During the cleanup of the river, thousands of bottles and bottle fragments were found.
A wide range of stampings were found on the bottoms of the bottles.
Here is the complete list of stampings that were found.
| ?? CW 33 … & CC LIM 068 2 068 4 1 11 11 12 1413 104 1413 24 1413 3 1413 59 1413 63 1413 71 1425 109 1425 115 1425 91 1445 47 2 3 4 498 F 5 7 8 880 9. 9. A B 81 A B C 117 A B C CO 1 A B C CO 18 A B C CO 23 A B C CO 28 A B C CO 33 A B Co 083 2 A B Co 088 42 A B Co 135 A B Co 142 A B CO 28 A B Co 57 A B Co A 20 A B Co A 26 A B Co A 28 A B Co A 33 A B Co B 11 A B Co B 28 A B Co K9 A B G C St.L. C A B G C St.L. G |
A B G CO 18 A B G CO 23 A B G CO 27 A B G CO 28 A B G CO 30 A B G CO 31 A B G CO 31 A B G CO 33 A B G CO 35 A B G CO 5 A B G Co 67 St.L. A B G M CO 9X A B G M CO B12 A B G M CO B13 A B G M CO B15 A B G M CO B19 A B G M CO C6 A B G M CO J7 A B G M CO K14 A B G M CO P9 A B G M CO V10 A B G M CO V8 A B M G Co Bellview ILL A C W L A M G Co 2 A\B A\B A\B A\B A 11 A\B A 16 A\B A 17 A\B A 3 A\B B 33 A\B B 35 A\B C 6 A\B G 30 A\B H 10 A\B H 5 A\B J 6 A\B M 10 A\B M 8 A\B P 13 A\B P 13 A\B P 16 A\B R 7 A\B S 11 A\B S 20 A\B S 7 A\B T 15 A\B X 11 |
B B • 12 B • 5 B ♀ C 88 16 CCC CO N CCG Co 8 CCG Co N (4?) CCO Co 10 D O C 14 D O C 16 F B C 11 F H G W 10 F H G W 16 F H G W 3 F H G W 36 F H G W 37 F H G W 39 F H G W 39 F H G W 42 F H G W 5 F H G W 6 I G Co L I G Co L 10 I G Co L 14 I G Co L 15 I G Co L 4 I G Co L 6 K Y G L G Co 2 L G Co 2+ L G Co 24 L G Co 28 L G Co 4 M 7 M B M B & G CO 25 M. G. C. O. N.B. 7 P A T 85 M 7 P A T 85 R & CO 16 P A T 85 R & CO 16 PARA R & C CO 28 R & CO R & CO 10 R & CO 14 R & CO 20 R & CO 24 R & CO 26 |
R & CO 29 R & CO 3 R & CO 32 R & CO 33 R & CO 39 R & CO 40 R & CO 41 R & CO 43 R & CO 43 R & CO 52 R & CO 8(?) R & CO E R & CO H R & CO M R G & B Co 22 ROOT ROOT S B & C CO 13 S B & C Co 2 S B & C Co 21 S B & C CO 34 S B & G CO 13 S B & G CO 17 S B & G CO 22 S B & G CO 30 S B & G CO 57 S B & G CO D S B & G CO K W F & S 1 MIL W F & S 17 MIL W F & S 18 MIL W F & S 18 MIL W F & S 22 MIL W F & S 23 MIL W F & S 23 MIL W F & S 24 MIL W F & S 26 MIL W F & S 27 MIL W F & S 28 MIL W F & S 56 MIL W F & S 8 MIL W F & S J 1 MIL W F & S MIL O W F & S V 1 MIL W I S G CO D MIL W I S G CO L X1 • K |
St. Louis, MO and Belleville, IL — 1886 to c. 1921
This mark was used by the Adolphus Busch Glass Manufacturing Company (1886–c. 1921) and the American Bottle Company (1905–1929). Adolphus Busch — the same Busch of Anheuser-Busch fame — got into bottle production because the brewery struggled to get enough bottles to meet beer demand. He formed his own glass companies in St. Louis and Belleville, Illinois. The "B" in plant codes stands for Belleville; "St.L." variants indicate the St. Louis plant. These are almost certainly Anheuser-Busch beer bottles.
