came across a Mysterious local bottle ?

[RCO]

was bored last week and was flipping thru some pictures on a bottle club website , apparently they have meetings and members can bring bottles as a show and tell type thing .

but one bottle really stood out and I have never seen it before and wasn't even aware it existed .

from the picture it says "Ed Cassidy Huntsville Ont "

the other bottles it was near and beside appeared to be brewery bottles but its not clear if this also was a brewery bottle ? as soda makers used the same aqua bottle , also a market locally for spring water ( as lakes polluted from logging and tanneries in that era )

never heard of there being any local breweries in this time period 1900's-1930's but it make sense that there'd be a market locally as alcohol consumption has always been high here and in that time period was a lot of logging operations and bored men in the bush here who must of been drinking something ?

since it was just a picture I don't know where or when the bottle was found ? who currently owns it or if they know anything more about it , its also not clear how its top was damaged ? found that way ? broke when digging ?

also couldn't find anything in any local history books or bottle books about this bottle , no listings for anyone named Ed Cassidy or any Cassidy listings anywhere in Ontario not just in Huntsville


as for where to look next ? I might try the local library and see if there local history section has anything or at very least find something on an Ed Cassidy and when or if he lived here ?

 

[CanadianBottles]

It certainly looks like a soda bottle to me. I suppose it could have been beer but every bottle like that I've seen from Ontario has been soda. The top looks to me like it was found with a jagged break and someone used a glass cutter to smooth it off. It probably had a crown top.

Hopefully you can find a whole one one of these days! There must be more out there somewhere.

 

[RCO]

It certainly looks like a soda bottle to me. I suppose it could have been beer but every bottle like that I've seen from Ontario has been soda. The top looks to me like it was found with a jagged break and someone used a glass cutter to smooth it off. It probably had a crown top.

Hopefully you can find a whole one one of these days! There must be more out there somewhere.

I can't really recall any beer bottles that used this sort of bottle either , is some that are aqua colour but smaller and different sizes .

locally there was spring water being bottled in quarts this size , Browns Gravenhurst used to do that , was one of there better known products oddly enough

need to find some older local dumps , that might increase the chance of finding one but dumps from this time period are tough to find locally

 

[CanadianBottles]

Yeah I remember reading about how bottled water was popular back in those days before municipal water was particularly reliable. I think there was some of that out this way too but I'm not sure how much of it was carbonated and how much wasn't.
Definitely keep an eye on construction sites around old areas of town, and there's also the possibility of even trying privy digging, which for some reason seems quite rare in Canada. Hard to do without a few people to help though.

 

[RCO]

Yeah I remember reading about how bottled water was popular back in those days before municipal water was particularly reliable. I think there was some of that out this way too but I'm not sure how much of it was carbonated and how much wasn't.
Definitely keep an eye on construction sites around old areas of town, and there's also the possibility of even trying privy digging, which for some reason seems quite rare in Canada. Hard to do without a few people to help though.

there isn't a lot of construction in older parts of town , I'd also wonder how much has already been lost by now ? most of those older buildings were only wood and long since torn down

I agree there doesn't seem to be much privy digging in the north , either not popular or not as many privys to dig . I've never really heard of a local privy being dug but that doesn't mean its never happened before

the digging season here is also likely over as its nearly December and snow on the ground , so it likely be spring before I'm able to dig anywhere , if I'm able to identify some new sites

but I will check the library and see if I'm able to find something on a Cassidy

 

[RCO]

an update was at the library which has a large local history section , there is old newspaper records going back to early 1900's till now . there was all kinds for Cassidy such as births , deaths and marriages , indicating they had a presence in the area during that time period and seem to still have a few around now based on phone listings .

found 2 death records for Ed or Edward Cassidy

the first one - Mr Edward Cassidy - 1944 ( born 1865 ) originally from Bruce county , obituary said he sold fur and then owned a local garage

second - Ed Cassidy - 1952 , ( date of birth unknown ) obituary didn't say much , more of a memorial


is it possible the first one also did bottling at some point and either very short lived ? or a side business that it was simply forgotten about when writing his obituary ? a paragraph in an old book mentions the service station and seems to think he was involved in logging or a camp foreman

 

[RCO]

also seem to recall the location of his garage ( just past the swing bridge in Huntsville ) according to book , was the same general area of a mysterious local bottler who went by another name , seem to recall finding that earlier , there was at some point a store there which did bottling ( soda pop) but info is very scarce , can't even remember where I found it but pretty sure there was some sort of store there years ago which has now been long since removed

so the fact his garage is literally rate beside it , does sort of help figure this out

 

[RCO]

found the reference in book I had read years ago that talked about a pop bottling operation in Huntsville just past the swing bridge ,

it seems to answer a lot of the questions about this bottle , there was definitely bottling taking place at the Cassidy's building in town . its not for beer , he clearly says it was for pop , even remembered the flavour of one he had (strawberry ) . the author says this took place when he was a child and he was born in 1904 so can assume it around 1910's

it also leads me to speculate that if they had a large quart sized bottle , there must be smaller 7 oz bottles as well with the same embossing ? it only make sense that they also had smaller bottles