But Smith's story began in Jefferson, Texas, where he was born in 1883 and, as a youth (possibly as young as eight years of age), worked for an uncle, J. M. De Ware, delivering ice and laboring in the bottling plant, before he moved on to seek his fortune at the age of eighteen.  His exact path is unknown, but, despite the inauspicious start as a bottle washer (EPHP 4/20/1931 1:5) for a soft drink producer, he enjoyed working in the industry and labored in bottling plants in Hattiesburg, McComb, and Greenwood, Mississippi.  Smith may have gotten his start in the bottling business at the Coca-Cola Bottling Works of Greenwood which began bottling the well-known soft drink in 1904, before he moved on to Hattiesburg where he may have also worked for Coca-Cola.  The Hattiesburg Coca-Cola Bottling Company began operation as a Mississippi corporation two years later (1906) in a rented building that was only 30 by 50 feet in size.  The company sold 175 cases in its first week and deposited $80.55 in its bank account.  A second plant where Smith may have worked was the Hattiesburg Bottling Works that opened around the turn of the century.  The plant, located in a two-story building on Main St., was noted for Jarvis Celery Tonic as well as soda water.  In 1907 the McComb Coca-Cola Bottling Company started business.  Because no other bottler has been discovered in early McComb history, this may have been the last bottling company that employed Smith prior to his move to El Paso.  The Coca-Cola connection would have been an obvious one:  in 1894, Joseph A. Biedenharn of Vicksburg, Mississippi, was the first to bottle Coca-Cola.  Prior to that date, Coca-Cola was only available as a fountain drink.  Mississippi rapidly became the hot-spot for Coca-Cola sales.  His bottle-washing days, however, if in his teens, could not have been for any of the Mississippi Coca-Cola plants.  Smith would have turned twenty in 1903, a year too soon for the earliest plant in the cities where Smith was reported to have worked (Lucky manuscript 1979; McComb Chamber of Commmerce 1925; McCarty 1982:39; Munsey 1972:303; Hattiesburg American 8/20/1981; EPT 11/28/1959 1:2; 6/28/1977 G13:1; EPHP 11/27/1959 1:6). 

     Smith may have worked at any combination of the companies prior to relocating to Stamford, Texas, as the manager for the Stamford Ice and Refrigerating Co. "that also operated a bottling works" (EPT 11/28/1959 1:6).  The Times claims that Smith moved to Stamford in 1904.  This suggests that the move may have been prior to his life in Mississippi.  If so, his migrations were not linear; Stamford is west of Jefferson and would have been logically in line with a move to El Paso, rather than an eastern reversal to Mississippi.  Alternatively, the date of 1904 may have been incorrect.  According to Thomas C. Lucky, Smith worked at the Stamford Ice Co. (Lucky interview).  While at Stamford, Smith wrote a short piece of advice about carbonating water for other bottlers (Blumenthal [1907] 1988:29).  He finally arrived in El Paso in August of 1907. 

     The wandering Smith apparently arrived too late in 1907 to be included in the El Paso City Directory, as he was not listed until the following year.  The 1908 City Directory lists the 

Figure 8a-1 - Hope and Clopton Smith's Business Card (ca. 1912-1919) - Courtesy of Mrs. Dorothy Lucky

