Cheerwine from Asheville, NC

[morbious_fod]

Just tried to pay a visit to one of the best sites for Cheerwine history, www.blakescheerwineoldies.com, and it's gone. This cat was a huge Cheerwine fan and collector, but a quick look on the wayback machine revealed that he didn't stray too far from the history of the parent company. Guess I'm going to have to strike that link from my site now, but I'll wait to see if it comes back first.

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

Around 1951 there seems to have been a large push by Cheerwine to franchise which is when they entered the Johnson City Tennessee market for the first time. I would surmise that this would have been the same period that Cheerwine was re-established in Asheville after a long hiatus. The proof of this being that we don't have evidence of continued production of the brand from the 1920's through 1952 in the form of advertising or artifact evidence (bottles).

If someone were producing it during this period these bottles would be quite common.

Morb I edited portions of the above post and left the parts I think offer the best explanation so far as to what might have actually occurred. But what about "after" 1951-1952? Do you have any thoughts on that?

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

P.S. In other words ... I have been trying to place Cheerwine in Asheville for almost two weeks now and cannot find a single reference from "any time period" including the 1950s and 1960s (other than the one from the 1920s). Do you have any evidence of Cheerwine being connected to Asheville other than your bottle? Thanks Bob

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

Here's a link to more Asheville phone directories, including some from the 1950s and 1960s. I have not checked every one of them yet, but of those I did check, there were no listings for Cheerwine that I could find. https://archive.org/search.php?query=subject%3A%22Asheville+%28N.C.%29--Directories.%22

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

Morb Another long story short ... Because there are no readily available records, including extensive searches involving taxes - licenses - pictures - books - newspapers - directories - etc., etc., that indicate there was ever a bottler in Asheville that bottled Cheerwine, I am strongly leaning toward the possibility that your bottle originated someplace else and not in Asheville proper. By "someplace else" I'm thinking from a bottler/distributor in some other town and possibly even from some other county. My current observation is based in part on there being no references for Cheerwine in the 1950s and 1960s phone directories, which I believe would have included something if it was bottled there.

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

P.S.

The majority of the Cheerwine ads among the newspaper archives that are closest to Asheville are the ads found in ...

The Gastonia Gazette ~ Gastonia, N.C.

 

[morbious_fod]

Morb Another long story short ... Because there are no readily available records, including extensive searches involving taxes - licenses - pictures - books - newspapers - directories - etc., etc., that indicate there was ever a bottler in Asheville that bottled Cheerwine, I am strongly leaning toward the possibility that your bottle originated someplace else and not in Asheville proper. By "someplace else" I'm thinking from a bottler/distributor in some other town and possibly even from some other county. My current observation is based in part on there being no references for Cheerwine in the 1950s and 1960s phone directories, which I believe would have included something if it was bottled there.

I don't have any more evidence than the physical evidence of the bottle; however, I am only trying to help ground you through what I have learned of the bottling business over the years of research. One thing I have learned is that no one just ordered bottles with a town name on them for a town in their franchise territory unless they had a branch bottling plant there. Not every bottler listed all the products they bottled in the city directories, to the point that a researcher gets excited when he lucks out and finds one that does which is rare.

There are sodas known as leaders which are the flagship product of a given bottler, and in many cases the bottler will name their operation after that product. That doesn't mean that the leader in question was the only product they produced. There are several bottlers in North Carolina that have Cheerwine as their leader, but that doesn't mean that if there isn't a Cheerwine Bottling Company listed in a town that the brand wasn't bottled there. If I went on that assumption then my website wouldn't be worth a hill of beans, because I would have several more bottling plants listed with only a name and a bottle, or in one case an ad, to show. Includeing Johnson City Tennessee which has a Cheerwine bottle, and there is no listing or Cheerwine anywhere except for the newspaper ads, which don't list a bottler.

I have only Cheerwine's parent company's word for who was bottling it in Johnson City, which came from one of its oldest employees who used to deliver syrup to the plant. I only trust that because he also mentioned the beer that they distributed correctly. Which wouldn't be common knowledge to someone living in Salisbury, NC.

I have the same issue at the moment with the recent discovery of a previously unknown early twenties straight side Nu-Grape bottle from Johnson City. There wasn't a Nu-grape related bottler in the town until 1928 when the Nu-Icy Bottling Company opened, which would have been long after this bottle was replaced by the more common Nu-Grape deco bottle we all know. My best guess at the moment is the local Coca-Cola bottler who I know bottled Orange Crush. When I observe the bottle we suspect was bottled by Coca-Cola, due to it pre-dating the local Orange Crush Bottling Company by around four years, I noticed that the name on the bottom of the bottle seems to match the Nu-Grape bottle in question.

Thus I am currently speculating that it is possible that Coca-Cola was bottling it as we have proof that they were bottling other franchise sodas at the time in question, and that the bases seem to match each other which may indicate a similar slug plate, which may have been chosen by the bottler, was being inserted for both by the glass maker. It's a long shot, but the ads covering this period that I have found, nor the City Directories list what they are bottling, but the next couple of years do; however, Nu-Grape isn't listed. It isn't much to go on, but it is a working hypothisis which I will be working on trying to prove or disprove in the future, which is why it hasn't been posted on the site yet.

