Fruit Jar Rambles Extra By Tom Caniff — Photos by Deena Caniff
COLLINS, WHEATON & LUHRS Collins, Wheaton & Luhrs was first found listed in the1868 San Francisco city directory. Indeed, on Jan. 18, 1868, the company, consisting of Albert F. Collins, George Henry Wheaton, and Nicolas C. Luhrs, started running the ad in Figure A in the SANTA CRUZ [California] WEEKLY SENTINEL. The ad describes them as “Commission Merchants And Wholesale Dealers In Butter, Cheese, Lard, Hams, Bacon, &c. 219 Front Street.” There were some mistakes, however, and the ad was later corrected in the PETALUMA [California] WEEKLY ARGUS, June 4, 1868, to show A. F. Collins and N. C. Luhrs as being the two partners “Late with Dodge Bros. & Co.,” one of the precursors to Dodge, Sweeney & Co., 406 Front St., dealers in the same basic commodities as Collins, Wheaton & Luhrs. George W. Wheaton had previously been listed as a deputy city and county assessor.
FIGURE A: 1868 Collins, Wheaton & Luhrs advert.
Nine years later, the April 1877 billhead in Figure B reads “Collins, Wheaton & Luhrs, Commission Merchants and Wholesale Dealers in Provisions, 219 Front & 307 Sacramento Streets.”
FIGURE B: 1877 Collins, Wheaton & Luhrs billhead.
The aqua, ground-lip, wide-mouth, straddle-lip top-seal jar in Photo 1, embossed PACKED BY COLLINS, WHEATON & LUHRS S.F. across the front, with the base embossed MARCH 10th 1870, has been reported as identical to the 2 lb. and 4 lb. MASON’S IMPROVED BUTTER JAR. The jar’s lid, secured by a zinc screw band, is embossed MASON’S IMPROVED PAT MAY 10 1870. The jar is half-gallon in size. In 1999, a well-known auction house is reported to have sold one of these jars from the Alex Kerr collection for $2,750. Support for assuming the company’s use of this particular style of COLLINS, WHEATON & LUHRS S.F. jar as a butter container may lie in the association of Collins and Luhrs with Dodge Bros. Dodge, Sweeney & Co. was founded in San Francisco by L. C. and Henry Lee Dodge in 1855 (or 1856), under the title of L. C. Dodge & Company. Over the years the company was also known as Dodge Bros.; Dodge & Shaw; Dodge Bros. & Co.; Dodge & Sroufe; and Sroufe, Sweeney & Co.; culminating in Dodge, Sweeney & Co., which was formed in 1875 (or 1876), and located at 406 Front Street. The company survived until at least 1921. Figure C illustrates a jar used by Dodge, Sweeney & Co. for their butter. Em-
PHOTO 1: PACKED BY COLLINS, WHEATON & LUHRS S.F.
bossed DODGE, SWEENEY & CO’S CALIFORNIA BUTTER, this widemouth, aqua glass jar has a ground lip, and its straddle-lip top-seal glass lid is also embossed MASON’S IMPROVED PAT MAY 10 1870 around two concentric circles. June 2021
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