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

1889—189?

A W.W. Brady & Co. appears in the 1889 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—1926(?)

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). Later that same year, the company changes hands from W.C. Peggins (also of Hygienic Beverage Co.) to D.E. Mottesheard (“Bottling Co.,” 1922). They disappear by the 1924 Dun & Bradstreet (Mercantile Agency, 1924), though they are still listed in the 1925 Beverage Blue Book with Mottesheard still at the helm. They don’t reappear in the 1930 Beverage Blue Book, so they closed at some point between 1925 and then.

Hinton Coca-Cola Bottling Co.

1923—1960s(?)

The Hinton Coca-Cola Bottling Co. first appears in 1923, both in the form of advertisements in July (Hinton Coca-Cola Bottling Co., 1923) and Dun & Bradstreet from that year. This date, so soon before the switch from the 1915 to 1923 patent, may explain the rarity of the 1915-patented hobbleskirts.

The 1925 Beverage Blue Book gives C.P. Nair, Jr. as the proprietor of the bottling works and the 1930 Beverage Blue Book lists V.V. Turner as the manager of the operation. A later 1939 advertisement places the plant on Pleasant Street, though without a number (Hinton Coca-Cola Bottling Co., 1939). The last advertisements I can locate are from 1960 (Hinton Coca-Cola Bottling Co., 1960), though I do not know exactly when the plant closed.

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.

1919—1926(?)

The Hygienic Beverage Co. chartered in 1919 with incorporators W.C. Peggins, H.L. Johnson, L.R. Peck, A. Swarm, and R.F. Dunlap (“Charters Issued,” 1919). According to an article soon after its incorporation, H.L. Johnson served as president and W.C. Peggins as manager (“Hygienic Beverage,” 1919). The company had bought out the Christo-Cola Bottling Company of Hinton and moved into their plant, so presumably this plant was located in Avis as well.

I presumed the company shut down when it appeared in the list of companies delinquent on their taxes in 1921 (“List of,” 1921), but the company continues to appear after this up to the 1925 Beverage Blue Book. It does not, however, reappear in the 1930 edition, leading me to believe it shut down soon after.

West VA. Carbonating Co.

1905—1906

I.C. Pepper, of whom there is also 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 this plant in particular would not open until 1905 according to Dun & Bradstreet listings for that year (Mercantile Agency, 1905).

An advertisement (1904) implies that West VA. Carbonating Co. was present in both Hinton and Sewell, with the bottles marked Sewell Bottling Works likely just indicating which plant to return the bottles to. The same advertisements gives an extensive list of products bottled, including queen soda, birch and root beer, ginger ale, peach mellow, lemon sour, iron brew, “Ron-Bre,” Celery-Cola, ciders, and twenty different flavors of soda.

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

The Beverage Journal. (1925). The beverage blue book and catalog. H.S. Rich & Co.

The Beverage Journal. (1930). The beverage blue book and catalog. H.S. Rich & Co.

Bottling co. sold. (1922, October 26). Hinton Daily News, 1.

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

Charters issued. (1919, April 29). The Wheeling Intelligencer, 10.

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

Hinton Coca-Cola Bottling Co. (1923, July 27). Hinton Daily News, 3.

Hinton Coca-Cola Bottling Co. (1939, January 4). Hinton Daily News, 3.

Hinton Coca-Cola Bottling Co. (1960, December 29). Hinton Daily News, 8.

Hygienic Beverage Co. doing good business. (1919, May 22). Hinton Daily News, 1.

List of personal property in county of Summers delinquent for the taxes of 1920. (1921, August 25). The Independent-Herald, 4.

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.

West VA. Carbonating Co. (1904, July 9). Manufacturers of soda pops, seltzer and phosphates of all kinds [advertisement]. Hinton Daily News, 1.