long Island-made A. Bauer’s mustard.”

Later Bauer’s mustard ads also exhibited the Hempstead location on the jar’s label.

How long the company remained in business is not clear but they’re certainly no longer in business today. A recent telephone call to the Bauer company’s phone number found on Industrynet.com responded with a taped message that said “they had no mustard in stock and no plans for making any.”

The bottle I found is machine made with a finish designed to accommodate a screw top. It’s 2-1/2 inches square and 6-inches tall. The embossed style of the company name closely resembles the style found in many of their 1932 newspaper advertisements, not to mention their recent label.

According to the February 25, 1932 advertisement pictured earlier in this post, the company was manufacturing mustard, horse radish, pickled beets, sweet relish and sweet pickles at the time.

This April/May 1932 advertisement pictured the company’s mustard packaged in a round barrel shaped jar.

So, this leaves relish, horseradish and pickles as options.

According to “StreetEasy.com,” the building that housed the business for over 100 years at 5338 Metropolitan Avenue was built in 1901. It apparently remains to this day and currently houses a tattoo parlor. Here’s today’s version courtesy of “Google Maps.”

Melchers Distilleries Limited

Melchers Distilleries Limited, along with its predecessor, The Melchers Gin and Spirits Distillery Company, operated a distillery just north of Montreal, in Berthierville, Quebec, Canada, from 1898 to 1977.

The business grew out of a relationship between a Dutch distiller named Theodore Melchers and a Canadian businessman and later politician named Joseph Marcelin Wilson. According to Theodore Melchers’ obituary, found in the January 9, 1922 edition of the “Montreal Star,” in the late 1800’s he was the senior partner of the firm of J. J. Melchers of Schiedham, Holland. Gin distillers and exporters, the firm was founded by his grandfather in the early 1800’s.

In the meantime, as early as 1889, J. M. Wilson was partnered with B. J. Boivin in the Montreal based wholesale grocery business of Boivin, Wilson & Co.

In 1898 Wilson, Boivin and Melchers got together and established the Canadian business of the “Melchers’ Gin and Spirits Distilling Company Limited.” Wilson, Boivin, and Theodore’s son Jean (also called J. J.) were named as “First or Provincial Directors” in the company’s August 6, 1898 incorporation notice.

The incorporation notice went on to describe the company’s objectives.

(a.) To carry on business as distillers, malters, etc., in and to extend the same to any and all of the provinces of the Dominion of Canada, the manufacturing, distilling, rectifying, aging, buying, selling and dealing in all kinds of spiritous and alcoholic liquors, and malting; (b.) So far as necessary for the purpose of carrying on to advantage and without waste the business described in clause (a.), to carry on the business of stock raisers and cattle feeders, the operations of the company to be carried on at Berthier, in the province of Quebec, and elsewhere throughout the Dominion of Canada.

The company immediately went about establishing their Berthierville distillery with much of the distilling equipment being brought over from Holland, and within a year the distillery was up and running under the Melchers name, as evidenced by this February 21, 1899 “Montreal Star” item advertising “A COMPRESSED YEAST” to local bakers.

This early 20th Century depiction of the distillery appeared in an October 13, 1911 advertisement published in Toronto’s “Globe and Mail.”

According to Theodore Melchers’ obituary, his son Jean would go on to serve as the distillery’s managing director for over 20 years.

In the Spring of 1900, the first shipment of Melchers Canadian made gin called “Red Cross” hit the market. Flavored with juniper berries it was sometimes referred to as a “Holland” or “Geneva” gin. The “roll-out” was described in the June 18, 1901 edition of the “Montreal Star.”

Another Big Shipment of Melchers Canadian Geneva

On June 10th last, the Melchers Gin Distillery, of Berthierville, has once more supplied the liquor trade with several thousand cases and hundreds of casks of the now celebrated “Red Cross” Canadian Geneva.

The first shipment that was made last April was met with unprecedented enthusiasm by the trade. In fact, the wholesale dealer did not even have time to warehouse the Gin as it was all sold in advance to retailers who had great trouble to find enough “Red Cross” Geneva to supply the always increasing demand for that superior liquor.

Now, the same rush, the same boom, was repeated with last week’s shipment and it seems as it will keep up until the Berthierville’s Distillery’s capacity has been increased, which of course, must be done in the near future…

That summer advertisements specifically touting the company’s “Red Cross” Geneva began appearing in Canadian newspapers. One of the earliest appeared in the July 17, 1901 edition of the “Montreal Gazette.” The advertisement clearly identifies Boivin Wilson & Co. as their distributing agent.

The following year another series of newspaper advertisements featured their Berthierville Distillery, an image that soon began appearing on their label.

The hype described in the June 18, 1901 “Montreal Star” item certainly had a lot of truth to it as evidenced by the fact that in 1903 the company increased its capital ten fold, from $100,000 to $1,000,000. The announcement appeared in the July 25th edition of Toronto’s “Globe and Mail.”

Over the next ten years, the name “Red Cross” became intimately associated with their gin due in no small part to the $500,000 the company invested in promoting and maintaining the brand. In spite of that fact, in November, 1914 the company announced it was changing the gin’s name to “Gold Cross.”

The reasoning behind the change was directly related to the humanitarian role of the “Red Cross Society” during World War I. A November 2, 1914 announcement in the “St. John Standard” spelled it out like this:

The ambulance systems of the world met at Geneva, in Switzerland, in 1864 – exactly 50 years ago – and adopted a flag with a Red Cross on a White Ground as the neutral flag of all nations, a protection to the sick and wounded from harm and a protection also to all persons engaged in the work of caring for those sufferers.

In this present European conflict it has gained greater importance than ever since men knew war. It has become so important that we are compelled to realize that only nations themselves should be allowed to use the RED CROSS emblem.

At the insistence of the Imperial and Canadian Governments, who like all other nations, have concluded to keep the name “RED CROSS” for national use, we have decided to relinquish “RED CROSS” as the name of our GIN.

We feel, in giving up the name “RED CROSS” to the use of the British Government, and to all humanity, that we are only following a patriotic course. The great and noble work of the Red Cross Society shall not suffer if we can help it.

True to their word, January advertisements began using the “GOLD CROSS” name as evidenced by this January 26, 1915 “Toronto Star” advertisement.

It was around this time that, according to a story in the December 17, 1928 edition of the “Montreal Star,” ownership of the business began transitioning to the Fleischmann Company; a transition that would be complete by 1920.

About 1913 The Fleischmann Co., following certain agreements with reference to the production of yeast, purchased an interest in Melchers Distillery Ltd. and in 1920 they acquired Senator Wilson’s interest and assumed control…

Between 1920 and 1928, the Melchers Gin & Spirits Distillery Company operated as a wholly owned subsidiary of the Fleischmann Company, with the Berthierville distillery facilitating Fleischmann’s Canadian production of yeast. At the same time the distillery also continued to produce their “Gold Cross” gin, as evidenced by this 1926 newspaper advertisement that was published in both English and French speaking newspapers.

