EARLY ROYAL CROWN GINGER ALE PAPER LABEL

[iggyworf]

From the several histories on them, they started 'Union Bottling Works' in the basement of their grocery store. Then when business got too big they moved to the bigger facility. Maybe that explains that 1906 article.

The first soft drink Hatcher created was named Royal Crown Ginger Ale, and its success opened the Hatchers' eyes to the opportunities available in the soft drink market. In 1905, father and son made their commitment to the soft drink market official by reorganizing Hatcher Grocery Co. as Union Bottling Works and concentrating wholly on producing Royal Crown Ginger Ale. In the months to follow, business was brisk. The Hatchers enjoyed enough success to move to larger production facilities in 1907,
Cecil's write up tells about this also. (I couldn't copy & paste from his article though)

Read more: http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/history2/54/Royal-Crown-Company-Inc.html#ixzz3TiHKvCOs

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

Rich: Good morning I'm working on some stuff that should knock your socks off! Please stand by - I hope to have it posted shortly

 

[iggyworf]

O.K. but wanted to post this as well. A small discrepancy on the streets but still tells about the move to a bigger facility. From the basement of the Hatcher Grocery Com¬pany, then located on Eleventh
Street between Broadway and Front Avenue, came the first bona fide Columbus
soft drink creation to achieve status - Royal Crown Ginger Ale. Claud then
created a line of fruit¬ flavored carbonated drinks called Melo.
The Hatcher Grocery Company was a built-in dis¬tribution system and, the
Hatcher soft drink business was on the way. Claud Hatcher and his father
organized the Union Bottl¬ing Works. In 1907 the grocery firm moved to its
present location at Tenth Avenue and Tenth Street which was to become an
International soft drink headquarters - but a lot of hard work and a lot of ups
and downs were ahead.

http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/muscogee/photos/hatcher13430gph.txt

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

Rich: At the top of the main page of the soda bottle threads you will see a title ... Soda Bottle Research Links on the Web One of the entries is a link to The American Bottler where you will find additional links to several digitalized copies of the magazine from 1903 to 1921. Here's a direct link to those magazines so you won't have to keep going back to the title page ... http://catalog.hathitrust.org/api/volumes/oclc/47107627.html I searched ever copy using the words Hatcher - Union Bottling Works - Royal Crown - and found the listings below which I cropped into snippets. I never did find a listing for Royal Crown but I did find the one's pictured below. What I find especially interesting about them is that it appears the Union Bottling Works was not incorporated until 1911. So I'm a little confused why all of the histories use the date 1905 for when it was established. Another thing I call into question is the 1906 snippet I posted yesterday where it said it was the Cole-Hatcher-Hampton company that was building the bottling plant. According to the various histories, Claud and his father were supposed to have bought out their partners "a few years" after 1901. I don't think of 1901 to 1906 as a few years, not to mention the so called partners were still involved in things in 1906 when they collectively built the bottling plant. Anyway, read what I found and see what you make of it. I listed the snippets according to the dates they were published in the American Bottler ... 1. 19112. 1911 (Two more to follow on the next post)

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

3. 1912 ... (Earliest listing I could find for Chero-Cola)4. 1912 ... (Union Bottling Works and Chero-Cola listed together)

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

Question(s) of the day ... If the Union Bottling Works had it's roots in the Hatcher's basement and Claud and his father bought out their partners a few years later, then why does the 1906 American Bottler article say it was the Cole, Hatcher, Hampton Co., wholesale grocers who built the new bottling works? And exactly when were the partners bought out?

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

Here's this again according to Cecil Munsey which emphasizes my confusion ...

 

[iggyworf]

It sounds like more people were involved with the Co. than just Claud and his dad.

If this is from 1911, could it have something to do with changing to "Chero cola Co." in 1912?

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

My main question is ... Did the very first BEVERAGES/BOTTLES/LABELS/ETC come from the basement or from the bottling plant built in 1906?

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

And if the very first BEVERAGES/BOTTLES/LABELS didn't come from the basement or the bottling plant built in 1906, then where did they come from?