     Carl Kirchner was a colorful character long before he settled in El Paso.  Born in Bee County, Texas, on November 19, 1867, he began his service as a Texas Ranger on May 18, 1889, and rose to the rank of First Sergeant.  By the time he was discharged on July 24, 1895, he had been in several gunfights and killed an indeterminate number of men in the line of duty.  He was involved in the famous gunfight on San Elizario Island in 1895 when Ranger Captain Frank Jones was killed.  Kirchner was also involved in the later retrieval of Jones' body.  He served in West Texas, being stationed at Shafter, Marfa, Pecos, Alpine, and Ysleta (ca. 12 miles southeast of El Paso) before settling in El Paso after his discharge.  Although the date of purchase is unknown, Kirchner operated the Silver King Saloon from sometime after 1895 to at least 1905.  On October 30,1899, he married Mary Beck in San Antonio and brought her home to El Paso.  Although he was not involved in any gunfights after his retirement from the rangers, Kirchner carried a sidearm for the rest of his life in the belief that some of his old enemies might want revenge (Stephens 1978:77-78).  If Kirchner had an occupation during the next few years, he did not let the city directory know what it was, but, about the time he became involved with Magnolia Bottling Company (1908), he also became the agent for the San Antonio Brewery Association and Houston Ice & Brewing Company.  With Magnolia's incorporation in 1909, Kirchner became president and treasurer and held those positions until his death.  Carl Kirchner contracted typhus while viewing the bodies of revolutionaries in Ciudad Juárez and died on January 28, 1911 (Stephens 1978:80; EPCD 1888-1912). 

     Henry Clay Bouldin, too, came to El Paso in the 1890s and worked as a printer for the El Paso Daily Herald until the turn of the century when he briefly worked for the Galveston, Harrisonburg, and San Antonio Railway before returning to printing in 1902.  In 1904, he became the El Paso bookkeeper for the San Antonio Brewing Association and continued to keep books there and for Kirchner while being an officer for Magnolia.  He was listed as one of the principals in Magnolia in 1908 and as secretary in 1909 when the company incorporated, after which he disappeared from El Paso records.  Like many others of his day, he was known as Henry C. prior to his elevation into bookkeeping, when he became H. Clay Bouldin.  William S. Campbell was a latecomer compared to the other two, arriving in the West-Texas town in 1903.  He started out as a clerk for the El Paso and Southwest Railroad Company, but became a bartender the following year.  He soon became part owner of a saloon, known first as Campbell & Lancaster (1906), then as Campbell & Truit in 1907.  Concurrently with his saloon business, he was a driver for San Antonio Brewing Association and continued in that capacity, along with running his saloons (two by 1908) and his position with Magnolia.  By 1909, he had apparently given up Magnolia for his saloons and was thereafter recorded at Magnolia no more (EPCD 1888-1912). 

     The first Magnolia plant was a one-room building on the northeast corner of Main Dr. and North Kansas St. where the six foot, five inch tall, 230 pound Smith mixed and bottled fruit flavors under the brand name "Hope's" for a population of 25,000 thirsty El Pasoans.  The old  brick building sat beside the railroad tracks and housed the foot-powered bottling machine that Smith operated by himself.  He bottled beverages in the mornings and delivered the finished product from a horse-drawn wagon in the afternoons.  In addition to soft drinks, he distributed beer, probably Kirchner's San Antonio Brewery Association and Houston Ice & Brewing Company's brands and worked as bartender at night (Lucky interview). 

     In 1911, Smith made the decision that set him on his life's path.  He obtained the Coca-Cola franchise and began selling the first bottled Coke in El Paso (Although the Herald Post [11/27/1959] and the Times [11/28/1959] place the franchise date at 1912, other editions [e.g. EPT4/25/1954; 6/8/1977; EPHP 1/1/1968] set the date at 1911.  The earlier date is confirmed by Munsey 1972:309).  Although hard to imagine today, people in El Paso were completely unaware of Coca-Cola in 1911--and mostly uninterested.  The only way Smith could get people to try the new drink was to slip two or three bottles in a case of mixed flavors.  Customers eventually sampled the new drink and liked it.  Before long, Coca-Cola outsold the flavors.  The popularity of the new drink caused sales to boom to 1,500 cases for the year 1911.  Although small by today's standards, the increased business probably caused Smith to instigate the move to larger quarters at 921 Myrtle Ave. (corner of Angie St.) the following year (Lucky interview).  G. E. Connor recalled the days before Smith began bottling Coca-Cola.  He remembered that "Coke was then a fountain drink sold only at such places as the Elite and Pacific Ocean confectioneries.  Hope Smith bottled orange, lemon and lime crush at a small bottling works on Myrtle across from St. Mary's School" (Connor 1980:72--Connor apparently confuses two events.  Magnolia received the Coca-Cola franchise in 1911, a year before the move to Myrtle.  At the time prior to the bottling of Coke, Smith was still at Kansas and Main). 

