Bottles were very expensive and they were manufactured to be reused many times.  If a business didn’t get most of their bottles back from customers, it resulted in a real crisis of not having enough bottles to refill.  Most bottlers had their names embossed on the front of the bottles and often the reverse side had, “THIS BOTTLE NOT TO BE SOLD.” 

Copy of an advertisement from an 1888 Utica City Directory.  The USBW did was not listed in the 1889 Utica Directory.

An article appeared in the Utica Morning Herald on Monday, July 8, 1889 that was entitled “A Case of Bottles.”  Part of the article read as follows “Early Saturday morning several cases of bottles used in putting up mild beverages were carted to the police station by Detective Latham and Officer James Evans from the bottling establishment of Avery N. Lord and C. W. Sharp. This raid on the bottles was made at the instigation of the Utica Steam Bottling Works, who claim that Sharp and Lord have a practice of picking up their bottles from saloons and converting them to their own use. Accordingly the proprietors swore out a warrant against Messrs. Lord and Sharp with the result stated above. It is claimed that the accused have in their possession, bottles belonging to other bottled beer dealers. Other search warrants have been issued, and the case will come up for trial in city court today.”

Two years later, the August 5, 1891 issue of the Rome Semi-Weekly Citizen had an article titled “Expensive Bottles” and read as follows, “Some time ago John Byrnes of this city had Avery N. Lord of Utica arrested for taking possession of some beer bottles that belonged to him.  The case was tried before Justice Powers and was settled by Lord paying $30.  Later Lord obtained a search warrant and finds a quantity of his bottles in the possession of Byrnes.”

A rubbing from a very scarce aqua 12 oz blob top bottle from the USBW.  The bottle was dug by master digger Dave Mount.

Still, another article appeared in the Utica Observer on Saturday, September 19, 1896 that was entitled “BOTTLERS IN COURT – A CASE UNDER A SPECIAL LAW FOR THEIR PROTECTION” and read as follows,    “Policeman Hill this morning went to the bottling works of Avery N. Lord on 66 Broad Street, with a search warrant and seized a wagon load of bottles bearing the name of William Ennis, another bottler.  Lord was arraigned in court, charged with violating the law which prohibited one bottling works from using the property of another.”  The complaint was made that Lord had repeatedly refused to exchange or give the owners bottles not his own.  There had been considerable complaints of this kind in Utica for several years and it was proposed to settle it with the case of Lord.”
On September 21, 1896 two days after Lord’s arraignment an article titled “The Bottlers’ Troubles Corked With $35,” appeared in the Utica Observer and read as follows, “The trouble among the bottlers seems to be settled- temporarily at least.  Avery N. Lord of Broad street who was arrested Saturday charged on complaint of William Ennis with violating the special law forbidding the reception and use of the bottles of a competitor, appeared in court this afternoon.

He was without counsel and after hearing the charge he pleaded guilty.  Judge Stans imposed a fine of $35, which Lord promptly paid, remarking as he did, “There will be no more trouble.”

When the reporter wrote “The trouble among the bottlers seems to be settled-temporarily at least,” he probably didn’t how accurate his statement really was because that was not the end of Avery N. Lords’ court problems.  Lord was arrested again around the first of July 1898 but this time his wife and son were also arrested.  The Utica Daily Press had an article under “City Court Cases” that read as follows, “Avery N. Lord, Mary E. Lord and Charles N. Lord were yesterday arraigned in City Court charged with refilling and selling stamped soda and mineral water bottles.  Thursday the police visited Lord’s bottling establishment at 66 Broad Street with a search warrant and seized a wagon load of bottles bearing the names of others in the business.  There is a law providing a penalty for keeping such bottles and complaints were entered against the parties by Charles W. Sharp and Patrick McGuinness, J. Frank Rogers appeared for the defendants and the case was adjourned until July 6.”

Some Pawns Of The Bottle Wars - Bottles from four of the bottling establishments that were involved in the bottle wars in the 1880's and the 1890's in Utica. From the left, an aqua 12 oz blob top AVERY N. LORD/ UTICA, N.Y.bottle, an aqua hutchinson C.W. SHARP/UTICA, N.Y. bottle, a clear 12 oz blob top BYRNES HOTEL/ROME, N.Y. bottle, and an aqua hutchinson WM. ENNIS, UTICA, N.Y. bottle. The back of the three Utica bottles have the words, "THIS BOTTLE NOT TO BE SOLD" embossed on them and now we know why this phrase was used. All four of these bottlers also used other sizes of bottles for their businesses including many quarts. These bottles were photographed outdoors on a mirror which resulted in the blue background.

This cut throat bottle war lasted for many years.  Although Avery N. Lord’s name seems to appear in more newspaper articles for being arrested than the other bottlers, the examples shown above reveal that other bottlers also confiscated competitor’s bottles.  John Byrnes, a Rome bottler was very much a hypocrite.  After having Lord arrested for having his bottles, a raid on his warehouse brought to light that he was doing the same thing. 
In Utica, Lord was the top bottler as far as sales volume was concerned and if his business didn’t get a few of their bottles back, it wouldn’t cripple the operation to the extent it would if a small bottler lost a quantity of their bottles. 
The Utica Steam Bottling Works was only in business for about a year and a half.  When they were short of bottles, saloon owners must have tipped off the partners of the USBW that Lord and Sharp were picking up their bottles when they retrieved their own.  Evidently, this must have caused the owners of the USBW to have search warrants made out to raid the warehouses of Lord and Sharp. 

This incident didn’t solve all the problems that faced the USBW and in the retail business, usually the strong survive and the weak do not.  A December 11, 1889 issue of the Utica Daily Observer had a very short article about the USBW that read as follows, “The Utica Steam Bottling Works, formerly operated on Seneca street, near Fayette, by John Schimmel and D. A. Dishler, have been purchased by Avery N. Lord and combined with his establishment on Broad street.”