H and H Coffee

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

Charles R. Tips is the long-tenure executive of the Three Rivers Glass Company, holding four escalating roles across the firm’s full life: secretary–treasurer (1922) → general manager (by 1929) → president (by 1931) → president of the affiliated Tips Glass Sales Corporation through the receivership and Ball-acquisition years (documented by Aug 1936). Nine years after the Texas corporation’s January 1937 dissolution, Tips led the 1946 $1,350,000 anti-trust suit against Hartford-Empire Co., Ball Bros., and Owens-Illinois Glass under the Sherman and Clayton Acts, as lead plaintiff representing himself and more than 50 former TRG shareholders alongside W. L. Moody III and Harry R. Rogers. He is not a Hoffmann-Hayman employee himself, but he is the senior glass-side counterpart for the H&H Crystalvac supplier story (1932 launch, 250,000-jar initial order from Three Rivers Glass).

Documented role arc

Date Role Source
17 March 1922 Secretary–treasurer of Three Rivers Glass at the founding directors’ meeting. Identified at that moment as the one “arranging for purchase of machinery and other equipment” while general manager H. S. Warrick is in St. Louis. 1922-03-19 SA Light “New Company Elects”
8 August 1929 General manager of Three Rivers Glass (offices now in Dallas). Quoted on the Bastrop, Louisiana plant acquisition and remodeling spend. 1929-08-09 The Times (Shreveport) “Glass Plant to be Opened”
16 February 1930 General manager (continuing). Reports 1929 sales +89% over 1928 and outlines the multi-city sales-office network and 25-million-bottle 1930 production target. 1930-02-16 SA Light “Glass Plant Reports Big Output Gain”
2 February 1931 President (“Col. Charles R. Tips”). Attends National Canners’ Association convention in Chicago; reports 1930 sales +35% over 1929 against an industry-wide decrease; visits Melvin Traylor, president of First National Bank of Chicago. 1931-02-19 San Saba News and Star “Texas Man Sees Return of Good Business for Year”
7 August 1936 President of Tips Glass Sales Corporation (separate sales entity that “sells all glass containers manufactured by the Three Rivers Glass factory”). Announces 1936 YTD beverage-bottle sales through Aug 1 are more than double 1935 totals and higher than any year since 1931. By this date Three Rivers Glass had been in receivership since 1932; Tips is selling factory output via the separately-named Tips Glass Sales corporation, with the Three Rivers factory itself reorganized four months later (Dec 1936) under George A. Ball Manufacturing ownership. 1936-08-07 SA Light “Firm Doubles 1935 Sales”
3–4 January 1946 Lead plaintiff in the $1,350,000 anti-trust suit against Hartford-Empire Co., Ball Bros. Co., and Owens-Illinois Glass Co. Filed with the U.S. District Clerk (San Antonio) under the Sherman Anti-Trust Act and the Clayton Act; asks the actual damages be trebled (~$4.05M). Tips represents himself and more than 50 former shareholders of the dissolved Three Rivers Glass Co. alongside co-plaintiffs W. L. Moody III and Harry R. Rogers. 1946-01-03 The News “$1,350,000 Suit Is Filed Here”; 1946-01-04 SA Express-News “Texans Charge Violations of Anti-Trust Act”
1 November 1947 President of “the Three Rivers company” as the corporate plaintiff in the same anti-trust action — by this date framed as a corporate plaintiff (Three Rivers Glass Co.) rather than the individual-shareholder caption of the original 1946 filing. Tips obtains plaintiff-requested dismissal in W.D. Texas (Judge Ben H. Rice Jr.) so the suit can refile in U.S. District Court Indianapolis under Indiana’s 15-year anti-trust SOL (vs. Texas’s 2-year). Trebled-damages figure now $4.6M (up from $4.05M in the Jan 1946 filing). 1947-11-02 SA Light “Damage Suit Off”

The promotion arc through the operating TRG era is sec-treas → general manager → president across a 9-year span:

