Coca-Cola Bottling Co.

What I know about The Coca-Cola Bottling Co. - - The 1918 Polk Gazetteer lists the Perry Coca-Cola Bottling Co. with J. H. Loughridge pres., J. E. Graves sec., and J. O. Sikes mgr.

A personal story about the Coca-Cola Bottling Co. – It happened that Mr. Loughridge was also President of Weaver-Loughridge Lumber Co. at Boyd (about 5 miles north of Perry.) My father was the meat cutter in the commissary there and remembered that Mr. Loughridge would only allow the commissary to carry Coca-Cola products. After Mr. Loughridge sold his interest in the Coca-Cola Bottling Co. the commissary started carrying other brands of soft drinks also.

A local newspaper article from 1977 – Coca-cola Bottlers Celebrate 75th Year – the article states: In 1906, a Coca-cola Bottling franchise was issued to T. J. Allen and C. M. Callicott to produce and market Coca-Cola in Taylor County. The plant was a wooden warehouse employing four people who bottled on a foot-operated machine and delivered in horse-drawn wagons. The building soon became inadequate to handle the increase demand for the popular drink and the company moved to larger facilities. During its seventy-year history the company moved four times in order to keep pace with the growth of its business.

The Callicott family bought Allen’s interest after his in 1955 and continued to operate the business until they sold to William Middelton of Quincy in 1962.

I think the Allan, Callicott association with the Coca-Cola Co. was correct but the timing of their purchase of the company is off. A T. J. Allen is listed in the 1918 Polk Gazetteer as the owner of a garage and auto supply. Mr. Callicott and Mr. W. H. Clark are listed associated with the Perry Chero-Cola Bottling Co. I think sometime after 1918 these two gentlemen became owners of the Perry Cola-Cola Bottling Co.

This add appeared in The Taylor County Herald in September 1916. This is the oldest Coke add I found.