Hinton

Hinton lies on the beautiful New River just a touch north of its confluence with the Greenbrier. It is the county seat of Summer County. At one time, Hinton was an important railroad town in the southern coalfields. From its peak population in the 1930s around 6,500 residents, only around 2,000 people now live in Hinton.

Its former importance shows in the relatively large number of bottlers from the town at one point or another. Among the earlier hutch style sodas, W.W. Brady/Brady Brothers were present, as well as the West Virginia Carbonating Company. The latter also has a crown top soda. With crown tops came a bit of an explosion of bottlers. Nevertheless, most Hinton bottles are at least scarce, with the Brady and Hinton Bottling Co. bottles being outright rare.

Brady Bros. / W.W. Brady

1890—18--

A W.W. Brady & Co. appears in the 1890 Dun & Bradstreet under Hinton, but they are listed as druggists at this time. That is not to say that they couldn’t have bottled soda as well, but typically this would be mentioned. No mention of the Brady’s appear in available newspapers, so our best date range is likely 1890 to 1-2 years after, as these bottles are extremely rare. Though this does not always mean that a bottler was short-lived, that is almost always a contributing factor. Missing here is a bottle embossed with “Brady Bros.”

Christo-Cola Bottling Co.

1916—1918

A 1916 article from The Independent-Herald announced that Christo-Cola Bottling Company incorporated with a capital stock of $10,000—roughly $300,000 today—with incorporators George O. Quesenberry, W.H. Garnett, C.C. Coalter, E. Charlton, and R.F. Dunlap (“New Hinton Incorporation”, 1916). Of the incorporators, C.C. Coalter served as president of the company, and that same year closed a deal to distribute “Grape-Smash” of the Tropical Fruit Juice Company (“New Drink”, 1916). This drink was distributed by the Christo-Cola Bottling Co. throughout Greenbrier, Monroe, Summers, and Raleigh County.

We are given its location in an article just a couple months later about a burglary of their bottling facility, which was in the “old Chesapeake Hotel" (“Christo Cola Plant”, 1916). The Chesapeake Hotel was located in Avis, which is a neighborhood of Hinton in the hill away from the river. The Chesapeake Hotel no longer stands today, however.

The Hinton Christ-Cola Co. last appears in the 1918 Dun & Bradstreet (Mercantile Agency, 1918).

Hinton Bottling Co.

1921—1924

Hinton Bottling Company first appears in a 1921 Dun & Bradstreet issue (Mercantile Agency, 1921). The second mention of Hinton Bottling Company I can locate is a short advertisement from 1922 they placed in the newspaper. It announces that they purchased Willey Brothers milk business and can manage to take a few new customers (“Notice”, 1922). They disappear by the 1924 Dun & Bradstreet, so they did not remain in business for long (Mercantile Agency, 1924).

Hinton Coca-Cola Bottling Co.

19??—19??

1915 Hinton hobbleskirt Coca-Cola bottle.

1915 Hinton hobbleskirt Coca-Cola bottle. Base.

1923 Hinton hobbleskirt Coca-Cola bottle.

1923 Hinton hobbleskirt Coca-Cola bottle. Base.

Hygienic Beverage Co.

19??—19??

West VA. Carbonating Co.

1905—1906

I.C. Pepper, of which their is a milk bottle named, also dabbled in the soft drink industry. In 1904, The Independent-Herald of Hinton announced that Pepper would be establishing two bottling companies: one in Sewell—Sewell Bottling Works—and one in Hinton—West Virginia Carbonating Co. (“Carbonating Works”, 1904). The article claims that the plants would have the capacity to fill and carbonate 1,500 dozen bottles a day, though I cannot find corroboration for that. It appears that the latter would not open until 1905 according to Dun & Bradstreet listings for that year (Mercantile Agency, 1905).

Evidently, the bottling works was not that successful, as by September 1906 it disappears from Dun & Bradstreet (Mercantile Agency, 1906). I should note that I.C. Pepper continued appearing in these listings as a beer bottler, though by name rather than his business.

References

Carbonating works. (1904, March 10). The Independent-Herald, 1.

Christo Cola plant burglarized. (1916, August 7). Hinton Daily News, 1.

Mercantile Agency, R.G. Dun & Company & Dun And Bradstreet. (1905) Dun and Bradstreet Reference Book: September, ; Vol. 150, part 2. New York, September 1. [Periodical] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/sep1905v150p2/.

Mercantile Agency, R.G. Dun & Company & Dun And Bradstreet. (1906) Dun and Bradstreet Reference Book: September, ; Vol. 154, part 2. New York, September 1. [Periodical] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/sep1906v154p2/.

Mercantile Agency, R.G. Dun & Company & Dun And Bradstreet. (1918) Dun and Bradstreet Reference Book: September, ; Vol. 202, part 2. New York, September 1. [Periodical] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/sep1918v202p2/.

Mercantile Agency, R.G. Dun & Company & Dun And Bradstreet. (1921) Dun and Bradstreet Reference Book: September, ; Vol. 214, part 2. New York, September 1. [Periodical] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/sep1921v214p2/.

Mercantile Agency, R.G. Dun & Company & Dun And Bradstreet. (1924) Dun and Bradstreet Reference Book: September, ; Vol. 226, part 4. New York, September 1. [Periodical] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/sep1924v226p4/.

New drink on sale. (1916, June 16). The Raleigh Herald, 1.

New Hinton incorporation. (1916, April 6). The Independent-Herald, 7.

Notice. (1922, April 27). Hinton Daily News, 1.