Coalton

Coalton is a small mining town in Randolph County. Its bottler, H.B. Kramer, was only in business for one year before shutting down. These hutchinson style sodas are incredibly rare.

 

H.B. Kramer

1904—1906; 1908—1913

With Kramer around for so much longer than most bottlers, I suspect that these hutches that have been discovered are merely a case of not searching hard enough, rather than a vastly limited number being manufactured. I also suspect that Kramer began using crown top soda bottles at some point, and perhaps those will be found in time. Why there is a two-year gap in his business I do not know, perhaps that will be lost to history.

Of note with this bottle is that there are two variants that appear identical in all details except the base. One bears a horseshoe, the other has a blank base.

References

Header background: West Virginia History OnView (1908). View of buildings and farmland; Coalton, W.Va. [postcard].