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Strawberry Soda water and draft beer were two of the beverages bottled in Brunswick, Georgia in the nineteenth century.  Shown above are the original bottles used by Oglethorpe Bottling Works and Robert S. Grier in the 1880’s.  The contents are modern.

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FORWARD

               This book was written for those people who share my interest in small scale nineteenth century soda and beer bottling. Inspired by this subject, I gathered information from historic maps, newspapers, city directories, U. S. Census records, U. S. Patents and court house documents in order to recreate what beverage bottling was like in Brunswick, Georgia, a small southern seaport. The few excavations conducted were in connection with the archaeology classes I taught at McIntosh County Academy in 1998 and 1999. The students participated in archaeological field work, analyzed the artifacts and presented their interpretations in triptych public displays. This book focuses on what I discovered about those early bottler’s lives and their businesses. Within its more than sixty pages of content, this book features twenty-one color photographs, twenty-seven illustrations, twelve historic maps and forty-one line drawings that depict all known types of soda and beer bottles embossed with the name of a Brunswick bottler. A bottle rarity guide is also provided in an appendix.
               In the nineteenth century some of Georgia’s cities and towns, such as Brunswick, had businesses that formulated, mixed and bottled their own flavors of soda water. The technology that was available at the time allowed this beverage to be manufactured and bottled on a small scale. Often, the back room in a grocery store provided sufficient space for the necessary soda equipment. My maternal grandmother told me tales of bottling soda at her father’s general store in West Point, Georgia. Unlike beer that was sterilized by heat during the brewing process, soda water was sometimes made with poor quality shallow well water. Furthermore, microbial contamination could occur during production, bottling and even storage in bottles whose design allowed dust, dirt and pest filth to collect in their necks. However crude its method of production may have been, soda water bottling was a thriving business in Brunswick by the 1880s.
               While soda bottling was getting started in Brunswick, some of the local saloon and liquor merchants were purchasing beer by the keg for retail distribution. Most of the beer came from distant Midwestern brewers, who delivered it directly to Brunswick in refrigerated rail road cars and, for a few short years, a local brewery. These kegs were tapped in the merchant’s place of business, and the contents were sold by the mug or bottled for distribution throughout the community. These businesses were identified by the glass bottles that bear the proprietors’ names, Sanborn maps and Brunswick Directories.
               During this same period of time, there were over two thousand breweries in the United States. However, the largest Midwestern breweries had begun to edge many of their small competitors out of the market. Companies such as Pabst, Anheuser Busch and Schlitz used methods that were the brewer’s equivalent of mass-production. Furthermore, the newly implemented process of pasteurization helped extend the shelf life of bottled beer, making storage and transportation to distant markets feasible. These large breweries were able to produce and market palatable beers that were consistent in quality. In contrast to their Midwestern counterparts, many of the small scale southern breweries used techniques that favored using numerous small batches in order to achieve the

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volume of production they desired. Needless to say, their beers were far less uniform than those produced by their Midwestern competitors. For a brief period of time, Brunswick was the home of such a brewery. Its advertised annual 50,000 barrel production, a volume they probably never achieved, was only one-twentieth of the capacity of the contemporary Pabst brewery in Milwaukee. A detailed historic map and a document found in the Glynn County Courthouse provided a wealth of information about this small town brewery.
               Today there is a growing interest in embossed nineteenth century soda and beer bottles. The main reason for this interest is the fact that these bottles were manufactured by one of the last American industries to produce hand crafted items employing artisan-like skills. Furthermore, in the vast majority of cases, glass bottles are the only surviving tangible remains of the businesses they represented.
               The viewer should be aware that the CD version of this book provides two important features. The first is the “go to” button under “edit.” This provides an easy way to navigate from one page to another. The second feature is the “zoom” window in the tool bar. This allows photographs and illustrations to be viewed at higher magnification. All of these should be viewed at 150-200%.
               The primary sources of information used for this book were:

Newspapers:
Brunswick Daily Advertiser and Appeal (March, 1875-November, 1889)
Brunswick Times Advertiser (January, 1894-November, 1896)
Brunswick Call (May, 1896-March, 1901)

City Directories:
Brunswick City Directory (1890)
Howard’s Directory of Brunswick, Darien, St Simon and St. Mary’s (1892)
Vance’s Brunswick and St Simon Consolidated Business and Partnership Directory (1896)
Due to the length of the directory titles they are referenced in the text with the generic term “Brunswick city directory.”

Maps:
Brunswick, Georgia Sanborn Map and Publishing Co. April, 1885
Brunswick, Georgia Sanborn Map & Publishing Co. Limited May, 1889
Brunswick, Georgia Glynn Co. Sanborn-Perris Map Co. Limited April, 1893
Brunswick, Georgia Glynn Co. Sanborn-Perris map Co. Limited July, 1898
Columbus, Georgia Sanborn Map & Publishing Co. February, 1885
Columbus, Georgia and Environs Sanborn-Perris Map Co. Limited Sept 1895
Due to the length of the map titles they are referenced in the text with the generic term “Sanborn map.”

F.C.C. 2012

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

FRONTISPIECE: Oglethorpe Bottling Works and Robert S. Grier

Bottles……………………………………..............................................……………………………….. ii

FORWARD.…………………………..............................................…………………………………… iii

CHAPTER ONE: Brunswick, Georgia, Early History and the Roots of Its Bottling Industry..............1

CHAPTER TWO: The History and Technology of Soda Water and Beer.............................................4
                    Part One-Soda.................................................................................... 4
                    Part Two- Beer……………………………………………………... 8
                    Part Three- Bottles…………………………………………………. 10

CHAPTER THREE: Brunswick’s Nineteenth Century Soda Bottlers...................................................16
                    Brunswick Bottling Works………………………………………… 16
                    Oglethorpe Bottling Works………………………………………… 16
                    Brunswick Brewing & Ice Company……………………………….. 20
                    T. B. Ferguson…………………………………………………….. 21
                    C. O. Marlin & Company………………………………………….. 31
                    William B. Gunby…………………………………………………... 32
                    Acme Bottling Works………………………………………………. 32
                    L. Markowitz………………………………………………………. 32

CHAPTER FOUR: Brunswick’s Early Twentieth Century Soda Bottlers..............................................36
                    Louis Ludwig………………………………………………………. 36
                    Cline & Ludwig……………………………………………………. 36
                    Brunswick Bottling & Manufacturing Company…………………...... 37
                    Brunswick Coca-Cola Company………………………………...… 38

CHAPTER FIVE: Brunswick’s Nineteenth Century Beer Bottlers….....................................................39
                    Benjamin Hirsch…………………………………………………….. 39
                    Robert S. Grier……………………………………………………… 43
                    Newman & Grier……………………………………………………. 46
                    Tobias Newman……………………………………………………... 47
                    Charles Freund Agt………………………………………………….. 53
                    Brunswick Brewing & Ice Company……………………………….… 54

Appendix 1- Bottle Rarity Guide……………...............................................…………………………… 65

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CHAPTER ONE—BRUNSWICK, GEORGIA, EARLY HISTORY AND  THE ROOTS OF ITS BOTTLING INDUSTRY

The harbor town of Brunswick, Georgia in 1857.

The town of Brunswick was established in the eighteenth century as a small sea port on the southern Georgia Coast.  Its location on the western side of a flat forested peninsula provided its harbored vessels with excellent protection from storms.  In its recorded history, Brunswick has experienced only one hurricane causing major damage.

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               The Brunswick peninsula was first inhabited by prehistoric Indians, who occupied the area intermittently from about 8,000 B. C. until the sixteenth century.  The Native Americans were attracted to the peninsula by the prolific acorn crops of its Live Oak forests and ideal access to Turtle River and its tributaries.  These waters provided, in abundance, the fish, oysters and clams that were also important to the Indians’ diet.  Archaeological surveys of the Brunswick peninsula indicate that the main Indian occupation occurred there between 600 and 1400 A. D.  By the middle 1500s, the Native Americans of coastal Georgia were suffering from European born diseases and subjugation.  Indians in the Brunswick area responded to these conditions by withdrawing to mission sites on Cumberland Island.  There is no evidence to indicate that the Brunswick peninsula was occupied for the next two hundred years.  Then, after almost two centuries of abandonment, the area was repopulated in the 1730s by the famous settler Mark Carr and his family.  Carr, who had his principal plantation on the Brunswick peninsula, helped General James Oglethorpe fend off Spanish attacks launched from northeast Florida.
               The town of Brunswick was formally founded in 1771 and it grew slowly for the next one half century.  By the second quarter of the nineteenth century, Brunswick was enjoying a period of prosperity.  However, the economic depression of 1839 terminated its growth for over a decade.  About 1850 another period of economic prosperity began.  This new period of economic success was based on shipping commerce, which continued to increase for another decade.  Brunswick became more populous during this time and it was incorporated in 1856.  James T. Lloyd’s Railroad Map of the Southeastern States shows that Brunswick had a railroad line by at least 1862.
               Because of it’s proximity to the Federal blockading fleet and the Union troops that occupied nearby St. Simons Island, Brunswick’s inhabitants fled to the interior during the early stages of the Civil War.  When the citizens returned in 1865, they found the town dilapidated, but otherwise intact.  Aided by northern entrepreneurs, Brunswick’s citizens immediately began a period of rebuilding.  The economic success that followed was based largely on the lumber and naval stores industries.  The northern entrepreneurs that had moved to Brunswick in the decade following the Civil War provided the money and jobs that were needed for the town’s economic revitalization.  For example, my great-grandfather, John R. Cook, moved south from Massachusetts with his younger brother in 1866 and chartered a lumber business on the Brunswick waterfront.  John and George Cook chose Brunswick as a place to establish their lumber business for several apparent reasons.  First, Brunswick was conveniently close to the vast stands of virgin yellow pine that sprawled across millions of acres of the coastal plain.  Secondly, unlike Darien, its sister city to the north, Brunswick had suffered few reprisals from Union troops during the war.  Consequently, the animosity felt by many southerners toward the North at the close of the war was not strong in Brunswick.  With many of its homes and businesses intact, Brunswick was physically prepared to resume normal activity in 1866.  Brunswick’s citizens were eager for employment and they welcomed northern entrepreneurs with open arms.  By 1870, so many northern businessmen lived on Union Street that the native residents called the area “Yankee Ville.”  In 1885 the population of Brunswick was 5,000.  However, four years later the population had skyrocketed to 9,800.  Local newspapers documented the town’s growth with a variety of articles and short business clips.  Foremost in the business increase, were immense shipments of sawn

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timber.  For example, during the months of May and June 1877 over 2,000,000 board feet of lumber were shipped from Cook Brothers & Company alone.  The good economy with its positive cash flow created a new consumer market, which resulted in a variety of small retail businesses sprouting up all over town.  The people that worked in Brunswick could afford luxuries unheard of in previous years.  Included in the list of newly affordable goods were cold beverages that quenched a worker’s thirst during and after a hard day’s work in the hot southern sun.  In the early 1880’s local newspapers carried advertisements for “ice cold soda water” sold “by the glass” at local drug stores.  However, the consumption habits of people were changing.  Soda water and beer, which had previously been drawn into a glass or mug, were being taken home in bottles.  Savannah bottlers, such as James Ray, Henry Kuck, Henry Lubs, and John Ryan actively competed for the Brunswick market in the 1870s and 1880s (see page 64).  Unfortunately for them, their beverages came in return bottles which bore the cost of two way shipment.  By the middle 1880s the expense of supplying a town 70 miles away was too much for the Savannah bottlers to bear.  Their withdrawal from the beverage market created an incentive for local bottling companies to appear.

