L.A.H.B.C. est. 1966

SEPTEMBER 2012 VOLUME 46 NUMBER 9

Minutes of August 23th.Minutes of August 23th.Minutes of August 23th.Minutes of August 23th.Minutes of August 23th.

page 2-3.page 2-3.page 2-3.page 2-3.page 2-3.

Announcements.Announcements.Announcements.Announcements.Announcements.

page 3.page 3.page 3.page 3.page 3.

The Baby Buttons.The Baby Buttons.The Baby Buttons.The Baby Buttons.The Baby Buttons.

page 4-5page 4-5page 4-5page 4-5page 4-5

New Show Location FlyerNew Show Location FlyerNew Show Location FlyerNew Show Location FlyerNew Show Location Flyer.....

page 6.page 6.page 6.page 6.page 6.

Event CalendarEvent CalendarEvent CalendarEvent CalendarEvent Calendar.....

page 7.page 7.page 7.page 7.page 7.

Published by the Los AngelesHistorical Bottle Club .B. Greenman, Editor.D. Furda, Contributing Editor.515 El Centro St.South Pasadena CA 91030(626) 441-1627www.lahbc.org

In This Edition:

The

Hello Everyone,

Our August meeting was a greatevent. The meeting was very well

attended by our members as well

as several visitors considering join-ing the club. Many of our members

attended dinner before the meet-

ing. We thank the Elks for beingwonderful hosts for our dinner and

meeting. Our business portion ofthe meeting was focused on our

annual bottle show September 29th

at the Santa Ana Elks Lodge. Wealso had the FOHBC public rela-

tions director Pam Selenak talk to

us about the Reno Expo and theftsat bottle shows. If you have a sales

table at an upcoming bottle show

do not leave your table unat-tended. After the business portion

of our meeting Richard Tucker

gave a wonderful presentation onearly American flasks. Please join

me in thanking Richard for shar-

ing his knowledge of early Ameri-can glass. Don’t forget our bottle

show is only two days after our

September meeting. I hope youhave time to attend our show this

year. It will be at a new location in

Santa Ana with more room andmore sales tables. Also, don’t for-

get that the weekend following our

bottle show the Insulator Tailgaterwill be held in Grand Terrace Cali-

President's Message

A PUBLICATION OF THE

LLLLLOS ANGELES HISTORICAL BOTTLE CLOS ANGELES HISTORICAL BOTTLE CLOS ANGELES HISTORICAL BOTTLE CLOS ANGELES HISTORICAL BOTTLE CLOS ANGELES HISTORICAL BOTTLE CLUBUBUBUBUBFIFTH CHARTER MEMBER OF THE FEDERATION OF HISTORICAL BOTTLE COLLECTORS

fornia.

Our August meeting show and

tell was a little rushed with so manypeople attending, but we were able

to give everyone time to discuss the

items they brought to the meeting.Some members brought items they

found at the Reno Expo. I have

never seen so many show and tellitems at one of our meetings. Show

and tell at our October meeting will

be the popular “members choice”.Bring in an interesting bottle or item

to discuss.

September is a big month forLAHBC birthdays. Please join me

in wishing a happy birthday to Ri-

chard Dotson, Dennis Rogers, DonWippert and Dwayne Anthony. If

I have missed anyone’s birthday

this month; let me know so we canadd them to our birthday celebra-

tion list.

I hope to see you at our nextmeeting September 27th, Dave

Los Angeles HistoricalBottle Club2012 Board

President: Dave Maryo (760) 617-5788.eMail: dmaryo@verizon.net

1st Vice President (Programs):Chuck Gildea.

2nd Vice President (Membership):Dennis Rogers.

Secretary: Darlene Furda (818) 889-5451.

Treasurer: Tom Tyshko,

Librarian: Tom Tyshko (310) 441-1955.

Newsletter Editor:Blaine Greenman (714) 390-4649.

Contributing Editor:Darlene Furda.

THE PURPOSE OF THE CLUB: To sociallyunite the bottle collectors of Los AngelesCounty and to promote, foster and encourageall legal activities toward the betterment ofbottle collecting. We encourage the exchangingof information and the exhibiting, promotingand researching of bottles and relatedcollectibles.

MONTHLY MEETINGS are held at 7:30 P.M.,the fourth Thursday of each month. Ourmeeting location is at the Elks Lodge in Duarteat 2436 Huntington Drive, CA 91010-2153.Cost of membership is $25.00 a year . Pleasesee application on the reverse cover formembership information.

Opinions expressed in The Whittlemark arethose solely of the editors or others whocontribute editorial and other material to thenewsletter. These opinions do not necessarilyreflect those of the members. Any correctionsor comments should be addressed to the currentPresident and Secretary at the Whittlemark.

