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references · updated 2026-07-26

Three Rivers Glass — Known Customers

confidence: medium volatility: cold verified: 2026-07-26fresh

The documented customer roster of the Three Rivers Glass Co. (1922–1937), built from embossed customer names on 3 RIVERS-marked bottles: Smith's 75-item price list, the Hoffmann-Hayman catalog's addendum (UNEEDA, Beaumont), and Bill Lockhart's El Paso/Alamogordo scholarship (Union, Nicholson, Empire/Dr Pepper, Victory, Lone Star Bottling, Mistletoe, Dairy League, Crystal Beverage of Alamogordo NM). Roughly 60 named customers across franchise soda plants (plus two photo-plate-only finds: Jay Bee Liquid Bluing and Crown Brand pickles), independent bottling works, dairies, and food packers — with the six methodological caveats that govern what an embossed name proves, and the standing caveat that generic paper-labeled ware means the true customer base was larger.

Who bought Three Rivers glass? The evidence is the bottles themselves: when a piece carries both the 3 RIVERS ★ maker’s mark and an embossed customer name, it documents at least one order. By that method the record names roughly 60 customers — Texas soda franchises and independent bottling works above all, plus dairies, food packers, and a few out-of-state buyers from Georgia to New Mexico. The list is a floor, not a census: most small bottlers bought generic paper-labeled ware that names nobody.

How to read this list (method and caveats)

Per the historical-bottle scholarship (Lockhart; SHA), six caveats govern every entry:

  1. Brand ≠ purchaser. On franchise brands (Coca-Cola, Dr Pepper), the customer was the local franchise plant — Coca-Cola mandated city embossing in 1918 precisely to track which local plants bought bottles.
  2. “Made for,” not necessarily “ordered by.” Plate-mold embossing identifies the party the run was manufactured for; jobbers or brand licensors occasionally ordered on a bottler’s behalf.
  3. Manufacture ≠ use. Bottles were reused for years and refilled by competitors despite “property of”/“never sold” embossing; find-context adds nothing to the order book.
  4. Date codes are unsettled. Lockhart states in one chapter that “Three Rivers never used date codes,” yet his own documented bottles carry a 1928 code (Mistletoe) and a certain 1932 code (Dairy League), and BRG reports codes from 1928 — treat individual codes as probable, not certain.
  5. The list systematically undercounts. Generic ware (plain sodas, packers’ jars, fruit jars, plain milk bottles) carried no customer name; absence from this list is not absence of a relationship.
  6. One bottle = one order. Small bottlers reordered only every 1–2 years in ~1,000-bottle minimum lots and switched glasshouses freely; an entry documents “at least one order,” not loyalty.

Evidence tiers used below: [S] Smith 1989 price list (both wiki witnesses); [P] Smith 1989 photo plates (photographed specimen, both witnesses); [L] Lockhart-documented specimen (strongest — physically examined, published); [H] Hoffmann-Hayman catalog (collector-verified specimen); [B] Bottle Research Group 2019.

The photo plates (94 bottles, pp. 49–56) were mined caption-by-caption against the price list on 2026-07-26: they yield exactly two customers the price list lacks — Jay Bee Liquid Bluing (embossed) and Crown Brand dill pickles (paper label). Every other captioned name already appears below.

Lockhart’s complete El Paso corpus (all 23 hosted Bottles on the Border files and all 20 El Paso Dairies files) was swept the same day: no Three Rivers customer beyond the seven already listed appears anywhere in it. El Paso is exhausted as a source; the thin footprint there — the best-documented bottling market in Texas, ~600 miles from the plant — itself supports the truck-radius reading of the customer base.

Franchise soda customers (the local plant is the customer)

Franchise plantLocationEvidence
Coca-Cola Bottling Co.Bastrop, TX[S] #11
Coca-Cola “Gills”Beeville, TX[S] #12
Giddings Coca-Cola Bottling Co.Giddings, TX[S] #32
Coca-Cola Bottling Co. (as bottler of Anderson’s Soda Water)—[S] #1, [H]
Coca Cola Bottling Co. (Staat’s Beverages)New Braunfels, TX[S] #65, [H]
Dr. Pepper Bottling Co.Eagle Lake, TX[S] #18
Dr. Pepper Bottling Co.Laredo, TX[S] #20
Dr. Pepper Bottling Co.Mt. Pleasant, TX[S] #21
Dr. Pepper Bottling Co.Paris, TX[S] #22, [L] (near-twin of Union El Paso bottle, Smith 1989:50)
Dr. PepperTemple, TX[S] #23
”DP Soda – Dr. Pepper”Uvalde, TX[S] #17
Empire Products Corp. (Dr Pepper franchise)El Paso, TX[L] ca. 1930 clock-face bottle
Pepsi ColaAustin, TX[S] #54
Orange CrushKenedy, TX; New Braunfels, TX[S] #53, [H] variants
Nehi Beverages(Columbus, GA variant)[S] #49, [H]
Royal Crown Root BeerMorgan City, LA[S] #59
Delaware Punch— (“Patented March 4 1924”)[S] #15
Kist—[S] #41

