William Stockwell was born in 1889 in Rutland to Sidney Stockwell (1848 - 1937) and Alice Josephine (Powers) Stockwell (1853 - 1935), the 6th of their 8 children. In 1910 we find then 21 year old William living in Clarendon Flats with his older sister May (Stockwell) Powers (1875 - 1959) and her family. May and her husband Gratz Powers (1872 - 1952) were 2nd cousins, Gratz being the grandson of Nichols Powers the famed bridge builder and May being the granddaughter of Nichol's brother Artemus.
In the 1870's Nichols Powers had build a cheese factory near his home in Clarendon Flats. In 1909 the cheese factory building became the Clarendon Cash Store (see separate entry in this collection) under the proprietorship of William Stockwell.
This bottle factory was on the same property just to the northeast on the circular drive then in existence (see map of property at the link in the Powers Cheese Factory entry). William is found in the 1911 business directory as having a general store in Clarendon and being postmaster.
The bottle shown in the cover photo is featured at https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/clarendon-bottling-works-clarendon-vt-1840012571 with an indication of being ca. 1900 - 1910. The first mention of the Clarendon Bottling Works that we have found thus far is from an Aug. 8, 1912 Rutland Daily Herald advertisement:
P.A. Howley, 67 Center st., wholesale agent for the Clarendon Bottling Works soda water.
The next day there is another:
If in search of pure, healthful drinks try the Clarendon Bottling Works soda water. All flavors. carbonated from pure sparkling Clarendon Spring water. The best yet.
William's tenure with this business ended in 1916 as evidenced by an Oct. 14, 1916 Rutland News article:
The Clarendon Bottling works, William Stockwell, proprietor, has sold out to J C. Perkins of Clarendon, who will conduct the business under the same firm name in the future.
In 1916 and 1917 there were newspaper mentions of Charles Papineau of 61 Cherry St. serving as manager of the company. Mr. Papineau had worked under both William Stockwell and J.C. Perkins. The last mention of this business found thus far is from the May 6, 1921 Rutland Daily Herald noting another sale:
The Clarendon Bottling fixtures have been sold to a party in West Rutland.
What was the source of the water? We don't know but there was a mineral spring noted on the 1869 map not very far away on what is now Gorge Rd. Perhaps that was it. The bottling company building itself no longer exists.
In 1916 in Massachusetts William married Florence Bechler (1887 - 1966) with whom he had a son Donald (1918 - 2016). From his 1917 WWI draft registration we learn that his right leg was 3 inches shorter than his left leg which likely kept him out of the war. His brother Harold (1894 - 1933) served in France. At the time of that WWI draft registration William was living in Springfield and working in East Springfield at the New England Westinghouse Company in assembly. Their primary product had been making Mosin-Nagant rifles for Czar Nicholas of Russia. In Oct. 1918, William died at age 29, possibly a casualty of the Spanish Flu pandemic that was underway at the time.
William's wife Florence is mentioned a couple times as one of Cornelia (Horton) Bailey's and Cornelia (Emery) Lawrence's visitors at the Horton homestead in Clarendon Flats. That is surely how William and Florence met. See the Cornelia (Horton) Bailey, Benefactress entry in the people collection for those references. Florence remarried in 1925 to Aubrey Harris.