Bottles, Tokens and History of Sonoma County are a work compiled by John C. Burton, and Merle Avila who are members of the Northwestern Bottle Collectors Association in Sonoma County, California.
We have compiled information regarding soda bottlers, beer bottlers and brewers, saloons and their advertising trade tokens. As with all reference books this is a work in progress as new information always seems to appear after it is "finished" and published.
John C. Burton has been a collector of Sonoma County bottles, beer cans and memorabilia and a member of the Northwestern Bottle Collector's Association (NBCA) since 1978. As a past-president and current secretary of the club he has published much information of the enclosed content in this publication. A member of the 49er Chapter of the Beer Can Collectors of America (BCCA) and is an authority of Grace Brothers Brewery, Santa Rosa.
Merle Avila has brought a wealth of information to our club and publication through his extensive token collection. As president of the NBCA, his valuable skills and leadership has been a driving force that has made our meetings more interesting and valuable to our membership. He is also president of the Sonoma County Coin club, president of the Western States Token Association and past president and current vice-president of National Token Association.
John Louder has proved invaluable in research and providing information for this publication. He has spent numerous hours at the Sonoma County Library History Annex and Sonoma County Recorder's Office gathering information that has assisted in making this publication more interesting and correct.
John started collection at the young age of 4 or 5 years while playing in the dirt at the old house on Stewart Street here in Santa Rosa. He would occasionally find a marble or an army soldier from which he enjoyed finding something old in the dirt. His mother told him "that must have belonged to a little boy who lived here a long time ago." Being curious he questioned "Who was that kid and what became of him?" Today, it's no different, "Who were these people and what became of them."
A special thanks to Richard and Rick Siri for providing additional photos of bottles.
We close with a special thank you to both Lou & Leisa Lambert who have been the couple that have continued to make our bottle show a success the first week of May every year. Go on-line to WWW.OLDWESTBOTTLES.COM and click on "Shows" for more information regarding our club.
