Last Meeting
If you missed the last meeting, well, we actually we missed several of our friends!
We sent out search parties with K9's, and several drones . . . and even none of them returned!
Yes, even our special program speakers had to postpone their presentation.
It’s OK! We can fully understand, they live in Burlington, which is a long drive away, and the weather was pure ugly!
Think of it! What a blessing! They drive so far each month just to hang out with a bunch of us dump diggers! I am honestly very thankful for each of them!
The planned, and much anticipated, presentation “Daughters of the American Revolution,” was moved to the April 14th 2026 meeting. ☹
I am really looking forward to that!
Back in the winter of 1991, shortly after the Ken Burn’s documentary series,
(The Civil War) was aired, our club founders, Ernie Lawson, and Jack Short, shared with our club ways we could learn if we had any American Civil War Ancestors. I found that whole idea fascinating!
I didn’t know of any in my family, simply because nobody in the family ever mentioned it.
The only active-duty family member I had when I was growing up, was my Uncle Paul Wellington, who was a Navy Commander and also served as Special Duty Intelligence Officer.
During the Korean War, he served on Navy Destroyers. He retired in the 70's. and passed away 2 years back.
I followed Jack and Ernie’s plan and it worked! I not only found a Civil War Soldier ancestor, I found three! All from Otsego and Martin area.
The one great-great grandfather, whom I was most closely connected with through my grandmother, was her great grandfather named, Martin Harter, who served in Company A, 13th Infantry, Michigan.
I have a tendency to get carried away when I find something interesting. I picked up the genealogy research bug! And I had it bad! I started researching family tree sources online, and before I knew it I started finding branches on my family tree that I was totally unaware of!
My search started leading me away from Michigan . . . south to Pennsylvania. And there, I found shirt-tail relatives, whose searches were leading them north in my direction up to Michigan!
Together, we helped
each other fill in the blanks! I discovered that my
Great-Great Grandfather, Martin Harter had a brother
who was a doctor,Dr. Theodore C. Harter. Researching the Harter family, took me to
Luzerne County, Pennsylvania.
My Civil War grandfather, Martin Harter, was actually Martin Harter III. His great grandfather was Martin Harter the II. He was a Sergeant in the 2nd Battalion of the Northampton County Militia! He fought under
General Washington!
He was paid for his service with land in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania.
I found that he became the largest land owner in Pennsylvania! He was born in Germany in 1740 and he died in 1804.
I had a Civil War Veteran on my father’s side, named William Witherall from Martin Michigan. Witherall Lake in Watson Township is named for him!
At one point I started dragging my family all over the area searching for headstones, which was fun, kind of like a treasure hunt.
I look forward to hearing the Daughters of the Revolution Program in April!
This Month;
we are presenting one of the Original American Pickers, my good friend, Mark McNee!
Mark is not like the "TV" Pickers, he knows his stuff, and he knows how to handle valuable antiques! I am very excited to hear and learn from Mark!
The following month, the club will be privileged to hear Gordy Hubenet at our Tuesday's February, 10th, 2026 club meeting. His presentation will be on Medicine Bottles and related information.
Vincent Grossi; shared the following with me:
1. At the last meeting, Vincent Grossi gave an up date on the 2026 Bottle Show:
Number of Dealers-14 and Number of Tables-26.
2. Dealer Jeff Buckhardt passed away on Friday, October 24, 2025 at the age of 82.
3. Vincent Grossi gave a presentation on, “ Bottle Collecting” to the Kalamazoo Stamp Club on November 18th, 2025.
4. At the last club meeting Vincent shared finds from the club’s Mattawan dig.
5. The club’s fellowship dig at Union City, November 22nd did not produce a lot of glass, but was loads of fun!
6. The President of the Battle Creek Stamp Club, Samantha Duve, joined us at this event.
7. President Scott Hendrichsen asked anyone with club information, photos, and related items, to bring them to the next club meeting. The Club President will be in charge of these items and storage for the club.
8. Vincent Grossi gave a short presentation on his other collecting hobbies: Assorted U.S.Stamps, and Victorian Trade Cards and he displayed some nice items!
Looking about the room . . .
Searching for any signs of life; I spotted the following smiling faces!
Len Sheaffer, Julie Sheaffer, Scott Hendrichsen, Kevin Siegfried, Eddie Nickerson, Tim Hayes, Vincent Grossi, and Allan Holden
Meeting Bottles;
I have on hand, in a thumb-drive, about 15 years of the club’s newsletters. These files are all in the Word Perfect format, like the ones I print off for our hard-copy mail-out version.
This is one reason the newsletter layout is often the same. By using an established edition, as a template, it makes building a newsletter easier and less time consuming.
In my search to find a suitable framework each month, I will usually stick to the month I am preparing, in this case January. One problem is, in my search for an example to use, I get caught up in reading past newsletters . . . because they are so well written! ☺
One of, a couple, trends that I notice year-after-year, is that often I mention in the January newsletters that I am sick!
Somehow this is linked to the Holidays, and times of family gatherings when:
“faithful friends who are dear to us, gather near to us once more!” GERMS!!!!!
Boy-oh-boy am I sick again!!!!!
Another consistent trend in the January newsletter is, that I usually report on a December Pizza Party at Bimbo’s . . . (we did that earlier this time) which is always fun.
And, January was when I really started pushing and promoting the upcoming spring bottle show! Don’t you love the sound of that? SPRING!
I haven’t been promoting that as much, because Vincent has been putting out a separate dealer newsletter.
I am not sure how much longer I can keep writing the newsletter. I keep doing it because I love doing it, and I have so many dear friends in the club. But with my job and so many other obligations, I show up to the meetings in a tired-state and really am not well prepared.
