Hancock City Bottling Works

14 Nov 2021, last revised 17 Feb 2024

Most soda/mineral water bottlers in the Copper Country were small and often short-lived operations. The Hancock City Bottling Works had only two known bottles, but surprisingly it existed for at least six years. Its proprietor was Henry H. Saam (1).

Henry Herman Saam was born on 02 Sep 1871 in Copper Falls to immigrants from Germany (2). The 1899 Polk directory listed him as a brewer's agent in Hancock (3), and the 1901 and 1903 volumes specified that the agency was for the Val Blatz Brewing Co. (7,8). After resigning his position with Blatz, he became the Portage Lake agent for the Calumet Brewing Co. in Apr 1904 (11). In Dec 1904, he purchased a saloon on Quincy St. (4), but it went out of business on 01 May 1906 (10).

On 09 May 1906, the newspaper announced Saam's plans to start a pop factory (10). He had secured the basement of the Crawford building on the corner of Hancock St. and Ravine St., ordered the necessary machinery, and engaged experienced men to manufacture all kinds of soft drinks (10). On 09 Jun 1906, the "Hancock City Bottling Works" started selling its product and additional equipment was expected to arrive during the week (9). The bottling works apparently moved, because the 1907 directory listed him as proprietor of "City Bottling Works" at 738 Hancock St. with his residence being at the same address (1). The 1907 Sanborn map showed the bottling works housed in a building at the rear of the lot in a residential area.

Sanborn map - Nov 1907

The "City Bottling Works" and Saam were last listed in the 1912 directory (5). Saam then died on 05 Sep 1914 at the age of 43 and was buried in Forest Hill Cemetery, Houghton (6). His death certificate listed his occupation as hotel keeper (6), so it seems he was not running the bottling works at the time of his death.

Based on his history, Saam's bottling works started in 1906 and ended in 1912 to 1914. For this duration, we expected him to have used more than just two bottles. His bottles have date codes for 1906 and 1908, thus they were purchased in the first few years of his operation. Was he able to reuse the bottles for many years, or are there more bottles yet to be discovered?

Citations

1. R. L. Polk & Co. 1907. Houghton County Directory 1907-08. R. L. Polk & Co., Publishers. Detroit, MI.
2. Michigan Department of Community Health, Division for Vital Records and Health Statistics; Lansing, Michigan; Death Records (accessed on ancestry.com).
3. R. L. Polk & Co. 1899. Houghton County Directory 1899-1900. R. L. Polk & Co., Publishers. Detroit, MI.
4. anonymous. (1904, Dec 24). Saloon changes hand. The Evening Journal (Hancock, MI). p. 8.
5. R. L. Polk & Co. 1912. 1912 Calumet, Hancock, Houghton and Laurium Directory. R. L. Polk & Co., Publishers. Detroit, MI.
6. Michigan Department of Community Health, Division for Vital Records and Health Statistics; Lansing, Michigan; Death Records (accessed on ancestry.com).
7. R. L. Polk & Co. 1901. Houghton County Directory 1901-02. R. L. Polk & Co., Publishers. Detroit, MI.
8. R. L. Polk & Co. 1903. Houghton County Directory 1903-04. R. L. Polk & Co., Publishers. Detroit, MI.
9. anonymous. (1906, Jun 10). New industry ready. The Daily Mining Gazette (Houghton, MI). p. 4.
10. anonymous. (1906, May 09). New pop factory. The Daily Mining Gazette (Houghton, MI). p. 3.
11. anonymous. (1904, Apr 30). untitled. The Daily Mining Gazette (Houghton, MI). p. 3.