# The First Texas Milk Bottle & Other Digs



## nhpharm (Nov 30, 2016)

I went out this past Sunday for a day of trash pit digging and dug some neat stuff from a wide age range.  From an early and very deep trash pit I dug several English blackglass bottles, a Hinman/New York clear glass medicine, a small pottery bottle, and a blob top ale bottle that is just beautiful...a nice amber color and full of bubbles-maybe Northeast? From a small 1890's trash pit I dug a tiny poison (2" tall), a Gust Feist Galveston Texas tabasco competitor bottle, and a quart milk bottle embossed "Metropolitan/Milk Company/E.P. Pomeroy/Manager".  Very excited about the Pomeroy bottle as I believe this is Texas's first milk bottle...he is known as the man who introduced Texas to glass milk bottles with his Galveston dairy and this is the classic early style.  Finally, I was too tired to keep probing (this lot is very hard to probe) so I punched a random hole and came up with an extremely rare hutch soda from Galveston (H. Cortes & Bro Belfast Ginger Ale & Mineral Water-never even seen a whole example of this one) and while I was caving in the hole also found a B.A. Cook Sweet Revenge whiskey flask.  All in all a great day of digging.  Dug about 50-60 other bottles as well.


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## ACLbottles (Nov 30, 2016)

Very nice finds! Is that flask a rare one? Would it be possible for you to post a close up picture of that rare Galveston hutch? Thanks!


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## hemihampton (Nov 30, 2016)

I see 4, maybe 5 Hutch's. Can you post a close up pic of those. Congrats on the nice finds. LEON.


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## nhpharm (Dec 1, 2016)

The flask is a fairly tough one to find...in 5 years of solid digging we've dug (digging partner and I) a total of 3, all with some level of damage.  They are tiny...I'm thinking maybe 1/4 pint.  There is a much rarer version that is a 1/2 pint as well.  My suspicion is that the 1/4 pint ones might have been some sort of holiday give-aways.  B.A. Cook had a grocery store so sold lots of stuff.  There are also ground lip screw top 1/2 pint and pint flasks from him that contained Brookhill Whiskey...those are also very hard to find.  I just love the name on this one..."Sweet Revenge".  Of course, what B.A. Cook was doing was buying from Friedman, Keiler & Co of Paducah, KY in bulk (they had the trademarks on Brook-Hill and Sweet Revenge) and bottling it in his bottles.


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## nhpharm (Dec 1, 2016)

I had a hard time getting reasonable photos of the hutches because they are hazed up and the lettering doesn't show up well but if you are curious Ron has good photos of these up on Hutchbook.com.  The one in the middle front is a TX0277 (very excited to dig this one).  The one on the left front is a TX0291.3, which seems like it should be fairly easy to find but has proven just about impossible for me to get a good one (dug two so far, both damaged).  Rear left is a TX0313 that I dug in a privy about 6 weeks ago-not real common but available.  Rear middle is a TX0283 that I dug in a trash pit about 8 weeks ago-these are very tough to find.  Rear right is a TX0300 I dug in a privy about 6 weeks ago-once again not real common but available-these usually have extremely heavy wear.  

Direct link to the Galveston hutches:

http://www.hutchbook.com/Bottle Dir...nd_Hutches=Find+Hutchinsons&Source=Attributes


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## nhpharm (Dec 1, 2016)

There are 54 listed Galveston hutch sodas, and in 5 years of digging I have managed to rustle up some sort of an example of 46 of those (some badly damaged).  Also added roughly 10 new/unlisted examples to the list based on digging finds, with the most recent addition being TX0312.5.  Most of the ones I am missing are (strangely enough) the newer ones...


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## ACLbottles (Dec 1, 2016)

Well those are some good looking bottles! Just out of curiosity, do you have the caveman Wells Bottling Works hutch from Galveston?


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## nhpharm (Dec 1, 2016)

I've had one in the past but don't currently have an example.  I've not dug a whole one but have dug several broken ones.  I've seen quite a few of them...neat bottles for sure!