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CHAPTER TWO—THE HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY OF SODA WATER AND BEER

PART ONE—SODA WATER

               In the early nineteenth century soda water was only one of many different varieties of naturally occurring spring water known as “mineral water.”  Coming from freely flowing springs, mineral waters contained small amounts of various mineral compounds, such as Magnesium, lithium, and potassium chlorides, hydrogen sulfide (sulfur), and carbon dioxide that gave them a distinctive taste.  It was commonly believed that most types of mineral water had the ability to impart good health when consumed or bathed in.  Springs in different locations had different chemical compositions and presumably, different health benefits.  By the 1820’s many of the major springs, particularly those around Saratoga, New York, had been commercialized with the construction of bathing facilities and hotels.  With an eager eye for business, owners began bottling their spring water and shipping it to distant locations.  Probably, the most popular water was that bottled at the Congress Spring in New York.  Congress Spring water bottles are found throughout the eastern United States.  Beyond its purported healthy qualities, spring water containing carbon dioxide was especially tasty when small amounts of fruit juice or other flavorings were added to it.  So great was the demand for this modified “mineral water” that southern entrepreneurs began to manufacture it from ordinary well water.  This was accomplished by dissolving artificially produced carbon dioxide gas in cool water.  The concentration of carbon dioxide in the artificial “mineral water” could be much greater than in the natural variety.  In the artificial mineral water, the gas would fizz quickly out of solution unless it was sealed under pressure in a bottle.  The fact that traditional glass bottles would burst from the increased pressure, led to the development of smaller glass bottles with thicker walls.  In the two decades before the civil war, “mineral waters,” particularly the “carbonic” (carbon dioxide) type, became increasingly popular and all major cities in the eastern United States had “mineral water” bottlers.  These bottlers often advertised their product with colorful bottles embossed with their name.

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Shown on the preceding page is a cobalt blue “JOHN RYAN EXCELSIOR MINERAL WATER” bottle from nearby Savannah, Georgia, that dates to about 1855.  The same embossing and a reminder that “THIS BOTTLE IS NEVER SOLD” provided some degree of assurance that these relatively expensive bottles would find their way back to the bottler for refilling.
               By the 1850’s, the specific term “soda water” began to replace the more general term, “mineral water.”  The new name was derived from the chemical process by which carbon dioxide was commonly manufactured.  Today, every school child knows that you can make a model volcano erupt, that is fizz, by pouring vinegar (a weak liquid acid) onto baking soda (sodium bicarbonate, a solid source of carbon dioxide gas) in its central crater.  Thus, the term “soda” in “soda water” is a derivative of the principal element’s name, “sodium.”  So, one way of making soda water is to create carbon dioxide gas from baking soda and an acid and then force the gas to flow into cool water where it will dissolve; thus forming carbonated water.  Even on a commercial scale, the production of carbon dioxide is quite simple.  Allow an acid substance to react with a solid compound containing carbon dioxide (these compounds are called carbonates).  However, a technological problem arises when certain chemicals are used.  For example, when a cheap strong acid, such as sulfuric acid, is poured onto sodium bicarbonate or sodium carbonate, the carbon dioxide gas is evolved in a rapid and uncontrolled way.  In a sealed container, the gas does not have time to dissolve in the water to be carbonated and a dangerously high pressure results.  Early soda machine inventors were well aware of the fact that excessive pressure could burst the carbonating vessel.
               Patents registered with the United States Patent Office are good sources of information about devices that were used in the nineteenth century to produce artificial soda water.  They provide us with a time line of technology that was available to bottlers.  However, in using this information to interpret nineteenth century technology, one must understand that the time between the filing of a patent and the actual availability of the device patented could have ranged from a few months to a number of years.  Also, machines that were cheap and effective could have remained on the market and/or in use for years or even decades.
               The first soda machines were relatively simple, but inherent in most designs was a way to deal with the problem of rapid gas evolution.  One soda machine, invented by E.D. Wheeler of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, patented in 1858, considered this problem paramount in its design (See illustration below).  Wheeler stated that, “The object of my invention is so to charge the generator with the substances producing the carbonic acid gas, that the gas shall be slowly and progressively evolved…”  Wheeler further testified that, “This mode of charging prevents the rapid generation of gas which takes place under the ordinary method, and thus relieves the apparatus from the undue pressure of such rapid generation.”  His device, shown below, presumably accomplished the advertised safe generation of gas by enclosing the charge, sodium carbonate and tartaric acid (a solid acid that requires water to react), in a cloth bag (A).  The reaction between these two substances was controlled by the slow absorption of water by the cloth bag.  The carbon dioxide produced by the reaction passed upward and then down through a pipe (P') into the main body of the apparatus.  The lower part of the pipe had perforations that were designed to distribute the gas evenly into the water to be carbonated (F).  Wheeler’s patent included directions on how to modify the generator to use more volatile,

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but less expensive, marble dust (calcium carbonate) and sulfuric acid (battery acid) as reactants.
               Another small, but more complicated, generator was patented by Hermann Pietsch of Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1874 (see illustration below).  His device controlled the production of carbon dioxide by allowing gas pressure to stretch the rubber top of the generator and simultaneously push the main body of the vessel (D) downward against a spring.  This movement lowered the acid away from the marble chips (C) upon which it reacted.  The carbon dioxide gas could be drawn off periodically at valve P and piped to another vessel containing the water to be carbonated.  As the gas was drawn off at valve P, the pressure in the generator decreased and allowed the spring the move the acid upward where it would again react with the marble chips.  The pressure in the reactor could be controlled at a safe level by adjusting the spring’s tension.  Vessel W was a scrubber or washer that removed unwanted acid mist from the gas.

        
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               Both of the machines shown above were small units, simple to operate and relatively inexpensive; therefore, ideal for a grocer or independent small scale bottler, who did not want to make a large capital investment. Wheeler advertised his machine as being suitable for “home use.”  The cost necessary to establish a small home based soda

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water business was incredibly low.  In 1891, T.B. Ferguson purchased a soda machine, one lot of bottles, including seltzer siphons and a wagon, horse and harness for only 720 dollars (see page 22).
               Patented in 1891, J.F. Wittemann’s design, shown below, was larger, complicated and more suitable for use by large scale bottling plants.   Due to its complexity, its method of operation will not be discussed here.
               It is interesting to note, that by the late 1880’s most of the new carbonator patent designs employed the use of a cylinder of compressed carbon dioxide gas.  People were not submitting as many designs for machines that made their own carbon dioxide gas with sulfuric acid and other dangerous chemicals.  Shown below is a carbonator design patented by P.E. Malmstrom in 1892.  His device used a cylinder of compressed carbon dioxide gas to produce soda water.  This machine was relatively uncomplicated and it produced a soda water solution by simply moving a handle back and forth.  In using this machine, the compressed carbon dioxide cylinder valve (B) was opened, allowing the gas to flow to a double valve (H/I).  The double valve could be positioned so as to allow the gas to enter vessel R or S, both of which contained water.  As the gas began to dissolve in the water, manipulation of valve/s H/I made the solution flow back and forth from vessel to vessel through tube T.  The direction of the flow was determined by the position of the valve/s.  Malstrom claimed that by “alternating the valves H, I a sufficient number of times the water is thoroughly agitated and impregnated by the carbonic acid".

                              
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               The wide variety of soda machine patents issued in the late nineteenth century leaves us to wonder which designs were popular with small town bottlers.  Several factors contributed to their choice.  One is the availability and cost of compressed carbon dioxide gas.  In order for this gas to be efficiently transported, it had to be compressed to such a degree that it became a liquid.  In this form it must be kept in a steel cylinder at a pressure of several thousand pounds per square inch.  The machinery necessary to produce large quantities of gas and to compress it to such a high pressure was found only in large industrial cities, particularly those in the north.  The cost of the gas was high and the heavy cylinders were expensive to rent and ship.  These costs kept such modern technology out of the hands of many small scale bottlers for years.  Small soda-acid machines were much more economical than machines that required compressed gas.  Another factor that favored the continued use of soda-acid machines was their availability.  When a bottler changed his business interests, he would sell his equipment and/or bottles to another individual at a bargain price (see pages 27 and 30).

PART TWO—BEER

               For many centuries beer has been brewed using the same basic ingredients and procedures.  The equipment used in brewing is similar, irregardless of whether the scale is large or small.  In this discussion of the brewing process, reference will be made to the map of Brunswick Brewing & Ice Company shown on page 56 and the equipment that it contained as listed on pages 58-61.
               The key ingredient in the brewing process is barley grain which has been “malted” by allowing it to soak briefly in water.  During this process the barley grains begin to sprout or “germinate”.  When the sprout reaches a certain length, the germinating process is stopped by drying the grains in a heated chamber.  Certain enzymes formed during germination have the ability to convert starches in the seed into sugars, such as maltose, that can be fermented into alcohol.  Being a somewhat small scale brewery, Brunswick Brewing & Ice Company purchased “malt” as opposed to un-malted grain (see advertisement on page 57).  This allowed them to simplify brewing by avoiding the malting process and its associated equipment.  Therefore, at this facility, the first processing step was to grind the malted grain into smaller pieces, called “grist,” and separate them from the seed husk.  Malted grain was delivered to the BREWERY (page 56 map reference) also called the BREWING HOUSE (page 58 document reference) building via the side track of the East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railroad.  Two elevators and conveyors raised the malt to the fourth floor of the BREWERY where it was stored (see Map on page 56 and line 31 on page 58).  The “mill” shown on the second floor of the BREWERY (see pages 55 and line 3 on page 59) was the machine used to grind the malted grain.  The resulting grist was then weighed, probably with the “large scale,” referred to in line 31 on page 58, and then transferred to a large copper vat called a “mash tun” where it was mixed with warm water.  In this case the “mash tun” was on the third floor of the BREWERY (page 55).  In the mash tun, water heated to 120-160 degrees Fahrenheit caused the enzymes to reactivate.  During this process, called “mashing,” the reactivated enzymes break down most of the seed’s starch into fermentable sugars.  Additional starchy grains, such as corn grist, called “adjuncts” may have been added during mashing.  The use of adjuncts in brewing was an American

