June 26, 1994
Coca-Cola Capped Charlotte County Settlement
With thanks to Elmer Silcox, U.S. Cleveland, Mabel Keys, Marian Addison, Esther McCullough, and Mike Emery.
When one searches for objects to be "as American as"-- apple pie, baseball, and Chevrolets come easily to mind.
More appropriate, perhaps, is Coca-Cola.
Duly chronicled in this space have been the local arrivals of railroads, post offices, steamships, newspapers, ice factories, electricity, telephones, automobiles, airplanes and many other harbingers of modernity.
However, folks knew the task of settling the last frontier was complete when a Coca-Cola bottling plant was built. In Charlotte County, the date was March 25, 1915.
Cool drinks always were greatly appreciated in south Florida where summer never ends. Nevertheless, the most essential ingredient -- ice -- did not become available in the Charlotte Harbor area until 1893.
That was the year Col. Isaac Trabue, founder of Punta Gorda eight years earlier, built a little ice factory on Berry Street. Stimulus for the venture was the need by commercial fishermen; but ice-cold lemonade, tea and hand-churned ice cream also constituted a valuable market.
Punta Gorda Druggist W. A. Roberts developed a clientele for refreshments by advertising in the May 1895 Punta Gorda Herald: "COOL DRINKS A SPECIALTY, Next door to Sandlin's."
It is likely that Coca-Cola was available at Roberts' drug store because the drink was originally developed and sold as a headache remedy. Emphasis was on fountain drinks. Pre-mixed and bottled "Coke" was not introduced until 1899,
Coca-Cola was invented in 1885 by John Styth Pemberton, an Atlanta druggist. He called his concoction "French Wine Cola -- Ideal Nerve and Tonic Stimulant." It consisted of wine, kola nut flavoring, and mild cocaine-tea brewed from coca leaves stirred in an iron kettle in back of his shop.
The following year, Pemberton substituted sugar syrup for wine, renamed the drink Coca-Cola and sold the extract in reclaimed beer bottles to other druggists. Pemberton died in 1888. His estate sold the formula to Asa Candler who formed a corporation to aggressively sell Coca-Cola. The drink was widely popular in Atlanta as a hang-over remedy and afternoon pick-me-up. No wonder. It was based on weak cocaine -- then hailed by the medical profession as a "wonder drug" and legally sold without prescription.
When cocaine was discovered to be addictive, and had afflicted thousands of Americans, Coca-Cola Corporation removed cocaine-tea from its formula and substituted "secret ingredient 7X." It is alleged that only two Coca-Cola executives know the secret ingredient and personally add it to the mixture. Less romantic competitors assert the ingredient is ordinary caffeine. Even this is removed in some lines of Coke for health-conscious customers.
What ever the winning combination, Coca-Cola syrup was a hit. Thus, we can be confident it was offered here in carbonated water shortly after ice became available. The success of coca and kola extract perhaps influenced Dr. J. W. Best of Punta Gorda to develop flavorings. The Herald of April, 1902, reported:
"Mr. Perry McAdow bought from Col. Trabue the business lot on Marian Avenue adjoining McLane and Oliver stores to erect a building for a laboratory of the Fruit Extract Manufacturing Company. He and Dr. Best are the principal stockholders.
"Dr. Best's extracts took highest awards at the Atlanta Exposition several years ago."
Unfortunately Dr. Best died five months later, and the extract operation was abandoned.
Interest in soft-drink extracts was revived at Punta Gorda in May 1913 when the first "soda fountain" was installed in Cochran's Drug Store. This mixed carbonic gas with water and dispensed it in a thin stream under pressure.
Demand for nose-tickling bubbles and fruit syrups led Clay L. Porter, a well-driller and manufacturer of concrete blocks from Kentucky, to take on another sideline. He built a "soda pop" plant behind today's Farr legal firm on Olympia Avenue.
Porter advertised: "Manufacturer of and dealer in SODA WATER, EXTRACTS, and Concrete Building Blocks in Latest Designs."
It is believed he handled Koke, one of the many imitations of Coca-Cola.
Porter was a fun-loving bachelor, a favorite with the ladies. Men enjoyed telling "spicy" stories about his conquests. He left the area and is said to have gone to Mexico where he "met a bad end."
