Richard Hooper
Houghton Mineral Water Bottling Works

13 Nov 2021, last revised 11 Sep 2023

Richard Hooper was a soda/mineral water bottler in Houghton for about ten years. For most of this period, mostly in the early 1900s, he was the only bottler operating in Houghton.

Richard T. Hooper was born on 13 Oct 1870 in Houghton (1). His father was born in England and his mother was born in Michigan (2). He worked for Matt Northey for a number of years, and then in Jan 1899, he purchased Northey's bottling works (15). He was then listed as a soda water manufacturer in the 1899 Polk directory (4). The location was described as on the east side of Dodge St., two addresses (or units) south of Montezuma Ave. (4). This was the same location used to describe Matthew Northey's bottling works in the 1897 directory (3). The Sanborn map shows that they operated in the old Hahn brewery, which was purchased by A. Haas Brewing Co. (5). The building burned in Mar 1903 at a loss of $25,000 (6). Hooper's bottling works then moved to 87 Dodge St. by 1905 (7), however the Sanborn map labeled an adjacent building on Montezuma Ave. as the bottling works.

Sanborn map - Jun 1900

Sanborn map - Feb 1908

The 1905 and 1907 directories listed Richard Hooper as proprietor of "Houghton Mineral Water Bottling Works" (7,8). He had one bottle (#32) embossed with this name and his initials on the base. Since the Polk directories rarely published company names, especially in earlier volumes, it is unknown if Hooper used this name from the beginning or if he established it later. Michigan labor inspections recorded a "Houghton Bottling Works" with five employees in 1904 and 1906 (13,14). Despite the slight difference in name, this listing probably was Hooper's business. Matt Northey also used this name, but his business was last listed in 1897 and then he died in 1905. Cochran's bottling works later used this name, but apparently only after he sold it in 1922. Plus, Cochran was in Baraga until 1908. An ad from the 1903 directory specified that Hooper bottled more than just mineral water (11).

Newspaper ad - Sep 1899

Polk directory ad - 1903

Hooper was listed as a mineral water manufacturer in the 1909 directory (9), and then the 1910 directory noted that he had moved to Oakland, CA (10). Thus, his business started in 1898 or 1899 and ended in 1909 or 1910. It is unknown what happened to Hooper in California.

References

1. Michigan, U.S., Births and Christenings Index, 1867-1911 (accessed on ancestry.com).
2. U.S. Census Bureau. 1900 United States Federal Census. accessed on ancestry.com.
3. R. L. Polk & Co. 1897. Houghton County Directory 1897-98. R. L. Polk & Co., Publishers. Detroit, MI.
4. R. L. Polk & Co. 1899. Houghton County Directory 1899-1900. R. L. Polk & Co., Publishers. Detroit, MI.
5. anonymous. 1883. History of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The Western Historical Company. Chicago, IL.
6. anonymous. (1903, Mar 14). Peninsula News. The L'Anse Sentinel (L'Anse, MI). p. 1.
7. R. L. Polk & Co. 1905. Houghton County Directory 1905-06. R. L. Polk & Co., Publishers. Detroit, MI.
8. R. L. Polk & Co. 1907. Houghton County Directory 1907-08. R. L. Polk & Co., Publishers. Detroit, MI.
9. R. L. Polk & Co. 1909. Michigan State Gazetteer and Business Directory for 1909. R. L. Polk & Co. Detroit, MI.
10. R. L. Polk & Co. 1910. 1910 Calumet, Houghton, Hancock and Laurium Directory. R. L. Polk & Co., Publishers. Detroit, MI.
11. R. L. Polk & Co. 1903. Michigan State Gazetteer and Business Directory for 1903-1904. R. L. Polk & Co. Detroit, MI.
12. anonymous. (1908, May 23). Will Remove to Houghton. The L'Anse Sentinel (L'Anse, MI). p. 5.
13. Bureau of Labor and Industrial Statistics. 1905. State of Michigan Twenty-Second Annual Report of the Bureau of Labor and Industrial Statistics Including the Twelfth Annual Report of State Inspection of Factories. Wynkoop Hallenbeck Crawford Co., State Printers. Lansing, MI.
14. Bureau of Labor and Industrial Statistics. 1907. State of Michigan Twenty-Fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of Labor and Industrial Statistics Including the Fourteenth Annual Report of State Inspection of Factories. Wynkoop Hallenbeck Crawford Co., State Printers. Lansing, MI.
15. anonymous. (1899, Jan 14). Portage Lake News. The Copper Country Evening News (Calumet, MI). p. 3.