Matt Northey

26 Nov 2021, last revised 22 May 2024

Matt Northey was a prominent soda bottler in the Houghton/Hancock area. He operated the bottling works for about 11 years prior to 1900.

Matthew Northey was born on 08 Nov 1846 (5) in Cornwall, England (1). According to his obituary, he immigrated to the U.S. in 1867, arrived in the Copper Country in 1870 and stayed for three years, lived in California for about three years, moved to Red Jacket, and then moved to Houghton in 1877 (12). The 1880 U.S. Federal Census placed Matthew in Houghton, where he worked in the sheriff department with his older brother, Henry, who was the jailer and sheriff (13). Although Matthew resided in Houghton, he and his younger brother, William ran a saloon in Calumet as the Northey Bros. in the late 1870s (14,2). The Northey Bros. then partnered with Joseph James as pop manufacturers in Calumet (3,4) (see N. & J.).

The 1887 Holland directory listed Matt Northey as a manufacturer of mineral water, etc. at 309 Dodge St., Houghton (5), but we could not find this address on the 1888 Sanborn map. The 1895 Polk directory described the location as being on the east side of Dodge St., between Montezuma St. and Albion St. (6). The Sanborn maps showed this location to be the old Hahn brewery, which A. Haas purchased.

Sanborn map - Jun 1888

Sanborn map - Aug 1893

The 1895 directory stated the name of the bottling works as "Houghton Bottling Works" (6). Since this name only appeared in this volume, it is unknown if Matt used it throughout the duration of his business.

Polk directory ad - 1895

Polk directory ad - 1897

Matt was last listed as a soda water manufacturer in the 1897 directory (7), and then in Jan 1899, he sold the bottling works to Richard Hooper, who had been employed by Matt for a number of years (15). Richard Hooper was then listed in the 1899 directory for the bottling works at the same location (8). Matt died on 23 Aug 1905 in Hancock at the age of 58 (9) and was buried in Forest Hill Cemetery, Houghton (10).

Since Matt was listed in the 1887 Houghton directory (5) but not in the 1887 Michigan State directory (11), he probably started the bottling works in 1887. He then clearly gave up the business in Jan 1899. One of his early bottles (#5) has a blob top, but it was tooled, and the bottle shape is more like a Hutchinson bottle than a squat soda. Thus, it clearly dates later than the other blob top sodas from the Copper Country. He used mostly Hutchinson bottles but also had two crown-top bottles. His crown-top bottles were probably the earliest crown-top soda bottles of the Copper Country.

Citations

1. Census Returns of England and Wales, 1851. Kew, Surrey, England: The National Archives of the UK (TNA): Public Record Office (PRO), 1851. (accessed on ancestry.com)
2. R. L. Polk & Co. 1879. Michigan State Gazetteer and Business Directory 1879. The Detroit Free Press Company. Detroit, MI.
3. R. L. Polk & Co. 1881. Michigan State Gazetteer and Business Directory 1881. R. L. Polk & Co. Detroit, MI.
4. R. L. Polk & Co. 1883. Michigan State Gazetteer and Business Directory 1883. R. L. Polk & Co. Detroit, MI.
5. Holland, A. H. 1887. 1887-8 Hand-book and Guide to Houghton, Mich. Mining Journal Book and Job Print. Marquette, MI.
6. R. L. Polk & Co. 1895. Houghton County Directory 1895-96. R. L. Polk & Co., Publishers. Detroit, MI.
7. R. L. Polk & Co. 1897. Houghton County Directory 1897-98. R. L. Polk & Co., Publishers. Detroit, MI.
8. R. L. Polk & Co. 1899. Houghton County Directory 1899-1900. R. L. Polk & Co., Publishers. Detroit, MI.
9. Michigan Department of Community Health, Division for Vital Records and Health Statistics; Lansing, Michigan; Death Records (accessed on ancestry.com).
10. Find a Grave. accessed Nov 2021. Matthew Northey. findagrave.com/memorial/58758954/matthew-northey
11. R. L. Polk & Co. 1887. Michigan State Gazetteer and Business Directory 1887-88. R. L. Polk & Co. Detroit, MI.
12. anonymous. (1905, Aug 24). Death of Matthew Northey. The Daily Mining Gazette (Houghton, MI). p. 7.
13. U.S. Census Bureau. 1880 United States Federal Census. accessed on ancestry.com.
14. R. L. Polk & Co. 1877. Michigan State Gazetteer and Business Directory 1877. R. L. Polk & Co. Detroit, MI.
15. anonymous. (1899, Jan 14). Portage Lake news. The Copper Country Evening News (Calumet, MI). p. 3.