     The company name was officially changed to Magnolia Coca-Cola Bottling Company in 1916 to reflect the commitment to the new product that was boosting its sales (see Figure 25).  By 1922, the young company had grown enough to purchase three new trucks to improve its delivery service.  The expansion was a harbinger of things to come.  Hope Smith was awarded membership in the Knights of the Golden Bottle in 1930 for cleanliness and excellence of plant operation.  The presentation was a special honor that had only been awarded four times previously (EPCD 1916, 1932-1933; El Paso Evening Post 12/15/1930 10:2; EPT 6/28/1977 G13:1).  Sadly, two years later, Smith bought out his brother, Clopton's, interest in the company.  Clopton, a victim of the disease of alcoholism, had been becoming more and more of an embarrassment to the company.  After several years of bailing his brother out of trouble, Smith was forced to take action.  Another brother, Eugene F Smith, a sales manager for Crombie & Co., became the corporation's secretary, although he may not have taken an active part in the corporation as he continued to work for Crombie & Co. (Lucky interview; EPCD 1932-1933). 
 

Figure 8a-2 - El Paso Herald, 6/3/1920	Figure 8a-3 - El Paso Herald, 6/9/1920

Figure 8a-4 - El Paso City Directory, 1921

     In August 1935, Smith obtained a city building permit for $3,000 to start construction of the new Magnolia Coca-Cola plant at 2720 East Yandell Blvd. (corner of Birch St.).  The new plant was expected to cost $20,000, but, by the time the new plant opened in September 1936, the cost had risen to $60,000.  The plant was visited by 15,000 people at its grand opening (EPT 8/14/1935 1:6; 4/17/1936 14:1; 9/19/1936 9:4; EPCD 1936-1938).  After the opening, Magnolia may have continued to use the old building for a while.  City Directories do not confirm the move to Yandell until 1938.  The new structure was "a modern building . . . especially designed for a bottling plant" (EPT 6/28/1977 G13:1).  The plant was tastefully landscaped--so well done that it won the commercial division of the Annual Yard and Garden contest jointly sponsored by the Herald Post and El Paso Garden Club (EPHP 11/18/1938 5:5).  Four years later (1940) the company built a garage and stockroom extension at an additional cost of $20,000.  The architecture of the new structure conformed to that of the existing building (EPHP 4/30/1940 2:1; EPT 4/30/1940 7:8) .  The new garage and stockroom contained sufficient additional space for forty railroad cars of bottle cases, or 96,000 cases for Coca-Cola bottles.  C. A. Goetting, the designer and builder of the structure (as well as Smith's brother-in-law), described the building as "a modified and streamlined form of Pueblo architecture which has all its share of beauty combined with utility."  At the same time the company installed "new filler and bottle washing equipment which will almost double present mixing and bottling capacity." (EPT 10/7/1940 10:2).  Concurrent with the 1936 move, Smith discontinued all other bottling (including Hope's flavors) to concentrate the firm's energy exclusively on Coca-Cola (see Figure 26).  The timing of the discontinuance is interesting.  The previous year (1935), Woodlawn Bottling Co. obtained the Pepsi-Cola franchise and provided the first serious competition to Coke.  Smith may have discontinued everything but Coke in an attempt to drive the new competitor out of business (EPT 11/28/1959 1:2). 