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innovation that provided an economical way to increase the percentage of fermentable sugars in the filtered liquid.  However, the use of adjuncts is still literally “against the law” in Germany.  Brunswick Brewing & Ice’s advertisement of German style beers leaves us to wonder if they used adjuncts in their brewing process.  After the mashing process was completed, the enzyme activity was halted by heating the mixture to 175 degrees Fahrenheit.  The sugary liquid was then strained from the remaining solid mass in a process called “lautering".  The mash tun was equipped with some sort of “false bottom” that contained perforations that acted like a strainer.  The grain husks formed a natural filter bed that assists in the straining process and a clear liquid called “wort” (pronounced wurt) flowed from the bottom of the vessel.  The “low bottoms” referred to in line ten on page 60 were probably false bottoms.  In a process called “sparging,” hot water is sprinkled over the spent solids in the mash tun.  This process recovers the last traces of sugary liquid from the wort.  The copper sprinklers referred to on line eleven of page 60 were probably used for sparging.  After lautering, the wort was moved to another vessel called the” brew kettle” where it was heated to boiling.  At Brunswick Brewing & Ice Company, this vessel was also located on the third floor of the BREWERY.  Carefully weighed hops were added during the boiling process.  The scales referred to in line three on page 60 was likely used for weighing hops.  The resins extracted from the hops helped to preserve the finished beer and add bitterness that off set the sweetness of any remaining unfermented sugars.  The brew kettle at this facility was probably heated with steam produced by two 100 horsepower boilers positioned at the north end of the ICE MACHINE & DYNAMO room (page 56).  For lager type fermentation, the hot wort must be cooled to a temperature of about 45 degrees Fahrenheit.  This was accomplished at the local brewery with a large copper cooler supplied with refrigerated water from the ice plant (page 56).  In the traditional process, the wort flows to a “pitch kettle” (page 56 building No. 4 and line thirty-two on page 59) where it is thoroughly aerated before yeast is “pitched” (added with stirring).  At this stage of fermentation the yeast requires oxygen for proper growth.  The “air pump” (line thirteen on page 59) and “pitching machine” (line thirty-two on page 59) were used to aerate and mix the wort with yeast.  At Brunswick Brewing & Ice Company, the pitch kettle was in a different building and it is likely that the wort flowed by gravity, possibly through the 100 feet of large copper pipe referred to in line seven on page 60.  Once yeast was added to the chilled wort, active fermentation began.  The beers produced at Brunswick Brewing & Ice Company were made with a bottom fermenting yeast that produced lager style beer.  During the fermentation process, the main part of which requires two or three weeks, the fermenting mixture must be kept in a cooled vessel that excluded air.  The introduction of oxygen from air would cause spoilage of the finished beer.  Fermentation produced carbon dioxide gas which was recovered, stored and used later to carbonate the beer.  The fermentation at Brunswick Brewing & Ice Company was carried out in one or more of the 1000-1200 barrel tubs mentioned in line twenty-six on page 59.  The design of these tubs in not apparent, but they must have had some sort of lid with piping to remove the carbon dioxide gas and exclude air.  After initial fermentation, the resulting “green beer” is stored in a cold environment for a month or more until it becomes adequately aged.  Storage at the local brewery may have been accomplished in the many various sized casks listed in line twenty-six on page 59.  Either of the “Cold Storage” buildings shown on page 56 could have been used to house the casks of aging beer.  By the latter part of

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the nineteenth century various filtering devices were invented that “brightened” the finished beer by removing small particles of sediment.  One such device, invented by Otto Zwietusch, was used at the Brunswick Brewing & Ice Company facility (see illustration below and line seventeen on page 59).  Although this device was patented in 1895, it is perfectly conceivable that it was in use earlier.  Even modern devices are sometimes identified with “patent applied for”, a term that indicates they were marketed before a patent was actually granted.

After “brightening,” the beer was sent to the bottling house where it was pumped into wooden kegs or glass bottles.  The “100 brass spigots and 100 valves” mentioned in line 21 of page 59 probably accompanied the kegs to their retail destination.  Barreled and bottled beer was hauled by wagon to the Brunswick Brewing & Ice Company’s distribution center at 202 Bay Street (See map on page 41).

PART THREE—BOTTLES

               This section presents a description of the types of soda and beer bottles that were used in Brunswick in the nineteenth century.  In general, these represent the most common types of contemporary soda and beer bottles in use in the southeastern United States.
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Blob top soda bottles—Blob top soda bottles were in use as early as the 1830’s in Charleston, South Carolina.  These bottles were designed to withstand the physical rigors of being repeatedly filled, emptied and returned to the bottler (see page 4).  Consequently,

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they were made with a thick glass body to which an even thicker glass “blob” top was fitted in a molten state (such tops are said to be “applied”).  By the late 1880's improvements in glass technology allowed the entire bottle to be molded in one operation.  However, the sturdy blob top shape was retained.  Soda bottles usually had a capacity of 8-10 fluid ounces.  Because blob top soda bottles and their associated technology were still being used in the first decade of the twentieth century, those bottlers and their bottles are included in a special early twentieth century section.

Click image for larger picture

Type 1—Blob top soda bottles with Putnam closures—The first blob top bottles were closed with a cork stopper that was held in place by a thin copper wire.  The wire was necessary to secure the cork against pressure generated by the carbonic gas (carbon dioxide) dissolved in the soda water.  However, twisting the wire into place was a cumbersome and time consuming task.  In 1859 Henry Putnam of Cleveland, Ohio invented an improved design that became the most popular closure for the next 25 years.  Henry’s description of the closure verifies its convenience and ease of operation:  “Whenever it is desirable to uncork a bottle, the thumbs are placed upon the sides AA and the fastener shoved from off the top of the cork, which is instantly forced out of the bottle by the expanding gas.”
               Although there are no known examples of this type of bottle embossed with “Brunswick, Georgia", at least one Brunswick bottler purchased, for his own use, retired blob top bottles with Putnam closures from northern and Midwestern companies (see page 24).

Type 2—Blob top round bottomed bottles—Sometimes called “torpedo” or “ballast” bottles, these glass containers differed from the traditional cylindrical shape by having thick round bottoms.  These bottles appear in the early 1860’s as part of the cargo shipped from the British Isles to American ports.  British round bottomed bottles have an

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interesting history.  For stability, British sailing ships, bound for American ports, required a considerable amount of weight in their lower hull to stabilize their tall sails.  Ballast stones, which were discarded when the ships reached port, provided most of the needed mass.  However, a cargo of thick glass round bottom bottles containing ginger ale also served very well as ballast.  The bottles were not only useful for adding weight, but they contained a product that could be easily marketed in American ports.  In fact, so common are these bottles in southern harbor towns that local bottle collectors usually refer to them as “ballast bottles".  During shipment round bottomed bottles were stacked on their side in order to keep their corks damp, swollen and well sealed.  The corks were secured by the same type of thin copper wire that was used prior to 1860 by American soda bottlers.  In the 1870's round bottomed bottles became so popular that they were manufactured in this country for American bottlers.  Several types of round bottomed bottles bear the name of the Savannah bottler, John Ryan.  At least one Brunswick bottler, Taylor Ferguson, acquired foreign made round bottomed bottles that came into the Brunswick port.  He refitted them with Putnam closures and filled them with his own products (see pages 28-29).

Type 3—Blob top soda bottles with Hutchinson closures—Henry Hutchinson of Chicago attempted to make the traditional cork soda bottle closure obsolete with the introduction of his new design, which was patented in 1879.  Henry’s stopper design used gas pressure from the soda water in the bottle to seal it by applying a force against a flexible rubber gasket positioned in the bottle’s neck.  The container was opened by pushing a stiff wire attached to the stopper downward.  The bottle could be easily resealed by pulling the wire upward.  Although easy to operate this design was inherently unsanitary.  Dust, dirt and germs could easily collect in the neck of the bottle and become mixed with the contents when the bottle was opened.  In spite of this design defect, the Hutchinson closure had almost completely replaced the Putnam closure by the late 1880's, when soda water was first bottled in Brunswick.  This was not the case in nearby Savannah, where the cork/Putnam closed blob top bottle had reigned for almost half a century.  In spite of its size and demand for soda products, Savannah soda businesses acquired and used very few Hutchinson bottles during the 1890's.  It appears that technological change came slow to this large city.  The principal reasoning is that by the late 1880's the Savannah bottlers had a huge investment in cork/Putnam closed blob top bottles and the machinery that filled them.  It was much easier for new bottlers, such as

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those in Brunswick, to invest in Hutchinson bottle technology than it was for an older established bottler to replace his entire inventory of bottles and filling equipment.  The concept of technological upgrade may explain how Brunswick bottler, Taylor Ferguson, happened to acquire cork/Putnam closed blob top bottles from northern bottling companies at cut rate prices (see page 24).
               As mentioned above, the change in technology from cork/Putnam closures to Hutchinson closures in the late 1880's is reflected by the fact that all blob top soda bottles embossed with the name of a Brunswick bottler are of the Hutchinson type.

Type 4—Seltzer or siphon type bottles—At least four Brunswick bottlers filled and distributed high pressure soda water in these thick glass containers.  All of the examples of Brunswick siphon bottles found thus far were broken.  None of these were embossed or etched with a local bottler’s name.  A somewhat contemporary siphon bottle closure and its associated tool, patented by John Brown of Medford, Massachusetts, are shown below.  Because of the high pressure of the carbonated water, these bottles seemed to have required a complicated and expensive filling device, such as the one invented by John Matthews.  The siphon bottle shown below in John Matthew’s filling machine is the same type of bottle that was used by Taylor Ferguson of Brunswick.

Beer bottles—The walls of these bottles were generally thinner than soda bottles, probably because the beer was not as highly carbonated as soda water and pressures within the bottles was less.  In general, beer bottles have a more elongated cylindrical shape than soda bottles.  Almost all of the Brunswick beers have a capacity of 12-14 fluid ounces, but at least one small bottle is known that has a capacity of only 7 ½ ounces.  The

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pg. 14

no-return beer bottles have a double collared top or blob top that was sealed with a straight cork held in place by a simple twisted copper wire.  None of these bottles are embossed with a Brunswick bottler’s name.  All of the beer bottles, embossed “Brunswick”, have blob tops and these were sealed with two different types of closures.

Type 1—Blob top beer bottles with lightning closures—In 1876 Charles DeQuillfeldt of New York City patented a new device that sealed a bottle by forcing a rubber lined cap against the interior and exterior surfaces of its lip by means of a lever like iron wire yoke.  Karl Hutter immediately purchased the rights for this patent and began manufacturing the closure.  Later, it became known as the “lightning stopper".  One Brunswick beer bottle, “Robert Grier”, has “K. Hutter New York” embossed on its base.  The few bottles that have been found with the remains of their closures indicate that the design present was more like that patented by Johnson and Thatcher in 1886.  [Click images to see larger picture.]

