May 2005 Newsletter

You may also choose to download the May 2005 Newsletter By Right Clicking HERE and selecting "SAVE TARGET AS"

 

Upcoming Meeting - May 5 th , 2005,

Doors Open 7:30 p.m., Meeting starts at 8:00 p.m.

Directions to the Town of Islip Recreation Center, Ronkonkoma Beach Pavilion at Lake Ronkonkoma off Rosevale Ave. (631) 467-3308

From the LIE: Exit 59, Ocean Ave North to Rosevale Ave. bear left to 1 st traffic light, turn right at light into park, left into parking lot, building is at the end on your right.

From Sunrise Highway: Exit 49 Lakeland (Sayville) continue north crossing Veterans Highway, merge w/Ocean Ave, continue north under LIE & follow the directions above.

Program - Gone Buggy for Bug Bottles - Kevin Kelly

And now few words from the President (or chief bottle nut notes)

Whew, I have been so busy, this spring things are really moving, geraniums, gerbera daisy and dahlias are all selling like hot cakes, and we are going like one armed paper hangers. Trying to find time to write this has been quite a challenge this month.

First up, for those members who receive Antique Bottle & Glass Collector, member Kevin Kelly is pictured in this months issue having a bug bottle shoot out with Jim Hagenbuch at the Baltimore Bottle show back in March. And, lest I forget, this month the program will be given by Kevin, and it will be on Bug Bottles! So let's get everyone to bug out to the meeting, and we can bug Kevin with some questions. For Show & Tell, how about each of us take a look around our shelves and bring bug bottles! Hate to be a pest, but this has been bugging me! Ok, I know that I have bugged you for long enough, so enough groans, and on with the newsletter.

At the last meeting, member Jack Slootweg mentioned to me that he will be setting up a display of Lindenhurst milk bottles at the Lindenhurst Historical Society, and his display will be up for 2 months. If I can get the address of the Lindenhurst Historical Society, I will pass it along, so interested members can have a look. Jack has been collecting Lindenhurst bottles for as long as I can remember, so this display will be a real knock-out! If any member does take a look, see if you can get a photo, and I will be glad to run it. I know that I will not be able to get there to see it, my last day off was the Saturday right before Easter (I worked Easter Sunday), and my next one most likely will be on Memorial Day weekend, so I will not likely get to see it.

As for the April meeting, there was some way cool Show & Tell. Perhaps the neatest thing I have seen at a show & tell in years was a flint lock pistol that had been dug in Brooklyn. It was in a pretty fair state of preservation for having been buried in the ground for 150 years or so. The wood was intact, and you could still see the flint, striker and pan. While there was a good amount of rust on the barrel, the gun could possibly be salvaged and cleaned. I believe Charlie Clark said he wanted to look into that.

Also at the April meeting, we were treated to a program. Yes, I know it was not in the newsletter, it was a very last minute deal. Anna takes yoga classes, and she decided on the way to the meeting, that she would do some yoga poses for everyone. So Anna unrolled her yoga mat, and for 10 or 15 minutes, showed the members a wide range of yoga poses. I know I could not do most of them, amazing how flexible she is!

Starting this month I will start a piece on Sayville Milk Bottles that I have been working on. It is fairly large, and will take perhaps 2 or 3 issues to run all of it. And first off, I want to thank both Mike Katsar and Frank Bennet for their help with bottle embossing and research information. I also want to thank Linda Conron from my own Sayville Historical Society for her help over the last few years with my questions on Sayville Milk Bottles. She has taken time from her busy schedule to try and look things up for me and has been quite a help. I could not supply you, the reader, with all this information in this article, without the help of all three of these people. My thanks to each one! And thanks to Laura, who took the photos of the bottles, and who makes the whole thing look good. Thanks love!

See you at the meeting, Mark

Sayville's Dairies: When the Milkman Rang Twice

Now, this deals with the Dairies which operated in Sayville, which I am aware of. There may have been others which have been lost to the passage of time.

The first milkman in Sayville that we know of at present was Archie Brown. Located on the North Country Road (Montauk Highway) in Sayville, he is first seen in business in 1907. In 1920 research indicates he sold his farm to John Budenos. We do not know of any bottles at present. However, if you have one, I would like to here about it!