     During World War II, world-wide sugar shortages restricted the operation of Magnolia as well as the rest of the bottling industry.  Despite the shortages, Smith planned an expansion program for the plant that was estimated at $205,000.  Smith remained optimistic, telling reporters, "I just can't see anything but a great future for our business in El Paso" (EPHP 6/14/1945 7:1).  Plans included the expansion of vending machines, an industry still in its infancy.  Coolers, such as wooden syrup barrels that were sawed in half and filled with ice and water, had been in use for many years prior to the addition of a coin mechanism.  Many of the early machines were little more than cooling boxes with a mechanism to restrict removal of individual soft drinks until after the insertion of a coin.  These boxes were horizontal, rather than the vertical configuration familiar to everyone today.  Although mechanically refrigerated coolers had been available since 1930, the Coca-Cola Company began nationally recommending the use of vending machines by its franchisers in 1937 (Woodroof & Phillips 1974:342-343).  By 1941, Magnolia had placed the then state-of-the-art vending machines made by Mills Novelty Company of Chicago very sparingly in El Paso.  Just over a year later, however, contracts with the Army, at that point escalating the war effort, caused Smith to radically increase the placement of Coca-Cola machines at Fort Bliss (Lucky interview). 

     Because  gasoline was rationed for war use during the early 1940s, Smith decided to pull a publicity stunt.  He borrowed a horse to pull an old wagon that he loaded up with Cokes.  He then called the newspapers and told them to come take a picture of how Coca-Cola was saving gas for the war effort (Lucky interview). 
 

Figure 8a-5 - Magnolia Coca-Cola Bottling Co. Receipt, 1943

Figure 8a-6 - Magnolia Coca-Cola Bottling Co. Bill, 1946

     Lucky liked people, and the job with Magnolia gave him a chance to get to know a variety of customers from different walks of life.  A loyal company man, Lucky was once informed that a tabloid had gone into print with an article claiming Coca-Cola caused cancer.  Enraged at the unfounded claims, he bought all copies of the edition and burned them.  At one point, Lucky had the opportunity to buy the Seven-Up franchise but instead remained loyal to the company that had provided for him so long.  He even attempted to buy Magnolia when Milda Smith sold it in 1975 but his bid was slightly too low; he decided that he was ready for retirement instead.  He remained with Magnolia for thirty-four and a half years before he retired in mid-November of 1975.  The decision was a wise one.  Like so many other EL Paso bottlers, Lucky was beset by physical ailments that included gall bladder problems in 1985, four heart bypasses performed in 1987, and an aneurism in 1995.  If he had bought Magnolia, Lucky may well have joined the other El Paso bottlers whose widows followed them into the presidential chair.  Lucky and his wife, Dorothy, enjoyed retirement in El Paso until his death on February 10, 1997 (Lucky interview). 

     By the early 1950s, the bottling industry was booming, and El Paso was serving an ever increasing area.  Eugene F. Smith had left the firm in 1949 leaving Hope Smith in complete control of the corporation, now a major industry in El Paso.  The El Paso Times boasted on April 4, 1954 

Figure 8a-7 - Tom Lucky (center) and Hope Smith (far left), early 1950s - Courtesy of Mrs. Dorothy Lucky

     Smith's friends described him with words like "great individual" or "man of character."  Florence La Belle, the nurse who attended Smith during the last few years of his life, called him "one of life's true noblemen" (Undated handwritten letter from Florence La Belle).  The son of a Methodist minister, he loved people.  Although businesses are usually run on contracts, Smith believed in handshake deals.  He was noted as a man who always kept his word, and his employees felt he was a good man to work for (Lucky interview).  Perhaps his greatest public tribute came from W. W. Bridges in the El Paso Herald Post: 
 
 

     Competitors respected Smith but called him "tough competition."  For years he kept the price of Coke at 80¢ per case--when others were practically pleading for a price increase [the 10¢ soft drink became the industry standard in 1964, replacing the 5¢ beverage that had been the norm for so many years (Woodroof & Phillips 1974:339-341)].  Other bottlers had frequent meetings to discuss important issues of the trade, topics such as when and how much to raise the deposit on bottles.  Smith remained aloof from the meetings.  At the same time, he kept an eye on the competition.  He used to frequent the Haufbrau, where he would set the drinks up for the patrons--while carefully positioning himself where he could watch the Barq's trucks unloading across the street and get an idea of how well his competitor was selling (Lucky inteview).  Sometimes people took advantage of Smith's well-known generosity.  Employees (and probably others) tried to guess what bar Smith might visit in order to take advantage of the free drinks he always offered (Josselyn interview). 