In 1928, the Fleischmann Company decided to focus entirely on yeast production in Canada and consequently sold their Canadian liquor business to a newly formed corporation called Melchers Distilleries Limited. The Fleischmann Company’s entry in the 1929 “Moody’s Manual of Investments” provided some details.

Site has been acquired at La Salle (near Montreal), Quebec, on which a modern yeast plant will be constructed in 1929. With the sale of Melchers Distillery Co., Ltd. stock in Dec., 1928 to Melchers Distilleries, Ltd. (effective as of Oct. 31, 1928), Fleischmann Co. (Ohio) ceased to carry on any business in gin and spirits in the Dominion of Canada, which business was formerly handled by this subsidiary. However, contract was entered into with the Melchers Distilleries Ltd. under which they will continue to manufacture yeast at the Berthierville plant, until completion of yeast plant for that purpose.

The newly incorporated Melchers Distilleries Ltd. was also listed that year in “Moody’s.”

MELCHERS DISTILLERIES, LTD.: Incorporated in Dec. 10, 1928, under the laws of the Province of Quebec to acquire the plants and properties (except certain machinery now used in the manufacture of molasses yeast) the stocks of matured and maturing spirits, good will and trademarks of the Melchers Distillery Co., Ltd., at Berthierville, Que.

The listing went on to describe the Berthierville facilities at the time..

The properties acquired comprise 82 acres of land at Berthierville, Que., and facilities for water shipments via the St. Lawrence River. The distilling plant has a production capacity of approximately 2,000,ooo gallons per annum…

The president of the new company was a long-time employee named Joseph Victor Marchand.

According to a December 17, 1928 story found in the “Montreal Star:”

Victor Marchand, M.L.A., president of the new company, has been associated with the Melchers organization since its inception, first as an accountant and later as secretary and general manager.

The story went on to say that as the 1920’s were coming to an end the company’s product line was expanding beyond just “Gold Cross” gin.

… The company has shown a steady expansion since its foundation, and, in addition to its Holland gin which has been by way of becoming the national drink of the French-Canadian people, has recently been producing also American Rye and Bourbon and industrial and grain alcohols. Mr. Marchand expects to commence in the near future the distilling of Dry and Old Tom gins, etc. At the present time the company its the only manufacturer in Canada of Holland Gin.

One of the first in Melchers expanded menu was called “London Club” dry gin whose appearance on the market was announced in a July 26, 1929 item published in Toronto’s “National Post.”

Melchers new London Club dry gin will be placed on the market within a few days. This is the latest product of Melchers Distilleries which was publicly financed in December of last year. This new product has been developed over the past few months and will be ready for market this week.

This advertisement for the newly minted brand appeared a month later in the August 22, 1929 edition of the “Montreal Star.”

By 1930, advertisements for an American rye called “Old Keg”also began appearing in the Canadian newspapers.

This in no way implies that their “Gold Cross” gin was in any way forgotten, as evidenced by this Christmas advertisement published in the “Montreal Star” on December 13, 1933.

As late as 1941, “Gold Cross” remained prominent in Melchers Distilleries’ advertisements with this December 29th “Montreal Star” ad touting it along with their “London Club” gin and another Melchers product, “Three Castles” whisky.

The following year World War II changed things when on November 1, 1942 the entire alcohol production of distilleries in Canada was diverted to war purposes. At that time the Berthierville plant engaged in a large war contract for the manufacture of commercial alcohol. The company was still engaged in that effort in 1945 when they ran this advertisement in the January 25th edition of the “Montreal Star.”

It reads:

Tonight, brave men still face death…on the battlefield.

It is unlikely that we in Canada will be called upon to match their sacrifice…but the least we can do is to continue, in every way possible, to keep the supplies and equipment rolling out. We, Melchers Distilleries Limited, manufacture a precious war material of a thousand uses…war alcohol. It is a vital ingredient of the explosives used in the grenades, shells, bombs, depth charges and mines that are thundering and battering the enemy to destruction…an important substance in de-icing fluid for our planes, in medicines for our sick and wounded, in war paints and lacquers, and in many other applications, some of which are still on the secret list.

It is needed in great quantities…and until victory is won, our plant and facilities will remain at the disposal of the Dominion Government in the manufacture of alcohol for war!

After the war Melchers began producing their “Gold Cross” gin again, as evidenced by this October, 1951 advertisement that appeared in several editions of the “Montreal Gazette.”

At the same time they were also advertising a wide array of other brands some of which were pre-war holdovers while others had been recently introduced. A little of both appear in this March 22, 1951 “Vancouver Sun” advertisement.

As far as I can tell, over the next two decades the company did quite well, issuing stock dividends in most years before peaking in late 1969. That year, according to Toronto’s “Globe and Mail:”

Melchers Distilleries Ltd. of Montreal had record sales of $9,351,500, excluding excise and sales taxes, in the 12 months to August 31. A year earlier sales totaled $6,138,900. Profit increased to $643,644, or 43 cents a share from $514,738 or 38 cents a share in 1968.

The story went on to say:

An additional $6-million investment in the company’s plant at Berthierville, Que., increased its distilling capacity by 90 percent to 7,500,000 gallons annually. Work is advanced on a new automatic filling operation capable of handling increased output at the Berthierville plant.

Around the same time, according to an April 29, 1970 “Globe and Mail” story:

Melchers merged with Manitoba Distillery Ltd. in an agreement ratified on Jan. 17, 1969, and the $2.5-million Manitoba Distillery plant, 25 miles north of Brandon, became a wholly owned subsidiary of Melchers. The expansion program estimated at $1.5-million included a bottling section, warehouse and offices.

It was these investments, coupled with changing market conditions, that contributed to a subsequent downturn in the company’s profitability. According to a story in Saskatchewan’s “Leader Post:”

…Melcher’s financial problems originated in the early 1970’s. Depending on liquor market forecasts which never materialized, the Montreal-based firm invested heavily to expand its Berthierville, Que. plant and purchased a distillery, near Minnedosa… It also put between five million and six million gallons of spirits into storage for aging.

Particularly harmful to Melchers was a shrinking and depressed market for Canadian whisky in the United States, which absorbs about 75 percent of Canada’s hard liquor production.

The Manitoba plant was ultimately shut down in late 1973 and three years later, the March 19, 1976 edition of the “Globe and Mail” reported that the company lost $2.8-million in their most recent fiscal year, the third consecutive year the company had reported a loss.

A year later, the March 14, 1977 edition of the “Toronto Star” announced that the company had filed for bankruptcy after a potential sale of the Manitoba plant fell through..

Melchers Distilleries Ltd., a 79 year-old Quebec firm that produces Ron Cabana rum and other brands of liquor, is bankrupt following the collapse of a deal to sell its Manitoba plant for $2.5 million.