For information about the Federation ofHistorical Bottle Collectors write toBusiness Manager Alan Demaison, 1605Clipper Cove, Painsville, OH 44077.(440)358-1223 a.demaison@sbcglobal.net

This newsletter won First Place in the 2008,2002 and 2010 FOHBC national newslettercontest. Second place in 2006, 1996 and 1993.And third place in the 1991 and 1995 nationalnewsletter contest. This newsletter is dedicatedto all those members, past and present, thathave contributred so much of their time andefforts to keep our club the "Best in the West"!

SEPTEMBER 2012 THE WHITTLEMARK PAGE 2

Meeting called to order at 7:35p.m.

TREASURER’S REPORT:Will be given at the September

meeting.

OLD BUSINESS:Our upcoming September 29

show was discussed. The Trea-surer will be able to report onthe security deposit figure andwhatever other monies are owedor have been paid to the SantaAna Lodge. Dick Homme reported that nopermits are required for ourshow from Orange or Santa Ana.We will be allowed to use theshow room and the patio out-doors. If we were to use theparking lot for part of our show,our club would be charged anadditional $800. Dick also saidthat he had a conversation withthe Santa Ana Lodge represen-tative discussing the fact thatthere will be coffee and donutsprovided in the morning and thensandwiches, chips and sodas forpurchase at noon. The Lodgerepresentative wanted to get anestimate as to how many sand-wiches they need to have onhand. Dick told them that therewill be show attendees who willprobably want to purchase lunchas well as dealers. He could onlygive them an approximate num-ber. There is no way to nail down

an exact count. They now un-derstand that. Don Wippert said that eachdealer will be responsible for theirown table coverings at our show.However Don said that he willbring 30 or more in case there isa need by any of the dealers. A last minute adjustment hasto be made as to when the showwill close. Our advertising statesthat it closes at 4:00. The Lodgehas asked that dealers be packedup and leave by 3:00. It has beenbrought to our attention that theLodge has another event comingright after our show . DwayneAnthony volunteered to alertfolks to the new closing timethrough his Insulator GroupBottle Forum. Dave Maryo willchange the flyer that is on ourclub website and sent word to theFOHBC President, FerdinandMeyer to change that website. Another subject for show dis-cussion was displays. BobManthorne suggested that clubmembers work together on an-other club display like last year.He did mention that the displaytables are 6’ not 8.” He suggestedeveryone who is going to con-tribute toward the club displaybring three (3) bottles. Bob saidthe little white tray liners can beused like last year. Pam Selenakwill bring the FOHBC ribbon tothe show that is provided clubsfor one of the display awards. Bob

MINUTES OF AUGUST 23TH MEETING.

Continued page 3

SEPTEMBER 2012 THE WHITTLEMARK PAGE 3

Message in a bottle.

September Announcements

SHOW TIME: Only Days Away!!!.

Tables are going fast! If you are a dealer, time is growing

short to contact Don Wippert 818.346.9833, Email:

donwippert@yahoo.com or Dick Homme 818.362.3368.

will make sure other ribbons areavailable. Dave Maryo is encouraging in-dividual displays, as well. He sug-gested that it would look betterto have the display area tablesfilled. With that said, Bob sug-gested that if anyone wanted tohave a display that they shouldcontact him.

Volunteers were requested byDave Maryo to cover the showentry table. Val Wippert volun-teered her daughter who workedit last year. Tom Hanna volun-teered his grandchildren who alsoworked it last year.

As of this meeting DonWippert said we have 32 tablesspoken for out of a possible 50to 60.

NEW BUSINESS:Pam Selenak, Public Relations

Director for the FOHBC, cameby to say a few words on thesubject of an“Awareness” issuebrought up as a result of 12bottles that were stolen at theFOHBC Reno Expo Show thisyear. She suggested that dealersat our show should be madeaware that they should not leavetheir tables unattended. If theydo intend to be away from theirtables for awhile, they should ar-range for coverage. She reportedthat 9 out of the 12 thefts thattook place were when dealerswere away from their tables.

That's it for this month. Remember, if you have any news,

announcements, articles or a classified a, drop us an email!

CLUB DISPLAY: Members bottles.

Members who are interested in participating, please

choose THREE BOTTLES to bring to the show. Bob

Manthorne will assist you with placing them in the display.

DRAWING WINNERS:Chuck Gildea was asked to

conduct the raffle at this meet-ing. He did so with his usual goodhumor!

$10 Brian Kussman,$10 Dave Hall$20 Bob ManthorneMembers Only: Kathy TuckerBest Theme: Chuck Gildea

NEW MEMBERS:Richard Aldridge joined our

club in May 2012. He was amember of the former San Ber-nardino Club during the 1987 –1992 timeframe.

