ANDREW LOHR VICTORIAN SODA LITHOGRAPH, CAIRO, IL. Ca 1900

ANDREW LOHR BOTTLING CO IN CAIRO, IL

One of my favorite small town soda collectibles is from the tiny town of Cairo, IL.  At one time, Cairo was a booming town with a population of over 20,000.  After years of decline and unrest, the town now has less than 3,000 residents.  However, Cairo has left quite a bit of advertising history behind from its once glorious past.

A recent addition to my collection is this 30 inch framed Victorian diecut lithograph. It’s from the Andrew Lohr Bottling Companies Lemon Soda and Champagne Cider products. The diecut is a typical heavy cardboard material with embossed lettering and detail throughout the advertisement.

In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, beautifully dressed woman were often featured in advertisements for beer, wine, whiskey and soda.  Many manufacturers realized the ladies caught the attention of consumers while also providing a colorful picture-like scene. Most of the woman in the lithograph ads wore fancy bright colored dresses and sophisticated hats.  

ANDREW LOHR BOTTLING CO. HISTORY

The Andrew Lohr Bottling Company’s leading soda brand was the White Star Soda Water. I have seen this brand’s advertising dated from the 1860’s through the 1910’s with the name embedded on it.

The Andrew Lohr Bottling Co. started in 1861 in the small town of Cairo, Illinois. Andrew Lohr sold his dairy herd and purchased a recently closed soda factory from Edward Schroeder.  A June 1860 business directory shows Mr. Lohr to be an employee of Mr. Schroeder.  So, the purchase was probably a simple one for Mr. Lohr and his former boss. Interestingly, both men were only 25 years old at the time of the sale. Both men spent the rest of their lives working in the soda business.  Mr. Schroeder relocated to East St. Louis, IL and became successful with two other soda factories.

In the late 1800’s, The Andrew Lohr Bottling Company was also a regional distributor for Anheuser-Busch products including Budweiser. An Andrew Lohr Victorian trade card illustrates this on one side and announcing their award at the 1898 Vienna Industrial Exposition. The Anheuser-Busch beer depot was situated next door to the soda manufacturing plant.

ANDREW LOHR’S SUCCESS

Andrew Lohr quickly became a leading businessman in Cairo, Illinois. He utilized the convenient location of Cairo, situated on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to transport products in many directions. During the late Civil War, his supply was shipped to the soldiers fighting for both the North and South causes. Today, current bottle diggers often find his bottles in cities outside of Cairo, including New Orleans where he had a flourishing retail trade. He gained broad appeal quickly and his soda was a big hit!

In the mid to late 1800’s, soda manufacturing was typically a part-time business because sales didn’t do well in winter months. However, The Andrew Lohr Bottling Company remained open year round. Andrew Lohr hired two employees as early as 1870 who were each paid $1,600 a year. In 1870, he produced 5,000 boxes of soda per year.  That equaled 120,000 individual bottles, quite a volume in that era. In the 1880’s, the business was advertised as having “a wide market to supply in Illinois and other surrounding states”. The earliest Lohr soda bottles were stoneware and made by Noah Ailiff, a local potter in Mound City, Illinois.  Later, the Andrew Lohr Bottling Company produced their soda in glass bottles.