| Extra info | The John Collins trademark was registered in 1911 by Frank Barber Perkins
In 1898, Frank Barber Perkins bought a piece of land in Waterloo, Qc, on the other side of the railway facing Depot Street, which was then the main road to Frost Village. (Today’s Highway 112 route was constructed around 1933.) As soon as he arrived, Frank tried his luck in the manufacture of temperance liquors and created the Crystal Spring Bottling Works. At the time, it offers its first customers the Noxie Kola, Sasparilla, Grantian, Dandelion, Yellow Dock, Wintergreen, Burdock, Black Cherry and Black Birch.
n 1906, Mr. Perkins began an advertising campaign that consisted of a 9-foot (3 m) Noxie Kola bottle on a cart drawn by 2 horses that walked in several municipalities between Montreal and Sherbrooke. With the growing popularity of his liquors, Frank expanded the company’s facilities the following year by a 204-foot (62 m) building over 3 floors with a huge Noxie Kola bottle at the end clearly displaying his corporate name. Gradually Frank tried new formulas such as Hi Life Dry Ginger Ale, Belfast Ginger Ale, Mountain Mist Ginger Ale, Ginger Beer, Golden Orange Kist, Sunrise Lime Rickey, Grape Fruit Thrill, Blue Bird, Cream Soda, California Orange, Superior Strawberry as well as the popular John Collins and 26 other delicious drinks.
Barber Perkins died in his vast home at Perkins Castles on October 28, 1920.
Five years after his death, his son Alden transferred the sales office and distribution centre to Montreal and popularized the John Collins leaving aside the Noxie Kola. On February 4, 1939, Alden Perkins sold the formula rights and name Noxie Kola purchased by J. T. Basseches, a contractor in Maryland near New York
By this time, the company changed to John Collins of Canada. After more than 75 years, the story of Frank Barber Perkins comes to a close after a fire raged on the facility in 1974. |
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