Trading of Melchers’ common shares on the Toronto and Montreal exchanges has been halted since last Wednesday night, when the stock closed at $2.66, down from a peak of almost $30 in 1970…

Melchers has about 160 employees, 122 of whom work at the main distillery at Berthierville, Que. The company’s other plant, at Minedosa, Man., has been closed since the end of 1973 and was to have been sold to a group of Manitoba businessman in a deal announced in January.

Melchers disclosed early this month that the sale had fallen through. It said today it had been “negotiating a financial restructuring of the company” when it found it couldn’t pay its bills.

Later that year, the December 15, 1977 edition of the “Montreal Star” announced that a consortium called Melcan Distilleries Ltd. had been formed to acquire the Melchers company assets.

Melcan Distilleries Ltd., a company owned by five distilling companies has succeeded in acquiring the assets of bankrupt Melchers Distilleries…

Melcan was set up specifically to buy the assets of Melchers. Its shareholders are Calvert of Canada, Corby Distillers, John de Kuyper and Son and Meagher’s Distilleries, which own the voting shares. In addition, non-voting shares are owned by the American Distilling Company, of New York…

Melcan will hire most of the workers and executives formerly employed by Melchers and will sell the Melchers line of products, including gins, whiskies, imported wines and spirits…

Seven years later, on December 1, 1984, the “Montreal Gazette” announced that Seagram & Sons, who had apparently bought into the consortium at a later date, was acquiring Melcan Distilleries Ltd.

Seagram & Sons announced Friday that it has reached a “tentative agreement” to buy all the shares of Melcan that it doesn’t already own from its partners in a seven-year-old consortium…

The companies purchased Melchers Distilleries Ltd. out of bankruptcy and renamed it Melcan. Now they seem to have decided that it is too clumsy for a consortium of competitors to continue operating Melcan, said Harold Wolkin, an analyst with Nesbit Thomson Bongard Inc.

Seagrams immediately announced they were closing the Berthierville plant and less than a year later, a November 25, 1985 story in the “Montreal Gazette” made it clear that the plant that had continuously operated as a distillery for 8o+ years had become a pile of rubble.

The brick smokestack will topple soon and the cream-colored portico now welcomes you to the rubble of Melchers Distilleries Inc.

Five months after Berthierville’s main industry closed its doors, throwing 98 people out of work, a bulldozer has smashed down the walls of the century-old factory. Stills and motors are strewn about. A 30-man demolition crew has begun sorting copper, steel and aluminum for resale to scrap dealers…

Robert Lafleur and his crew moved in two weeks ago and began tearing down the main distillery. Most of the work will be completed by mid-December but Lafleur said the ground won’t be cleared and the wreckage removed until May.

Lafleur’s job also includes liquidating most of Melcher’s machinery and office equipment.

Seagram’s kept its bottling machines and scores of barrels used to hold the distilled liquor. But Lafleur is placing ads in newspapers from Ottawa to New York advertising old stills and grain processors

One of Lafleur’s advertisements can be found in the November 9, 1985 edition of the “Montreal Gazette.”

The subject bottle is a 16-ounce, machine-made, slightly curved flask with “Melchers Distilleries Limited” embossed on one side. Recognizing that “Melchers Distilleries Limited” was incorporated in December, 1928, it certainly dates no earlier than that.

The bottle generally exhibits a rough finish with the unembossed side exhibiting a rectangular area that’s smoothed out to accommodate a paper label.

The bottle matches exactly the “Old Keg” whisky flask pictured in this August 25, 1930 advertisement found in the “Montreal Star,” sans the label and “handy two-ounce “NIP-CUP” that are both long gone.

The bottle does NOT exhibit the embossed phase

Federal Law Forbids Sale or Reuse of this Bottle

required on all liquor bottles sold in the U. S.between 1935 and 1964. This suggests it likely found its way to the Long Island bays during the latter stages of National Prohibition.

Spring Stopper Company, 165 Broadway, MCH. PAT’D FEB. 14 1922

The subject bottle, manufactured to accommodate a threaded closure, is machine made and designed such that the threads needed to accommodate the closure are located inside the neck. The bottle is unembossed with the exception of the following patent information found on the neck directly below the lip.

MACH. PAT’D FEB. 14 1922

Almost certainly this refers to U.S. Patent No. 1,406,722 entitled “MACHINE FOR MAKING BOTTLES.” Assigned to the Spring Stopper Company of Brooklyn by Harry M. Brown, it was filed on March 18, 1918 and approved on the date embossed on the bottle, February 14, 1922. This description of the patented machine appeared in the May, 1922 edition of a publication called “The Glass Industry.”

So it’s apparent the bottle’s inside threaded finish was manufactured by a machine protected under this patent.

A March, 1927 advertisement run by the Spring Stopper Company and found in a trade publication called “The Glass Container,” sung the praises, of this bottle, calling it:

The only machine-made bottle with inside screw thread.

Another advertisement in “The Glass Container,” this one found in their April, 1930 edition, depicted a variety of seals and applicator rods offered in connection with this closure. The ad included their sales pitch which read in part:

An ethical pharmaceutical, a dainty toilet preparation – each requires a seal or applicator rod widely different in appearance and design.

Spring Stopper Seals and Applicator Rods are now offered in a wide variety of materials which give a selective choice to the manufacturer.

Seals are now available in glass. porcelain, Durez or Bakelite in colors. These seals screw into a thread which can easily be formed on the inside neck of your bottle. They make a perfect closure and reclosure. Now used by many nationally known companies, particularly for such difficult to seal products as hydrogen peroxide, camphorated oil, highly volatile substances.

The Spring Stopper Company, originally of Brooklyn, was organized in 1909 with the announcement appearing in the July 23rd edition of the “Brooklyn Daily Times.”

The Spring Stopper Company, of Brooklyn, has been organized with the State Department to manufacture bottles, jars, etc. The capital stock is placed at $10,000 consisting of shares of $100 each, and directors for the first year are Luke V. Lockwood of Greenwich, Conn.; Arthur J. Albert of Hoboken, and John T. Duane of Brooklyn.

The company was initially located at 81 Washington Street with Richard Canfield serving as both the president and sole stockholder. The company’s listing appeared in the 1913-1914 Copartnership and Corporation Directory of Brooklyn and Queens.

Spring Stopper Co. (NY) Richard A. Canfield, Pres.; Clayton F. McKenley Sec & Treas., Capital $10, 000., 81 Washington

Canfield passed away suddenly in December, 1914 when he fell, hitting his head on a staircase in a 14th Street station of the New York City subway. The following story published in the December 19, 1914 edition of the “New York Tribune” suggested that prior to his death, Canfield’s company had been accumulating patents in both the U. S. and Canada.

