Chocolate Soldier Chronicles: From Church Point to Hanley's Bottling Works

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          Our story starts off once more with the Daigle family of Church Point. In 1902, Ernestine Daigle, daughter of Joseph Ernest and Maria Madeleine Breaux Daigle, married Pierre Guidry, son of Thelismar and Marie Hermina Daigle Guidry. Marie Hermina taught her husband, who had grown up on a farm, how to read and write in both French and English. Thelismar went on to become a prominent businessman and community leader, opening up a saddlery, hotel, store, and barbershop. Pierre was the town's barber, as well as the manager of his father’s hotel that served as lodging for the travelers, salesmen, and schoolteachers who had traveled by railroad. The Guidry Hotel was located where Sunny's Fried Chicken currently is today.
         Alcee Sonnier, a policeman, opened up the "Church Point Bottling Works" in 1906 at what is now 318 South Horecky Street. He sold it to Pierre around 1909, who operated it for a while until the 1920s, when it had a few different owners, including Bill and Hubert Daigle, Albert Guidry, and later the Hanleys.
          Frank LeMoine “Tooney” Hanley, was born in 1905 in Cottonport, a small town ten miles northeast of Bunkie in Avoyelles Parish. His mother, Corinne LeMoine, was a Cottonport native that his father, Frank, from Mississippi, met while working on the railroad. Frank was the son of an Irish immigrant who came to New York in 1855.
          By 1913, Frank and Corinne had moved to Church Point after the Texas & Pacific Railroad bought out the recently bankrupted railway near them. Frank became a telegraph operator for the T&P Railroad, where he would translate messages into Morse code and send them to recipients. The Hanleys were adored by the townspeople. Tooney went on to marry Gertie Mae David, a Church Point native and schoolteacher, who attended a Fine Arts school in Mexico. She taught piano and singing lessons at their home.
          In 1925, Tooney purchased Church Point Bottling Works. After some years, he relocated the small factory to 329 South Main Street and renamed it "Hanley's Bottling Works." The growth of Church Point’s economy was supported by local businesses, and Tooney took this opportunity to remodel and expand the building. Sometime in the 1950s, the factory nearly tripled in size, was rebuilt with bricks, had a garage door to load trucks and large windows for the public to view soda being bottled, as well a hand painted store sign. Hanley's Bottling Works sold soda across Acadia, St. Landry, and Evangline Parishes.
          Many young Church Point students throughout the years took field trips to learn about how soda was made. Soda was made by workers mixing water, sugar, and flavorings, followed up by pressurizing the glass bottles. Local bottling companies would mix and bottle their own generic flavors of soda like grape, orange, strawberry, root beer, and cream soda. They would also bottle franchised drinks, like "Orange Crush," "Hire's Root Beer," and "Mr. Cola." Hanley’s Bottling Works was particularly famous for its "Chocolate Soldier," which was a chocolate drink most often compared to a Yoo Hoo. At the end of the factory tour, students would receive a bottle of Chocolate Solider to enjoy and keep them hyper once they returned to the classroom. 
          Unfortunately, Tooney passed away suddenly in 1963; he left his business behind to his wife. Their son, Michael Hanley, became the manager. On July 18th, 1966, at 6pm, Mike, his younger brother Tim, and long-term employee Milton Guidry were present doing equipment maintenance and cleaning bottles. Suddenly, a thousand-pound boiler exploded and was launched 300 feet into the air, landing in a nearby field that children would play baseball in. The roof, north wall, and the front glass of the factory were severely damaged, but according to legend, not a single Hanley bottle was ever broken. However, Milton's ankle was broken, but he recovered fine in the Church Point Sanitarium. 
          On May 11, 1974, Mike Hanley and his wife Sue Harmon had their grand opening of the new Hanley's Bottling Works. The building was exceptionally beautiful, with 125-year-old cypress doors from an old Acadian house in Iota, as well as cypress frames, antique lighting fixtures, rare furniture, and a collection of old Hanley bottles from throughout the years. A few years later, in 1976, the company was sold to Monarch Beverage Company and was dedicated to the production of Chocolate Soldier, rebranding itself as "Church Point Chocolate Company," and still under management of Mike and his brother Pat.
           In 1978, Monarch moved operations to Opelousas and 329 South Main Street no longer produced soda. The factory would become home to Richard's Cajun Country Sausage. Locals enjoy reminiscing about Hanley's Bottling Works and the Hanley family being a large part of their childhoods, often sharing images of bottle openers, icepicks, and soda bottles. Mike Hanley has amassed a collection of Hanley memorabilia over the years. Mayor Ryan "Spanky" Meche, museum staff, board members, and Curator Harold Fonte at Le Vieux Presbytère Museum created an exhibit to showcase historic Church Point businesses, such as this one. Local historian Gene Thibodeaux also works to preserve these stories in his newspaper column titled "Tales of Yesterday Acadia Parish Its History." 
          "The orange 'pop' from there was the best ever! None nearly as good. Big summer treat was the crate of assorted flavors Mama would keep on hand. Chocolate was also super good. Keeping the fingerprints and nose prints off that front window had to be a major job. Can still hear those bottles clinking as they went around." - Elaine Bellard Favre via Facebook.