Meeting adjourned at 9:45 p.m.

Respectfully Submitted,Darlene "Dar" Furda, Secretary

MINUTES CONT.

MINUTES CONT.

Scottish fisherman, Andrew Leaperhas set a Guinness World Record by re-covering the oldest-known message in abottle off the northern coast of Scotland.

It was set adrift more than 98 yearsago in June 1914 by Capt. CH Brown.

According to the BBC, the bottlewas one of 1,890 research bottles thatwere designed to sink in order to mapthe ocean currents surrounding Scotland.Thus far, only 315 of them have beenreturned.

“It’s amazing that nearly 98 yearson, bottles are still being returned to theMarine Laboratory – and in such fan-tastic condition,” he said.

Aside from requesting the finderrecord the details of the discovery , thepostcard inside the bottle also promisesa reward of sixpence. Unfortunately forLeaper, that particular coin no longerexists.

The Baby Buttons

Ordinarily, I wouldn’t considerwriting an article on the finding of acache of old buttons, but in this in-stance, I felt very drawn to the hu-man interest story associated withthem and the beautiful soda bottlethey had been stored in.

This incident occurred acrossthe street from an old block justnorth of downtown Los Angeleswhere several real good outhouseshad been dug over a period of al-most twenty years. The area wherethe digging had gone on was AnnStreet on the south, Sotello on thenorth, Weyse on the west and Basilon the east. Basil was renamedNaud Street around the turn of thecentury. The first outhouse thatMargaret and I found on this prop-erty was in March of 1990 and pro-duced almost a dozen Hutch sodasand three amber Central Pharmacy,Preuss and Peroni Drug Storebottles, 2, 4, and 6 oz. capacity, invery good condition. This propertybecame off limits for several yearswith asphalt, a fence and round theclock security guards. Then in2005, it opened up and we found acouple more good holes. Then in2006, Margaret and I, along withKen and Dar, dug a monstrous holefrom 1870-1872, which contained acouple of nice blob top San Fran-cisco sodas.

The lot of interest in this story isnow a vacant lot on the east side ofBasil/Naud Street and a parking lotjust to the north. To my knowledge,no outhouses were ever found onthis lot, despite much probing. Thevacant lot (see fig. 4), most of whichwas covered by a structure labeled‘Tenement’ extended 187’ north ofAnn St. today, along with a smallstructure. By 1894, the smaller struc-ture was labeled ‘Vac.’ for vacant,and by 1906 (see fig. 3), it had beenremoved. Since both of these struc-tures are sitting at an angle to theproperty lines, they were probablybuilt when Basil was just a cart path.

SEPTEMBER 2012 THE WHITTLEMARK PAGE 4

65 tiny baby button and the H.W Stoll soda bottle. (fig. 1)

The lot on Main. (fig. 2)

Four years ago, in 2008, thewarehouse owners on Ann St.started construction on the vacantlot for an extension of their facilityright up to the fence of the adjacentproperty (see fig. 2). This fence linematches up with the property lineon Main Street, which is the nextstreet over and not shown on the1906 map (see fig. 3).

Once they began clearing thevacant lot, I became very interestedand checked out their progressdaily. As time passed, I did someprobing along a 50’ arc behind thevacant small structure. No Luck.The lot being 70’ X 150’ meant there

Sanborn 1906 Map. (fig. 3) Sanborn 1880 Map. (fig. 4)

must be at least one outhouse andone or more trash pits, but I justnever found any.

As their work progressed, I dili-gently kept up with it. Then one daythey started digging a trench for thenew extension right out to the prop-erty lines. The trench was at least 4’deep by 4’ wide. As you can see onFig. 3, the new building extensionis within 1’-2’ of the property linemarked by the old chain link fence.

One day after work, as I stoodon the sidewalk looking down thetrench, I saw a clod of dirt about 6”in diameter and 12” long lying in thebottom of the trench. I could see thebase of a bottle showing in the cen-ter of the 6” diameter clod of dirt.The clod had fallen out of the sideof the trench which was adjacent tothe parking lot property, whichshows the two-story four 4-plexhouse on the 1906 map (see fig. 3).The clod was 25-30’ from the side-walk, certainly no place for an out-house to be. I went through theopening in the fence, hopped down

SEPTEMBER 2012 THE WHITTLEMARK PAGE 5

into the trench, picked up the dirtclod with the bottle base showing,broke the clod apart, and WOW! Tomy joy and amazement out poppeda beautiful green/aqua H.W. Stoll,Los Angeles, blob top soda. The dirtfell away revealing a nearly mint ex-ample with outstanding embossing(see fig. 1). I checked the area wherethe clod had come out of, and didn’tsee any other evidence of anythingassociated with an outhouse ortrash pit. It appeared the bottle hadbeen intentionally buried in a holein a vertical position near the sur-face with the base down and thenthe fill dirt was carefully tampeddown around the bottle, hence the6” diameter X 12” clod.