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## botlguy (Dec 1, 2016)

Oh My Gosh, I'm so green with envy I could pass for The Hulk.
Jim


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## DiggerTexas (Jun 14, 2021)

nhpharm said:


> I went out this past Sunday for a day of trash pit digging and dug some neat stuff from a wide age range.  From an early and very deep trash pit I dug several English blackglass bottles, a Hinman/New York clear glass medicine, a small pottery bottle, and a blob top ale bottle that is just beautiful...a nice amber color and full of bubbles-maybe Northeast? From a small 1890's trash pit I dug a tiny poison (2" tall), a Gust Feist Galveston Texas tabasco competitor bottle, and a quart milk bottle embossed "Metropolitan/Milk Company/E.P. Pomeroy/Manager".  Very excited about the Pomeroy bottle as I believe this is Texas's first milk bottle...he is known as the man who introduced Texas to glass milk bottles with his Galveston dairy and this is the classic early style.  Finally, I was too tired to keep probing (this lot is very hard to probe) so I punched a random hole and came up with an extremely rare hutch soda from Galveston (H. Cortes & Bro Belfast Ginger Ale & Mineral Water-never even seen a whole example of this one) and while I was caving in the hole also found a B.A. Cook Sweet Revenge whiskey flask.  All in all a great day of digging.  Dug about 50-60 other bottles as well.


I am the great grandson of Edward Payton Pomeroy  (E.P.Pomeroy) who had the Metropolitan Milk Company in Galveston Texas in 1891.  and yes I am the family historian with some information that you will most definitely be interested in.  I knew the bottle existed but have not been able to locate one.  My aunt threw away all of that "junk" in about 1960 before I got interested in history.


nhpharm said:


> I went out this past Sunday for a day of trash pit digging and dug some neat stuff from a wide age range.  From an early and very deep trash pit I dug several English blackglass bottles, a Hinman/New York clear glass medicine, a small pottery bottle, and a blob top ale bottle that is just beautiful...a nice amber color and full of bubbles-maybe Northeast? From a small 1890's trash pit I dug a tiny poison (2" tall), a Gust Feist Galveston Texas tabasco competitor bottle, and a quart milk bottle embossed "Metropolitan/Milk Company/E.P. Pomeroy/Manager".  Very excited about the Pomeroy bottle as I believe this is Texas's first milk bottle...he is known as the man who introduced Texas to glass milk bottles with his Galveston dairy and this is the classic early style.  Finally, I was too tired to keep probing (this lot is very hard to probe) so I punched a random hole and came up with an extremely rare hutch soda from Galveston (H. Cortes & Bro Belfast Ginger Ale & Mineral Water-never even seen a whole example of this one) and while I was caving in the hole also found a B.A. Cook Sweet Revenge whiskey flask.  All in all a great day of digging.  Dug about 50-60 other bottles as well.


 
I was texting and lost the connection so will try again.  My name is David Pomeroy and E. P. Pomeroy was my great grandfather.  I have information on the milk company (Metropolitan) which was formed by 1891 in Galveston.  Family history said the milk bottles were the first in the state but I have not been able to locate one.  My aunt threw out "that trash" in 1960s before I became interested in history.  Would be glad to share information on your find. Assume you found this in Galveston where they survived the Galveston Hurricane of 1900 and moved to Pasadena, Texas.  They also had cattle in Hitchcock to supplement their herd. And there is a connection to Brenham Texas.


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## DiggerTexas (Jul 6, 2021)

nhpharm said:


> I went out this past Sunday for a day of trash pit digging and dug some neat stuff from a wide age range.  From an early and very deep trash pit I dug several English blackglass bottles, a Hinman/New York clear glass medicine, a small pottery bottle, and a blob top ale bottle that is just beautiful...a nice amber color and full of bubbles-maybe Northeast? From a small 1890's trash pit I dug a tiny poison (2" tall), a Gust Feist Galveston Texas tabasco competitor bottle, and a quart milk bottle embossed "Metropolitan/Milk Company/E.P. Pomeroy/Manager".  Very excited about the Pomeroy bottle as I believe this is Texas's first milk bottle...he is known as the man who introduced Texas to glass milk bottles with his Galveston dairy and this is the classic early style.  Finally, I was too tired to keep probing (this lot is very hard to probe) so I punched a random hole and came up with an extremely rare hutch soda from Galveston (H. Cortes & Bro Belfast Ginger Ale & Mineral Water-never even seen a whole example of this one) and while I was caving in the hole also found a B.A. Cook Sweet Revenge whiskey flask.  All in all a great day of digging.  Dug about 50-60 other bottles as well.


My great grandfather was E. P. Pomeroy and that was his dairy, Brenham, Galveston and then Pasadena, Tx. Be glad to share information. Digger@earlytexashistory.com


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