Many years ago, when I started working for a company based out of Westbrook, Maine, I was introduced to the anomaly of a soft drink known as “Moxie”. Noted by some as “The Taste of Maine”, Moxie’s interesting mix of flavors always left me thinking that it tasted different every time I drank it, but I liked it, and so it became a flavor I looked forward to each time I traveled to the northeastern most state. The flavor of Moxie is so alluring to me that, on a summer trip to summit Mount Katahdin one year with my exceptional friend Michael DeLise, I forfeited buying an amazing hat (a choice I still regret) to buy an excess of Moxie for the trip home. My love for the drink is so immense that you might imagine my surprise when, recently, I found that Moxie has a relationship with a maker of Maine Axes.
Now, if you’re familiar with Moxie, you may have a love hate relationship with the sweet liquid. Much like certain flavors, such as cilantro and Cheerwine, there are those of us who love the stuff, and those of us who think the ones who love it are absolutely insane. First bottled in 1884 (or 85, depending on the source), Moxie was one of the first “Soft Drinks” to be widely marketed in the United States. Coca Cola would soon follow in 1886, with the popular Pepsi following in 1893. Though Moxie would enjoy a popularity in its early years, per books and records of the drink’s growth, its consumption would not gain nationwide recognition until 1897, when Frank Morton Archer became associated with the Moxie company.
Prior to joining the Moxie business, Archer had grown up as the son of a Physician in Lincoln, Penobscot County,, and then Dover, Piscataquis County, Maine. His mother, Sarah E. Morton, from whom he gained his middle name, had died when he was only 5, and his father had remarried when he was 10. He left Maine at around 20 and relocated to Boston, where he became a bookkeeper and later a salesman. 1897 saw his transition to the slowly growing Moxie company, where he casually rose through the ranks to General Manager, then VP, and eventually President in 1928. Most sources note Archer as the driving force that propelled Moxie from a standard tonic to a nationwide sensation. His ambition and outgoing personality are noted in numerous “Moxie” memoirs, such as Bowers’s “The Moxie Encyclopedia” and Potter’s “The Moxie Mystique”, and his locally well-known optimism was noted frequently in the media of Boston during his life time. His additions to Moxie marketing and advertising are thought to be the primary reason the Moxie company grew to be a sizable enterprise, and included the Moxie “Pullmobile” and “Pushmobile”, the Moxie “Horsemobile”, and the copycat “I want you” images with the “Moxie Man” that were pulled from the “Uncle Sam” images of World War I. It’s been noted that the “Moxie Man” was, indeed, Frank M. Archer.
As for the Moxie, and Archer, connection to axes, Frank Morton Archer’s father, the previously noted physician from Lincoln, Maine, was none other than Joel Wilson Archer, the 15th name listed in Yeaton and Gaffar’s classic work “Axe Makers of Maine”. The 1856 Directory of Maine notes J.W. Archer in the Axe Maker’s section of the business listings, and the 1850 Federal Census notes him as a blacksmith in Lincoln. The 1860 census notes him as a “Peddler” and by the 1870 census, after the death of Sara, he had moved to Dover, Maine, and was listed as a “Physician.”. This likely indicates that his axe making days were early in his years, between 1850 and 1856, which is reasonable considering he was born in 1822 and would have been in his 30s. As Frank was born in 1862, he would never have experienced his father’s axe making, but the connection lies there in the background, as it often does when it comes to the axe manufacturing industry. Regardless, both Moxie and axe making are special parts of the history of Maine, and both things that many people are fond of, so the connection between the two is an interesting tidbit that’s worth sharing.
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