Bottler ahead of her time

SALISBURY — As you wander down the aisle of your favorite grocery store looking for designer bottled water, you see many different brands of still, carbonated or flavored water. Did you know that Salisbury water was bottled and sold back in the 1930s? Well, we have always been a trend-setting community. Here is the story behind Fox Hunter Spring Water, according to Howard Clayton Morey, J. Parker Silvernale and Penny Grant.

Ellen J. Temple Hunter was a trend setter way before New York City people began coming to the Northwest Corner to buy second homes. 

She came to Salisbury in the early 1900s and liked it so very much that she bought property on Taconic Road and called it Barack Matiff Farm. This property was later sold to one of the Scoville ladies. 

 Barack Matiff Farm abutted the property of Andy Fox. There was a burbling spring that meandered through the properties and provided water to both houses. It was sweet water and plentiful. 

Mrs. Hunter had a brainwave. She decided to bottle and sell this water in 2-quart glass bottles. She set up an office in New York City as her headquarters. She named the bottled water after herself and her neighbor,  Andy Fox. Next she got her daughter, Ellen Emmett Rand, to design the label: a picture of a gentleman in a red riding coat, jodhpurs and hardhat sitting on a horse, with a hunting dog beside him. 

Eventually the label was discarded and the glass bottle was imprinted with a medallion inscribed Fox Hunter Spring Water, Salisbury, Conn. 

There was no advertising, just word of mouth. As she was really no business mogul, the company folded after a short time. Yes, Salisbury spring water did have its 15 seconds of fame long ago. 

Jean McMillen is the historian for the town of Salisbury. 

Editor’s note: An obituary for Ellen Emmett Rand appears in this week’s issue of The Lakeville Journal.