# W. HEKELNKAEMPER ATCHISON KANSAS PONY



## nhpharm (Jan 6, 2015)

Dug this surprise a few weeks ago here in Texas...embossed on the front "W. Hekelnkaemper/Atchison/Kan" and on the back "A. & D.H.C."  Layer was 1860's...maybe slightly into the 1870's.  It has got to have a fascinating story behind how it got from Kansas to Texas...we almost never find travelers like this, particularly in the early layers.  Anyone know how hard these are to find?


----------



## Bass Assassin (Jan 6, 2015)

Very nice find. No idea how it ended up there but back in those days anything was possible. Could have been shipped freght on a wagon or train. An individual may have brought it with from Kansas. Who knows. Congratulations on an a great bottle


----------



## nhpharm (Jan 6, 2015)

Thanks!


----------



## Plumbata (Jan 6, 2015)

Sweet find! I found a hutch from Texas here in Illinois last year, it's always fun to dig bottles far from home.


----------



## nhpharm (Jan 6, 2015)

It sure is!  Where in Texas was it from?


----------



## Plumbata (Jan 6, 2015)

It was a Peterson Bottling Works from Beaumont, Texas. Sold it on ebay for around 45 bucks if I recall correctly. The only out-of-state hutch I've dug.


----------



## nhpharm (Jan 6, 2015)

Cool!  My wife's maiden name is Peterson.


----------



## nhpharm (Jan 6, 2015)

Cool!  My wife's maiden name is Peterson.


----------



## ScottBSA (Jan 6, 2015)

Bottles from this company sprout up often here in Kansas City.  Maybe not always this old.  Atchison was a relatively big town and rail hub.  Think Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe.  The KATY, Kansas and Texas Railway.  It very well may have been purchased in Atchison and taken to Texas on a train and pitched at the end of the journey.  It certainly is a very nice find.  You might even find Kansas City beer bottles while digging in Texas.  Many of the local brewers distributed to Texas before prohibition.  Good luck in your digging. Scott


----------



## sandchip (Jan 7, 2015)

Good looking bottle!  I bet that guy heard, "Can you spell that for me?" more than a few times!


----------



## nhpharm (Jan 7, 2015)

For sure!  I had to look a few times to decipher that name.  Lots of Germans here in Texas and I think Atchison was also settled by Germans.


----------



## nhpharm (Jan 7, 2015)

For sure!  I had to look a few times to decipher that name.  Lots of Germans here in Texas and I think Atchison was also settled by Germans.


----------



## stephengray (Jan 26, 2015)

I don't know how rare the pony blob is but I have this little bit newer hutchinson that I just got in a trade. I will try to find out a rarity for you from the guy I got this one from.


----------



## nhpharm (Apr 1, 2015)

As a follow-up, I am starting to think that HEKELNKAEMPER must have distributed in Galveston at some point.  Although I have only found one whole example of this bottle, I have now found two additional broken examples on different lots.  That is more broken/whole examples than I have found of many of the early Galveston bottles.


----------



## cannibalfromhannibal (Apr 1, 2015)

Great looking soda! I just googled the family name and came up with a brief but informative history. Seems 'ol Hekel move to Kansas in 1863 and began bottling soda in 1864 and was the first of its kind of business in Kansas(?) He is listed as passing in 1881 in Atchison. Your soda looks right for the 60's context you were digging, as I notice in general the off-center of the state abbreviations were in style right up to the earliest 1870's. The A&DHC variants  also seem to predate the other glass makers of similar molds like C&I and W. Mc., at least around this part of Missouri. I have 2 similar mold styles from a soda here in Hannibal, same company but one has A&DHC and the other C&I. The A&DHC is clearly more crude and older in general appearance to the C&I and I would assume yours would be same time period, closer to the mid 1860's as opposed to later. Just a speculation base on empirical observation.....Jack


----------



## nhpharm (Jan 3, 2019)

Dug another of these in Galveston this past Sunday.  This makes two intact and two broken so far on 4 different lots spread over 15 blocks.  There has got to be a story about how these got to Galveston and who was using/distributing them!


----------



## hemihampton (Jan 5, 2019)

nhpharm said:


> Dug another of these in Galveston this past Sunday.  This makes two intact and two broken so far on 4 different lots spread over 15 blocks.  There has got to be a story about how these got to Galveston and who was using/distributing them!




I seen that. nice bottle. LEON.


----------



## BF109 (Jan 6, 2019)

I like it, very cool!


----------



## nebrokla87 (Feb 15, 2019)

I don't have the Kansas book any more but I do remember there being a good long story of the history of this firm I used to have a couple of there early crowns believe they were open up until the 1960s I know there was a lot of travel along along the rail roads back then you can tell the dumps in Oklahoma that are close to rail roads they have allot of bottles from different towns I've found broken Hutch's from multiple Texas towns and Missouri towns in Guthrie ok. You should get all of Johnnie Fletcher's books there great https://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Editio...Fletcher-Autographed-2353-Items-/372164075964


----------



## bottle-bud (Feb 16, 2019)

Here's a nifty little ad I found in the June 28, 1865 Atchison Daily Champion newspaper. Super bottle you got there!


----------