Type 2—Blob top beer bottles with William Painter type closures—Beer bottles embossed with “Brunswick Brewing & Ice Company” and P.H. Wolter Philadelphia have closures that are of the type invented by William Painter of Baltimore, Maryland in 1885.  This type is also referred to as the “Baltimore loop”.  These bottles had a groove in the interior of the applied blob top.  In filling with a carbonated beverage, such as beer, the bottle was sealed by an inverted disk of flexible material, fixed into the groove.  The disc was smaller than the groove so it had an internal bend that sealed the pressurized contents.  Frequently, it had a wire with a loop attached to its center.  To open the bottle a finger was inserted into the loop and adequate pressure was applied to remove the disk.

pg. 14

pg. 15

William Painter’s Patent for the “Baltimore Loop.”

pg. 15

pg. 16

CHAPTER THREE—BRUNSWICK’S NINETEENTH CENTURY SODA BOTTLERS

Brunswick Bottling Works—Little is known of Brunswick Bottling Works.  However, it was probably the first company in Brunswick to bottle soda water.  The company was apparently out of business in 1890, when the first city directory was published.  The bottles owned by the proprietors of Brunswick Bottling Works were sold to Brunswick Brewing & Ice Company sometime after its establishment in 1889.  Brunswick Bottling Works was one of the two companies in Brunswick that used bottles with applied tops.  Most American glass works phased this technology out in the late 1880’s; therefore, the pre-1890 date assigned to this business is supported by the method by which these bottles were produced and the company’s absence in the first city directory.  The only two types of Brunswick Bottling Works bottles are shown below,

Oglethorpe Bottling Works—was owned and operated briefly from 1887 to 1889 by George D. Hodges and other investors.  George Hodges was from Quitman, Georgia, but it is not know when he moved to Brunswick.  However, George’s name appears in the registered voter lists published in the Brunswick Daily Advertiser-Appeal at least as early as December 5, 1885.   As shown in the newspaper advertisements on pages 19-20, Oglethorpe Bottling works probably operated under the general proprietorship of George Hodges’ Drug Store.  Several documents in the Glynn County Property Records verify that George Hodges and George McCauley were in business together as early as September 26, 1886 when they bought a safe for their business.  On January 20, 1887 they bought a Fancy Siberian Arctic Dominion #1196 soda fountain and two 14 gallon copper founts from James W. Tufts in Boston, Massachusetts.  The next year they made two

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pg. 17

related purchases.  The first, purchased on April 5, was equipment and siphon bottles, also from James Tufts.  The equipment included a Black & Fancy Siberian Atlantic Constitution #772.  The second, on November 18^th was a SGC(?) bottling table with a Number 2 solid plunge sink gauge and Hutchinson attachment.  The 1890 Brunswick City Directory lists George Hodges as a druggist, but makes no mention of Oglethorpe Bottling Works.  As seen in the newspaper advertisements below, Oglethorpe Bottling Works manufactured a complete line of soda water, which included lemon, ginger ale, sarsaparilla and strawberry flavors.  The soda bottles used by this firm all had applied tops, which, as mentioned above, indicate that the business did not function after about 1890.  George Hodges’ name reappears in the 1892 city directory as a mineral water bottler associated with C.O. Marlin & Company located at 416 Bay Street.  No bottles embossed with C.O. Marlin are known to exist.  George is not advertised as a druggist in 1892 and it is not know if he was ever legally qualified to practice pharmacy [According to Physician & Druggist licenses in the Glynn County Probate Court, yes, George was licensed, click here--ALH] .  His residence was a one story wood frame house at 1003 Davis Street
 

George Hodges house on the NW corner of London & Davis Streets.   To the Right:  “Geo. D. Hodges Druggist Brunswick, GA.” pharmacy bottle.

The following newspaper item shows that George had a good sense of humor.  This amusing story was told directly to T.G. Stacey, editor of the Brunswick Daily Advertiser-Appeal who published it on Tuesday March 13, 1888:

A Big Man

          Mr. George Hodges met us this morning and told us that we might make the following announcement.
          Said He:  “I have got the finest horse, the finest cow, the finest dog, the finest boy and the prettiest wife in town, and to cap it all, I am the ugliest man in town.”
 

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pg. 18

               Another personal mention in the same newspaper, published on the previous Friday, follows:
               Mr. George Hodges, is back from a trip to his old home, Quitman.  He reports everybody in that section enthusiastic over the water-melon prospects.  Every farmer in reach of the railroad is putting in from 10 to 35 acres in melons.  The Southwest Ga. melon has gained a big reputation in the North and Northwest, and always commands fair prices.

Brunswick Daily Advertiser-Appeal Wednesday January 18, 1888.

S102.1 Teal aqua/applied flat rim top/soda/Hutchinson stopper Height- 6 13/16” Diameter- 2  7/16”

S102.2  Teal aqua/ applied tapered rim top/soda/ Hutchinson stopper. Height- 7 .0” Diameter- 2 7/16”

pg. 18

pg. 19

Brunswick Daily Advertiser-Appeal Monday February 6, 1888.

Brunswick Daily Advertiser-Appeal Saturday September 21, 1889.

pg. 19

pg. 20

Brunswick Brewing & Ice Company—manufactured beer, ice and soda water.  The following advertisement appeared in the 1892 city directory:

               The same directory identifies the “beer and mineral water department” at 202 Bay Street (see map on page 41).  This location was the company’s distribution office.  Since this firm’s main business was brewing, it will be discussed in detail in Chapter Five with reference to their extensive works on Albany Street.  Shown below is the only type of soda bottle embossed with the company’s name:

S103.1
Aqua/ tooled top/soda/ Hutchinson Stopper
Height- 6 ¾”
Diameter- 2 11/32”

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pg. 21

T.B. Ferguson (Taylor Butler Ferguson) was a Civil War veteran who served in Company C of the 5^th Georgia Infantry.  His unit was formed in Richmond County, Georgia.  Since the US Census reports his place of birth as South Carolina, it is likely that he was from the western region of the state near Augusta.
               After the war, Taylor moved to Brunswick and worked as a plastering contractor.  The following note was published in the personal mention section of The Brunswick Daily Advertiser-Appeal on August 2, 1876:
               “Mr. T.B. Ferguson is putting on the finishing touches to the Moore & McCray store.  It is an imitation of granite, and is certainly very neat.”

               In 1880 Taylor married “Mattie” (Martha Lambright).  The Ferguson couple became the parents of five girls and one boy.
               By 1890 the Fergusons had built a comfortable home at 618 Cochran Avenue in the Brunswick suburb called “Dixville.”  The Ferguson home was a high gabled wood framed structure with wide front and back porches.
 The historic property map of the house shown on page 22 suggests that the original back porch had been enclosed and a rectangular extension added sometime before 1910.  These modifications were probably made as the Ferguson family grew.  Twin chimneys served four fireplaces, one located in each of the house’s big rooms.  In spite of its solid construction, local authorities condemned the Ferguson home and ordered it to be demolished in September, 2001.

The Brunswick Advertiser-Appeal December 13, 1876

The Brunswick Advertiser-Appeal April 10, 1880

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pg. 23

Commencing on the first day of March 1892 and do hereby create a lien on the above described property in favor of the said James E. Lambright until this note is paid in full.

witness
J Michelson                             Taylor B. Ferguson
L J Leavy Notary Public Glynn Co Ga

               Taylor borrowed the 720 dollars necessary to begin his soda water business, free of interest, from his father-in-law James Edwin Lambright, who served as local justice of the peace, with office at 508 Monk Street.
               A small scale soda business seems to have been a risky venture considering the overwhelming competition of Brunswick Brewing & Ice Company, which was only 7 blocks south of Taylor’s business.  Manufacturing soda water may have been a part time endeavor for him, but the local directories from 1892 through 1901-02, list Taylor only under the description of “soda water manufacturer”.  He probably operated his business from the small room he created by enclosing a portion of the old back porch at 618 Cochran Avenue.  However, the 1898 city directory indicates that for some time he used the small wood framed house next door at 816 Cochran Avenue as a business location.  Excavations in the back yard of the lot at 816 produced 10 refuse pits.  Taylor had disposed of several thousand bottles in these pits, most of which were broken (see the Ferguson property map on page 26).

Cross section of the northern most of Taylor Ferguson’s
bottle refuse pits behind 816 Cochran Avenue.

               A four foot by four foot wood lined pit privy into which Taylor had routed a sink drain line and a barrel privy were also found there.  The square privy contained several

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pg. 24

bottles and a large mass of oyster shells, while only a monkey wrench was found in the barrel privy.  Three privy pits were found behind the Ferguson home, but none of these contained any bottles.  A wood burning stove was found in one of the privy pits.  In contrast to the privies another nine refuse pits were found in vacant lots to the south of the Ferguson home and these also contained hundreds of bottles.  All of the refuse pits south of the Ferguson’s house were in two lots that were not owned by the Fergusons.  Taylor dug these pits close to property lines.  Their placement suggests that he did not want them to be discovered in the event that anyone should disturb the ground during new house construction.  Most of the bottles from the nineteen refuse pits found on the three lots were blob top soda water containers.  A small minority of the bottles were seltzer siphons, imported round bottom ginger ale, Woolf’s disinfectant (chlorine bleach), and plain un-embossed quart sized syrup or sulfuric acid (see Chapter One) bottles.  One bottle contained solid lime, a chemical often used to sweeten or purify water.  A broken olive green wine bottle with a partially preserved paper label was found in one of the refuse pits (see photos on page 25).  The paper label depicts a young girl with an apron full of apples standing in front of an apple tree.  At the bottom of the label is a wooden sign that has T.B. Ferguson, Brunswick Georgia written on it.  The depiction of the product’s name is partly missing, but it may translate to “Old Apple Cider.”  The soda bottles found in the refuse pits included types representing over fifty different businesses located in a number of northern and Midwestern states, as well as a large number of Brunswick Brewing and Ice, Oglethorpe Bottling Works, Brunswick Bottling Works, Crosby & Smith and local competitor Lena Markowitz bottles.

Chicago, New York, Philadelphia and other applied blob soda bottles with Putnam wire closures
found in T.B. Ferguson’s refuse pits.

pg. 24

pg. 25

Right side view showing girl with apple tree in the
background. Letters “ER” in a red banner at the top.

View 2 showing “ T….rgus” and “swick, Ga” on a board
sign, a picture of an apple and an “O?”in a red banner.
This interprets as T.B. Ferguson Brunswick, GA.

pg. 25

pg. 26

Map of Taylor Ferguson’s structures on Cochran Avenue.  Red figures are privies. 
Blue figures are bottle refuse pits.  Long straight lines are property lines or fences.

pg. 26

pg. 27

Some of the complete or nearly complete bottles
found in T.B. Ferguson’s refuse pits.

               The presence of so many local bottles in the refuse pits seemed unusual until the following document was found in the Glynn County Records:

Book P. P. page 690

State of Georgia
County of Glynn,

Know all men by these presents, that we, The Artesian Ice and Manufacturing Company, a corporation under the laws of the State of Georgia, with our chief office at Brunswick, in said State and county, do hereby for and in Consideration of the sum of Twenty-five Dollars, ($ 25⁰⁰ ) Cash to us in hand paid, at and before the sealing and delivery of these presents, the receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged, sell and convey unto Taylor B. Ferguson,

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pg. 28

of Glynn County, Georgia all our right, title, interest, claim and demand of every character, both in law and equity, of, in and to all of those glass bottles of various sizes and dimensions with the cases made for holding same, all of which formerly belonged to the Brunswick Brewing & Ice company, a corporation under the laws of the State of Georgia, and which were by the Receiver thereof, J.L. Beach under the order and decree of Glynn Superior Court, sold, with other property unto W.E. Cay, Trustee, for certain persons, and afterwards by said bidders their said bid and interest was transformed for value unto The Artesian Ice & Manufacturing Company, and said Receiver directed to execute title to said corporation aforesaid, which deed said Receiver duly executed and delivered on December 1^st 1895, and the said bottles being identified by the stamps “The Brunswick Bottling Works” blown on bottles, likewise all of those bottles with the words “Oglethorpe Bottling Works,” blown thereon, and as well all those other bottles with the words, “The Brunswick Brewing & Ice Company” blown thereon, the quantity of said bottles not being capable of specific enumeration but containing fifty gross, more or less…..

