raw · papers · ingested 2026-07-26
Nicholson Bottling Works, El Paso — Three Rivers Glass Customer (Bill Lockhart, Bottles on the Border)
Source: https://secure-sha.org/bottle/pdffiles/EPChap9b.pdf
- Source URL: https://secure-sha.org/bottle/pdffiles/EPChap9b.pdf
- Ingested: 2026-07-26
- Note: This is a focused excerpt. The full chapter (“Bottles on the Border…,” © Bill Lockhart 2010, Revised Edition, Chapter 9b, “Nicholson Bottling Works (1925-1979)”) covers the bottler’s complete 54-year history; only Three Rivers Glass-relevant passages plus standing context are extracted here.
Bottler context: Nicholson Bottling Works (1925-1979)
After his partnership with John Beys failed, Gus Nicholson was still determined to stay in the bottling business, so, in 1925, the same year he became a U.S. citizen, he founded the Nicholson Bottling Works. He built his plant at an ideal location for his convenience – right in back of his house. For the duration of the company, the address was listed in El Paso city directories as “rear of 1024 Wyoming”
As a locally owned company competing against seven other El Paso bottlers (including Empire Products Corp. and Magnolia Coca-Cola), Nicholson Bottling Works remained in business for fifty-four years (1925-1979). Nicholson’s son Alkividias (“Alkie”) remained in the bottling business.
The Three Rivers 6.5-oz bottle (Smith 1989:49), order placed ca. 1934
Nicholson’s first embossed bottle style (1925-1936) was made by at least four different glass companies (Root 1925; Southern Glass ca. 1928; Illinois-Pacific 1931; Three Rivers). Variation 4 is the Three Rivers example — and contains Lockhart’s date-code claim, quoted exactly:
Variation 4: A photo of a 6.5-ounce Nicholson bottle appears in Smith (1989:49); the bottle was made by the Three Rivers Glass Co., ca. 1925-1937. Unfortunately, Three Rivers never used date codes, so these bottles may have been made at any time during the 1925-1937 period.
Contradiction flag: the statement “Three Rivers never used date codes” conflicts with other evidence, including Lockhart’s own El Paso dairies chapter (Mistletoe Creamery bottle heel-marked “3 RIVERS [star]” with a “28” date code; Dairy League half-pint marked “32 3RIVERS [star] 7” with a certain 1932 date code) and his Alamogordo Chapter 2 (Crystal Beverage bottles with Three Rivers heel mark and base digit “6,” probably a 1936 date code). The wiki records this contradiction rather than resolving it here.
On timing of the Three Rivers order:
Variation 5: There may be other variations of this bottle style. With the present sample, it appears that Nicholson added a nine-ounce size in 1931, although the plant probably also offered the 6½-ounce bottles until the end of the 1930s. The Three Rivers order may have occurred about 1934 or so, and those bottles were probably used until they wore out.
The half-pint dual-marked Three Rivers/Ball bottle (1937)
Nicholson’s second embossed bottle was a lighter-weight specialty style. Machine-made, colorless, 23.5 cm (h) x 5.4 cm (d at central labeling area), crown finish, 8 oz., with a spiraled double band and 20 embossed vertical double bands.
Front Description Body: Embossed - NICHOLSON Heel: Embossed - MIN. CONT. FULL ½ PT. / 3 RIVERS (star) Back Description Body: Embossed - BTG. WKS. Heel: Bare Base: Embossed - Ball (script – upside down) / EL PASO / TEX (no period) (Figure 9-20)
Manufacturer: Three Rivers Glass Co. (1925-1937); Ball Brothers Dating: [1937] This bottle can only have been made in 1937. The Ball Brothers purchased the plant that year and continued to manufacture bottles throughout the year to honor the existing contracts made by Three Rivers. At the end of the year, Ball Brothers disbanded the operation, although they used the plant as a warehouse for several more years (Smith 1989:26). Marks from both Three Rivers and Ball can only have come from the final year of operation. A photo of an identical bottle appeared in Smith (1989:51), but it was made for the Ideal brand. Collection(s): Author’s collection.