ATTENTION ~ MEMBER jblaylock ~ RE: "WALLINS CREEK BOTTLING WORKS" ~ KENTUCKY

[SODAPOPBOB]

GOOD NEWS! ?(Maybe)?

From an Education of Labor / Business & Economics trade journal ~ Dated 1936

Where it states ...

G.G. Whitcomb, - Mr. Whitcomb is a bottler of soft drinks and sells his product to all the commissaries of the coal companies in Harlan County.


I haven't been able to fully research this yet, but I was able to establish that a George G. Whitcomb resided in Harlan, Kentucky as early as 1920. I'll keep digging!

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

P.S. I haven't forgotten that Josh's bottle is embossed with "Wallins Bottling Works" and that it is highly unlikely a bottler in Harlan would have a separate bottle made for every coal mining town he distributed to, but because of the lack of substantial evidence to support there was ever a bottler in Wallins Creek proper, I have to follow all leads no matter where they might take me. It could be that G.G. Whitcomb simply distributed major brands like Coca Cola or Pepsi Cola, but it appears he distributed "something" to all of the commissaries, and hopefully I will be able to determine just what those something's were.

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

One clue leads to another ... Smith Bottling Works, Inc. ~ Harlan, Kentucky ~ 1932

 

[jblaylock]

Bob, you are a research genius. I'm blown away by what you can dig up. Being from Wallins, I can say a few things about it. 1. The "just before you entered Wallins" line likely refers to the geography of the town. Once you turn off the main road (us. 119) and enter Wallins, everything from there to the end of that road is considered Wallins. However, you are not actually in "Wallins" until you cross the Cumberland River. The crossing to 'downtown' is about 3/4 of a mile. The ice plant (which I think is still there, but being used as a garage) is just before the bridge. 2. The Coca-Cola plant. I have been told by several sources that there was, in fact, a Coke facility near the ice plant. My grandfather, who's 90+, and a few others have told me. Also, I read a newspaper article where someone found a Wallins Creek Coke bottle in the Cumberland river near Pineville. I cannot seem to find the article now. There was also an RC plant there later on in the 40s-50s. I'll try to find that article, maybe Greg Grimes has seen it. 3. Wallins was a coal camp town. I'm not sure how the census classified people, but during coal production, I'm sure all the coal camps where full of people. Henry Ford owned a coal mine at the end of wallins, an area call Banner Fork. My sister lives just below where the coal camps where. This town was booming during that time 20s-60's. As you mentioned, it had banks, theaters, shops, etc... There was even a Chevrolet dealer. I have an ink blotter from the Wallins Creek Motor Company with a 25 Chevy on it. My point is, due to the population, lack of good roads in this time and especially in Southeast KY, and slow transportation, it's very possible there was a bottling facility, however small, in Wallins. This could have been the same facility that did the Coke as well, or a grocery store. I agree that this bottle may have been a very small operation, likely out of the back of a grocer. I think this was common back in that time frame. I have a Danville KY 1920's pepsi bottle. I have researched it and cannot find if there was a facility in Danville. This bottle too, could have been filled out of another facility, like a grocery store.

 

[jblaylock]

I'm trying to find out some info from the Wallins 'historian' on Facebook. Maybe someone there knows who O.H. Howard is. I think the key may be with me. Perhaps he sold it to G.P. Sharpe later.

 

[grime5]

ive heard someone found a ss coke from harlan in or around straightcreek near pineville.seen a couple of wallins green bottles but bob has already told us more than i have heard from this bottler.later greg

 

[jblaylock]

My Wallins historian agreed there was a Wallins Creek KY Coke plant. Though he has no concrete evidence.

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

Josh:

Thank you for the compliment. I'm glad you find my research interesting, but I am far from being a genius. If that were the case I would have solved this mystery days ago. But as it is, I have to rely on information that is sketchy at best. I have no problem accepting there was a Coca Cola bottling plant in Wallins Creek at some point, but I do call into question why your bottle isn't marked as such when the majority of that type of bottle, which I believe is a flavor bottle, are more often than not marked with Coca Cola Bottling Co./Works? Of course, this isn't saying it's not a Coca Cola bottle, it's just that I have my suspicions which lead me to think that it might not be. If it is a Coca Cola related bottle, then why isn't it marked as such?

With that said, and if the 1923 O.H. Howard and the 1925 G.P. Sharp references are accurate, I strongly feel at this juncture there was a stand-alone WALLINS BOTTLING WORKS located in Wallins Creek in the early 1920s and that your bottle was a product of that concern.

Based on everything I can piece together, a major rejuvenation took place in Wallins Creek starting around 1923, which included new businesses, new streets, new sidewalks, etc. And because the 1923 date seems to be a significant factor, I feel it highly possible that's when the WALLINS BOTTLING WORKS was established. [Conjecture]

As for O.H. Howard ...

I'm still leaning toward Oscar Henry Howard:

1. Born May 4, 1889
2. 1917 Draft Registration list him as being 28 years old / Merchant - Mining Company
3. The 1930 U.S. Census list him as being 41 years old / Auto Repair
4. The 1940 U.S. Census list him as being 51 years old / Deliveryman - Beral Bakery

[ The current missing link for him is the 1920 U.S. Census ]

I hope to eventually find the 1920 Census, but irregardless of his occupation at the time, which I predict will be as a Merchant, I feel the key dates will involve 1923 through about 1925. I have suspicions that the WALLINS BOTTLING WORKS was a short-lived enterprise and was only in operation for a few years, and that in 1925 was possibly taken over by G.P. Sharp, who was previously with Whistle Bottling Company in Middlesboro and listed as such in the 1924 snippet I posted earlier. [ All conjecture, of course, but the dates fit ]

Oscar Howard was no dummy, either. In 1946 he and Albert Blanton and Edgar R. Howard patented a rifle ... ( Oscar was 57 years old at the time )

Patent Number: 2,482,398
Filed: October 30, 1946
Issued: September 20, 1949

Check it out ...

HTTPS://www.Google.com/patents/US2482398?dq=Oscar+Howard+wallins+creek&hl=en&as=X&ei=uW6xU7PLEMaKqAbs34G4Dg&ved=0CBwQ6AEwAA


I sure hope my conjectures lead to something. If not, oh well. I tried. []

I'll be back!

Bob

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

I wish I could tell you these pictures were of the WALLINS BOTTLING WORKS, but they're not! But they do help us visualize what a small operation looked like in the 1920s and that not all bottling facilities were major concerns and oftentimes were just one-room operations where good ol' boys and their families worked their tails off ...

 

[jblaylock]

Bob, I absolutely agree that this was Not a Coke bottle. You're are right that most Coke bottle or bottles from a Coke plant was embossed as being that. What I was trying to convey was that if there was, in fact, a Coke plant in that town, it is large enough to support a bottling operation of some sort. I may be seeing my Grandfather this weekend. I'm going to take the bottle and talk with him about O.H. Howard.