               So in 1897 Taylor purchased the 7,200 (fifty gross- see page 60) soda bottles formerly owned by Brunswick Brewing & Ice Company for the grand total of $25.00 or about 1/3 of a cent per bottle.  Although they are not mentioned here, it is quite likely that this lot of bottles also included those embossed “Crosby & Smith”.  With such a small investment Taylor could afford to be careless with them.  Bottles that had minor damage or a defective rubber seal were expendable.  It also seems likely that local competitor Lena Markowitz’s bottles, put accidentally put into Taylor’s wooden crates at the local stores, were also expediently discarded.  In addition to the aforementioned bottles, Taylor acquired, perhaps from local grocers and/or the consumers themselves, a large number of round bottom “torpedo” bottles.  As mentioned above, he refitted these bottles with the more effective American made Putnam iron wire bails, which were in common use on soda bottles after 1859.  Taylor probably used these bottles for his ginger ale and/or birch beer.  The photo below shows the items found in a privy across the railroad tracks from Taylor Ferguson’s house.  Note Taylor’s refitted “ballast bottles” with the rusted remains of Putnam wire bails attached to their necks.

pg. 28

pg. 29

Brunswick Call June 6, 1899

               The two styles of soda bottles that bear Taylor Ferguson’s name are shown on the following page.  The taller version with a “mug base” may have been used exclusively for birch or root beer.

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pg. 30

S105.1 Aqua/ short/ tooled top/ soda/ Hutchinson stopper Height- 6 5/8” Diameter- 2 ½”

S105.2 Aqua/ tall/ mug base/ root beer/ Hutchinson stopper Height- 7 9/32” Diameter- 2 3/8”

               The following advertisement, published in the Brunswick Times Call on March 5, 1901 verifies the end of T.B. Ferguson’s bottling business and the beginning of Louis Ludwig’s.  From 1898 until at least 1902 Louis Ludwig owned and operated a grocery business two blocks east of the Ferguson home.

The Ferguson family continued to live at 618 Cochran Avenue, but Taylor went back into the construction business as a “plastering”contractor.  By 1908, the Fergusons

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pg. 31

had moved to1324 Union Street.  Taylor Ferguson died in 1910 and was buried in the family plot in Palmetto Cemetery, Brunswick.

Taylor Butler Ferguson and  Martha Axson Lambright Ferguson in Palmetto Cemetery.

Cast masonry urns made by plastering contractor Taylor Ferguson.

C.O. Marlin & Company is listed in the 1892 city directory as a “manufacturer of mineral water”.  However, as mentioned above, no bottles bearing the company’s name are known to exist.  Charles Marlin and George Hodges were the owners of C.O. Marlin

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pg. 32

& Company.  Charles Marlin was living with George Hodges’ family at the corner of London and Davis Streets in 1892.  Their business was located at 416 Bay Street.  It is likely that they were using bottles from George Hodges’ old Oglethorpe Bottling Works.  You will recall that George Hodges had owned and operated a local drug store and bottling business several years earlier.  In 1890 Charles Marlin had been working as a clerk with residence at the corner of G and E (now Norwich) Streets.  By 1896 Charles Marlin was working as a clerk at Morris Elkan’s dry goods store on Newcastle Street.  There is no further record of C.O. Marlin & Company and it is assumed that it went out of business shortly after 1892.

William B. Gunby was manufacturing mineral water at his residence on the corner of G and E Streets in 1892.  Although no street address is given in the directory, the location has an identical description as Charles Marlin’s previous residence.  It is quite possible that there was some connection between Gunby’s business and Charles Marlin.  According to the 1892 Brunswick city Directory William Gunby was also proprietor of a saloon located on the southeast corner of Bay and Monk streets (300 Bay Street).  Two years earlier Gunby was working as a “dealer in real estate” and “dealer in sewer pipe, fire brick and building material generally.”  William Gunby’s rapid and drastic change in business interests is puzzling.  No bottles embossed with William Gunby’s name are known to exist. William Gunby is not listed in the city directories published after 1892.

Acme Bottling Works The 1896 city directory lists “Acme Brewing Company” as a Macon, Georgia based business.  An earlier reference to “Macon Brewing Company” was found in the 1892 city directory.  This may have been the same company, but no bottles are known to bear Macon Brewing Company’s name.  John G. Campbell was the agent for Macon Brewing Company at 416 Bay Street in 1892.  In 1896, Richard V. Douglas was a wine and liquor dealer located at 206 Bay Street and the local agent for Acme Brewing Company (see map on page 40).  Richard lived at 607 E Street (Norwich), next to McKendrie Methodist Church.  A final listing for this company is in the 1905 Brunswick City Directory where its address is given as 224-226 Bay Street.  This was the site of the old Ocean Hotel (see map on page 48), which had been torn down and replaced with two brick buildings between 1893 and 1898.  The Acme bottles are of the soda water type (see bottle on the next page) and the embossing on them suggests soda contents; therefore the company and their bottle design are included in the soda section of this book. No other information pertaining to the company or their products has been discovered.

L. Markowitz does not appear in the city directory until 1896, when she is recorded as “Mrs. L. Markowitz grocer, S. Albany and London.”  Lena and her husband Nathan were German immigrants.  Nathan, born in 1872, had immigrated to America first, arriving in 1890.  He returned to Germany to marry Lena in 1893.  Nathan and his new bride sailed to America in 1894.  Jake (Simon) Markowitz, born in 1850, who was probably Nathan’s father, immigrated to America in 1881.  He had been in Brunswick since at least 1892 and probably encouraged the young couple to settle there. Jake was a well know saloon proprietor at 308 Oglethorpe Street in 1892.  Nathan was 22 and Lena was 24 when they moved to Brunswick.  Census records indicate that both Lena and

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pg. 33

S104.1 Aqua/ tooled top/ soda/ Hutchinson Stopper
Height- 6 22/32”
Diameter- 2 15/32”

Nathan could read and write English in 1900.  Nathan did not waste time becoming involved in the liquor business.  The following article was published in a local newspaper on August 12, 1894:
          “Baumgartner’s old stand, corner of Monk and Oglethorpe Streets, is being fitted up as a Saloon.  Nathan Markowitz will be its proprietor.  This will make three saloons on that corner.”
          The Markowitz’s grocery store on the corner of London and Albany streets was an “L” shaped structure.  The wing that was parallel to Albany Street was devoted to the grocery business, while the wing that faced London Street was used as a dwelling.  The 1896 Brunswick City Directory lists Lena as the grocery store’s owner and Nathan as its clerk.
               Although it has been modified for modern business use, the old Markowitz structure still stands.  The little red building, shown below in a modern photo, is now an unused commercial structure.  It served as a liquor store in the last half of the twentieth century and was know variously as “Dixon’s, the “Red Barn” and later as the “Little Jug.”
               Within two years the Markowitz family had moved to a larger house at 102 E Street (Norwich).  At this time Nathan was manager of the family soda water business that was housed in a 15 by 30 foot building next to their home on the edge of F Street (see map on page 34).  A stable large enough to house a horse and wagon was located in the northeast corner of the property.  It is interesting to note that all of the soda water bottles used by the Markowitz business were embossed with Lena’s name, L. Markowitz.

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pg. 34

The Markowitzs continued to operate their soda water business into the early twentieth century, at least until 1902.  The fate of Nathan’s Saloon is unknown.  Sometime after 1902 the Markowitz family moved to Savannah where in 1910 Nathan was working as a local salesman for a Savannah biscuit company.  In 1920 Nathan was operating a gasoline station in Savannah.

Old Markowitz store on the corner of London and Albany Streets

Markowitz home, bottling house, and stable on E Street in 1898.

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pg. 35

S106.1 Clear/tall/tooled top/ mug base/ rootbeer/ Hutchinson stopper.  Crown embossed on base. Height- 7 9/32” Diameter- 2 1/3”	S106.2 Aqua/short/tooled top/soda/ Hutchinson stopper. Height- 6 22/32” Diameter- 2 3/8”	S106.3 Clear/ aqua/tall/tooled top/soda/ Hutchinson stopper/ various top shapes Diameter- 2 15/32”
Small (3/8”) button engraved “Le,”  Probably Nathan’s nickname for Lena.  Button was found in a brick bottom Privy located behind the Markowitz’s London Street store.	S106.4 Aqua/ tall/ tooled collar top/ soda/ Hutchinson stopper Height-7 27/32” Diameter- 2 11/32”

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pg. 36

CHAPTER FOUR—BRUNSWICK’S EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY SODA BOTTLERS

               Louis Ludwig bought Taylor Ferguson’s soda business in the spring of 1901.  Louis was born in Russia in 1864.  His wife Valerie was born in 1863.  They were married in 1891 and immigrated to America in 1892.  The 1900 census indicates that they could read, write and speak the English language.  The Ludwigs did not have any children.  Louis Ludwig’s first appearance in the city directories is in 1896 when he is listed as:  “Grocer- F Street corner Cochran”.  His residence is given as the same location.  By 1898 the Ludwigs had moved their business to the two story structure on the northwest corner of London and Lee Streets in “Dixville”; address 1615 London Street.  Since in both directories give their residence at the same address as their business, it is likely that the Ludwigs, like many other local grocers, lived on the second floor, above their grocery store.  The Brunswick Call records a strange sequence of events concerning Ludwig’s Dixville business.

Monday October 17, 1898:
Mr. L. Ludwig has sold out his grocery business on London Street to Mr. Lazrus who will continue it.  Mr. Ludwig leaves shortly for Jacksonville where he will go into business.

Monday October 24, 1898:
Mr. L. Ludwig has rented the store recently occupied by C.J. Doerflinger and will open his grocery business on November 1.  Mr. Ludwig will carry a large stock, the main feature of which, will be his German delicacy department.  The CALL wishes them a success.

               Louis Ludwig was back at his old Dixville location when the 1901-1902 City Directory was published.  As mentioned above, Louis Ludwig bought T.B. Ferguson’s soda water business in March, 1901.  The location of his store was only 2 blocks from the Ferguson’s home on Cochran Avenue.  On April 18, 1901 he upgraded the newly bought soda business with 100 siphon bottles purchased from American Soda Fountain Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  In 1902 the Ludwigs were still manufacturing soda water at 1615 London Street.  When the next directory was published in 1905, the Ludwigs had moved to 1200 Gloucester Street and there is no further mention of the store on London Street.  Ludwig’s business in 1905 is listed as “bottling” and he is associated with a Mr. Cline at 116 Richmond Street as Cline & Ludwig.  In 1908 he was an Alderman on the Brunswick City Council and was living in a nice home at 1607 Union Street.  The 1910 U.S. Census indicates he was employed by a soda water manufacturer.  Two years later he was involved with the Pepsi Cola business at 1410 Oglethorpe Street.  In 1920 Louis worked as Brunswick City Treasurer.  The bottles that bear Louis Ludwig’s name are shown on the next page.

