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Fundraising for Sunday Rock Legacy project in Colton includes sale of Swift milk bottles

Posted 7/17/15

The Colton Historical Society, on behalf of The Sunday Rock Legacy Project, is selling uncirculated glass milk bottles labeled J.N. Swift & Sons South Colton. The Thatcher Glass Manufacturing …

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Fundraising for Sunday Rock Legacy project in Colton includes sale of Swift milk bottles

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The Colton Historical Society, on behalf of The Sunday Rock Legacy Project, is selling uncirculated glass milk bottles labeled J.N. Swift & Sons South Colton. The Thatcher Glass Manufacturing Company made them. The bottom of each bottle carries the designation E 57, indicating the bottles were manufactured in 1957 at Thatcher’s Elmira plant. Documentation accompanies each bottle.

COLTON -- Sunday Rock Legacy project members are selling two cases of uncirculated J.N. Swift & Sons milk bottles manufactured by the Thatcher Glass Manufacturing Company in 1957 at the Elmira plant.

Ruth McWilliams, who helps coordinate fund raising, says occasionally antique collectors make a find that even they can’t believe and those finds are sometimes in the most surprising places. For example, what collector would expect that a group of volunteers in Northern New York would be the owners of dozens of highly regarded and sought after Thatcher milk bottles in pristine condition? And what antique buff would expect they would be selling them at a wares table during a town festival or a musical production?

The bottles were donated by Mr. & Mrs. Bruce N. Swift and Ms. Cynthia Swift Harrison for fundraising. Bruce and Cynthia are children of George and Josephine Swift whose family ran a dairy in South Colton. Additional bottles also were acquired at the auction for fund raising by The Sunday Rock Legacy Project.

“The Sunday Rock Legacy Project, through the Colton Historical Society, began selling the bottles during the Potsdam Summer Festival last Saturday when cast for the upcoming stage production of ‘I Love a Piano’ performed Irving Berlin songs from the show,” McWillaims said. “The bottles are being sold with documentation including a story about Dr. Hervey Thatcher of Potsdam who is credited with inventing the milk bottle.”

The price for each bottle is $50. In addition a limited supply of paper discs used to seal the bottles is available for an additional $10.

The bottles will be available to purchase before the stage presentations of ‘I Love a Piano’ July 16 and 17 at 7 p.m. and July 19 at 2 p.m. at Colton-Pierrepont Central School. They also will be available at other upcoming events during the Colton Country Days celebration. Each bottle purchased through July 19 includes two tickets to ‘I Love a Piano.’

This fund raising effort is part of a series of events and activities organized by the Sunday Rock Legacy Project management team, and “Rhythms of the Raquette” is the theme of the 2015. It was chosen by the project management team to encompass the historical, theatrical and educational aspects of the project. The historical activities focus primarily on the building of hydroelectric dams on the Raquette River which forever changed the rhythm of the river and the communities along it. Throughout 2015 the Colton Historical Society, in collaboration with Grasse River Players and Colton-Pierrepont Central School, has sought financial support from a variety of individuals, organizations and businesses.

Most of the dams on the river within the Town of Colton were completed in the early 1950s. During the construction years local historian Mary Jane Watson points out South Colton, in particular, benefitted in a number of ways. She recalls South Colton was booming with business including construction companies, bars, trailer courts and more.

Swift Dairy was one of the South Colton businesses in existence then. The dairy farm owned by John N. Swift and his wife Hilda O’Neill Swift was operated by their son John Edward and his wife Vivian; and the corner store was operated by their son George and his wife Josephine. Now the farm along State Highway 56 in South Colton is owned by John N. and Hilda’s daughter Marion and her husband Glen Thomas.

Over the years John N. and Hilda Swift’s other daughter Sally Swift Thomas worked to preserve the history of the town in a variety ways, including having Sunday Rock listed on the State and National Register of Historic Places. After her death in 2014 an auction of her antiques and estate was held on January 31. 2015. Ms. Watson says “many of us in town were surprised to learn she had over 500 milk bottles since we hadn’t seen them available otherwise for years.”

As the project fund raising continues, the management team acknowledges the upfront support provided by others. The 2015 Sunday Rock Legacy Project also is sponsored in part by a grant from the St. Lawrence County Arts Council with funds from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. And four Major Sponsors have provided significant financial support—Brookfield Renewable Energy, Buck Funeral Home, Canton-Potsdam Hospital and Catamount Lodge and Forest LLC.

For more information, contact Scott Muller at 244-9956.