The first attempts to deliver bottled milk in Sayville began around 1915 or 1916. At this early time, there were two attempts; both seem to have been short lived to deliver milk to the consumer in marked glass bottles. The first, at least by alphabetical order anyway, as the dates are not exactly known, is by Vincent F. Fiala. Mr. Fiala was a carpenter by trade, who beginning in the spring of 1916 constructed a bottling plant on Rail Road Ave., just to the North of the Court House. It was completed by June of 1916, and Mr. Fiala would meet the Express train from Bridgehampton each morning at the Depot and pick up the milk, which was taken to the plant, bottled, and delivered to his customers. I believe he closed up his bottling plant for good around October or November of 1916. This effort seems to have been the shorter lived of the two, as his bottles seem to be harder to locate at present. The bottles are known in pint and quart size, the glass will turn amethyst, and are embossed "F" in a circle, "One Pint/Liquid" then in a letter plate "V. F. FIALA/F/SAYVILLE, N.Y.". Bottle is marked on the reverse, heel with D. B. G. CO. and pictured to the left. Today, a professional building marks the location of this firm on Railroad Ave.

Next up there is the other early attempt. Edward Weinmann also bottled milk for home delivery around this time period. He seems to have met with some success, as a number of his bottles are known to collectors. The bottles will turn amethyst, and are embossed "One pint" then in the letter plate "EDW. WEINMANNS/DAIRY/56 LINCOLN AVE/SAYVILLE, L.I.". The bottles are marked on the base with T. MFG. Co. on the base, which is for the Thatcher Manufacturing Company. These bottles are at present known only in pint size. It is unlikely he had cows, but rather purchased his milk from an outside source, much the same as Vincent Fiala. At this time, I have not been able to determine a date of operation for Weinmann, so it is purely speculation on my part as to a mid or late Teens date of business. His home still stands today on Lincoln Ave.

Another early milk bottle from Sayville, but one that can easily be missed by collectors due to the lack of a town name on it is that used by Conrad Stoll. Mr. Stoll had a dairy farm on Moscow Road (renamed Johnson Ave. in WWII in honor of a Mr. Johnson from Sayville, who was killed in the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7 th , 1941.) Our local paper has a History piece in it each week, with past events, and I noted one time that it mentioned the passing of noted Sayville dairy farmer Conrad Stoll, in 1926. I had one of his bottles at one time, but many years ago passed it along to another collector, as I did not know it was a Sayville bottle. If I had never seen that little blurb in the paper, I still would have no clue that was a Sayville milk bottle! Bottle was a amethyst quart, embossed in the letter plate simply "CONRAD/STOLL". I had dug it in a dump used in the late Teens to early Twenties. I do not know where he was located on Johnson Ave, but I do know the dump I dug the bottle in is under a subdivision today. Wish I had hung onto that bottle.

Now we have a few milks from Sayville that are rarely seen today. First up is one that I know a little bit about. It is marked in the letter plate "VON MECHOW BROS/picture of a cows head/SAYVILLE LI." Mike Katsar was kind enough to tell me that the glass company which produced the bottle went out of business about 1926-28. Bottle is a clear quart. As for location and other information, even my local historical society was unable to help as they have no record of anyone by the name of Von Mechow living in Sayville. This might have been located on Broadway Ave. Pictured left.

Next is a bottle marked in the letter plate "CRIMSON CLOVER/SAYVILLE". A hard to find example, I do not have one present. According to Mike Katsar, this farm started bottling milk in 1940, and ceased operation in 1950. They were located on Broadway Ave.

Then we have "LYONS FARM DAIRY/SAYVILLE". Again, I do not have an example of this bottle at present. I believe this farm was located at about the Northwest or the Northeast corner of Sunrise Highway and Broadway Ave. This location was given to me at a show by someone looking for this bottle, as they were descendants of the family. Again, that is all I know of at present.

There is also an embossed milk marked "HERMAN W. BEEBE/SAYVILLE". Mike dates this one to 1930. No idea where this operation was located at present and not much else to report. This one was unknown to me until I wrote this article.

Finishing up with the tough ones, there is also know to us a milk bottle from a H. Wesemann. Mike gives one date of 1930 for this farm. Wow, I never heard of this one either until I wrote this! Talk about rare! And I live in Sayville, collect Sayville, and have dug in Sayville for over 30 years! Whew!

That's it for this issue, next issue more on Sayville Diaries and the bottles they produced.. If you have any of the bottles listed or any other Sayville milk bottles in your collection and are looking to find them a loving home, please be sure to contact me. As you can see there are some hard to fill holes in my collection that need filling! Till then happy hunting and see you at the meeting, remember to bring your bug bottles! Mark