Chicago/Toledo offices — 1905 to 1929; plants in IL, OH
The American Bottle Company (A. B. Co.) was headquartered in Chicago (1905–1916) then Toledo, Ohio (1916–1929), with glass plants at Streator, Illinois; Newark, Ohio; Belleville, Illinois; Massillon, Ohio; and Wooster, Ohio.
American Bottle Company incorporated in August 1905 by merging the Adolphus Busch Glass Manufacturing Co. (Belleville and St. Louis) and the Streator Bottle & Glass Co. into the Ohio Bottle Co. It maintained the exclusive license to produce beer and soda bottles with Owens machines from 1905 to 1929.
American Bottle Co. pioneered marking bottles to indicate plant and production date, so bottlers could track the life of their bottles in circulation. A number indicates the year and a letter indicates the plant — B = Belleville, S = Streator, N = Newark. So on the RiverGlass list, "A B Co A 28" would be the Belleville plant, 1928; "A B Co 083 2" would be mold 083, year 1902, and so on. American Bottle Co. dissolved when Owens Bottle Machine Co. and Illinois Glass Co. merged to form Owens-Illinois Glass Co. in 1929.
The A\B variants (with backslash) are a ligature-style mark. Most bottles with the "AB-connected" or "conjoined AB" mark are handmade (mouth-blown) and were made to contain beer, dating from approximately 1905–1917, primarily from the Adolphus Busch Glass Manufacturing Co. or the early American Bottle Co.
St. Louis, MO — 1882 to 1898
This is one of the oldest manufacturer groups in the list. F.H.G.W. stands for the Frederick Heitz Glass Works, St. Louis, Missouri (1882–1898). This mark was incorrectly attributed by Julian Toulouse in Bottle Makers and Their Marks (1971) to the Frederick Hampson Glass Works in Salford, Lancashire, England.
Most commonly, the F.H.G.W. mark is seen on the bottoms of export-style pint and quart-size beer bottles, as well as on "wax sealer" type fruit jars. Frederick Heitz's factory was located on the north side of Dorcas Street, between First and Kosciusko Streets in St. Louis.
Export beer bottles made for Anheuser-Busch Brewing Co. were the main product. Heitz claimed he had the largest "bottle tank" in the U.S. The plant closed around 1898; when it failed, a pot left full of molten glass eventually solidified into a mass estimated at 600 tons. Anheuser-Busch later bought the property through bankruptcy for $60,000, and the Adolphus Busch Glass Mfg. Co. acquired it in 1901.
The mold numbers following F H G W (3, 5, 6, 10, 16, 36, 37, 39, 42) are simply individual mold identifiers. The bottles in the San Antonio River almost certainly contained Anheuser-Busch or other St. Louis brewery export beer.
Massillon, Ohio — 1881 to 1904
The R & CO mark is seen primarily on the bases of hand-made, tooled blob-top and "crown" style amber or aqua export-style beer bottles. Reed & Company specialized in producing beer bottles, although they are believed to have manufactured several other types as well.
Julian Toulouse (Bottle Makers & Their Marks, 1971) incorrectly attributed the R & CO marking to Roth & Company, San Francisco, but there is no evidence that Roth (a whiskey distributor, not a glassmaker) had any bottles made bearing this mark.
The numbers in the RiverGlass list (R & CO 3, 8, 10, 14, 20, 24, 26, 28, 29, 32, 33, 39, 40, 41, 43, 52, etc.) are mold numbers identifying the specific metal mold the bottle was blown into. The letter variants (R & CO E, H, M) are likely plant or run codes.
Interestingly, this same mark has turned up in Guatemala, Panama, and Cuba — these were American export beer bottles shipped internationally in the 1880s–1900s.
Terre Haute, Indiana — 1901 to 1932
The marks "R.G.CO." and "ROOT" were used by the Root Glass Company of Terre Haute, Indiana. The Root company was established by businessman Chapman Jay Root, who opened his glass works in May of 1901.
