Hoxsie’s evil twin?

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Carl Johnson

As has been explained before, this blog was named for an amazing advertisement featuring a charming rooster proclaiming “HOXSIE!”, the name of a local maker of various sodas,sarsaparilla, lager beer and cider. I was so smitten with that rooster’s simple message that I just had to name my local Capital District history site after it.

The charming rooster appeared in the 1863 Schenectady Directory. Meanwhile, in Hoxsie’s hometown of Albany, that very same year, this abomination appeared. It’s downright creepy. It resembles no chicken that I know. Coming from its beak, “HOXSIE!” sounds more like a threat than a promise of cool, sweet refreshment.

Or maybe I’m reading too much into a stock cut of a chicken.

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2 responses to “Hoxsie’s evil twin?”

  1. Richard A MacKinnon

    Carl is George Hoxsie’s beverage business related at all to Maine’s beverage MOXSIE?
    /s/ Dick MacKinnon [email protected]

    Reply
    1. Carl Johnson

      Dick, as far as I can tell there is no relation other than being homophones. George Hoxsie was in business selling beer and what we would now call sodas at least as early as 1862, probably a few years before that. Moxie was created much later, 1876, over in Lowell, Mass. Maybe the Moxie maker knew of Hoxsie and liked the sound, not impossible.

      Reply

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