Another example of a mystery that I eventually wound up solving was the Royal Crown Bottling Company of East Tennessee bottles. There was only one mention of the company in all of my years of research, and that was a "foreign business" registration in a Virginia corporation book, but it gave no details of the company beyond it starting in 1945. There was already a Nehi/Royal Crown Bottling Company in Johnson City, Tennessee which had started in the 1920's, so why would there be another? After a chance find of a photo of the Pepsi-Cola Bottling Company plant with a Royal Crown Cola sign on it, which due to their being a competitor to Pepsi was very odd, I suspected them of bottling Royal Crown products for territory in Virginia due to them being listed as a "foreign Business" (which means they are incorporated in another state but doing business in the state noted). The owner of the plant was from Roanoke, VA.

I finally found my answer by going to the county courthouse and searching the incorporation records there. The Royal Crown Bottling Company of East Tennessee was the exact same as the Royal Crown Bottling Company of Johnson City, but had restructured in 1945 with the new name. They continued to purchase bottles in three forms at the same time, Royal Crown Bottling Company of Johnson City, Tennessee, Royal Crown Bottling Company of East Tennessee Johnson City Tennessee, and Royal Crown Bottling Company of East Tennessee (which it appears were being bottled at their plant in Bristol, VA) which was leading us to speculate there were two separate companies. We were wrong.

The strongest evidence of all is artifact evidence (bottles, bottle caps, etc), with archival evidence next (period resources like books and newspapers), and anecdotal (personal testimony) being the least trust worthy as people tend to distort the facts to fit their view/story over time. This is one thing that I have found over and over again in my research, and as usual eventually you find that smoking gun. As I said there are certain things that I have learned about the business which doesn't jive with your theory of one bottler purchasing bottles with the name of another town on them unless they have a branch bottling plant there. All we have to go on is a bottle that fortunately does have a date on it, many don't which have confused things greatly in the past.

Don't take my points the wrong way Soda, I'm not attacking you, I'm just pointing out things that I know usually don't happen based upon what I have learned over these years of research. I myself have gotten the wrong end of the stick so many times that it isn't even funny. It happens when you are speculating based upon scant evidence, which we have an abundance of in this line of questioning. If we had access to the Asheville Newspaper I'm pretty sure we could prove that Cheerwine is being bottled in Asheville in the early 1950's through ads, but even then we may not know by who.

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

Morb Gracias' Amigo Kudos on your well researched and worded post. I agree, Asheville newspapers will surely hold the answer if they can be found and accessed. In the meantime, here's a little more food for thought. ~ * ~
My current focus is trying to make sense of and possibly explain the following ...

In the October 17, 1950 newspaper article, which I posted earlier and re-posting a portion of here, it states that Mr. Nanny (who bottled Cheerwine in Gastonia, Gaston County) had thirteen trucks and distributed in four counties. Those counties were ...

1. Gaston County
2. Lincoln County
3. Mecklenburg County
4. Union County

~ * ~

Additionally ...

1. The city of Charlotte is located in Mecklenburg County and is the county seat.

2. According to the 1950 Charlotte Phone Directory, there was a stand-alone Cheerwine
Bottling Company located in Charlotte at the time.

[URL=https://archive.org/details/hillscharlotteme1950hill]https://archive.org/detai..illscharlotteme1950hill


~ * ~

Question ...

How do we explain there being a stand-alone Cheerwine bottler located in Charlotte (Mecklenburg County) in 1950 and at the same time Mr. Nanny having Mecklenburg County as one of his four territories?

~ * ~

1. Portion of October 17, 1950 newspaper article
2. 1950 Charlotte phone directory listings
3. County map showing Nanny's four territories

 

[morbious_fod]

P.S.

The majority of the Cheerwine ads among the newspaper archives that are closest to Asheville are the ads found in ...

The Gastonia Gazette ~ Gastonia, N.C.

The purpose of town names on bottles was to make sure that the bottles you invested in get returned to your bottling plant. Why would anyone have a bottle with a name other than the town their plant was located on the bottom of the bottle? You would have people trying to return the bottles to a bottling plant that doesn't exist.

 

[morbious_fod]

Morb Gracias' Amigo Kudos on your well researched and worded post. I agree, Asheville newspapers will surely hold the answer if they can be found and accessed. In the meantime, here's a little more food for thought. ~ * ~
My current focus is trying to make sense of and possibly explain the following ...

In the October 17, 1950 newspaper article, which I posted earlier and re-posting a portion of here, it states that Mr. Nanny (who bottled Cheerwine in Gastonia, Gaston County) had twelve trucks and distributed in four counties. Those counties were ...

1. Gaston County
2. Lincoln County
3. Mecklenburg County
4. Union County

~ * ~

Additionally ...

1. The city of Charlotte is located in Mecklenburg County and is the county seat.

2. According to the 1950 Charlotte Phone Directory, there was a stand-alone Cheerwine
Bottling Company located in Charlotte at the time.

[URL=https://archive.org/details/hillscharlotteme1950hill]https://archive.org/detai..illscharlotteme1950hill


~ * ~

Question ...

How do we explain there being a stand-alone Cheerwine bottler located in Charlotte (Mecklenburg County) in 1950 and at the same time Mr. Nanny having Mecklenburg County as one of his four territories?

~ * ~

1. Portion of October 17, 1950 newspaper article
2. 1950 Charlotte phone directory listings
3. County map showing Nanny's four territories

For one thing sometimes counties are split between bottlers. I have several instances of this in my own area.

That being said, did you think that there might be a possibility that Gastonia might have been branch plant of the Charlotte Cheerwine Bottling Company, which I am given to understand was a branch plant of the parent bottling company in Salsibury NC? Branch plants were common when a bottling company held a large territory which they couldn't cover from one plant.

Four counties is a small territory for a stand alone bottler.