I took the bottle home andwashed it out in the sink. To cleanthe inside, I put a little water in,swirled it around and could hear askoosh, skoosh, skoosh soundemanating from inside the bottle. Ipoured the contents into a saucerand to my surprise, there appeareda handful of 65 tiny white buttons!

(see fig. 1)The bottle must have been used

as a storage vessel for the buttonsfor quite some time. From the con-dition of the bottle; no case-wear,except for one spot on one of theembossed letters, we can assume itwas only used once as a soda con-tainer. There is enough shelf-wearon the base to assume it spent sev-eral years on a shelf in someone’ssewing room, protecting the tiny,fragile buttons.

As time went on, I developed areal interest in the history of my find.One day I went to the city library,found a Los Angeles directory fromthe early 1900’s and patiently wentthrough it page by page to find aname associated with the addressof the ground floor apartment adja-cent to the vacant lot. I found sev-eral names of people living on thatblock of Naud Street; most listedtheir employment as being with therailroad shops being one blockaway on Spring Street. Finally Icame to a Frank Schmidt at theapartment address I was looking for.He also worked for the railroad.

Next I went to the EvergreenCemetery in Los Angeles and askedif they could direct me to Mr.Schmidt’s burial site. Yes they couldand the result was (see fig. 5) thetombstone showing Frank and hiswife Henriette who was born in 1867and died in 1929. Could the bottleand buttons have belonged to her?If they had, I promised her I wouldtake good care of them for her; saida prayer, and walked back to my carwith a big lump in my throat and yes,tears in my eyes.

Dick Homme

Henriette & Frank Schmidt's headstone. (fig. 5)

SEPTEMBER 2012 THE WHITTLEMARK PAGE 6

Event CalendarSEPTEMBER 2012 THE WHITTLEMARK PAGE 7

Los Angeles Historical Bottle ClubAPPLICATION FOR 2012 MEMBERSHIP/RENEWAL/CHANGE OF ADDRESS NOTIFICATION

All memberships are $25.00 per year. If joining the club OR renewing your membership, please mailthis form and your check to: 515 El Centro St. South Pasadena CA 91030 (626)441-1627. Makeyour check payable Los Angeles Historical Bottle Club.

NAME(S)

ADDRESS

STATECITY ZIP

NEW MEMBER

EMAIL

ADDRESS CHANGE RENEWAL

PHONE

SEP 29 - SANTA ANA, CAThe Los Angeles Historical

Bottle Club’s 46th Annual Show& Sale (9am - 4pm admission $3with early buyers admission $5 at8am), at the santa Ana Elk Lodge,212 ELk Ln, Santa Ana, CA.Don Wippert, ph: (818) 346-9833Dick Homme, ph: (818) 362-3368website: www.lahbc.org.

LAHBC CLASSIFIEDS

WANTED!Bottles, Jars and Insulators with

any form of wild, colorful or amberswirling.

Good colored Western Bottles,including Bitters (especially IXL),Blob Sodas, Medicines & JamaicaGingers.

Always interested in buyingquality bottle and insulator collec-tions.

Please contact Dwayne An-thony at: (909) 862-9279, or email:owis@roadrunner.com

OCT 12 & 13 - Santa Rosa, CA

NW Bottle Collectors AnnualBottle & Collectibles Show, 1351Maple Ave, Santa Rosa, CA, Sat, 13Oct 2012, 9am to 3pm, Early admis-sion, Fri 12 Oct 2012, 12 noon to6pm, Free entry, Early bird $10.00,Bev Siri, 707.542.6438rtsiri@sbcglobal.netJohn Burton, 707.318.2469johnburton@msn.com

DEC 1 - Auburn, CA

49er Historical Association35th Annual “Best of the West”Bottle & Antique Show, 9am – 3pm,Free Admission! Set-up: Fri 30 Nov2012, Noon to 7pm at 1275 HighStreet, Auburn, California, Contact:Mike McKillop, 916.367.1829,pville1871@yahoo.com

OCT 5 & 6 - Canyonville, OR

Jefferson State Bottle Show& Sale at the Seven Feathers Ca-sino Resort, 146 Chief Miwaleta Ln,Canyonville, OR. Sat – Oct 6, 20129am - 3pm, Free Entry. Dealer setupOct 5: 12-7pm & Oct 6: 7-9am. Earlybird12-7pm Friday & 8-9am Sat$10.00.Info: Bruce Silva(541)899-8411jsglass@q.com