In 1915, Root's company entered a Coca-Cola contest to design a "new bottle, a distinctive package." Chapman J. Root formed a design team consisting of plant supervisor Alexander Samuelson, auditor Clyde Edwards, and staff machinist and bottle designer Earl R. Dean. Their contour bottle design — inspired by an image of a cocoa pod found at the local library — won the competition and became the most recognized beverage container in history. Root Glass Company was bought by Owens-Illinois Glass Company in 1932.
The "ROOT" bottles in the river most likely held soda — Root was a major soda bottle supplier across the Midwest and South before becoming synonymous with Coca-Cola.
Streator, Illinois — 1881 to 1905
S.B.& G.CO. stands for the Streator Bottle & Glass Company, Streator, Illinois (1881–1905). The Streator plant eventually became part of the American Bottle Company, later Owens Bottle Company, and finally part of the Owens Illinois Glass Company (Plant #9). "S.B.& G.CO." is one of the most commonly seen marks on handblown beer bottles from the late 1800s and early 1900s. Many private brewers and bottlers from the Midwest and eastern United States had bottles specially made for them by Streator.
The letter/number suffixes (S B & G CO 13, 17, 22, 30, 57, D, K) are mold numbers and codes. The mark also appears on pickle bottles, mineral water, and soda bottles of the period.
Milwaukee, Wisconsin — 1893 to c. 1920
William Franzen & Sons Company operated from 1893 through 1920. Bottles are marked "W. F. & S." The glass factories operated in Milwaukee in the Kinnickinnic Valley, going through several reorganizations and owners. The products were mostly bottles, with some window glass.
The firm's primary product was beer bottles. Its most important customers were the Milwaukee brewers, and Prohibition ultimately ended the company. In January of 1927, the Val Blatz Brewing Co. purchased the Franzen factory in hopes that Prohibition would end reasonably soon.
The "MIL" stands for Milwaukee. The numbers following (1, 8, 17, 18, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27, 28, 56) are mold numbers. Given that Milwaukee was home to major pre-Prohibition breweries (Schlitz, Pabst, Blatz, Miller), these bottles almost certainly held Milwaukee lager beer that was distributed widely, including to San Antonio.
St. Louis, MO — c. 1870s to early 1900s
No one has definitively proven what the "L G Co" monogram represents, but the jars and bottles tend to show up most often in the Midwestern US, especially Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, Ohio, Kentucky, Michigan, and Wisconsin. The most likely candidate is Lindell Glass Company of St. Louis. Julian Toulouse in Bottle Makers and Their Marks(1971) attributed it to Louisville Glass Works, but that attribution is doubted by most researchers.
A very similar bottle shows that the molds used for the LGCo monogram were at some point retooled to "I G Co" — pointing most likely to the Illinois Glass Company of Alton, Illinois, since Lindell Glass was right across the Mississippi River from Alton.
Alton, Illinois — 1873 to 1929
The Illinois Glass Company was started by William Eliot Smith and Edward Levis, incorporating at Alton, Illinois in March of 1873. During the earlier years, many of their bottles carried an "I. G. CO." mark, and later an "I G CO inside a diamond" logo. Illinois Glass was one of the largest bottle manufacturers in the country and made virtually every type of bottle. Illinois Glass merged with the Owens Bottle Co. in 1929 to form the massive Owens-Illinois Glass Co.
Milwaukee, WI — 1881 to 1886
The Wisconsin Glass Company operated from 1881 through 1886 in the Kinnickinnic Valley of Milwaukee, in the same facilities that later became the Franzen operation. The "MIL" suffix confirms the Milwaukee origin.
Taken together, the bottle marks represent a remarkably coherent picture. Nearly the entire collection dates from roughly 1880 to 1920 — the golden age of American hand-blown and early machine-made beer bottles. The dominant manufacturers were clustered in:
The overwhelming majority of bottle types — export-style beer, blob-top soda — point to the pre-Prohibition saloon and brewery trade along the San Antonio River corridor. The presence of both the ABGM Co / Adolphus Busch marks and the Streator/American Bottle marks is particularly interesting given San Antonio's significant German immigrant brewing heritage (Lone Star Brewery, San Antonio Brewing Association, etc.) during this exact era.
The ROOT marks are the newest in the group, potentially dating to the 1910s–1920s and likely soda bottles rather than beer.