Coca-Cola, "The Genuine Thing," was brought to Punta Gorda in March 1915 by H. H. Hawkins. He had obtained a franchise for Fort Myers two years earlier from Tampa Coca- Cola Associates. His machinery at Punta Gorda was housed in a sheet-iron building built for him by Mrs. S. J. Hewitt. It was located behind the Hewitt Brothers garage and hardware store just west of today's post office.
An advertisement in the Herald proclaimed: "DRINK COCA-COLA ... Bottled In Punta Gorda. Ask For the Genuine. It Costs No More. We Cater To The Trade In Bottled Coca-Cola and High Grade Soda Water ... Coca-Cola Bottling Company, H. H. Hawkins, Mgr., Punta Gorda, Fla."
It is interesting to note that the now familiar "hobby-skirt" bottle shape was not introduced until late that year in order to distinguish Coca-Cola from its many competitors.
Hawkins joined the Army in September 1917 and sold the Punta Gorda franchise to Adam Silcox, agent for the Standard Oil Company, for $2,500. He operated the bottling works until September 1921 when he moved his family to Miami for a couple of years.
Edgar Rountree, freight agent for the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad (successor to Florida Southern Railway), had three sons -- Erwin, Edwin ("Ebby") and Elvin. The two oldest boys often played "hookey" from Charlotte High School to go swimming.
Their father caught them frolicking in the harbor one day and declared, "You're not going to do that any more. You're going to work."
Rountree bought the Coca-Cola franchise on mortgage for $3,500 and launched his oldest sons on their life-time careers. Edgar built a new plant at the corner of Elizabeth and Allen streets. Erwin ran the machinery. Ebby handled the distribution and customer contacts.
Rountree's territory was that between the Peace and Caloosahatchee rivers plus Sanibel and Captiva islands.
For island deliveries, Ebby traveled through Hawkin's territory to cross on a ferry boat.
Ebby was a dedicated past-president of the Punta Gorda Rotary Club. As such, he scrupulously observed the Rotary requirement of regular attendance. He not only achieved a perfect record of 42 years at Punta Gorda, he also recorded 25 years of perfect attendance at Fort Myers Rotary where he stopped for lunch when making Sanibel deliveries.
Ebby married Bernice Blacklock, a home economics teacher at Charlotte High. Her father was state director of the agriculture extension service at Gainesville. Nathaniel "Doc" McQueen was extension agent at Punta Gorda and often went to Gainesville on official business.
While there one day, McQueen mentioned that Charlotte High School needed teachers. Bernice was recently graduated and looking for a teaching position. She took the train to Punta Gorda and was quickly hired by Superintendent Sallie Jones.
"With my home-ec background, I just naturally got involved with the Rountree family business of syrup mixtures," says Bernice (pronounced Bern-iss.)
"During World War II we couldn't get help, but the Army Air Field (now the Charlotte County Air Port) requested more Coca-Cola. Therefore, I went to Avon Park, Florida, and bought a second set of bottling machinery.
"This doubled production but made it necessary that I go to work in the plant as an inspector. Ebby made parts for the machinery when there were breakdowns. New parts for non- military purposes were not available.
"People from Fort Myers drove up to Punta Gorda to buy cases of Coca-Cola from us because we bottled with high-pressure. This better preserved the bubbles which consumers preferred."
In time, Edgar, Erwin and Elvin died. Ebby and Bernice retired and sold the franchise in 1970 for a reputed $100,000 to Coca-Cola Associates of Daytona Beach. It closed down the Punta Gorda bottling works and transferred operations to the present warehouse and distribution center at the southern end of Cooper Street.
Now, Coke is sold in disposable pop-top 12-pack cans. A move to "improve" Coca-Cola taste several years ago was met by such an uproar the company had to return to the old, "classic" formula. Another clamor for the hobby-skirt bottle is gaining ground.
There are some American icons you just don't mess with.
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Photo courtesy Charlotte Harbor Area Historical Society
A Coca-Cola truck, bedecked with "bathing beauties," was part of the 1943 Fourth of July parade."
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First advertisement for Coca-Cola in the March 1915 "Punta Gorda Herald."
By Lindsey Williams, columnist for Sun Coast Media Group newspapers