For example; this last meeting I took pictures of the few bottles at the meeting, and didn’t put down name cards because I was sure I would remember who brought them.
Well, you guessed it . . . I forgot once again! I am so sorry!
But at least the pictures tell the bottle’s story.
One beauty was a light olive-green bottle embossed “ROYAL LYME.” These are actually very authentic looking hand blow glass!
The bottle is made of semi-handmade, thick green glass, which often has vintage characteristics like minor air bubbles.
You cannot call them a fake or a reproduction, because they are made this way almost like a trademark.
On the front, it typically has reads "ROYALL LYME" with a decorative crown and emblem, while the base or back may also be embossed with "ROYALL LYME LIMITED" or a lime cluster graphic.
So, the good news is
that it is manufactured by Royall Lyme of Bermuda
still today! I found an empty bottle for sale for
$25.00, and it is a collectible item. Or, you can buy
a full sealed bottle for about $60.00 with your choice
of lotion or cologne! You can stop smelling like
a dump digger!The next bottle was easy to attribute to, Tim Hayes.
It is a pint-size Cornucopia / Urn-flask, likely from Lancaster Glass Works, Lancaster, New York, 1840-1860. It is Rich ice blue, with a sheared mouth.
Just to show you how little details matter, the little things the average guy wouldn’t see . . . do matter; if you wanted a antique flask, in this color that looks like this one, in your collection, I find them for about $150.00 online. I also found a dead-ringer to Tim’s that sold for over $4,000 at a Heckler Auction.
Another flask Tim showed at the meeting was a one pint pocket flask.
That bottle has all the signs of being a true treasure! I love a bottle that
screams out “Crude!” This beauty is clear glass, which adds to the rarity. They tell me the colorless glass was the hardest to make. It has a sheared lip with some comic looking embossing of a scene that is hard to make out because it is so busy!
It looks to me like a drunk on a lounge chair wrestling with a large cello?
But after cleaning up my photo, and adding some shadow to bring out the detail, it is a scene called “Banjo Player.”
So, let us pull this picture all together. For a clearer image we need to get into our
Antique
Bottle Time Machine!
This bottle is said to date from, or starting at, 1850, so we will find ourselves showing up on the scene
just before the Civil War.
We find ourselves on a gravel road outside of a bar in New York City. The bright and lively music we hear filling the streets is all the national sensation!
This was a song was found on the lips of young and old alike!
This song was written by one of the greatest American songwriters ever, a man with a love for humanity.
Yet, like so many, he lived in a country overshadowed by the dark reality and suffering of people in slavery.
His name was Stephen Foster and and the song written in 1847 was "Oh! Susanna."
Even though we think of it as a light happy song it was actually about a black slave whose prized possessions were his banjo and his love, a slave girl named, Susanna.
Stephen Foster wrote some great music, but by the miss-use of copywrite laws, his best music was stolen by thieves!
Oh! Susanna has been re-written several times! But, here is how 'part' of the actual song was penned by Stephen Foster in 1847.
“ I’ve come from Alabama, Wid my banjo on my knee,
I jumped aboard the telegraph, And trabbled down the riber,
De-lectric fluid magnified, And killed five hundred nigger.
De bullgine (steamer) bust, de horse run off, I really thought I’d die;
I shut my eyes to hold my breath, Susanna don’t you cry.
“Chorus Oh Susanna etc.”
I had a dream the odder night, When ebery thing was still, I thought I saw Susanna, a Coming down de hill;
The buck-wheat cake was in her mouth, The tear was in her eye; Says I, “I’m coing from de south, Susanna, don’t you cry.”
“Chorus Oh Susanna etc.”
I soon will be in New Orleans, And den I’ll look all round,
And When I find Susanna, I will fall upon de ground.
And If I do not find her, Dis Darkie’ will surely die,
And when I’m dead and buried, Susanna, don’t you cry.”
Hey! Here We are! Back in 2026! What a adventure that was!
So, now! We know what the banjo player is playing on Tim’s flask! And when you understand the meaning behind the embossed image, the banjo is indeed on his knee!
In the time honored opinions of antique bottle professionals, the figure with the banjo is described by them as a “Darkie.”
Tim’s flask is super cool! And it was from the Maryland Glass Works, Baltimore, Maryland from 1850-1865.
Kevin Siegfried found a album of pasted trade cards which was a hobby of many young folks back in the late 1870's to 1920's. Back then they didn’t need to mute those annoying ads! They collected them!
Think about it! No TV, no Radio, no cell phone! You had to have come from a wealthy family to even own a bike!
Advertising was freely given out in the mail and in stores . . . as free as water and so colorful!
Kevin took one of these albums and carefully steamed off dozens of Victorian cards! Only $1.00 each! I snatched up 20! We had a great meeting!
This Month
I took it upon myself to pick out a meeting theme.
Here is my thinking; Maybe you have an antique treasure? Something that you would like to show to Mark McNee. Is it real? Is it rare? What is it worth? Is it for sale?
Perhaps there is something you are searching for? Maybe it is advice?
Should I clean it or . . . . . should I paint it?
The
Kalamazoo Antique Bottle
Club
Meets At the
Otsego Historic Society
Museum
Meeting date is
January, 2026 th
at 7:00 pm
The Museum is located at
218 N. Farmer St. Otsego, MI 49078
Meeting starts at 7:00
Information
Meets At the
Otsego Historic Society
Museum
Meeting date is
January, 2026 th
at 7:00 pm
The Museum is located at
218 N. Farmer St. Otsego, MI 49078
Meeting starts at 7:00
Information
e-mail: kzooantiquebottleclub@gmail.com
prostock@net-link.net