To the Spring Stopper Company, of which Canfield owned all the stock, is bequeathed all his American and Canadian patents, and all debts the company may owe him are cancelled. In payment for the patents the executor is instructed to cause the company to issue to himself sufficient stock to bring its capitalization up to $1,000,000. In this company stock to the value of $50,000 is given to Harry M. Brown, associated with him in its management; twenty-five thousand to his secretary, Clayton F. McKenley, and $25,000 to Thomas W. Sprague with the condition that they not dispose of it without offering it to the executor at a fair appraisal.

Two years later the capital had yet to be increased and was still sitting at $10,000 when, according to the July 16, 1916 edition of the “Brooklyn Citizen:”

John Hill Morgan, as referee, has recommended to the Supreme Court that Vincent Lockwood, executor of the estate of the late Richard A. Canfield, be allowed to invest $35,000 as working capital in the Spring Stopper Company.

The $10,000 capital stock of this company is owned by the estate. The device manufactured is a bottle stopper. Testimony given before the referee showed that Mr. Canfield had invested some $400,000 already in the concern which was about to begin operation when he died.

The additional $35,000 is necessary now to begin operations. Mr. Morgan was told Mr. Canfield intended to increase the capital to $1,000,000 and invest $250,000 as working capital. The referee decided that $35,000. might be invested.

Around the same time, the company moved to 217 Duffield Street in Brooklyn. At this point both Clayton F. McKenley and Harry M. Brown were still involved, McKenley apparently on the administrative and sales end and Brown on the technical end. In fact, between 1917 and 1920 Harry M. Brown obtained approval for at least four different patents, each of which involved bottle manufacturing machines and methods. Brown assigned each of the patents to the Spring Stopper Company.

No. 1,285429, Bottle Stoppering Machine, July 31, 1917; No. 1,292,243, Machine for Making Bottles, Jan. 21, 1919; 1,334,648; Machine Method for Making Carboys or Large Glass Containers1, Mar 23, 1920, and 1,346,528, Glass Serving Instrument, July 13, 1920.

Around 1920 the company moved across the East River to Manhattan where they listed an address of 220 Broadway with McKenley named as the company’s “representative” in the directories. Between 1920 and 1925, several more bottle related patents were obtained, including the patent dated February 14, 1922.

At least some of the company’s patents were associated with finishing machines that could be attached to various types of automated bottle making machines and, according to a November, 1925 story in a publication called the “American Perfumer & Essential Oil Review,” by then some of those patented finishing machines were built and operational.

The Spring Stopper Co. owns and controls machines which can be equipped to various types of bottle-making machines for making the inside screw finish, which it lets out on a royalty basis to bottle manufacturers. At present, the only company licensed to do this is the Salem Glass Works

The February 14, 1922 patent was certainly associated with one such machine.

The “American Perfumer & Essential Oil Review” story went on to say that at the time the Spring Stopper Company, now located at 165 Broadway, was promoting their business at the Sesquicentennial Exhibition in Philadelphia.

Spring Stopper Co., New York City, is one of the progressive exhibitors in the Sesqui-Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia in Building No. 2, near the Red Cross Booth. The exhibit has been a source of interest to visiting manufacturers in the toilet preparations and allied trades who have stopped to examine the large array of bottles of various sizes and shapes with the inside screw stopper shown by the company…

The booth was under the able direction of Miss Marie Martin, who explained to visitors that the reclosure bottle is produced as economically as ordinary bottles by an automatic machine process. Its various advantages were also explained.

The story identified the Salem Glass Works as the company licensed to manufacture bottles using the Spring Stopper Company’s patented machines, a fact confirmed by this November, 1926 advertisement found in “The Glass Container.”

The two companies apparently maintained a close relationship throughout the late 1920’s and early 1930’s, so much so that the Spring Stopper Company’s 1933 New York City directory listing specifically identified the company with the Salem, New Jersey location while simply listing a room number at their 165 Broadway address in Manhattan.

This all suggests 165 Broadway served as the company’s sales office while their finishing machines had been incorporated into the Salem Bottle Works operations.

It doesn’t appear that the Spring Stopper Company’s machine-made version of the inside threaded finish was all that successful. As far as I can tell, advertisements for the company and their finish vanish by the mid-1930’s and I don’t see many of their bottles advertised on e-bay. Additionally, in 20+ years on the bay I’ve only found the one pictured. That being said, as late as 1946 the Spring Stopper Company was listed in the NYC directories at 165 Broadway.

The subject bottle is approximately 5 inches tall and 1-3/4 inches in diameter. Brown in color, it gives the appearance of a pharmaceutical bottle.

An advertisement published in the May, 1929 edition of a publication called “Drug Markets” suggested it could have held a hydrogen peroxide brand called “MOONSHEEN,” manufactured by the Schuykill Chemical Company or a “Camphor Liniment,” manufactured by the H. E. Mulford Co.

Other advertisements, including this March 1927 advertisement in “The Glass Container,” also mention Parke Davis & Co. as a pharmaceutical client (lower left-hand side below) so that’s another possibility.

Lysol (Lehn & Fink)

All eight of the above bottles contained a concentrated disinfectant and antiseptic called “Lysol.”

Each bottle exactly matches the one pictured in an October 21, 1922 advertisement found in the “Saturday Evening Post.”

Sold in a concentrated form, the “Saturday Evening Post”ad indicated that it had to be measured out and mixed prior to use.

The advertisement then went on to provide mixing instructions and finally, how and where to use it.

Finding a total of eight such bottles out in the bay suggests Lysol was a “must have” in what must have been a remote and harsh environment back in the early 20th century.

So, with that as background, what follows is the “Lysol” story, a story that starts in the late 1800’s and is still unfolding today.

Lysol had its beginnings in Wiesbaden, Germany with a chemist and pharmacist named Gustav Adolph Raupenstrauch whose story appeared in the “Dictionary of German Biography, Volume 8,” published in 2005.

Raupenstrauch, the son of a pastor, began working in a pharmacy in Bistritz while still in school. From 1881 onwards he studied pharmacy and chemistry in Vienna and in 1886 obtained a doctorate. He was appointed departmental head at the food testing institute and the chemical testing institute in Wiesbaden and carried out research into disinfecting agents used to fight infectious diseases. His research resulted in the development of a new substance, Lysol, which was considered more effective and had fewer side effects than the disinfecting agents that had been used since then. In 1889 he received a patent for Lysol and in 1890 established a factory for Lysol production in Hamburg called Schülke & Mayr, whose Vienna branch he headed from 1892 onwards…

As early as 1890, word of the new product had reached the United States, as evidenced by this November 23, 1890 “New York Times” item found under the heading “Progress in Science.”

Among the latest disinfectants is “lysol,” which appears to be very much like carbolic acid. The emulsifying agent is resin or fat soap, tar acid being incorporated with the soap at the moment of saponification.

