This
past summer a reader sent me a photo of a bottle she had acquired. The container bears the imprint of the Algona
Bottling Works and appears to be from the very early part of the 20th
century. Her curiosity about the bottle
was infectious so I had to find out a little bit about the history of the
company.
THE FIRST ALGONA BOTTLING WORKS
I
first did a little poking around in the newspaper archives without much success
until I discovered that the Algona Bottling Works was often referred to as the
Algona Pop Factory. The History of
Kossuth County which was published in 1913 reports that the Algona Pop Factory
opened in 1891. However, I was not able
to find anything about the plant until 1897 when two articles caught my eye.
The
first – published in the Upper Des Moines on June 30th of that year
– reported the following: ”Algona’s new
pop factory is in full blast and doing a rushing business. The proprietor is Mr. J. F. Conlee, formerly
of Manson, and he understands the pop-making business to perfection. Algona welcomes this as another addition to
its manufacturing industries.” Just
two weeks later on July 14th the Republican reported, “The plant of the pop factory was on Monday
taken possession of by Mr. Vesper of the C. & N.W. railroad company, the
proprietors having failed to pay the freight.
The success of the institution has been placed in doubt from the start
by the disposition of the managers to neglect their own home manufacture for
other drinks.” What a difference two
weeks (and editors’ opinions) can make!
HERE TO STAY
Algona
wasn’t ready to give up on a pop factory yet.
In early 1898, Charley Stewart decided to open shop in a facility just
north of the alley on the east side of North Dodge Street, at the address now
known as 114 North Dodge. Charley had
the novel of idea of using distilled water from the Algona Milling Company and
was the only factory in Iowa making pop in this manner. By May of that year he was turning out 30
cases per day.
I
have been unable to determine all the types of “pop” the factory
manufactured. Ginger ale bottled there was
mentioned by one customer as having done him so much good that he thought
Stewart should advertise it as a tonic and cure for summer complaint. However
another article in August of 1898 from the Armstrong Journal reported “The police courts were busy in Algona last
week. Four drunks besides other matters
demanded their attention in one day.
That pop factory must be doing a big business.” This leads me to wonder if perhaps they
bottled something a little more potent than ginger ale?
Stewart
slowly and steadily built his business.
He sold 300 cases for the Fourth of July celebration the first year and
could have sold another 500 had he been able to get them. By September he employed three men full
time. He established a delivery route
and was soon distributing his products all across northwest Iowa. By 1900 he had
implemented a bottling machine increasing his output to the extent that it was necessary
to order bottles two train car loads at a time.
One news article stated that he had used nine barrels of sugar within a
six week period.
The
bottling factory was experiencing growing pains and it became obvious that a
larger, more modern facility was needed.
When the quarter block on which his bottling facility sat was sold to
build a brick livery and feed stable, Charley decided to erect a 40 x 40 foot building
that would house new, state of the art machinery. He purchased a lot on the east end of State
Street “nearly opposite the North-Western hotel” which according to the Sanborn
Fire Maps sat on the northwest corner of the State and Phillips Streets
intersection. Another article says that
plant was built near the Northwestern depot and still another states that it
got its power from the Spurbeck & Lambert Company which stood on the east
side of the Northwestern depot along Lantry Street. A few years later an article describing the
future location of the Athletic Park described that property as a tract of
ground running 340 feet south from the alley in the rear of the bottling works
and 460 feet west from Phillips Street.
In addition two corner lots east of the bottling works were to be part
of the Athletic Park.
 |
| Perhaps the site of the Algona Bottling Works? |
Charley
Stewart’s personal life was also busy.
He had married his wife, Maggie Stockman, in 1896, and by 1902 several
children had joined their family. The
scourge of his life, however, was diabetes.
In 1903 it almost caused him to go out of business, but he managed to keep
going until 1905 when he sold the business to William F. Nierling of
Waukon. The Stewarts remained in Algona
and Charley sought out diabetes specialists, but the disease ended his life in
1908 at the age of 46. He was survived
by his wife and four small children, the youngest of which was only a few
months old.
OTHER OWNERS
Nierling
was new to the bottling business.
Previously he had worked as a bank cashier and also deputy county
treasurer for Allamakee County. Several
months after moving to the Algona area, he married Fannie Palmer Stewart at
Ledyard. It does not appear from my
research that Fannie was related to Charley.
The two settled in Algona where they would start a family and become
involved in community activities.
Under
his ownership, the pop works continued to grow.
By 1911 the business had a capacity of about 600 cases per day. Deliveries expanded as far north as
Minneapolis. In January of 1912,
Nierling sold the business to Mark Sarchet and Jesse Staley.
Described
as young and ambitious, the two were excited to lead one of Algona’s best known
businesses. They established a good
reputation for having an up-to-date factory using thoroughly filtered city
water for their products. In addition to
beverages, they began to manufacture bluing for washing purposes which could be
found at any local grocery store. They
operated the company until December of 1916 when they sold their interest to O.
J. Stephenson and L. A. Miner who planned to place the bottling plant in their
new candy factory and ice cream parlor.
ALGONA CANDY KITCHEN & BOTTLING WORKS
Stephenson
and Miner formed a corporation to hold the various entities. Sarchet remained with the firm to operate the
pop factory. The future location of the
new store was 15 East State. Construction
would not be completed until September of 1917.
The bottling works was to occupy the rear 30 feet of the first floor and
as much of the basement as it needed.
The
new structure had large plate glass windows on each side of the center
door. The front section was to be used
as a candy and ice cream parlor. The
interior was golden oak with fixtures to match.
It had tiled floors and a metal ceiling.
The beautiful new soda fountain was the main feature and served soft
drinks, ices, ice cream, sodas, sundaes and other sweet delights. The large glass counters displayed a large
variety of candy and sweets made on the premises. Two rows of white marble topped tables flowed
through the space while custom-made oak seats lined the walls.
Soft
drinks, soda waters, ciders and ginger ale, crushed fruits and syrups and gas
for fountains were all manufactured in the bottling department. O. J. Stephenson marketed the products within
a 75 mile radius of Algona.
The
second floor provided space for a candy manufacturing room and a large store
room. One of the best features of the
building was an elevator allowing maximum use of all three floors. Six to ten people were employed at the
business with a total payroll of around $250 weekly.
 |
| From the Algona Courier, March 28, 1918 |
In
1923 L. A. Miner sold his interest in the business to Tony Goeders who had been
operating the Burt Bakery. Goeders
converted a portion of the upper floor into a bakery moving his equipment from
Burt and adding a new bread molder.
ANOTHER MOVE
The
bottling works was moved once again in 1928 when O. J. Stephenson established
it in the North American Engine Company building at the east end of East State
Street where it struggled as several managers came and went. In 1932 Louis Hoffbauer came here from Eagle
Grove where he owned another bottling works.
He purchased the ailing company which he regenerated and went on to run
successfully for almost 30 years.
And
although the history of the Algona Bottling Company continues on, this seems a
good place for my story about it to come to an end. Thanks to Abigail Huff for sharing the bottle
photos with me. Some bottles have a
magic genie inside—this one just happened to have an interesting story!
Until
next time,
Kossuth
County History Buff
If you enjoyed this
post, please don’t forget to “like” and SHARE to Facebook. Not a Facebook
user? Sign up with your email address in the box on the right to have
each post sent directly to you.
Be sure to visit the
KCHB Facebook page for more interesting info about the history of Kossuth
County, Iowa.
Reminder: The posts on Kossuth County History Buff are ©2015-18 by
Jean Kramer. Please use the FB “share” feature instead of
cutting/pasting.
