Soda Bottling in Chippewa Falls - Part Two, Times More Recent....

Here's Part One of the Story

Between Albert Nunke and his father in law, soda pop production in our community was "all in the family" from the 1860's to the dawn of the 20th century.  But then, in 1904, Nunke sold the business to a man named C.E. Kleis out of Dubuque Iowa.

Kleis puzzles me a little.  His father had been bottling soda in Dubuque since the 1860's, and had a seemingly very successful business.  So why didn't the son take over?  One of those little mysteries without answers.

Although Kleis bought the business, and would have been laboring in the bottling plant out back, it seems likely that the Nunkes continued to live in the house.  An old patient of mine remembers Mrs. Nunke - probably from the 1930's - as being a very stern and crabby woman!  History is interesting...someone I knew had known the daughter of a man who was bottling pop during the Civil War!

Kleis in some ways kept things much the same.  His first bottles were of the soon to be outmoded "Hutchinson" style, just as Nunke had used.

But change was on the horizon in the soda pop business.  

Crown top bottles, the ones you had to pry off the bottle cap with an opener, became the norm by about 1910.  The Great War pulled America in, and we became part of the wider world.  And then in 1919 the ill considered experiment of Prohibition was launched.

This was in general a boon to soda manufacturers.  I mean, people gotta drink something!

The location next to Irvine Park was a lucky accident.  Soon a fellow named Leidhold stepped up.  In a 1909 article in the paper it is noted:

TO PARK VISITORS

"C.M. Leidhold has filled a long-felt want for visitors and picnic parties at the park.  He has erected a building 12x16 feet just west of the Kleis pop factory and will serve lunch, ice cream, soft drinks and candy.  Tables to sit down at and eat lunch or ice cream.  Parties who do not care to build a fire to cook coffee can have it cooked in the good old way at the stand.  Don't fail to visit the stand.  The down town sausage shop will be closed at 7 o'clock evenings except Saturday."

(I assume that last part was some other stand that Leidhold ran?)

Business seems to have been good.  Kleis ads from the 1920's list an array of products for sale.  Most were generic names, suggesting they were made by Kleis:  Orange, Lemon and Lime Crush.  Cherry, Raspberry, Birch Beer.  Cream Soda, Ginger Ale.

Hires Root Beer makes the list, presumably an early example of bottling under license.  Oddly, Iron Brew was also offered for sale.  I only know this as the vile concoction that is the unofficial soft drink of Scotland.  But it actually was originally an American product!

The Kleis family seems to have been fairly prominent socially as well.  The paper has lots of references to Mrs. C.E. Kleis having ladies in for tea, or going off to make social calls here and there.

Kleis had a good run.  But it was not without a few difficulties.  At some point the original Nunke bottling works burned down.  Kleis moved the operation, apparently to this spot:

The building on the end, 19 East Central Street.  A location that no longer exists.  The building had an interesting history.  It was the original City Library, then became arguably the first dedicated movie theater in Chippewa Falls.  

In January 1946 the Kleis bottling works was sold to a partnership of Sylvan Hurt and Clarence Holtz, who continued the business as H & H Beverage.  Holtz, who ran a candy company, dropped out a few years later and his "H" was taken over by Walmar Hurt, Sylvan's younger brother.  I actually knew this guy, as he lived until 2010!  As you'd expect from a more recent company, there are lots of examples of H & H products out there.  Many are "painted label" sodas, and most were bottled under license.  Here's a few ads and artifacts from H & H.

This ad is from 1967....99 years of soda pop in Chippewa Falls.  Vess was a brand out of St. Louis that H & H made under contract.

A few years later, in 1973, came the news that H & H was being purchased by J D Distributing Company.  There was mention of a move to a new plant under construction on the East Hill, but that location is empty and looks to have been that way for a good while.  The notice of purchase lists a price $15,000, which seems pretty low.  The new owners were planning on phasing out the H & H brands and "distributing the Grafs label".

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Leidhold food stand might still be standing!  Here's a curious structure of about the right dimensions.  It is on the back side of the block from the Soda plant, in a westerly direction.  It "looks" like a common woodshed, but has an atypical location fronting right onto the street.  There could have been steps going down to the park below.  It's hard to say since this area does not appear on plat maps of the city in this era.

----------------------------------------------

To be complete I should mention that the Chippewa Spring Water Company was also active in this era, and did sell an assortment of flavored things you could call soda pop.  Another story, and one that also needs to be updated.  Another day.