Two years later an August 28, 1892 story in the “Brooklyn Citizen,” announced that the New York City firm of Lehn & Fink was Lysol’s sole agent in the United States.

A CHOLERA PREVENTATIVE

Lysol Recommended by European Medical Authorities

The chief preventative of cholera and similar diseases is absolute cleanliness which insures the absence of disease germs. To secure this condition various antiseptic preparations are used. A new antiseptic has recently been discovered which many eminent physicians regard a superior to the old preparations.

Lysol, the new preparation in a 1 percent solution, possesses high antiseptic powers and is sure death to cholera and other disease germs. Unlike carbol and other similar preparations, it is convenient for ordinary use and leaves the skin smooth and soft.

Its use has been strongly recommended as a disinfectant and preventative by the Chief Sanitary Board of Austria. It is also used as a surgical antiseptic with marked success. Lehn & Fink, manufacturing chemists of No. 128 William Street, New York, are the sole agents in America for Lysol.

Over the next 100+ years, the stories of Lysol and Lehn & Fink would be intimately connected.

Lehn & Fink had begun in business eighteen years earlier, in 1874. Their start was descried like this in a booklet commemorating the firm’s 50th anniversary, published in 1924. Simply entitled “Fifty Years,” it began:

There were no fanfare of trumpets,” no formal housewarming when on May 1, 1874, the business which is now Lehn & Fink, Inc., was started at 160 William Street, New York City.

Mr. F. W. Fink having spent the morning in the employ of another wholesale house, terminated this association, as previously arranged, at noon, and walked to his own place of business…

He had no monetary capital, but one of his retail friends, Louis Lehn of Brooklyn, put in capital, which combined with that furnished by a special partner, afforded an amount sufficient to start the partnership of Lehn & Fink.

As early as 1876 the partnership of Lehn & Fink was listed in the NYC Copartnership and Corporation Directory with a capital of $10,000 and both Louis Lehn and Frederick W. Fink named as partners. Also included in the listing was “special partner,” Conrad Spengeman.

This advertisement for Lehn & Fink, the earliest I can find, appeared in an 1879 publication called “Notes on Assaying,” by Pierre de Peyster Ricketts.

A long-time employee named Robert R. Lampa, described their original 160 William Street quarters in a story written years later entitled: “Reminiscences of Forty-four years in the Drug Business.” It was published in the January, 1922 edition of “The Practical Druggist.”

When I entered the drug business 0f Lehn & Fink, the firm had been established only a few years – in 1874 I believe. It occupied very small quarters – 160 William Street – the building about 60 feet deep. We had a cellar and sub-cellar and part of the third floor. Subsequently we managed to get the first floor also and eventually we occupied the whole building, which all told, consisted, aside from the store and cellars, of three floors and a cock-loft of a depth somewhat shorter than that of the street floor. In this small building the goods were stored; orders put up, and shipments made and received. Goods were placed wherever there was room- and space was scarce – which means that an orderly arrangement of stock was impossible.

This depiction of their 160 William Street building generally supports Lampa’s description. It was included as part of an advertisement found in the August 20, 1927 edition of a publication called “Sales Management.”

Ten years later in 1884, according to a March, 1927 feature on Lehn & Fink published in a trade publication called the “Glass Container,” sales had “increased from nothing to a yearly total of $500,000,” necessitating a move to larger quarters at 128 William Street.

Up to this point the company was largely focused on business generated in the local New York metropolitan area. According to the “Glass Container” story that changed in the mid to late 1880’s when the company began to expand nationally. At the same time changes in management were occurring as well when, in 1886, Louis Lehn retired. Shortly afterwards, the 1888 NYC Copartnership and Corporation Directory named Fink, along with Charles Eberhardt and Albert Plaut as principals.

As the company was growing during the 1880’s they added two additional Manhattan facilities, a laboratory on Gold Street and warehouse on Pearl Street. Both are listed on their 1893 business card found in the June, 1893 edition of a publication called “Notes on Remedies.”

It was during this period of expansion that Lysol entered the picture, and by 1892, having acquired the sole rights to sell it in the U. S., Lehn & Fink began promoting Lysol in professional publications. This early advertisement to the medical profession appeared in a number of medical publications, including the June, 1892 edition of the “Toledo Medical and Surgical Reporter.”

A September,1895 advertisement included in a publication called “Notes on New Remedies,” not only touts Lysol to the medical profession for surgical and obstetrical use but also to veterinarians as an animal wash and to horticulturists as a way to destroy insect pests of all kinds.

At this point, according to the September, 1897 “Descriptive Price List of Lehn & Fink’s Specialties,” Lysol was sold in both 1-lb. bottles and 1 gallon jugs.

In 1898, Lehn retired after which the 1900 NYC Copartnership and Corporation directory named Albert Plaut along with his brother Joseph as principals, with Albert serving as president.

Not long after Albert Plaut assumed the presidency, the April 6, 1900 edition of the “New York Times” announced that the company was planning another move.

Albert & Joseph Plant, who compose the wholesale drug firm known as Lehn & Fink have bought through Ruling and Whiting, the property 120 William Street, 25 by 150, together with 79 John Street, containing about 7,000 square feet. The purchasers will tear down the buildings now on the site and erect a modern structure, which will be occupied entirely by their own business. The price paid for the combined properties is $151,000.

According to Robert Lamba’s reminiscences in the “Practical Druggist,” before the company could move into their new quarters, their present location at 128 William Street was destroyed by a fire.

The fire cleaned us out completely – stock, fixtures and all – had not even a single desk, inkwell or blotting paper to start anew with. The fire occurred on Friday night. That same night quarters were rented in Beekman Street and the fitting out of a temporary plant began immediately. Profers of assistance came from our friends and neighbors in the wholesale trade – they were accepted and helped us materially in getting us on our feet.

Lamba went on to say:

At the time of the fire Lehn & Fink had a new building under construction at 120 William Street, but it was not ready for occupancy. The walls were about up – that was about all. This new building – an L shaped, double building in fact was entered by us in 1901…

The building was depicted in a book entitled “New York The Metropolis,” published in 1902, the year after the building opened.

The publication described the company’s new home as:

A new fireproof eight story structure with electric plant and complete appointments, specially designed for the drug business.

Up to this point sale of Lysol was limited entirely to the medical profession. According to a February 2, 1922 feature on Lehn & Fink found in an advertising publication called “Printers’ Ink:”

Lysol was advertised in medical and hospital publications and by circularizing and sampling. The medical profession was circularized four times a year. Its use in hospitals spread rapidly, where as a bactericide in obstetrical cases it found favor…

This December 28, 1901 advertisement found in the “Philadelphia Medical Journal” suggested that it had certainly taken hold in the hospital community by then.

