PART II: THE RISE and DEMISE OF WGM CO.

In Part I of this story, you read some of the history of the Western Flint Glass Company and how in late 1900, the name of the company was changed to the Western Glass Manufacturing Company. The new company started life with a complete new set of insulator molds, four each for each of the five insulator styles which were to be produced. In addition, they had brought in a new and highly reputed plant manager from St. Louis, and he appeared to be "turning the tide" for WGM.

Medium-dark purple WGM CD 121. 
Thousands of these classic insulators were used on 
the phone lines throughout the Rocky Mountain West.

Rising Tides

The year 1901 appeared auspicious for WGM. "There are now 175 employees and the factory is running night and day. Already upwards of $100,000 has been expended and improvements and enlargements are constantly being made. Bottles, insulators and milk jars are being made."¹

John Porter writes to his father on March 27, 1901: "Glass business doing very well. I think, satisfied all the brewers with the quality of bottles, and sold seven cars a few days since to Colorado Springs, but at a small profit, this to get trade, keep outsiders away (and) also to keep market for our product, think it all O.K."²

The year that began so promising did not end so well. According to the Rocky Mountain News, "Michael Nester, manager of Western Glass Manufacturing is confined to his home with a badly burned face and neck. The burns were caused by a blowpipe in the hands of John Kerkendall, aged 14 years. Nester saw Kirkendall smoking a pipe and ordered him to put it away. A little later, Nester saw Kirkendall smoking the pipe again and discharged him. Nester turned to walk away when Kerkendall picked up the blowpipe which he had partly cleaned and struck Nester on the shoulder... The end of the pipe was red hot. Before Nester had time to recover, Kirkendall struck him on the head, which staggered him, and as he turned around, the boy jabbed the hot iron into his right cheek. Then he struck him on the head again... there were four members of the Kerkendall family employed at the works but they have all been discharged on account of the assault."³

On December 28,  1901, came the bane of all glass plants -- fire! ".. .it was first noticed by Night Foreman Wambacher shortly before 1 o'clock this morning. At that time there was nothing to it but a slight blaze in the roof. The men immediately quit work and ran for the hose and other fire apparatus, but before they could get the hose turned on the fire had spread all over the roof and to the small oil tanks which are near the roof... The men could not use water too lavishly for fear of getting it into the great furnace of molten glass which would have exploded if water had gotten into it... It is the intention to clean out and refit the operating room without a roof as soon as the machinery is in place. If the weather will permit, the employees will work while the carpenters are putting on the roof."(4)

Inventor Michael Owens with his famous automatic 
bottle making machine (photo circa 1904)

This WGM beehive shows definite signs of touching up 
against another hot insulator in the cooling lehr.

This defect is called a "hairlip" and results from too small of a "gather" being dropped 
into the mold. As with other defects, this is also uncommon in WGM products.

"The Whale"
Another example of a "polliwog" in the glass. Such artifacts are quite uncommon.

"Large contracts have been made with C.A. Lammers, Adolph Coors, Neef Bros., Beebe-Crauel Pickle co., Colorado Telephone co., Manitou Mineral Water co., Anheuser-Busch and others. These firms appreciate the convenience and desirability of having their ware made at home and are very loyal in their support."(6)

On April 21, 1902 John Porter attempts to sell some whiskey flasks to Harry Kelly of the Gross Kelly Co. (wholesale grocers) in Las Vegas New Mexico. "We started this factory some three years ago; we have to depend on the local and western market; we want and need your business; we try to give satisfaction.. ."(7) Friendship and supporting local industries is fine, but in the end it comes down to price. On April 25th Harry Kelly replies, "I assure you we would be more than pleased to confine our flask trade to you if we possibly could. We only buy these flasks to job them again and our margin is very close, and our Mr. Earickson informs us that your price is somewhat out of line which was quoted him. If you can get in line we would be more than pleased to give you the business at even money."( 8)

1904 Sanborn Map Showing the WGM Operation in it's "Heyday"

On January 8, 1903 WGM bought the glass plant and land (lots 1 to 13 and 38 to 48 of Block 17 Valverde) from Emma Tomson of Philadelphia.(9) Mrs. Tomson's late husband had built the original glass plant in 1886.(10)