     Smith suffered a long illness in 1959 and finally died in the hospital on November 27.  He had been active in El Paso business outside the beverage industry as well as civic affairs prior to his hospitalization.  By the time of his death he had been a director of the State National Bank of El Paso, an officer in the El Paso Chamber of Commerce, Chairman of the Board of the Coca-Cola Company of Alamogordo, New Mexico, and even a volunteer fireman.  He was a member of the Elks and Kiwanis Lodges and was active in St. Clements Episcopal Church.  Smith was a 32nd degree Scottish Rite Mason, a participant at El Maida Shrine, and a member of the Pioneer Association.  If civic involvement were not enough, Smith was an anonymous philanthropist, making contributions to the Red Cross, El Paso General Hospital (now Thomason General Hospital), Providence Hospital, and other worthy organizations in El Paso.  Smith married late in life.  When he was thirty-five (1918), he met and wed Milda Conolly, a union that lasted the rest of Smith's life.  The couple had no children.  Milda Smith became president of Magnolia upon her husband's death, with W. Frank Smith as vice president (Lucky manuscript; Wulfjen letter; EPCD 1960; EPHP 11/27/1959 1:6; EPT 11/28/1959 1:2). 

     Hope and Milda Smith had discussed the operation of Magnolia throughout their marriage, so the transition to the chief executive role was an easy one for her to make.  She knew the business well and was described as "a great lady . . . friendly, outgoing . . . full of stories."  She trusted her employees and truly enjoyed working with them.  She would get so excited after sales meetings that she would "drive ninety miles an hour" while talking to her terrified executives.  The officials became so alarmed that there was practically a stampede at the end of meetings to beat Mrs. Smith to the steering wheel (Lucky interview). 

     Despite (or maybe because of) her antics behind the wheel, the company flourished under the control Milda Smith.  On July 15, 1966, Magnolia built a new $200,000 warehouse with 22,000 square feet of storage space.  The new facility was designed by Nesmith-Lane & Associates to accommodate both empty and full cases of bottled product.  Built by Croom Construction Company, the opening ceremonies were officiated by Mayor Judson Williams who fittingly "christen[ed] the building with a bottle of Coca-Cola" (Blurb written for newspaper by W. Frank Smith). 
 

Figure 8a-8 - El Paso Telephone Directory, 1964-65	Figure 8a-9 - El Paso Telephone Directory, 1967-68

Figure 8a-10 - El Paso Telephone Directory, 1969-70

     A key fob was given to employees of the company on November 6, 1977, probably as a memento of the move to the new location.  These fobs are made of cast lead with a silver key retainer.  The front of the fob bears the Coca-Cola trade mark and the date, NOVEMBER 6, 1977.  The back bears the message: MAGNOLIA/COCA-COLA/BOTTLING/COMPANY/ 11001 GATEWAY/WEST/EL PASO, TX.
 
 

     Coca-Cola had traditionally been a believer in the idea that a one-size, one-product format 

Figure 8a-11 - El Paso City Directory, 1983

     The Magnolia Coca-Cola Bottling Company has changed ownership twice since Sam Dell-Olio signed the agreement to buy Dr Pepper.  American European Associates (A. E. A.) purchased the company in 1983 with Peter Dixon as manager, then sold the firm to the Wolslager family, owners bottling companies throughout Texas and New Mexico, in 1988.  The family currently retains ownership with J. W. Wolslager, Jr. as Chairman of the Board of Directors in El Paso.  In 2000, the plant remains at 11001 Gateway West, and the Magnolia Coca-Cola Bottling Company is the only distributor in El Paso that currently bottles its own drinks.