Hop Bitters

This popular bitters of the nineteenth century involved three proprietors in one way or another: John D. Doyle, Asa Titus Soule, and Collatinus D. Warner. Their bottles were similar, primarily amber, about 9 1/2 inches tall, and square with slanted indented roof or shoulder panels. My Doyle’s has a Hop Bitters Manufacturing Company label with Rochester, N.Y., U.S.A., Toronto, Ont., and London, Eng. Some have only Rochester, N.Y. I have not seen a Doyles Bitters with a Doyles label.

Doyle's Hop Bitters 1872 with Hop Bitters Mfg. Co. label.

My Soule’s is heavy and crude with a light amber or gasoline color. My C.D. Warner’s is the 1880 variant. I also have the very rare 8 inches tall rounded shoulder one from Coldwater, Mich., with labels and contents. See the March, 1990 Medicine Chest article.
J.D. Doyle lived in Canadaigua. He had a medicine plant in Canadaigua. The Rochester Union and Advertiser on June 29, 1872, indicates that J.D. Doyle was granted a patent, #128373, through the Rochester patent office for a medical compound. This apparently was Doyle’s Hop Bitters, but the name was not given in the news article. Area libraries, the Ontario Co. Historical Society, and Rochester collector-historians Jack Stecher and D.A. Schilling have not been able to come up with more information about Doyle.
Asa Titus Soule arrived in Canadaigua in 1872, and soon scraped up enough capital to buy Doyle out; some claimed he cheated Doyle. Soule was the eleventh child of a Quaker family, shrewd, but not necessarily highly principled. He had tried farming, real estate, banking, hotel management, and selling a cough cure before coming to Canadaigua.

Dr. Soule Hop Bitters 1872.

Soule strengthened the formula, changed the name to Hop Bitters, the invalid’s friend and hope, and moved the plant to Rochester in 1873. The product took off, and Soule eventually became a millionaire. He began to sponsor amateur sports, offering prizes. Baseball was gaining in popularity and Soule took on the city of Rochester team. Soon he bought the bankrupt club of Albany and re-named them “Hop Bitters”; The local ballpark became “Hop Bitters Park”. Soule ventured into other sports promotions, none of which were very successful.
Warner’s Safe Kidney and Liver Cure began to outsell Hop Bitters. Soule observed that H.H. Warner achieved useful publicity by sponsoring an observatory in Rochester, so he tried to endorse the small University of Rochester. They turned him down.
Soule then decided to build an empire in western Kansas. Drought and railroad failure ended this venture. He returned to Rochester where he made more money by adding Soule’s Absolute and Irresistible Cure, Hop Cure, Hop Ointment, Balm Syrup, and a Hop Pad for distressed abdomens. Branches were opened in London, Melbourne, Toronto, and Antwerp, Belgium.
The Hop Bitters Co. had no hesitation in advertising its product even across the face of the American Flag. So did a few other patent medicine proprietors.

Dr. C.D. Warner's German Hop Bitters 1880, Reading, Mich.

C.D. Warner is the other member of the trio because he put some of his German Hop Bitters Company label on bottles embossed Doyles Hop Bitters 1872. Did he recycle them or what? Warner also used slanted shoulder amber bottles similar to Doyle’s, embossed German Hop Bitters 1872, Reading, Mich., German Hop Bitters 1872, Dr. Warner’s, Reading, Mich., and German Hop Bitters 1880, Dr. C.D. Warner of Reading, Mich. The Rochester Union and Advertiser, July 17, 1885, gives the information that A.T. Soule obtained an injunction restraining C.D. Warner of Reading, Mich., from manufacturing German Hop Bitters. However the brand continued to appear in drug catalogs through 1901-1902. Perhaps Warner was able to continue with his two round shoulder bottles, the 10 inch tall one from Reading and the 8 inch tall one from Coldwater. While Wine of Tar seems to have become Warner’s “bread and butter” product.
Doyles Hop Bitters bottles are known in a wide variety of shades of amber, and rarely in yellow, yellow olive, and green. There are many differences in hop motif design and lettering size. Doyle must have had a huge stockpile of bottles that Soule used. Some of the Doyles bottles appear to be later than the Soule bottles in my opinion. Soule bottles are known in many shades of amber, yellow, yellow olive, and black glass. The latter may have been used in England according to collector David Beadle. There is also a smaller amber Soule’s, 7 3/4 inches tall, which is scarce.
It has been reported that Asa Soule was driving up to his country estate with a friend when he was asked, “Now, confidentially, Asa, do these bitters really do any good?”. Soule stopped his horses, waved his arm toward his magnificent buildings surrounded by beautiful meadows and acres of crops, and answered, “Well, you can see what they did for me”.....

References
1. Bingham, A.W.: The Snake-Oil Syndrome,
1994.
2. Cannon, R.A.: Antique Bottle and Glass
Collector, March, 1990.
3. Fike, R.: The Bottle Book, 1987
4. Libraries: Rochester Public Library, Wood
Library, Canadaigua, State Library,
Albany, N.Y.
5. O’Connell, A.: Old Bottle Magazine,
February, 1985.
6. Ontario County Historical Society.
7. Personal Communications: D. Beadle, D.
Schilling, and J. Stecher.
8. Ring, C. and Ham, W.C.: Bitters Bottles,
1998.
9. Ring, C.: For Bitters Only, 1980.

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