logo2

25 Nov 2021, last revised 23 Jul 2023

The soda company of Joseph Lloyd had its roots with pioneer operations in Houghton. Thomas Smith (see T. Smith page) and Shelden & Sheffer (see S. & S. page) started pop factories in their drug stores. The pop factories were consolidated at the S. & S. location as City Bottling Works with Geo. C. Shelden as proprietor. Shelden then sold the pop factory to J. Lloyd & Bro. (see J. L & B page). J. Lloyd & Bro. acquired a pop factory in Red Jacket and ran it as a second branch. Joseph Lloyd then formed a partnership with Peter Bennie. At some point, a L'Anse branch was established. Under Lloyd & Bennie, a Hancock branch was established. Lloyd and Bennie dissolved the partnership with Lloyd taking the L'Anse, Houghton, and Hancock branches and Bennie taking the Red Jacket branch. We are now left with one bottle from L'Anse bearing Joseph Lloyd's initials.

Joseph Lloyd was born on 02 Mar 1830 in Gloucestershire, England (1) and immigrated to the U.S. in 1868 (2). The 1870 U.S. Federal Census placed him in Calumet as a pop manufacturer (3). After dissolving the partnership with Peter Bennie on 01 May 1872 (4), Lloyd ran an ad from May 1872 to Apr 1874 that stated he had operations in Houghton, Hancock, and L'Anse.

Newspaper ad - <i>The Portage Lake Mining Gazette</i>, 30 May 1872
Newspaper ad - May 1872

We have yet to find any information specific to the L'Anse branch. With his ad, we can date his L'Anse bottle to 1872-1874. It is a wonder why he did not also have embossed bottles for Houghton and Hancock.

It is unknown when his soda business ended, but Joseph Lloyd was proprietor of a brick yard in L'Anse by Jan 1874 (11). The 1880 U.S. Federal Census placed him in L'Anse as a lumberman (5). He was then in Duluth for the 1885 Minnesota Census (6). Interestingly, hutchbook.com lists a Hutchinson bottle embossed, J. L. / DULUTH / MINN. The site states that the bottle has a base mark of WIS. GLASS CO. MILW. and attributes J. L. to Joseph Lloyd. So apparently, he was a bottler again in the early 1880s. He continued to reside in Duluth (7,8) until his death on 08 Feb 1917 at the age of 86 (1,9). But in Dec 1902, he visited his old friends in Red Jacket and was identified as, "who some thirty years ago ran a soda water manufactory in Red Jacket..." (12).

References

  1. Find a Grave. accessed Nov 2021. Joseph Darvel Lloyd Jr. findagrave.com/memorial/68400457/joseph-darvel-lloyd
  2. U.S. Census Bureau. 1910 United States Federal Census. accessed on ancestry.com.
  3. U.S. Census Bureau. 1870 United States Federal Census. accessed on ancestry.com.
  4. anonymous. (1872, May 09). Dissolutions. Portage Lake Mining Gazette (Houghton, MI). p. 3.
  5. U.S. Census Bureau. 1880 United States Federal Census. accessed on ancestry.com.
  6. Minnesota, 1885 Minnesota State Census. U.S., Territorial and State Censuses, 1849-1905. accessed on ancestry.com.
  7. U.S. Census Bureau. 1900 United States Federal Census. accessed on ancestry.com.
  8. U.S. Census Bureau. 1910 United States Federal Census. accessed on ancestry.com.
  9. Minnesota, U.S., Death Index, 1908-2017 (accessed on ancestry.com)
  10. anonymous. (1869, Nov 25). untitled. Portage Lake Mining Gazette (Houghton, MI). p. 3.
  11. anonymous. (1874, Jan 08). untitled. Portage Lake Mining Gazette (Houghton, MI). p. 3.
  12. anonymous. (1902, Dec 09). The City. The Copper Country Evening News (Calumet, MI). p. 4.

4
J. L. bottle
capacity: half-pint
color: aqua
top: blob top - applied
base: key mold
maker's mark: A. & D H. C (back heel)
other marks: (none)
date: 1872-1874
rarity: extremely rare
  • books shows an apostrophe after L in L'ANSE, but it's actually a double apostrophe