In daily use by thousands of doctors and in the most prominent hospitals FOR SURGICAL AND OBSTETRICAL WORK

The ad went on to name hospitals in several U. S. cities where Lysol was in constant use. New York City hospitals mentioned were Mount Sinai Hospital, Roosevelt Hospital, St Marks Hospital, German Hospital (now Lenox Hill), Presbyterian Hospital, New York Post Graduate Hospital and New York Polyclinic. Some of these hospitals are still with us today.

The “Printers Ink” feature went on to say:

Soon thereafter physicians began to prescribe it in the home, principally in confinement cases.

That almost certainly led to the smaller sized bottle mentioned in this July 14, 1906 advertisement found in the “Medical Record.”

According to the “Findings of Fact” in the case of Lehn & Fink Products Corporation v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, Promulgated June 28, 1946 in U. S. Tax Court:

In 1910 Lehn & Fink, a corporation, was organized to conduct the business theretofore carried on by the partnership…

The following year, the 1911 Copartnership and Corporation Directory listed the firm as a New York corporation with capital of $600,000 and Albert Plaut named as president. Albert passed away several years later and in the 1915 directory his brother Joseph was named president.

It was around this time that the company began to broaden their advertising in an effort to reach the home market. Advertisements targeting the housewife began touting Lysol as a germicide and household disinfectant, a strategy exemplified by this January, 1915 ad found in “Good Housekeeping.” Leaning on their medical reputation, it read in part:

Lysol should be used regularly in your household, as it is in practically every hospital in the country. Disease finds it difficult to enter a house guarded by the Antiseptic, Disinfectant and Germicide, so much a favorite among physicians.

According to most internet sources, it was also in the early to mid-teens that Lehn & Fink acquired the rights to manufacture Lysol in the United States. Coincidently, in March, 1912 the company was planning a new six-story factory building on Sedgewick Street in Brooklyn. The announcement appeared in the March 22nd edition of the “Brooklyn Daily Eagle” under the heading:”New Buildings.”

Located along Brooklyn’s East River waterfront in the block between Sedgeick Street and Irving Street, the building was listed between 1913 and 1919 at 83 Sedgewick St. (sometimes 74 Irving St.). I suspect this is where Lysol was initially manufactured in the United States. In fact, according to the company’s anniversary booklet, “Fifty Years,” by the late teens all of the company’s manufacturing was being done in Brooklyn.

Lehn & Fink’s own manufacturing department was seized with growing pains. 120 William Street was devoted entirely to executive offices, stock rooms and shipping departments. In Brooklyn, N. Y., the laboratories and plant spread out and covered all the available ground and then began to grow up in the air. Wider sales of Lehn & Fink specialties constantly demanded increased production. New products were added to an already comprehensive list.

By the late teens that list of products included several under the Lysol name including toilet soap and shaving cream. Both were labeled as “new products” in this September, 1918 advertisement found in the “Journal of the American Pharmaceutical Association.”

The need for more space came to a head in 1920 at which time the company moved their laboratories and all of their manufacturing operations to Bloomfield, N. J. The move was announced in the April 20th edition of “The Practical Druggist.”

Increased business has again overtaken Lehn & Fink, Inc. A site of 20 acres, located on two trunk line railroads at Bloomfield, N. J. with ideal motor trucking facilities to New York and with convenient trolleys for Newark and other sections of New Jersey, was purchased when it became evident greatly augmented manufacturing facilities would soon be necessary.

Despite uncertain weather and building conditions, new ultra-modern manufacturing plants and laboratories were put up on this site during the winter and early spring. All departments of the plant, now in full operation, are directed by experts, while small electric trucks maintain continuous coordination between the departments.

During the same year the company moved their New York City operation to 636 Greenwich Street where it was located between Morton and Barrow Streets. The same April, 20th “Practical Druggist” story announced that move as well.

During the summer, Lehn & Fink’s executive offices, and stock rooms will be moved to the 170,000 square feet of floor space in a new steel and stone building at Greenwich, Morton, and Barrow Streets, New York City.

A fleet of motor trucks will operate between the Bloomfield plants and the New York building. Delivery delays will be eliminated by the scientific time saving plan of order filling which the great increase in space makes possible.

The building has also been designed to include everything possible for the comfort and health of employees.

The enthusiasm which is now radiating throughout the Lehn & Fink organization means that the public will get products of the highest and purest quality, delivered with a speed and precision in every way abreast of the times.

Both their New York and New Jersey facilities were pictured as part of a Lehn & Fink advertisement that appeared in several 1924 editions of “Hospital Management.”

In addition to geographical changes, the company’s growth brought about corporate changes as well. According to the 1946 tax court records:

As the business expanded, various subsidies were organized by Lehn & Fink, Inc., the first of which, Lysol, Inc. was incorporated in 1920 in Delaware to acquire control of the Lysol business throughout the world.

It was contemplated that Lehn & Fink, Inc. would continue the manufacture and sale of Lysol in the United States under a contract by the terms of which Lysol, Inc. employed Lehn & Fink, Inc., as its sole manufacturing and selling agent in the United States…

In 1924, another subsidiary, Pebeco, Inc. was established and a similar arrangement was made for the manufacture and sale of Pebeco Toothpaste after which, according to the tax court records:

the business of Lehn & Fink, Inc., had three aspects: (1) A wholesale business in pharmaceuticals and other items commonly carried by druggists; (2) the manufacture and sale of pharmaceuticals; and (3) the manufacture and sale of Lysol disinfectant and Pebco tooth paste…

At this point, with Albert Plaut’s son Edward, now serving as president, it was decided to make substantial changes in the business.

The 1946 tax court records went on to describe those changes.

The management decided to abandon the wholesale drug business and the manufacture of pharmaceuticals, and to devote the entire facilities of the business to the manufacture and sale of Lysol , Pebeco and such other nationally advertised and trade-marked products as it might thereafter acquire, the first of which was to be Hinds Honey & Almond Cream. The decision was motivated by a recognition on the part of the management that a single factory and laboratory staff, operating under a single executive and sales organization, could manufacture and market in the same trade channels three or more noncompetitive products more economically, and therefore more profitably, than the several products could be manufactured in separate plants and marketed by separate sales organizations.

This lead to the formation of the Lehn & Fink Products Company to serve as a holding company and acquire stock ownership of Lysol Inc., Pebeco, Inc. and the newly acquired A. S. Hinds Company. The prospectus appeared in several New York newspapers on August 4, 1925

Two days later, the August 6, 1925 edition of the “N.A.R.D. Journal” provided some additional information.

An event of unusual significance to the drug trade has been the formation during the past week of Lehn & Fink Products Company, a corporation organized to acquire all of the stock of A. S. Hinds Company, makers of “Hinds Honey and Almond Cream,” Portland Maine, and Lehn & Fink, Inc., New York, owners of the entire stock of Pebeco, Inc. and practically all the stock of Lysol, Inc.

