Our Past Is Present May 17, 2018

May 17, 2019

            This is “Our Past Is Present” from the Geary County Historical Society.

            This is Part II of our story which was begun yesterday on the J.C. Bottling Company, Incorporated. This two part series is a brief history of the company from 1901-1979.

            In 1913 the business was known as the Crown Bottling Co.  and the franchise for Coca-Cola was purchased. This caused the company to change its name in the 1920’s to the Coca-Cola Bottling Co.

            In 1916, the Deppishes began bottling Coca-Cola.  Due to the extra demand for this drink a power bottling machine was installed.

In 1931 the company added the new soft drink, 7-Up.  Then in 1962, the company was changed to the Junction City Bottling Co. Inc.  New lines of beverages were added many times.   

In 1938 to 1959, the line of Blue Jay soft drink flavors was added to the company.

On October 8, 1941, the Coca-Cola Bottling Co. held an open house for its all new bottling plant across the street from the original plant.  It had new equipment and the latest in automatic bottling machinery.  The new equipment took the bottling capacity to 4,320 bottles of Coca-Cola an hour. 

            The business was purchased by Mr. and Mrs. Carl Deppish in 1949.  Charles W. Lundeen, Sr., their son-in-law, joined the firm in 1951. Upon the death of Carl in 1976, Charles Lundeen, Jr. became the President of the Company.  Charles Lundeen Jr. joined the firm and the company continued to grow.  In the spring of 1979 an all new line of equipment was purchased to accommodate drinks that were sold in cans. 

            This concludes our two part series on this soft drink bottling company in Junction City  on “Our Past Is Present” from the Geary County Historical Society.