  • sec-treas → GM occurred between March 1922 and August 1929
  • GM → president occurred between February 1930 and February 1931 (~12-month window)

The post-1932-receivership / post-1936-Ball-reorganization arc continues with Tips heading Tips Glass Sales through at least 1936, surfacing as lead plaintiff in the January 1946 anti-trust filing, and still president of the Three Rivers corporate plaintiff when the Texas suit is voluntarily dismissed in November 1947 to refile in Indianapolis — a continuous ~25-year involvement with the Three Rivers Glass story from founding (1922) through the federal-court strategic maneuver into Indiana jurisdiction (1947).

“Col. Charles R. Tips” — military title

The 1931 San Saba News and Star piece is the first on-site source to style him “Col.” rather than plain “Charles R. Tips.” Whether this is an honorific Texas military commission (a common 1920s–1930s Texas civic title — e.g., “Honorary Colonel of the Governor’s Staff”), a National Guard rank, or a federal military commission is not yet documented on this site. The presence of “Col.” in only the 1931 source (and not in 1922 / 1929 / 1930) suggests acquisition between Feb 1930 and Feb 1931.

Relationship to H&H

Tips’s only documented direct connection to Hoffmann-Hayman runs through the Three Rivers Glass supplier relationship and the Crystalvac jar manufacturing (1932 launch with 250,000-jar initial order). He is not named in H&H corporate copy or in H&H employee profile series. As Three Rivers Glass’s chief executive across the 1929–1936 H&H Crystalvac era, however, he was almost certainly the senior counterpart on any contract or supply-chain negotiation with H&H.

Open questions

  • 1946 anti-trust suit — Texas-side disposition documented; Indianapolis refiling open. The Texas filing was voluntarily dismissed 1 Nov 1947 (Judge Ben H. Rice Jr.) so it could refile in U.S. District Court Indianapolis under Indiana’s 15-year anti-trust SOL. Disposition of the Indiana refiling (settlement, verdict, dismissal, judgment amount) is undocumented — S.D. Indiana federal court records 1947–1962 + Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis News coverage would resolve. Tips’s role in the Indiana refiling (continued as plaintiff or plaintiff-corporation president; took the case all the way or withdrew) is also undocumented.
  • Post-1947 record. Tips is documented through Nov 1947 as president of the Three Rivers corporate plaintiff. His post-1947 biographical track (where he lived, when he died, family details, other business interests) is undocumented on this site.
  • Post-1937 / pre-1946 record. Tips is in San Antonio in 1946 as the lead plaintiff in the suit — but the 1937–1945 decade isn’t directly documented here. Was he still working in glass distribution? Other Texas business interests? A 1937–1945 SA Light / Express-News search or city-directory trace would close the decade gap.
  • Caption shift: individual-shareholder plaintiffs (1946) → corporate plaintiff (1947). Was Three Rivers Glass Co. reorganized for litigation standing between 1946 and 1947, or is the 1947 Light using loose shorthand for the original shareholder class? Federal docket records would resolve.
  • W. L. Moody III and Harry R. Rogers — biographical record. Co-plaintiffs in the 1946 suit, characterized as “among more than 50 former shareholders” of the dissolved TRG. Moody is presumably William Lewis Moody III of the Galveston Moody family (Moody National Bank, American National Insurance, Moody-Stewart); the suit is a notable cross-Texas-elite alignment. Rogers is otherwise undocumented on this site.
  • “Col.” military title — origin and authority. Honorific, National Guard, or federal military? A 1928–1931 Texas commission record (Governor’s office) or military registry entry would discriminate.
  • Pre-1922 career. Where did Tips come from before joining Three Rivers Glass at age unknown? San Antonio? Was he a glass-industry veteran or a financial / management hire from outside the trade?
  • Family record. Spouse, children, residence, place of death not yet on this site. Texas census records (1920, 1930, 1940) would establish.

See also