We moved into this old farm house about twenty years ago. Pieces of pontil medicines and sodas occasionally turn when I till the garden behind the house. Being a bottle collector and nature enthusiast I began exploring the wooded areas surrounding the house. I can look out the upstairs window and see the woods where I discovered three old dumps.
The first is a household dump for this house, mostly old bottles from the 1870s and 80s. Then, not too far away right on the side of the main road someone dumped mostly soda and beer bottles, 1880s to 1900. There were Trenton, New Brunswick, Hightstown, Plainsboro, Kingston, NJ bottles, local stuff, but some out of the area. Across the road near Cranbury brook there is the ruins of an old mill site. In the woods not too far away someone had filled in a depression in the woods with bottles, sodas, jars, medicines, etc. Maybe the best thing found there was an unusually large number of 1860s-70s fruit jar lids, John M Moore, Millville and odd stuff I'd never seen before. I found about two dozen together.
The picture I've provided shows two bottles dug at the dump near the house which I dug about 15 years apart. The John Schroth bottles just last fall. I still have the Robert Elliot bottle.
Robert Elliot is one of those bottlers who's bottles would be considered "common" in the Trenton area. But that's a very relative term. Over the years I've spent plenty of my time researching Trenton bottling. As historical details slowly emerged I discovered Elliott had a much more important role in history than most bottle collectors would assume. However, I found his work in bottling and brewing in Trenton went back to when he immigrated from Ireland about 1850. He first worked with well established Trenton brewer and bottler William Morton as a brewer. When Morton joined New Hampshire native Nathan Richardson in the mid 1850s as Morton and Richardson Elliot became his driver, an important position that would serve him well in the future.
During the mid 1860s major changes began in the Trenton bottling business when Richardson bought the Lafayette Hotel in Trenton in 1864 and split with Morton. About 1867 Morton retired. This opened up big opportunities for the up and coming bottlers. Elliot saw his opportunity and started his own business with his brother-in-law Mathew Ledlie who immigrated from Ireland about 1860s and married Roberts's sister Sarah. Ledlie had also worked for Morton as a laborer.
The bottle pictured is embossed "Elliott and Ledlie" and dates about 1868-69.
Mathew Ledlie died in 1871 just as Robert would enter the most successful period of his career. Richardson died in 1876 opening even more opportunity. Elliott continued in business up to 1887 and died October 2, 1889.
Of all the Trenton bottlers for some reason I've always liked Robert Elliott best, maybe because we share Irish roots or that his personal story is that great American story of coming broke and ragged, working hard and succeeding. Long live the IRISH!!
The first is a household dump for this house, mostly old bottles from the 1870s and 80s. Then, not too far away right on the side of the main road someone dumped mostly soda and beer bottles, 1880s to 1900. There were Trenton, New Brunswick, Hightstown, Plainsboro, Kingston, NJ bottles, local stuff, but some out of the area. Across the road near Cranbury brook there is the ruins of an old mill site. In the woods not too far away someone had filled in a depression in the woods with bottles, sodas, jars, medicines, etc. Maybe the best thing found there was an unusually large number of 1860s-70s fruit jar lids, John M Moore, Millville and odd stuff I'd never seen before. I found about two dozen together.
The picture I've provided shows two bottles dug at the dump near the house which I dug about 15 years apart. The John Schroth bottles just last fall. I still have the Robert Elliot bottle.
Robert Elliot is one of those bottlers who's bottles would be considered "common" in the Trenton area. But that's a very relative term. Over the years I've spent plenty of my time researching Trenton bottling. As historical details slowly emerged I discovered Elliott had a much more important role in history than most bottle collectors would assume. However, I found his work in bottling and brewing in Trenton went back to when he immigrated from Ireland about 1850. He first worked with well established Trenton brewer and bottler William Morton as a brewer. When Morton joined New Hampshire native Nathan Richardson in the mid 1850s as Morton and Richardson Elliot became his driver, an important position that would serve him well in the future.
During the mid 1860s major changes began in the Trenton bottling business when Richardson bought the Lafayette Hotel in Trenton in 1864 and split with Morton. About 1867 Morton retired. This opened up big opportunities for the up and coming bottlers. Elliot saw his opportunity and started his own business with his brother-in-law Mathew Ledlie who immigrated from Ireland about 1860s and married Roberts's sister Sarah. Ledlie had also worked for Morton as a laborer.
The bottle pictured is embossed "Elliott and Ledlie" and dates about 1868-69.
Mathew Ledlie died in 1871 just as Robert would enter the most successful period of his career. Richardson died in 1876 opening even more opportunity. Elliott continued in business up to 1887 and died October 2, 1889.
Of all the Trenton bottlers for some reason I've always liked Robert Elliott best, maybe because we share Irish roots or that his personal story is that great American story of coming broke and ragged, working hard and succeeding. Long live the IRISH!!
