COKE PLANT: Perhaps the definitive word about Bradford’s
Coca-Cola plant comes from Robert Graham of Bradford who remembers
bottles being delivered to the local plant already stamped
“Bradford, Pa.”

In other words, our Coke plant merely filled the bottles for
shipment – and did not manufacture them.

We’ve already had a few readers so speculate but his account
confirms it.

Robert tells us that in 1950 or so, a man named Marshall LeVie
operated the Coke plant, and would receive boxes of bottles already
made and stamped.

The bottles would be filled immediately so he would not have to
keep any inventory, Robert says.

LeVie would then pass along the empty boxes to Graham’s
greenhouse which would use them as carry-out boxes for its
customers. The boxes were perfect for re-use because they were
plain, had no writing on them.

Shipments of the bottles would come 2-3 times a year, probably
by rail, and would be a couple hundred at a time.

Robert also remembers that Mr. LeVie was a member of the Rotary
Club.

His recollection of where the Coke plant was located mirrors
other reports including one we had over the weekend from Sally De
Mellier of Port Saint Lucie, Fla., who believes it was located on
East Main Street near Rink’s or the Children’s Home.

INDIAN SALVE: Our column about a workshop in Jimersontown, N.Y.,
on how to make so-called “Indian salve,” prompted a note from Gary
Barr of Monroe, N.C.: “I remember when I was at 5th ward in the 4th
grade I cut my knee and it got infected. My mother put some of the
Indian salve on it, and the infection cleared up about overnight. I
remember the stuff being black and not so appealing to the
nose.”

We had read about this workshop in the Salamanca (N.Y.) Press,
our sister newspaper. When we contacted them for more information,
we learned that the salve-making class was only one of a series of
summer art classes for adults sponsored by the Seneca Nation’s
Department of Education.

Other classes are in making deerskin moccasins; horn rattles, a
traditional Seneca musical instrument; corn soup; basket weaving;
bead work; and making a corn husk doll. Just last week was a
session on Iroquois pottery and pit firing.