My maternal great-grandfather, James Stephen Barry or 'Big Jim' as he was known, owned and operated a beverage manufacturing and bottling company in Providence, RI in the early twentieth century. He distributed many different flavors of soda all over Providence via horse and cart for a number of years. The brand he marketed under was Modox which was a soda unique on to itself. He was extremely successful and had the Barry children working at the business.

This was a time of local beverages before regional and national drinks. You drank the local brew at the tavern and the local soda at home, at the soda fountain or drug store..