Edward Plaut, who for the past five years has been president of Lehn & Fink, Inc., will be the managing head of the new company.

Lehn & Fink was founded fifty-one years ago… Since that time it has supplied the wholesale and retail drug trade throughout the United States with fine drugs and rare chemicals, and has proved an enormous source of new pharmaceutical and medicinal products. The two most widely known specialties of Lehn & Fink, Inc., are of course Pebeco Toothpaste and “Lysol” disinfectant. Lehn & Fink has been the sole distributor of these products for more than twenty years, and within the last ten years has acquired the entire ownership and trademarks of both.

Lehn & Fink Products Company will take over the splendid Lehn & Fink laboratories at Bloomfield, N. J. as its manufacturing plant. These modern laboratories among the finest in the country, are particularly well equipped to add the Hinds products to the L & F specialties already made there, and the actual transfer of operations from the Hinds plant to Bloomfield, N. J. will be accomplished practically without lost motion.

According to the March, 1927 edition of the “Glass Container” much of the plant space was devoted to “Lysol” and “Pebeco Tooth Paste.”

One wing of the plant is devoted to the manufacture and packing of Pebeco Tooth Paste, while another wing houses similar “Lysol” disinfectant operations. A large central wing is utilized for general manufacturing.

By 1927, according to Moody’s “Manual of Investments,” the plant in Bloomfield had grown to seven buildings covering seven acres of land and employed 400 people. Moody’s went on to make it clear the company’s products, including “Lysol” were being distributed world-wide.

Trade named products include “Pebeco Tooth Paste,” “Lysol Disinfectant” and other “Lysol” products, Hinds’ Honey and Almond Cream” and other “Hinds” products. Sale of products abroad is conducted through Lysol, Ltd., which manufactures and sells in United Kingdom, British Colonies and Japan and through German subsidiary, Schülke & Mayr, A. G. which handles continent of Europe, South America and Chinese business. Canadian business handled by Lehn & Fink, Canada, Ltd.

Throughout the early 1920’s Lysol Disinfectant continued to be touted primarily as a germ killer with their advertisements aimed at the housewife, as evidenced by this January 7, 1922 ad found in “The Saturday Evening Post.”

Later in the 1920’s, and certainly in the 1930’s and 1940’s, in addition to advertising it as a household disinfectant, it was also touted among other things as a cure for athlete’s foot…

…and as a feminine hygiene product.

In addition, the company wasn’t adverse to running focused advertisements in a specific geographic area that required clean-up after some sort of disaster. St. Louis, Missouri saw one such ad in early July, 1947 shortly after the Mississippi River overflowed its banks, flooding portions of the city.

In the late 1950’s and early 1960’s at least two new products emerged under the Lysol name. One, called Pine-Scented Lysol, was being advertised as early as 1957. This advertisement, one of the first I can find, ran in several west coast newspapers in November of that year.

Another was Lysol Spray Disinfectant. Advertisements for it, initially targeting boat owners, began appearing in Florida newspapers as early as the Fall of 1961. One, disguised as a newspaper article, appeared in the September 15th edition of Sarasota’s “The News.” It read, in part:

NEW SPRAY STOPS ODORS

Boat owners who despair at the amount of damage caused by mildew and suffer from unpleasant musty odors will be glad to know that there is a new product just being introduced which will render effective aid against these problems.

In a bright aqua and gold foil aerosol container, Lysol Spray Disinfectant not only counteracts destructive mildew but is also effective against germ-caused odors…

This early advertisement for their new spray appeared in several November, 1961 editions of Jacksonville’s “Florida Times-Union.”

In the meantime, over the course of the 1940’s and 1950’s the company added manufacturing facilities in Lincoln, Illinois and Toledo, Ohio. The October 11, 1947 edition of a Bloomington, Illinois newspaper called “The Pantograph” announced the opening of the new factory in Lincoln.

Official opening of Lincoln’s newest industrial development, the huge new plant of Lehn & Fink Products Corp., manufacturers and distributors of drugs and cosmetics was held Friday afternoon.

Edward Plaut, the New York City president of the company, headed a delegation of officials of the company from the East.

The plant located on Limit Street on the east side of Lincoln is said to be one of the largest in the country devoted to drug and cosmetic manufacturing. It consists of a main factory of modern, single-story design, together with a two story office building.

When in full operation the plant will employ 400 in the manufacture of the company’s various products which include Lysol disinfectant, Hinds honey and almond fragrance creams, Etiquet deodorant, Pebeco tooth paste and powder and the Tussy and Dorothy Gray lines of cosmetics.

Main offices of the corporation are in New York City. The Lincoln plant will augment the production of the company’s only other domestic manufacturing plant at Bloomfield, N. J.

In Toledo, Ohio they acquired and expanded the National Laboratories, Inc. facility there. The acquisition was announced in the September 23, 1957 edition of “The Blade.”

Sale of National Laboratories Inc. of Toledo to Lehn & Fink Products Corp., New York has been completed… National Laboratories will retain its present name, but will be incorporated as a Delaware corporation. It will operate as an independent subsidiary, one of 16 such Lehn & Fink units throughout the world.

Plans are under way for sizable future expansion of National Laboratories’ operations in Toledo, officials said. The company is in the process of constructing a plant addition, modernizing offices and more than doubling the size of laboratory research facilities.

Both factories were certainly needed when in 1963 it was announced that Lehn & Fink was closing their Bloomfield, New Jersey plant after 40+ years. The announcement, made by Edward Plaut’s son, Walter N. Plaut, who had taken over as president of the firm in November, 1960, appeared in the May 29, 1963 edition of Passaic New Jersey’s “Herald-News.”

Walter N. Plaut, president of Lehn & Fink Products Corp., announced plans to relocate the company’s Bloomfield plant in connection with a reorganization of company facilities. He said the move represented one part of an over-all program aimed at providing expanded, modern facilities for manufacturing and packaging operations. Discussions on these plans are being held with employee representatives.

It is expected that the manufacturing and packaging operations now conducted in Bloomfield at 192 Bloomfield Ave. will be moved to other locations. The company now maintains plants and warehouses in Toledo Ohio; Lincoln Ill.; Los Angeles, San Francisco and several other locations.

The plan would call for gradual discontinuance of operations over a period of about six months… Offices and research laboratories now in Bloomfield may be moved to more modern quarters in the general vicinity.

The following year the October 1, 1964 edition of the “Herald News” announced that the plant was closed and the property had been sold.

Lehn & Fink Products Corp. sold to Leonard N. Stern a complex of buildings on a 10-acre site in Bloomfield it was announced yesterday…

Lehn & Fink recently closed a manufacturing plant which it had maintained there and moved its operations to Lincoln Ill. It will maintain a research laboratory and office staff in the buildings and will continue to do so under a short-time lease with the purchaser…

Though Lehn & Fink had closed their Bloomfield manufacturing plant it soon became apparent they weren’t abandoning New Jersey altogether when, a month later the company announced they were building what would become their world headquarters there. The announcement appeared in the October 28, 1964 edition of the “Herald-News.”

