Bottles on the Border: The History and Bottles of the Soft Drink ...

Capacity: ca. 8.5 oz.
Overall Bottle Design: Cylindrical with six vertical panels created by
embossed lines forming arches at the upper extremities
Front Description
Body: Embossed in four of six vertical panels (lettering read with
bottle on its side from crown to heel), HOUCK & DIETER /
COMPANY / EL PASO, / TEXAS
Back Description
Body: See front description
Base: Embossed - H&DCo.
Manufacturer: Unknown
Dating: [ca. 1903-1912] These bottles were in use from about 1900 to
the company’s merger with Purity Bottling & Manufacturing Company
in 1912. Since the merger happened suddenly, a large supply of these
bottles were simply discarded at the Chamizal Dump. Beck Garrett,
who dug at the dump in the 1950s told me that these bottles were so
common that the diggers just threw them into a pile when they found
Figure 5-24 – Houck &
them.
Dieter – six-panel bottle
Collection(s):
Becky Garrett Collection, El Paso
Museum of History; John Gross
Collection; Rick Chavez Collection;
Mike Morrison Collection, Las Cruces;
author’s collection.
Figure 5-25 – Young soldiers at the Francisco Madero camp
– with Houck & Dieter sodas stacked in the left background
(El Paso County Historical Society)
A photo of Francisco Madero’s
camp shows a stack of cases stenciled
with the Houck & Dieter name. <strong>Bottles</strong>
stacked alongside the cases are the sixpanel
style. Since Madero challenged
the Profirio Díaz regime in 1910, and
Houck & Dieter merged with the Purity
Bottling & Mfg. Co. in 1912, the photo
must have been taken during the very
early years of the Mexican Revolution
(Figures 5-25 & 5-26).
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