Indiana Glass Company was an American company that manufactured pressed, blown and hand-molded glassware and tableware for almost 100 years. Predecessors to the company began operations in Dunkirk, Indiana, in 1896 and 1904, when East Central Indiana experienced the Indiana gas boom. The company started in 1907, when a group of investors led by Frank W. Merry formed a company to buy the Dunkirk glass plant that belonged to the bankrupt National Glass Company. National Glass was a trust for glass tableware that originally owned 19 glass factories including the plant in Dunkirk. National Glass went bankrupt in 1907, and its assets were sold in late 1908. Indiana Glass Company mostly made tableware, lamps, and vases although it had additional products. Collectors consider the company a manufacturer of Depression glass, Goofus glass, and Carnival glass. One well known customer was the A&W drive-in chain that featured mugs of A&W Root Beer, and Indiana Glass was the original manufacturer of root beer mugs for that company. Another major customer was Kmart. During 1957, Lancaster Lens Company acquired a controlling interest in Indiana Glass. Lancaster Lens Company was renamed Lancaster Glass Company, but Indiana Glass continued to be a separate entity. By the 1960s, a reorganization had Indiana Glass Company as a subsidiary of Lancaster Colony Corporation. Indiana Glass had a resurgence in sales during the 1970s, and began marketing some of its tableware for the home through Lancaster Colony's Tiara Exclusives. Indiana Glass continued operating in Dunkirk until November 2002, when the plant was closed. Although a glass plant owned by Lancaster Colony continued operating in Oklahoma under the name Indiana Glass Company, that plant was part of a sale to another glass company in late 2007.
Background
During the late 1880s, the discovery of natural gas started an economic boom period in East Central Indiana. Gas was first found in Delaware County's town of Eaton and adjacent Jay County's city of Portland Manufacturers were lured to the region to take advantage of the low cost fuel. Jay County, a rural county in East Central Indiana, had only 210 people working in manufacturing in 1880. By 1900, the county had over 1,423 people employed at manufacturing plants that were mostly glass factories. East Central Indiana became the state's major manufacturing center.
Beatty-Brady Glass Company
In 1895, the Pennsylvania Railroad built a large structure along its railing in Dunkirk, Indiana, close to the southeast corner of Blackford County but inside Jay County. The building was intended to be used for railroad freight car repair, but never used. In 1896, the building was sold to George Beatty and James Brady, who started the Beatty-Brady Glass Company. By 1900, this glass plant employed 225 people, and their products were tableware. During 1888 through 1890, most glass factories in the United States had financial difficulty. The United States had six economic contractions between 1880 and 1900. Deflation was a problem, and the term depression has been used to describe that economic time instead of simply recession. A banking crisis occurred in 1893. In addition to the difficult economic times, the Beatty-Brady Glass Company had more problems. During March 1899, George Beatty was arrested in Portland, Indiana, on six different complaints. All complaints were related to anti-union activity, and the action was said to begin "a big fight between organized and nonunion labor, and will be watched with interest all over the country..." Shortly afterwards, the matter was forwarded directly to Indiana's Supreme Court.
National Glass Company
In November 1899, the Beatty-Brady Glass Company was sold to the National Glass Company, a glass tableware trust that started as 11 glass companies and quickly became 19 with more added later. The National Glass Company factories were unionized, and their Dunkirk plant (Beatty-Brady Glass Company) became unionized January 1, 1900. The National Glass Company had its own difficulties, and was in financial trouble by 1903. Although it began with numerous factories, three had been dismantled, three were destroyed by fire (and not rebuilt), and some factories withdrew from the trust. By the end of 1904, all remaining plants were idle. On January 22, 1904, National Glass announced that it would shrink its workforce and try a new way of operating—leasing plants to others. Among the plants leased was the Dunkirk plant (the Beatty-Brady plant), and it was leased by Frank W. Merry. The changes were made because the conglomerate had financial difficulties, and it sold or closed several of its glass plants to raise capital. The Dunkirk lease was announced in Indianapolis as "a new organization...will now operate the Beatty-Brady glass factory heretofore controlled by the National Glass Company." The new company was named Indiana Glass Company, and was said to have capital stock of $125,000. ($125,000 in 1904 is equivalent to $4,479,167 in 2025.) Merry was president. On February 10, the 250 men employed at the Dunkirk plant went on strike over issues with National Glass Company. The issues between the National Glass Company and union employees were settled in two weeks, and work resumed.
… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.