Lehn & Fink Products Corp. has purchased approximately 35 acres of land in Montvale, N. J., to build a research laboratory and office building, Walter N. Plaut, president, announced yesterday.

The new facilities will be located on Summit Avenue, approximately one quarter of a mile west of Garden State Parkway near Exit 172.

In addition to research facilities, the buildings when completed in about 18 months, will house the corporate headquarters, the international division and the consumer products division which markets the Dorothy Gray and Tussy lines of cosmetics and skin care products, and the products of the L & F division which includes Lysol brand disinfectant, Lysol spray, Medi-Quick first-aid spray, Stri-Dex medicated pads and Noreen hair coloring products.

The company also operates manufacturing plants in Lincoln, Ill. and Toledo, Ohio and warehouses in Clifton, N.J., Lincoln and Los Angeles, as well as foreign plants in Hamburg, London, Milan, Toronto, Buenos Aires Argentina and Montevideo.

While the new facility was still under construction, the May 12, 1966 edition of “The Hackensack Record” announced that Lehn and Fink had merged with Sterling Drug, Inc.

MERGER SIGNED BY LEHN & FINK

Sterling Drug Inc. and Lehn & Fink Products Corporation have signed a joint agreement of merger, according to a joint announcement by Dr. J. Mark Hiebert, chairman of the board of Sterling and Walter N. Plaut, of Lehn & Fink. Lehn & Fink is building its headquarters in Montvale, N. J…

Under terms of the merger agreement, Lehn & Fink will be merged into Sterling, and Sterling will be the surviving corporation…Upon approval, the merger is expected to become effective June 30…

Lehn & Fink, now operating as a division of Sterting Drug, opened their new world headquarters in Montvale in September, 1966. The September 13th edition of “The Hackensack Record” covered the opening.

The gleaming new multi-million dollar headquarters of Lehn & Fink Products, the $75 million manufacturer of consumer and industrial products, was dedicated here today before 700 employees and invited guests…

James W. Newman, senior vice-president, said Lehn & Fink had consolidated its administrative, marketing and research organizations in order to place the principal creative functions under one roof and thus to achieve more efficient coordination of operations…

The story described the new facility as a 2-story, 100,000 square foot Y-shaped building on a plot of 35 acres, and included the following photograph.

As far as I can tell, at some point the company also re-established a manufacturing facility in New Jersey in Belle Meade.

An unscientific review of their newspaper advertisements suggests that sometime in the late 1960’s, while early in their tenure with Sterling Drug, Lehn & Fink added several more products under the “Lysol” name. These included the “Basin Tub and Tile Cleaner,” “Toilet Bowl Cleaner,” and “Deodorizing Cleaner,” all of which are pictured together with “Lysol Disinfectant” and “Lysol Spray” in this 1975 advertisement published in the “Ottawa Citizen.”

In January, 1988, Sterling Drug was acquired by Eastman Kodak Co. for $5.1 billion. Later that year a story in the August 18, 1988 edition of Rochester, New York’s “Democrat and Chronicle” announced that Lehn & Fink would continue as part of Kodak.

Eastman Kodak Co., heeding the advice of 26 internal task forces and disregarding Wall Street’s has decided to keep Sterling Drug’s L:ehn & Fink household products business.

Kay R. Whitmore, president of Kodak, told Lehn & Fink managers yesterday, in Montvale, N. J., that even though Kodak has had inquiries from would-be buyers, Lehn & Fink is too good a business for Kodak to lose.

That conclusion was reached, he said, after Kodak/Lehn & Fink teams reviewed 26 different aspects of Lehn & Fink to see if the business would be helped by being part of Kodak.

Some investors and Wall Street analysts had hoped Kodak would sell Lehn & Fink in order to reduce the debt it took on to finance the $5.1 billion Sterling purchase.”

Six years later, Kodak did sell Lehn & Fink which by then was simply called L & F Products. The sale was reported in Newark’s “Star Ledger” on September 27, 1994

Eastman Kodak Co. yesterday said it will sell the household product business of a New Jersey-based unit for $1.6 billion

Kodak said it will sell the $800 million household goods business of L&F Products to Rickett & Coleman, the London based maker of Woolite. The L&F operations included in the deal are best known for producing Lysol and Mop & Glo.

L&F, once known as Lehn & Fink, employs about 900 in New Jersey as part of its 2,400 person work force. About 640 people work at the Montvale headquarters and technical center – an additional 260 at a manufacturing and distribution plant in Belle Mead.

Eastman Kodak of Rochester N.Y., said it is divesting the L&F units as part of a strategy to return to its core imaging business… Reckitt & Coleman spokesman David Saltmarsh said the acquisition of L&F would increase his company’s foothold in the U.S market…

L&F’s manufactured-in-New Jersey products include Lysol disinfectants and cleaners, Resolve carpet and fabric cleaners, Mop & Glow and Beacon floor waxes, Chubs and Diapering baby wipes, Vanisol bathroom cleaner and Wet Ones moist towelettes. The products are sold in 37 countries.

Today Rickett continues to make products under the Lysol brand name with their marketing message relatively unchanged from 100 years ago.

Each of the eight subject bottles that were found is 4-inches tall; 1-1/2-inches in diameter and contains about 4-ounces. It exhibits 3 horizontal measurement lines, so it contains 4- 2 quart doses. According to the 1922 advertisement mentioned at the beginning of this post, that makes it the 25c size.

One bottle is embossed with the corporate name “Lysol, Inc.” and the Bloomfield N. J. location on its base. It also exhibits what is almost certainly the maker’s mark of the Owens Bottle Company, consisting of the letter “O” inside a square that was in use between 1919 and 1929. Recognizing that Lysol, Inc. was established in 1920 and the company moved to New Jersey the same year, puts the approximate date of the bottle between 1920 and 1929.

Another bottle includes the embossed location of “New York” along with the company name of Lysol, Inc. on its embossed base. It also exhibits what appears to be the maker’s mark of the Illinois Glass Company, consisting of an “I” inside a diamond that was in use from 1915 – 1929. So this bottle dates to the same time frame, from 1920 when Lysol, Inc. was incorporated up through 1929.

The others are simply embossed on the base with the words “Bottle Made in U S A.”

That being said, I suspect they date to the 1920’s as well. By 1930 advertisements began to picture a different style bottle, one with “Lysol” written horizontally near the shoulder.

An example of this later bottle type recently appeared for sale on the internet.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hires went on to say:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

According to the fine print below the price list.

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

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

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

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

A FAMOUS DRINK

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A ROOT BEER BOOM

A Largely Capitalized Company to Do Business in This City

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

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

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

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

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

Hires went on to say:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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