Independent bottling works and beverage makers

CustomerLocationEvidence
Austin Bottling WorksAustin, TX[S] #2
Big Chief — Blackburn Bros.Clarksville, TX[S] #5
Bluebonnet BeveragesRusk, TX[S] #6
BrandimistAtlanta, GA[S] #7
Burns—[S] #8
CaliforniaDallas, TX[S] #9
Carmine Bottling Works—[S] #10
”Contents 6½ Fl. Oz.”Uvalde, TX[S] #13
Crown Bottling Co.West, TX (?)[S] #14 (Smith’s own question mark)
Diamond K BeveragesKingsville, TX[S] #16
Dragon Bottling Co.San Antonio, TX[S] #24
Edward’s—[S] #25
F. J. Piwetz Bottling Wks.Fayetteville, TX[S] #27–28 (two styles)
Fizzon (“Joy-Synth”)—[S] #29
The Famous Milwaukee Drinks—[S] #31, #47
H. CuellarZapata, TX[S] #35
Holt Beverage Co.Waco, TX[S] #33
Hondo Bottling WorksHondo, TX[S] #36
Ideal Bottling Co.— (dual 3 Rivers/Ball, 1937 Ball-era)[S] #37, [L]
“It — The Whole Tired World Wants It”San Antonio, TX[S] #38
JulepPearsall, TX[S] #39
Jumbo— (“SBC,” possibly Southern Bottling Co.)[S] #40, [H] hedged
Klasek’s Bottling Works—[S] #42
Knightcap—[S] #44
Kraus Bottled PurityFredericksburg, TX[S] #43
Mexi-Pep—[S] #45
Mistletoe (soda)—[S] #48
Nicholson Bottling WorksEl Paso, TX[S] #50, [L] (~1934 order; the exactly-1937 dual-marked half-pint is Nicholson’s)
Pickoff “Sign of Purity”Taylor, TX[S] #55
Reed Bros.Luling, TX[S] #56
Rodriguez Root Beer Bottling Co.San Antonio, TX[S] #51–52
Rio Rey / Sharry Products Co.Mission, TX[S] #58, #61–62
San Benito Bottling WorksSan Benito, TX[S] #60
Southern Bottling Co.Corpus Christi, TX[S] #63
Southwest Ice Co.Georgetown, TX[S] #64
Standard Bottling Works (”…Never Sold”)San Antonio, TX[S] #66
Taylor Bottling WorksTaylor, TX (?)[S] #67 (Smith’s own question mark)
“Texas”Waco, TX[S] #68
ThreemorTemple, TX[S] #69
Trinity Bottling WorksTrinity, TX[S] #72
Union B. WorksHouston, TX[S] #73
Union Bottling WorksEl Paso, TX[L] two specimens, ca. 1925–1930 and 1930s
Victory Bottling Works (Alejandro Marquez)El Paso, TX[S] #74, [L] 1927–1931
Lone Star Bottling Works (Jose Urrutia)El Paso, TX[L] (Ram Davila collection specimen)
Crystal Beverage Co. (Thomas O’Conor)Alamogordo, NM[L] two specimens, base “6” (probably 1936)
UNEEDA Bottling WorksBeaumont, TX[H] addendum specimen with star heel mark
Yoakum C.V.C. Co.Yoakum, TX[S] #75

Dairies and creameries

CustomerLocationEvidence
Mistletoe CreameriesFort Worth HQ; branches incl. El Paso, Dallas, Houston, Amarillo, San Antonio[S] #46, [L] (Smith 1989:54 quart + half-pint; Lockhart specimen with 1928 date code; firm ceased 1932)
Lone Star CreameryHouston, TX[S] #46 (pint)
Phoenix Dairy (“Milk — The Ideal Food”)— (possibly El Paso)[S] #46 (quart)
Roselawn FarmsThree Rivers, TX — the hometown dairy[S] #46
Dairy League (Elephant Butte Dairy Co.)El Paso, TX (1931–1933)[L] half-pint, certain 1932 date code

Food, condiment, and non-beverage customers

CustomerLocationProductEvidence
Hoffmann-Hayman (“H and H”) Coffee Co.San Antonio, TXCrystalvac vacuum-pack coffee jars — a quarter-million-jar order, 1932 (also dual-sourced from Owens-Illinois, see below)[S] #34, Mackey collection, [H]
Trappey’s Food Products / Tabasco Peppers(Louisiana)sauce bottles[S] #70–71
Evangeline Pepper SauceSt. Martinville, LApepper sauce[S] #26, [H]
Gebhardt Eagle Chili Powder(San Antonio)chili-powder bottles[S] #30
Real Shine—shoe-polish container[S] #57
Jay Bee Liquid Bluing—laundry-bluing bottle[P] photo plate p. 51 — embossed, absent from the price list
Crown Brand (dill pickles)—one-quart jar with surviving paper label, stylized barrel design[P] photo plate p. 55 — label evidence, not embossing: documents a packer filling TRG jars; the jar itself is a stock TRG quart

Unconfirmed and negative cases

  • Suggestive but unconfirmed (Hoffmann-Hayman “unknowns”): City Bottling Works (no city); Coca Cola Bottling Works, Lockhart, TX; Smile, Glenmora, LA; one unlabeled clear 6½-oz with star marks.
  • Negative case worth recording: Texas Bottling Works (El Paso, 1924–1934) used bottles identical to Union’s Three Rivers containers but with no manufacturer’s mark — Lockhart does not count it a confirmed customer, and neither does this wiki.
  • Generic entries in Smith’s list (#3–4 beer bottles, plain milk bottles in #46) name no customer at all — the physical reminder that the embossed census is a floor.

See Also

Sources