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pg. 37

L. Ludwig (Louis Ludwig)—1901    S107.1 Aqua/ Clear/ smoky pink/ tooled top/ soda Hutchinson stopper. Height- 7 ¾” Diameter- 2 11/32”	Cline and Ludwig—1905   S108.1 Clear/ tooled top/ soda/ Hutchinson stopper. Height- 7 9/16” Diameter- 2 3/8”
Marble slabs on the graves of Louis and Valerie Ludwig in Palmetto Cemetery.

Brunswick Bottling & Manufacturing Company appears in the city directory for the first time in 1905.  It was located at 1416 Oglethorpe Street.  It is also listed in the 1908 city directory but not in the 1912 edition.  No other information was found for this company.

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pg. 38

S109.1 Clear/ aqua/ tooled top/ soda/ Hutchinson stopper Height- 7 1/8” Diameter- 2 ¼”

S109.2 Clear/ tooled top Hutchinson stopper Height- 7 1/8” Diameter – 2 ¼”

S109.3 Clear/ short/ tooled top/ soda/ Hutchinson stopper Height- 6 9/16” Diameter- 2 7/16”

Brunswick Coca-Cola Bottling Company—1905-present. This company does not appear in the Brunswick City Directory until 1905. Most of the company’s Hutchinson bottles show little sign of wear. Because their condition suggests that they were not used for long, they were probably quickly replaced with crown top bottles.

S110.1 Aqua/ tooled top/ soda/ Hutchinson stopper.
Height- 7 13/16”
Diameter- 2 3/8”

pg. 38

pg. 39

CHAPTER FIVE—BRUNSWICK’S NINETEENTH CENTURY BEER BOTTLERS

               Benjamin Hirsch was born in Darmstadt, Germany in 1841, of Jewish descent.  He immigrated to America in 1860.  He and Elizabeth (Bertha), who was born in Prussia in1845, were married in 1866.  She immigrated in 1865.  In 1870 the Hirschs were living in Waynesville about 20 miles west of Brunswick.  The 1870 U.S. Census lists Benjamin as a “retired merchant” owning real and personal property with values of $175 and $2000, respectively.  Such a status for a 29 year old man was highly unusual during the reconstruction years.  By 1880 the Hirschs had six children, four boys and two girls.  The January 1880 newspaper advertisement shown below served to notify the citizens of his new general store on the corner of Bay and Gloucester Streets (also see maps on pages 40 and 41).  Several years later Benjamin and William C. McClure opened a livery business on Newcastle Street.

pg. 39

pg. 40

1885 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map showing B. Hirsch’s 2 story wood-framed
General store and dwelling on the corner of Gloucester and Bay Streets.

1885 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map showing Hirsch & McClure Livery Business on Newcastle Street.
Note the well located in the front of the main livery building.

pg. 40

pg. 41

Modified (modifications in block letter type) 1893 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map illustrating
various businesses along the west side of the 200 block of Bay Street.
Yellow structures are wood framed, pink are brick and gray indicates sheet metal clad.
Note discrepancies in street addresses south of F.M. Scarlett.

               Certain differences exist between business addresses given on the Sanborn maps and the Brunswick city directories.  The maps provide information on the types of businesses present in certain structures, but they do not usually provide the names of the occupants.  An attempt has been made to correlate several businesses and their addresses listed in the 1892 city directory with the 1893 maps shown above.  Going south from B Hirsch’s business on the corner of Bay and Gloucester Streets, the initial discrepancy seems to occur at 210 Bay Street.  The map and directory addresses agree as far south as F.M. Scarlett’s liquor business, but the Briesenick foundry which is listed as 210-214 in the 1892 directory does not agree with the address of 212-216 given on the map.  This discrepancy continues through the 1908 map when all of Brunswick’s N-S addresses

pg. 41

pg. 42

were changed.  References to this discrepancy will be made in discussions of businesses south of Briesenick Foundry and Machine Works.
               The Hirschs had six children, but one, Robert, died at the age of 16.  Two of the three surviving boys entered the job market at early ages.  In 1890, the oldest boy Moses (called Mose) was working as a clerk for S.W. Apte Clothing Merchant at 216 Newcastle Street.  The same year, Henry, age 15, was working as a clerk for Kaiser Brothers Clothing Merchants at 120 Newcastle Street.  Two years later, Mose was working in his father’s liquor store.  In 1892 the child labor laws were not as strict as they are today and Jacob D. (Jake), then only 12, was also working as a clerk in the liquor store.  The Hirsch’s daughter Emma married Julius May, a future liquor dealer at 200 Bay Street.

Brunswick Times Call January 15, 1894.

               The newspaper advertisement above shows that by 1894 Moses Hirsch and his father were operating separate liquor businesses.  It also documents the fact that the day of locally bottled beer was over.  On April 2 of the same year the following article appeared in the Police Notes section of the paper:
               Officer Lofton went to Everett City Saturday night to arrest G.W. Miller, charged with cheating and swindling Mose Hirsch, the liquor dealer.  Not finding his man, Officer Lofton returned to town and made a thorough search about the city for him.  Miller, however had disappeared.

pg. 42

pg. 43

               In 1898, young Henry Hirsch was working as a bartender for his brother-in-law Julius May, who operated liquor businesses at 210 Gloucester Street and 200 Bay Street, the old Hirsch store.  As detailed above, the May and Hirsch families were connected by marriage and Benjamin, then 57 years old, may have become tired of the liquor business, leaving its operation to his son-in-law and son.  However, Benjamin continued to work for at least ten more years.  In 1910 he was working as a merchant in Brunswick with his son Jack.  In his old age Benjamin moved to Los Angeles, California to live with his oldest daughter Adaline and her husband Herman Harris.  He died there in 1928 at the age of 87.
               The process of bottling beer that was used by Benjamin and other local bottlers was relatively simple.  Merchants bought 15 or 30 gallon kegs of draft beer that were shipped in refrigerated boxcars.  During the filling process the bottles had to be cooled to keep the contents from foaming over.  Otherwise, the bottles were easily filled directly from the keg tap.  It is not likely that the bottles of beer were pasteurized or “steamed”; therefore, they would have to be kept on ice until they were purchased.  The bottle shown below, which dates to the late 1880's, is the only type of beer bottle known to have been used by Benjamin Hirsch:

B104.1 Aqua/ applied top/ beer/metal cap Lightning Stopper. Height- 9 5/32” Diameter- 2 ¾”

               Robert Stuart Grier was born on December 29, 1850 in Burlington, Vermont.  His parents were Thomas J. and Maria Clark Grier, who were both Irish Immigrants.  Robert and Annie Maria Fee, who was 14 years younger than him, were married in 1896.  Annie’s parents were also Irish.  The Griers had three daughters and one son, Robert, Junior.  In the 1873-1874 Columbus City Directory Robert was listed as a salesman for J.J. Kaufman merchant.  That same year Robert’s father was working as a mason and stone cutter.  The next directory, 1878-79, indicates that Robert was a travel agent living with

pg. 43

pg. 44

his mother at her Grocery store at 56 Troup Street.  During the years 1880-81 Robert was still working as a travel agent.  There is no listing for Robert in the 1884-85 directory, but from about 1886 until 1889 he operated a one story, wood framed grocery and saloon at 701 Third Avenue (see map below).  He lived in the attached dwelling at 703 Third Avenue.  His recently widowed mother was boarding with him (Thomas Grier died in 1885).

 Copy of 1895 Sanborn Insurance Map showing Robert Grier’s residence and general merchandise store in Columbus.
Location is 701 Third Av.  Note bucket well in the back yard.

               Sometime between 1889 and 1890 Robert Grier and Tobias Newman (See next section) moved to Brunswick.  One source suggests that Grier and Newman came to Brunswick to establish an ice business.  However, their bottles indicate that they developed a partnership in the liquor and beer business.  This business must have been short lived because when the first Brunswick city directory was published in1890, both men had gone their separate ways, each owning competitive liquor and beer businesses on Bay Street.  During that year, Robert was a “dealer in beer, liquor etc.” at 204 Bay Street (see map on page 40).  His business was in the northern one-half of a new brick building with a former address of 626-627 Bay Street.  Robert and Tobias both lived at the Ocean Hotel on Bay Street in 1890 (see map on page 48).  The only listing for Robert Grier is in this directory and it is assumed that he returned to Columbus between 1890 and 1892, when the next directory was published.
               Robert Grier appears in all of the U.S. Censuses from 1900 through 1930.  During those years he worked as an insurance agent and lived at 213 Seventh Street and later at 634 Broad Street in Columbus.  Robert Grier died on April 14, 1932 at the age of 81.  His obituary follows:

pg. 44

pg. 45

               ROBERT STUART GRIER, Sr.—Born Burlington, VT., Son of THOMAS J. GRIER, native of Dublin, Ireland, & MARIA CLARK GRIER, leaves wife, Mrs. ANNIE FEE GRIER, 1 son, R.S. Jr., 3 daughters, Mrs. ROBERT RYAN of Montgomery, Ala., MRS. FLOURNOY HAMBURGER & MRS. HENRY BRAY, both of Columbus, GA., 2 sisters, MRS. JOHN CONNERS of Montgomery, Ala., MRS. H.E. HALL of Columbus, GA., 3 grand sons, 5 grand daughters.
               Robert Grier’s bottles are shown below.  He is buried in Lot 185 of Linwood Cemetery in Columbus, Georgia.

B102.1 Aqua/ applied top/ beer/metal cap Lightning Stopper. Height- 9 7/16” Diameter- 2 13/16”

B102.2 Aqua/ applied top/ beer/metal cap Karl Hutter Lightning Stopper/ “ Karl Hutter New York” embossed on base of bottle. Height- 9 3/16” Diameter- 2 13/16”

pg. 45

pg. 46

B102.3 Aqua/applied top/beer/ metal cap Karl Hutter Lightning Stopper/Height- 9 3/8” Diameter- 2 11/16”

Newman & Grier is a poorly documented partnership.  As mentioned above, Tobias Newman and Robert Grier moved from Columbus to Brunswick about 1889.  Apparently, they were in business together briefly and then dissolved their partnership sometime before 1890, when they were operating competitive businesses (see their bottles below).  Unlike Robert Grier, who returned to Columbus, Tobias Newman remained in Brunswick until his death in 1914.  Apparently, Tobias retained possession of the bottles and continued to use them for a number of years.

