Royal Crown

Royal Crown

Columbus, GA    

Royal Crown, makers of RC cola, also made the Nehi and Nehi Berks County root beer brands. The bottle shown here was from the Mancuso Bros. Bottling Works, Morgan City, La. It displays 3R*-6 on the bottom. 3R* stands for 3 Rivers Glass Works which was located in 3 Rivers, Texas in the 1920's and 1930's. On the bottom it says Mancuso Bros. Bottling Works, Morgan City, La. 3R*-6. The 3R* stands for 3 Rivers Glass Works which was located in 3 Rivers, Texas in the 1920's and 1930's.

From The Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink: "In 1905, Claud A Hatcher, a pharmacist, established the Union Bottling Works in the basement of his family's grocery store in Columbus, Georgia. Chero-Cola was the first of his Royal Crown line of beverages; it was followed by ginger ale, strawberry soda, and root beer. In 1912, Hatcher changed the name of the company to the Chero-Cola Company. The company struggled through the sugar rationing of World War I and suffered financial difficulties during the early 1920s, but in 1924, Hatcher was able to launch a new brand, Nehi, with orange and grape sodas leading the new line. No one seems to know what the name Nehi meant."