#1 - A Name on That Bottle and the Challenges of Research
December 12, 2025
As I research bottlers from my home county, La Porte County, I am learning far more than I ever expected about the bottles that have sat on my shelves for years. For a long time, I would glance at them without giving much thought to the people behind the names embossed in the glass.
What do those initials mean? Who were they? What did they look like?
I recently finished researching a bottler from La Porte named C. B. Kachur. I had always assumed the C stood for Charles, but I was surprised to learn that C. B. actually meant Constantine Boleslaus. It is a unique and unexpected name. Now, when I look at that bottle on the shelf, I no longer wonder what those initials stand for.
During my research, I also find myself asking another question. What did this person look like? We see these names repeatedly on old bottles, but rarely do we get to see the face behind them.
I have been collecting Kadow bottles from Michigan City for a few years, and only recently did I finally come across a photograph of William Kadow. Seeing his face for the first time made the name on those bottles feel real in a way it never had before.
That is both the challenge and the reward of this research. Turning names in glass into real people with real stories.
Another challenge of research is that many of these bottlers have very little, or almost no, documented history behind them.
Good research goes far beyond a simple Google search. Much of the work involves spending time on sites such as Find A Grave, Newspapers.com, Ancestry, and digitized city directory listings. Just as often, it requires visiting a library or historical society to consult hard copies and spending hours carefully searching through them.
Unfortunately, not every year is documented, and major changes may have occurred during those missing periods. Even searching microfilm at a local library can feel like looking for a needle in a haystack.
As with much of history, a great deal has been permanently lost over time. There may once have been photographs of a business or an individual, but those images could now be sitting in a landfill or tucked away in a shoebox in someone’s closet, unnoticed and unrecognized.
Another problem many historians encounter is finding photographs with no identifying information. Often there is no name, location, or date written on the back, making it difficult to solve the mystery behind the image.
The goal of this online Indiana bottle archive is to bring together as much of this history as possible in one place, with a special focus on my home county of La Porte County.
Whether we collect old bottles because we love history, admire the colors and shapes, or simply enjoy collecting old things, it is always rewarding to know the story behind the items we collect.