B101.1 Aqua/ amber (rare) applied top/ beer/metal cap Lightning Stopper. Height- 9 1/8” Diameter- 2 11/16”

pg. 46

pg. 47

B101.2 Aqua/ applied top/ beer Height- 8 3/16” Diameter- 2 5/1

Tobias Newman (“Capt. Tobe Newman”) was born in 1846 in Bremen or Hanover, Germany.  His exact birthplace is uncertain because both cities are credited in the U.S. Census records.  Bremen and Hanover are relatively large cities about 100 miles apart in northern Germany.  In fact, Tobias may have been born in a rural area somewhere between these two cities.  He married Jane (Jennie) Evans in 1869.  Jane, who was born in 1848 to Irish parents in Florida, was two years younger than Tobias.  They had ten children, of which eight were surviving when he died in 1914.
               In 1870, the Newmans were living in Columbus, Georgia and Tobias was working in, or owned, a local saloon.  The first Columbus City Directory listing for Tobias was in 1878-79, when he was operating a saloon at 58 and 60 Broad Street in Columbus.  He was in the saloon business in 1880-81 with W.J. Coffield (T. Newman & Company) at 52 Broad Street (see map on page 48).  However the 1880 census credits him with being an ice dealer.  In 1884-85 he was operating a restaurant and saloon, no location given.  During this time he was living at 83 North Jackson Street.  In 1886-87 Tobias’ business was “fish and saloon” at 1214 Broad Street.  He was then living at 1420 Second Avenue.  The last Columbus listing for Tobias was in 1888-89 when he operated a “Saloon Restaurant” and was the agent for “Crescent Brewing Company” at 1214 Broad Street.  He was still living at 1420 Second Avenue.
               By 1890, when the first Brunswick city directory was published, Tobias had moved to Brunswick and was living at the Ocean Hotel on Bay Street (see map on page 49) with his oldest son George.  Because of their residence in a hotel, it seems likely that Jane and the younger children remained in Columbus for several years.  In 1890 Tobias was a” beer bottler” at 216 Bay Street, only 6 doors south of his former partner, Robert Grier.  By 1892 the rest of the Newman family had moved to Brunswick and they were residing on the southwest corner of K and D Streets.  This house has been variously listed

pg. 47

pg. 48

with changing street address systems as 526 D Street and 2078 Ellis Street (see map on page 50).  The 1892 Brunswick city directory lists Tobias Newman’s business as” wholesale and retail liquors 216-218 Bay Street”.  The 1893-1908 Sanborn maps show this 2 story building with a brick first story and wooden second story.

1885 Sanborn Fire Insurance map of Columbus, Georgia showing former locations
of Tobias Newman’s businesses at 52 and 58 - 60 Broad St.

The map on page 49 assigns Tobias’ business with what is presumably an incorrect street address of 218-220.  This error was explained on page 41.  The fact that this location was a vacant lot on the 1889 Sanborn map indicates that the brick building was built between 1889 and 1890, when the northern one-half was occupied by Tobias’ liquor business.  George R. Newman, who was 22 years old, was a clerk at his father’s business in 1892.  In 1896, Tobias is credited with operating a saloon, later called the Metropolitan, at 216 Bay Street.  In reality, the saloon occupied the southern one-half of the building which was 218 Bay Street.  The saloon’s business address may have been the same as the liquor store, but the 1893 and 1898 Sanborn maps clearly show the liquor store in the northern part of the building and the saloon in the southern part.  In 1896 the Newman’s residence was at 526 D Street, which is the same location as their 1892 address.  By 1896, George Newman, then 26 years old, was managing the Metropolitan, which had been formerly managed by A. Hepp.  The 1898 Brunswick city directory indicates Tobias was in charge of the saloon again assisted by George, who worked as a bartender.  Tobias also worked as a “brewery agent” at 206 Bay Street, possibly for Acme.  Tobias continued to operate

pg. 48

pg. 49

the Metropolitan saloon throughout 1902.  He lived at 2028 Ellis until his death on March 27, 1914.  In spite of his interest in the “spirits” business, Tobias Newman was an important and well loved citizen.

Modified (bold typing) 1893 Sanborn Insurance Map showing businesses on the southern end of the 200 block
 of Bay Street.  Note that the correct addresses of Tobias Newman’s building, as for the Briesenick Foundry,
are two digits lower than those shown on the map.

pg. 49

pg. 50

Modified (bold typing ) 1898 Sanborn Fire Insurance map showing Tobias Newman’s house
at 526 D Street (later 2028 Ellis St.).  Note stables (keyed with an X) on the lane behind the house
and possible attached servant’s quarters .

B103.1 Clear/ tooled top/ Lightning Stopper. Height- 9 3/16” Diameter- 2 11/16”

pg. 50

pg. 51

Tobias Newman’s obituary tells much about his personality and life in Brunswick:

The Brunswick News March 28 (Saturday), 1914:

CAPT. T. NEWMAN PASSES TO REST FUNERAL; SUNDAY—PROMINENT CITIZEN DIED AT HIS HOME AFTER A SHORT ILLNESS—THE END CAME LAST NIGHT—Capt. Newman Had Long Been Identified With Brunswick’s Business Interests—Was at Present a Member of City Council.

               After an illness of just ten days, Captain Tobias Newman, one of Brunswick’s best known and most prominent citizens, passed away at his home on Ellis Street last night at 9:15 o’clock.  Captain Newman suffered a stroke of paralysis during the early part of last week, and for the first two or three days his condition was considered serious.  During that time he was unconscious, but later he regained consciousness and seemed to improve and sincere hope was then held out for his recovery.  A few days ago, however, he suffered a relapse and since that time he has been lingering between life and death with all hope of an improvement abandoned.  Out of town members of his family were summoned to the city, and most of them were at his bedside when the end came last night.
               “Capt. Tobe,” as he was familiarly known among hundreds of friends in Brunswick, was one of the city’s best known and most energetic citizens.  During all of his long residence here he has at all times had the interests of Brunswick at heart and has in every way rendered all the assistance that he could in the up building of the city.
               Captain Newman has served Brunswick and Glynn County in many positions of honor and trust and he has on every occasion fitted this with ability.  He was a member of the city council, being one of the representatives of the fourth ward.  He had previously served as a member of the council, and in all of his years as a city solon he has worked hard and faithfully in the people’s interest.  As chairman of the public works committee, he personally looked after all of that department of the city, devoting most of his time to the work.  He was one of the best known Knights of Pythias in the State of Georgia and for many years was the commanding officer of the local uniform rank, where he justly gained a reputation as one of the best drill masters in the country.  On numerous occasions he went to prize drills in all sections of the country at the head of the local company and returned with first prize; not only for capturing the trophy for his company, but, on one or two occasions, himself winning the first prize for the best drill master.
               In his death Brunswick loses one of her best and most valuable citizens.  Though somewhat advanced in years, Capt. Newman was active in life until he was stricken a short time ago.
               The deceased is survived by a widow and eight children, as follows:  Geo. A. Newman, of Jacksonville; Walter, Eberhardt and Bernard Newman, of this city; Mrs. J.W. Abbott, Mrs. J.I. Latham, Mrs. Colson Hoyt, of this city, and Mrs. Maggie Joiner, of Hazlehurst.
               The funeral arrangements will be completed today and beyond the fact that interment would take place Sunday no further announcement was made last night.”

pg. 51

pg. 52

               It is interesting to note that Tobias Newman’s business interest in “spirits” is not mentioned in his obituary.

Tobias Newman’s grave in Palmetto cemetery.  Note Knights of Pythias symbols carved into his marble slab.

pg. 52

pg. 53

Charles Fruend Agt.—Charles Freund (note spelling error on bottle) does not appear in any of the Brunswick city directories and it is assumed that the had died or moved away by 1890.  Two mortgage documents involving Charles Freund were found in the Glynn County Courthouse.  The first, recorded on December 14, 1888 was in the form of a loan from J.S. and A.D. Schofield to Charles Freund and G. Lowinstein presumably to secure funds to start a business.  The second involves an agreement between Charles Freund and Rosendo Torras & Company in which he leases water front lot 49 on the south end of Bay Street for the purpose of establishing a “Wood and Coal Yard”.  Water lot 49 was on the north end of the Rosendo Torras Lumber Yard.  One small “L” shaped wood framed structure with front and back porches and a sheet metal roof occupied the site.  The embossing on his beer bottles suggests that he may have been a local agent for a northern or Midwestern brewing company.

Modified (bold type) copy of 1893 Sanborn Insurance Map showing Charles Freund’s
business on Water Lot 49.

B105.1 Aqua/ applied top/ beer/ metal cap Karl Hutter Lightning Stopper/ “VI. N/ K. Hutter/ N. Y.” embossed on base of bottle. Height-9 5/16” Diameter-2 11/16”

pg. 53

pg. 54

Brunswick Brewing & Ice Company—On Thursday September 19, 1889, the following article was published in the Brunswick Daily Advertiser-Appeal:

Brunswick to Have an Ice and Brewery Plant.

               For some time past different men have had their eyes on Brunswick as a favorable place for a brewery plant.  None so far have taken shape until now. Today we have among us Mr. P.H. Wolters, of Philadelphia, who comes here to locate an ice and brewery plant.  Just as soon as he locates the site he will give out the contract for all of the buildings.

CAPACITY

               The ice machine will have a capacity of forty tons per day- sufficient ty [to] supply not only all they need themselves, but the wants of the city and surrounding country besides.
               The brewery will have a capacity of 50,000 barrels, and employment will be given to about two hundred hands.

$100,000

               From Mr. Wolters we learn that the cost of the plant will be $100,000, all of which stock is now being taken and the money deposited ready to pay all contracts.
               It may prove of interest to our readers to state that the first beer ever brewed in Georgia was brewed on Jekyl Island by Major Horton under the direction of General Oglethorpe.  The hops were raised on the north end of the island, and the beer made on the same place. the old well is still there where the water was gotten that was used in the manufacture.  It stands just on the bluff of the creek, and rises and falls with the flow of the tide; but it does not

pg. 54

pg. 55

               The investor’s dreams soon came to fruition.  By 1892, when it is advertised in the Brunswick city directory, Brunswick Brewing & Ice Company was fulfilling local needs for ice, beer and soda water.  It is unknown, if Mr. P.H. Wolters actually sold the machinery from his Philadelphia Brewery to Brunswick business men or not.  He certainly sold his Philadelphia beer bottles to the Brunswick business.  Many of these bottles have been found locally.  An example of his Baltimore loop seal bottle is shown above.  Within a year he has become associated with XXXXXLocal business and banking magnate Max Ullman served as the Company’s President and Treasurer, while Rudolph H. Stahl was its secretary and on site supervisor.  Because the plant was located in the southern part of town, the soda, beer and ice distribution centers were several miles to the north, in the heart of town and close to the railroad platforms.  The map on page 41 shows the location of “Lofton & Miller” (Wm. P. Lofton and Herbert A. Miller) Brunswick Brewing & Ice Company’s “agents for beer and mineral water” at 202 Bay Street.  At the same time Frank Langley was manager of the ice department at 321 Newcastle Street.
               The detailed Sanborn map of the company’s Albany Street facility shows that the East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia Railway delivered the “imported hops and Canadian malt” and the coal needed to fire the steam boilers directly onto the plant’s side track (see page 56).  With the exception of the boiler and pitch kettle supports, the buildings were wood framed.  The cold storage, bottling house, ice machine and dynamo building and part of the stable were clad with sheet metal.  Saw dust was probably used as insulation within the walls of the cold storage and ice machine buildings.  The contents and operation of the plant in relationship to this map and the Artesian Ice & Manufacturing

pg. 55

pg. 56

Company document were discussed on pages 8-10; therefore, they will not be elaborated on again here.

