H and H Coffee

Dedicated to the history of the Hoffmann-Hayman Coffee Co. founded 1899 in San Antonio, Texas.

This page is a living research agenda: open questions about the Hoffmann-Hayman Coffee Company that the site has not yet closed with primary sources or consistent narrative. Many of them are written so they could later anchor coffee-table book chapters – each cluster is a possible through-line, and each bullet is meant to be actionable (who might know, where to look first, what artifact class would falsify a guess).

For addresses, customers, and related firms already collected on the site, see Related Companies. For the Three Rivers Glass thread and bottle inventory, see Three Rivers Glass Bottles and the Crystalvac posts in the blog archive.

I. Origins, mergers, and the brand map

  • What happened to H and H Coffee? Frame as a chronology problem: last verified advertisements, corporate filings, asset sales, and successor use of the name or plant. Research angles: Texas Secretary of State charter and forfeiture history; Bexar County deed indexes for 601 Delaware St and earlier addresses; trade press obituaries; San Antonio newspapers (merger, closure, or “sold to” notices).
  • What is the complete list of brands they produced? Treat as a cataloging chapter backed by tins, labels, invoices, and ads. Research angles: cross-walk every page under Brands against known advertising and packaging; note “ghost” brands that appear only once in newspapers.
  • What brands belonged to William Robert Hoffmann, Merchants, and Morrison Coffee Companies before they merged into Hoffmann-Hayman? Morrison’s 1917 acquisition is partially documented on the site; the Hoffman and Merchants side needs the same level of proof. Research angles: 1916-1918 San Antonio papers for “successor” or “assignment” language; compare to customer notices in the newspaper gallery.
  • Were there parallel or successor firms (for example, other Texas roasters buying equipment or trademarks)? Research angles: chattel mortgages and UCC predecessors; coffee trade directories listing San Antonio roasters by decade.

II. People: founders, officers, workforce

  • Who was Mr. W. E. Hayman? Biographical minimum viable chapter: birth, marriage, residences, offices held, death, estate. Research angles: census; city directories; Find a Grave / cemetery records as hints only; probate index; any Hayman descendants or family papers (approach via local historical societies, not cold genealogy spam).
  • Who worked at the factory, and what roles did they hold? A social-history chapter, not only executives. Research angles: San Antonio city directories (occupation listings); WWII-era draft cards for employees of working age; union records if any San Antonio coffee local existed; oral history with families of long-term San Antonio residents.
  • Who designed sales routes, institutional accounts, and private-label relationships? Research angles: school district, hospital, and railroad commissary records sometimes name suppliers; Related Companies lists a few named customers to start from.

III. Coffee as a product: sourcing, quality, and patents

  • Where did they source green coffee (origins, brokers, ports)? Research angles: import bills of lading (where surviving); New Orleans and Galveston broker ads; “green coffee” mentions in local papers; any surviving correspondence in regional archives.
  • What did their coffee taste like? Mostly unrecoverable, but a book chapter can treat sensory history honestly: roast style from era, competition medals, cupping contest mentions, complaints in letters to the editor. Research angles: trade journals (Tea and Coffee Trade Journal and peers); San Antonio fair premium books.
  • What patents were awarded to the company or its principals? Research angles: USPTO (assignee search under Hoffmann, Hayman, Morrison, Crystalvac); link patent numbers to artifacts in the collection (jars, tins, processes).

IV. Customers, marketing, and distribution

  • Who did they sell coffee to (retail vs wholesale, geography)? Research angles: wholesale grocers’ ads; San Antonio restaurant supply; military and institutional contracts; labeled tins with city-specific slogans.
  • Where did delivery vehicles go, and where are they now? Research angles: fleet photos in newspapers; insurance or motor carrier registers; San Antonio trucking history groups; museum collections of commercial vehicles (long shot but specific ask).

V. The San Antonio factory: building, plant, and physical drama

  • What did the inside of the factory look like at peak operation? Research angles: San Antonio Light / Express photo morgues; fire insurance maps (Sanborn) for machinery layout; any employee snapshots in private collections.
  • Why did the factory require steel I-beam repairs on the first floor, and what was on the roof that required extra support? Treat as two engineering questions; may be ordinary equipment loading or may tie to a specific incident. Research angles: building permits and repair notices; engineering correspondence if held by George W. Mitchell descendants or archive; contemporary news on structural work.
  • Was there a warehouse fire in the 1930s that forced or justified new construction? Currently a rumor-class question; needs a dated primary hit or explicit debunking. Research angles: San Antonio Fire Department historical run books (if accessible); front-page fire coverage; insurance claims in trade press. This may be the warehouse fire on Burnet Street.
  • Where are the original factory machines? Research angles: auction notices when the plant closed; scrap metal dealers; other roasters’ “used equipment” ads; museum accession files for industrial food equipment.

VI. Geography: San Antonio, Houston, and “other plants”

  • Was there a factory or distribution point in Houston? If so, where and when did it operate? Research angles: Houston city directories; Texas Secretary of State; freight tariffs mentioning Houston warehouse; labeled shipping cases.
  • How do the documented San Antonio addresses on Related Companies line up with era (roasting vs warehousing vs offices)? Good map chapter for a book; resolves confusion for readers.

VII. Packaging: glass, tins, and supplier relationships

  • Which items did Three Rivers Glass factory produce for Hoffmann-Hayman, and which did Owens-Illinois (or other suppliers) produce? The site’s posts show the marks are not trivial to read across jar sizes and colors; a book chapter can show decision trees from base marks. Research angles: Michael David Smith’s Texas Glass and related collector literature; compare to the bottle inventory; Ball / O-I transition dates in trade press.
  • What is the youngest datable Crystalvac jar in the collection, and does it cap the manufacturing story? Research angles: O-I date codes on bases; cross-check against plant codes.

VIII. Collectors, curators, and the living archive

  • Who else collects H and H memorabilia, and who holds the deepest comparative collections? Research angles: advanced eBay watchers; Texas bottle and advertising clubs; museum registrars (local history museums sometimes hold single labeled tins); credit contributors already named on gallery pages when reaching out.

Resolved (so far)

Factory design and construction. The plant was designed by Morris, Nooman, and Wilson, architects and engineers. Construction was carried out by George W. Mitchell, a San Antonio-area firm in business since 1921. More detail on that firm appears on Related Companies.

How this page should evolve

When a question above gets a dated primary source or a consensus interpretation backed by artifacts, move it (or a summary) into a blog post or a brand/history page, and shorten the mystery entry to a pointer. The goal is not an ever-longer list – it is a queue of book-shaped chapters shrinking as evidence accumulates.