new Texas whiskey bottle for collection

hi all,
I just found what I'm pretty sure will end up being a great old texas saloon flask, bought at a local flea market yesterday - embossed J.H. PATTON - AMARILLO, TEXAS.

Anyone ever heard of this proprietor of other examples of this flask ?

Thanks,
john

He was an important figure in Amarillo...



Horsley: Mayor's garbage returns us to another time


Posted: Monday, August 16, 1999


Spend a moment with me going through His Honor the Mayor's garbage. Before me here is a curious collection of odds and ends gleaned from behind our mayor's home. I speak not of our current mayor, in whose garbage I have no interest, but Amarillo Mayor J. H. Patton, who ruled city government during the years 1911 and 1912.


Patton was a liquor dealer whose home once stood where mine now stands. In those early years, trash disposal consisted of a "burn pile" behind each home, perhaps not far from the privy. Discarded items were thrown on the burn pile, and periodically the ashes (containing nonburnable leftovers) were scattered in the yard or garden.

Installing a sprinkler system recently gave me the chance to turn up soil which had been undisturbed for decades. With the soil came a harvest of meager treasure, such as:

Lots of glass shards and broken china. Here's a bottle bottom dated "Sept. 20, 1898," another one stating, "Pat. June 30, 1925." Green glass, brown glass, melted glass, glass crazed by heat and age. An old Dr Pepper bottle, part of a 7-Up. A large fragment of china in a pattern I recognize: "Desert Rose." If my thin irrigation trenches pulled up this much glass, just think how much still must be down there.

I understand the presence of all the broken glass and china: BOYS. Imagine a turn-of-the-century mother cracking a favorite china cup. Sorrowfully, she throws it on the burn pile. Boys of the home see that broken cup, formerly untouchable, lying helpless amid the other trash. They reach for a rock . . .

A small metal snap from a woman's girdle, a common undergarment of yore. The girdle itself is long gone, leaving only the snap. I recognize it because someone I know well once wore such an apparatus.

A brass plate from inside a harmonica. Can't you see some barefoot kid in knickers, wandering around his house, blowing into that device? I suspect only his mother knew how it got to the burn pile. A mystery solved after all these years.

Coal. Before natural gas was discovered in our area in the 1920s, most homes were heated with coal. The curious thing is that it's impossible to dig anywhere in my back yard without turning up lumps of coal. My explanation for all the coal is: boys again. Imagine a coal pile behind the house, where the coal truck dumped it once a month. Dad tells the children to stay off that coal pile or else. Boys being boys, as soon as his back is turned they play King of the Hill on the highest point in two counties, which degenerates into a coal fight. Hence, coal everywhere.

Buttons, buttons and more buttons. Shirts became dust cloths which became oil rags which became fuel for the burn pile. Now only the buttons survive. There must be a zillion buried in my back yard. Maybe then, as now, mayors were expected to dress well.

Marbles, including blues, greens, reds, yellows, cat's eyes and some strange clay-looking ones. I like finding marbles, because they're as good as new even after all this time underground.

A crumpled brass center-fire casing. Hard buffing revealed, "Peters .45 Colt."

Copper pennies. Those dated between 1917 through 1964 are in great shape. The later ones, which I'm told actually are zinc with a thin coat of copper, are heavily corroded. Something in our soil doesn't like zinc.

One of my favorite finds is the working end of an antique toothbrush, evidently made of bone or ivory. The bristles are missing, but four neat rows of holes show where they once stood.

Do you suppose this was His Honor's own personal toothbrush? I prefer to think so.

Before I describe my favorite thing, I'll list just some of the other items: a brass winding key for a clock or toy, a small hexagonal bathroom tile, tines from a garden fork, a copper-coated, lead-backed photographic plate showing a seated woman drawing a stocking from a box, metal tags from hybrid roses ("asexual reproduction of this patented plant without license is prohibited"), fragile bottle caps, assorted nails so rusty they're easily bent by hand, mysterious metal objects whose origin and purpose I can't guess.

Finally, a broken arrowhead. Finding flint points always excites me. The fact that this one came from my own back yard inflames my imagination. It's a lovely deep red, about an inch wide. A man made it. He had a name, a family, a history. Maybe he shot it into a buffalo and watched as the beast galloped over the horizon.

Finding an arrowhead reminds me that in the big scheme of things, my tenure on this land is brief.

It also reminds me that while I might think of J.H. Patton as belonging to antiquity, another man might have walked across my yard 10,000 years before Mayor Patton threw away his toothbrush.

There's also this blurb from the same writer...

Robert Snyder of Amarillo operates an enterprise with the curious name, "Snyder Whiskey Research Center." He sent an interesting clipping in response to my column about digging in my back yard and finding trash from Amarillo Mayor J.H. Patton, who owned this property years ago. "Mr. Patton opened a saloon on Christmas Eve 1903 at 413-A Polk in Amarillo, and was the first saloon owner to give a free lunch with drinks . . . He continued the saloon and wholesale of liquor, beer, and cigars through 1908. He was also an agent for the Fred Miller Brewery Company of Milwaukee. Mr. Patton had an Exchange Bank in this home at 1710 S. Harrison [!] in 1909-10.

"Mr. Patton ran for Mayor in 1910 and won because he was the 'wet' candidate, defeating two 'dry' candidates. During his term as Mayor, the City Hall was built and the first concrete poured on some city streets. Mr. Patton resigned as Mayor, February 8, 1912, and moved to California."

wow - thanks for the info, I'd sure like to dig that garbage pile

I have found some other interesting tidbits about J.H. Patton - he opened a saloon/restaurant in 1903 at 413-A Polk street in Amarillo and have confirmed on a sanborn of 1904, also same location confirmed in 1908, however in 1913 saloon part of property was listed as vacant but restaurant was still there - in 1913 patton was elected mayor of Amarillo - coincidence that saloon folded that year...I don't think so...

john

sorry epackage - you're correct, I had my dates wrong - so, looks like saloon probably vacated in 1912-13 or whenever patton went to california.

Great bottle! I have seen three or four in the past decade or so. Any Texas whiskey is a good bottle.

Thanks - I'll probably be selling it, any idea on a starting price for value ?

It is one of the latest flasks from Texas. 1910 or so. The last one I saw sell had no chips, no cracks, very minimal stain and was a little sun colored. It went for 375.00.

Brad

ok, Brad, thanks for that info. guess it must have been one of the flasks used right up until prohibition. Flask has some light stain but not too bad, no chips or cracks at all.

By the way, did you ever find out about a second CCC chancre cure being found, just curious as I still have mine.

john