Brunswick Brewing & Ice Company as it appeared on the Sanborn Fire Insurance map published in April, 1893.  Crates and bottles were probably kept in the open shed.   Structures marked “D” (Nos. 5-7) were used as housing for plant workers (see page 57).

pg. 56

pg. 57

                The advertisement shown above lists three types of beer produced by the brewery.  Pilsner is a beer with a strong hop flavor that was first brewed in the 1840's in the town of Pilsen (modern Czech Republic).  It is a golden lager that replaced the dark sweet traditional beers of the region.  It is made with pale, lightly roasted malt that produces a beer with a straw like or golden color.  Kaiser beer was, and still is, Austria’s leading beer brand.  It is described as a lager beer with a prodigious frothy white head that fits somewhere between an amber bottom fermented Munchen beer and a golden Czech Pilsner.  Cloister beer is a term for a German beer (Kloster bier) that was produced in Monasteries or Convents.  No physical description was found for this beer.
               A list of plant employees as they appeared in the 1892 Brunswick city directory follows:

1) STAHL RUDOLPH H, sect’y BRUNSWICK BREWING & ICE CO, office at Brewery, h (house), S Albany st. near Boulevard and Brewery.
2) Henry Black, c lab Brewery, h at Brewery.
3) James Clubb, emp Brewery, h 606 C St
4) Henry Dawson, c, lab Brewery, h at Brewery.
5) Luke Dawson, c, lab Brewery, h 304 N Cochran Ave.
6) William Dorsey, c, lab Brewery, h at Brewery.
7) Wm. Garvin, bottler at Brewery, h do (same location).
8) Herman Greenidge, brewer, h at Brewery.
9) Frederic Hubach, master brewer Brewery, h at Brewery.

pg. 57

pg. 58

10) George Moore, c, lab Brewery, h 822 Egmont St.
11) A. Newman, c, fireman Brewery, h at Brewery.
12) John Ogren, lab at Brewery, h cor F and D Sts.
13) Charles Plumb, c, drayman Brewery, h at Brewery.
14) Charles Smith, lab Brewery, h 1207 3^d Ave.
15) Grover E. Summerall, emp Brewery, h 504 S. Cochran Ave.
16) David Waltower, c, fireman Brewery, h 706 S. Amherst St.
17) Wm P Lofton, (Lofton& Miller) agt. Brunswick Brewing & Ice Co.202 Bay st, h 1107 S Wolf st.
18) FRANK LANGLEY, mgr. ice dept. BRUNSWICK BREWING & ICE CO 321 Newcastle st, h 1109 S Wolf st.
19) John P Jardine, engineer at brewery , h 1205 S Wolf st
20) Herbert A Miller, (Lofton &Miller) agts beer & mineral water dept Brunswick Brewing & Ice Co 202 Bay st, h 1107 Wolf st
21) Wm Potter, c, cooper brewery, h at Brewery.

               Nine of these twenty-one 1892 Brewery workers lived in the five plant site dwellings. Two of these dwellings were duplex units.  Six of these workers were black and three were white.
               Unfortunately for the investors, this business was to have a short life.  The small population of Brunswick and the Golden Isles was not able to generate an adequate market for the products of such a large facility.  Within a few years the plant was in a state of financial ruin.  Another factor that may have influenced the demise of this enterprise was the competition created by the large Midwestern breweries, which were beginning to produce and bottle high quality pasteurized beer in addition to their traditional barreled product (see advertisement on page 42).  Not only was their pasteurized bottled beer consistent in quality, but it had a long shelf life that required no refrigeration.  This property allowed the beer to be shipped across the nation to consumers in no-return bottles; therefore avoiding the excessive costs associated with the traditional return, wash and refill bottles.  Glynn County records contain a lengthy and informative document which details the financial collapse of Brunswick Brewing and Ice Company in 1895, when it was transferred in receivership to The Artesian Ice and Manufacturing Company.  This company was apparently set up to dispose of the property, buildings and mechanical equipment at the brewery.  Consequently, it is never advertised as a functional business.  The portion of this document, reproduced below, gives a detailed list of the buildings and equipment.  These records are reproduced below in script similar to that in which they were recorded.

Book QQ page 16:                                             * Line format as originally written script.

          ….. *Also the following described
buildings, erected upon the above described property, to-wit:
Brewing House three stories high 30X40; Vault and Store house
for beer with hop room and office in front 22 X 165 feet, Bot-
tling house and utensils 40 X 100 feet; Ice store house 40 X 50
feet, machine room and boiler house 40 X 80 feet; six dwelling

pg. 58

pg. 59

houses; stable for twelve horses.
          Also the following described property
situated in the buildingsand upon the land hereinbefore set
out, to-wit:
          Two 100 Horse power Boilers, Two Heaters and
water refiners for Boilers, one Edison incandescent Electric
Light Plant 90 C. P. Capacity; one office desk and shelving
one Marvin Fire Proof safe, Fixtures of Office, Two tables
six chairs, one copying press, Large picture of Gambrinus*. Eight   (See page 61)
Patent fans and Connections with beltings, one corking
machine. One air pump, one filling machine with changes.
wash rinder and tap. One small engine with water spigot
pipes, shafting and belting and connections, two endless chains,
blocks and pulleys, four wood tubs and utensils of bottling house. One
patent Zwietish filter* and machinery thereunto belonging, one  (See page 10)
large copper cooler, two steam pumps. One wash tub, one wash-
ing machine including small tubs. Hoses and brass connections
pipe, spiggots, water and steam leadings, one wrenching machine,
four ice tongs, about 100 brass spiggots, about 100 valves,
lot of hose, about nine hundred feet from one to one-half
inch with couplings, Seventy five barrels, four hundred half
barrels, one thousand quarter, sixty sixths and two hundred
eighth kegs, fermenting tubs containing a measurement of
about 1000 or 1200 barrels, four Seventy Barrel casks, Twenty
Twenty five Barrel casks. Eight twenty five barrel casks, containing
together about 1180 barrels, racking spiggot and patent show glass
stack pans, thermometers and vault utensils, thirty two bung
apparatus, one engine, four large steam pumps and connections
pies and valves. Grease cans, lamps and utensils of engine.
one pitching machine, one barrel rolling machine, one pitch
Kettle and copper ladle, two wheel barrows, several jacks, one
lot of single and double harness, for eleven head of stock.
with collars and stable utensils complete, two elevators

pg. 59

pg. 60

and conveyors one large platform scale, three swimmers (skimmers?)
and cooper shop utensils complete, three heavy fans and flat
cooler, shafting and hoisting engine, machine belting and stir-
ring machine, one large copper Kettle and spiggot, one copper
grand 100 feet heavy copper pipe, more or less, one steam
trap on kettle, injector and pipe; one malt mill with
latest improvements, one half jack, copper pipes and
(end page 16)
(page 17)
Spiggots, manholes and low bottoms. one wash tub, copper bottom, cop-
per fast wash machine, fast rest and copper sprinklers, one scale,
one lot of bungs, caps, signs, etc. one hopper with scale, two large
water tanks with connections, Heavy pipe, spiggots, copper worm
four inches thick for hot water tub, spiggots and steam Coils, lot
of marble and slate mantle pieces, lot of steam heater, one horse
clipping machine and four beadsteads and bedding, chairs and tables
to furnish four rooms for the working men complete; two steam
tanks for steaming beer, and connections, two sealing machines
one wringing machine, four washing tubs, seven hundred and
fifty gross of beer bottles, more or less, one syrup boiler, two bottle
washing machines, one filling machine, large lot of boxes and crates,
two soda water apparatus and connections, fifteen soda water
fountains. fifty gross soda water bottles, more or less, being of
various sizes and dimensions, with two hundred crates, More or
less, for same said bottles being identified and worked by the
name or words in letters raised thereon. to wit “The Brunswick
Bottling Works,” “Oglethorpe Bottling Works,” Brunswick Brewing & Ice
Company,” and as well all the bottles Known as Crosby & Smith
make, the quantity of said bottles not being capable of more specific
ennumeration, one seltzer water bottling machine; two Ring
Ice engines, two boilers, two feed water heaters, one half separator
four circulating pumps, lot of ice cans, ice ??? and system
with all connections complete, all live stock and wagons of every

pg. 60

pg. 61

character and description…..
* Gambrinus was the Patron Saint of brewers and beer drinkers since the 16^th century.

                It is interesting to note that soda bottles formerly belonged to Oglethorpe Bottling Works, Brunswick Bottling Works and Crosby & Smith (Newark, New Jersey) are represented in the inventory along with Brunswick Brewing & Ice Company’s own bottles.  This evidence suggests that Brunswick Brewing & Ice Company had purchased soda bottles from local and non-local bottlers that were out of business.  Even more interesting is the number of beer bottles listed.  Seven hundred and fifty gross translates to 108,000 bottles.  The number alone suggests that the beer bottles mentioned here are not exclusively those embossed with the company name.  Many were likely recycled disposable bottles that were in use by the major national breweries and wineries.  Another interesting fact is that the number ratio of soda bottles to crates suggests that each crate held 36 soda bottles.  There can be little doubt that bottles were double stacked in the wooden crates, a practice that explains why so may of these bottles have chipped tops.

B106.1 Aqua/ applied top/ beer/ Baltimore Loop top Painter 1885 Height- 9 1/8” Diameter- 2 25/32”

pg. 61

pg. 62

               An archaeological survey was conducted in the area bordering Lanier Boulevard south of the bottling house location.  At the end of the nineteenth century, this area was marshland.  The figure below shows this location.

               The survey was conducted by excavating trenches with a back hoe that the property owner supplied.  Trench 1 revealed a section of Lanier Boulevard, which was paved with oyster shell in the late nineteenth century.  The entire section of marsh land was covered with material dredged during the construction of Hwy U S 17 in the 1950s.  A large water drainage pipe was also found in trench 1.  Trench 2 uncovered a platform of wooden planks.  Trench 4, which skipped over the entrance to the drain, revealed the northern edge of the mass of bottles dumped by the Brewery.  These bottles all dated to the late nineteenth century.  They were all damaged.  Excavation area 1 exposed a huge mass of thousands of bottles.  These were primarily broken reused wine bottles.  One small cluster of soda bottles was exposed.  These were whole bottles unrelated to the Brewery.  It is assumed that they were transported from the company facility on Bay Street to the dump at the plant in a barrel hauled on a wagon.  This rough trip caused the contact surfaces from the bottles to rub places on one another.  The bottles represented other bottling agencies from as far away as New Bern, North Carolina.  It seems likely that these bottles were turned in to Brunswick Brewing and Ice in boxes with company

pg. 62

pg. 63

bottles.  When they were discovered they were put in a barrel to be discarded.  These bottles are shown below.

pg. 63

pg. 64

Soda and beer bottles from the Brunswick Brewing and Ice Company dump.  The green bottles are Henry Kuck and Henry Lub's from Savannah, Georgia.

pg. 64

pg. 65

Appendix 1
Bottle Rarity Guide

These estimated rarities are based on the contact experience of the author and three local bottle collectors.  A few of these bottles appear occasionally at auction on the internet.  However, some are so rare that we have only seen one or two examples.  The following code is a general indication of rarity.

☺-Common.
☺☺- Not Common.
☺☺☺- Scarce.
☺☺☺☺- Only a few are known.
☺☺☺☺☺- Only one is known.

pg. 65