Michael Nester left WGM in the spring of 1903 to manage the glass plant in Kansas city which had recently been purchased by the family's firm Obear-Nester of East St. Louis. "The employees (of WGM) assembled in the packing room recently and A. J. Henderson, in a neat and appropriate speech, presented Mr. Nester with a diamond stud as a token of the esteem in which he is held by those who have been associated with him during the past three years."(11) Later "the glass workers gave Mr. Nester a farewell surprise at his home. Refreshments were served by the ladies and music, songs and dancing were enjoyed."(12)

The Decline Begins

May 5, 1906 - the front page headlines said it all: "WESTERN GLASS COMPANY'S PLANT IS TOTALLY DESTROYED BY FIRE - Loss $150,000 and 200 people are thrown out of employment"(13) "Fanned by a fierce wind, a fire which broke out in the gas producing plant. ..of the Western Glass Manufacturing Company yesterday afternoon developed into a veritable holocaust and destroyed the entire property."(14) "M. W. Gano, general manager of the company... early got to the scene of the fire. He was downtown when he first heard of it and made a record-breaking trip of four miles in his automobile."(15)

Mr. Gano told the Times reporter "We were overcrowded with orders, enough to keep us busy for a year at least. We had just entered on our period of greatest prosperity. We were counting on making additions. We are confident enough of the future to rebuild on a larger scale and in a more substantial manner."(16) The plant destroyed was that shown on the 1904 Sanborn map. Merritt Gano's confidence was misplaced. Forces were at work that would lead to the triumph of the Pittsburgh and Alton glass companies. This revolution was coming out of Toledo, Ohio, from the brain of Michael J. Owens. Frank M. Gessner describes the Owens bottle machine: "... it gathers its glass, forms its blanks, transfers the blank from the gathering mold to a blow mold with a finished lip and ring, blows the bottle and delivers the finished bottle automatically without the touch of the human hand, eliminates all skill and labor and puts the same amount of glass into every bottle, makes every bottle of the same length, finish, weight and capacity, it wastes no glass, uses no pipes, snaps, finishing tools, glory holes, rosin, charcoal, and requires neither gatherer, mold boy, snap boy nor finisher and still makes better bottles, more of them than by any other process." ( 17)

WGM Peach Colored Toll

WGM Hutch Bottles 
Showing Regional Distribution. Bottles were the main 
product of the WGM glass plant and were sold to companies all over the west.

Various Color Variants and Mold Styles for the CD 134 Style Relatively few 134s were produced: Current research suggests WGM Co. resurrected the older WFG 134 style molds to fill customer orders. Note how the second piece from the right is slumped: Such a defect is unusual for WGM production.

WGM CD 162 "signal" insulators
 showing various colors and mold styles

The gathering chill may be felt in John Porter's letter to Gerald Hughes of March 23, 1907: "Merritt called me up and said that last month we made some $19,000 of glass, with a net profit of $1,700... nothing particular new in this direction."(18) Gone is the sense of optimism evident in the summer of 1900 when they expected the works to produce a profit of $200 per day on a much smaller investment.

A time-honored response to financial problems is to cut expenses, including wages. The Denver Post reports on a 'come to Jesus' meeting in Valverde between the management of WGM and an officer of the Glass Blowers Union. "When the works closed down last season it became generally known that an effort would be made to reorganize the working force with non-union men. The matters in dispute have been amicably settled... The wage scale remains the same as heretofore."(19)

Local 30 (Denver) of the Glass Bottles Blowers joined the Colorado State Federation of Labor in April 1906 and contributed 2¢ per member per month to the State Federation. According to the Federation's ledger, Local 30 had 35 members from April 1906 through June 1907. They had dropped to 30 members September 1907 through June 1908, and had dropped further to 23 members September 1908 to the closing of the plant in May 1909. These were skilled blowers, not helpers or apprentices.(20)

Nine months after closing, there was still a little matter of indebtedness to the Denver National Bank. John Porter writes plaintively to his father on February 15, 1910, "I drew from your account today to pay my share of an assessment for the Glass Co. of $10,000; $1,568. This cuts the bank down to $15,000 which I think they will carry now for a time, and we want to do something with what is out there for it is not improving with time and exposure."(21)

So, it was the Owens' bottle machine that ended the life of the Western Glass Manufacturing Company... and all the small plants across the country that blew bottles with a blowpipe and finished them by hand. As George H. Foster of Robert Good Sr.'s plant said, "When automatic machines were invented, that settled their hash."(22) As elegy for all these little glass plants, a quote from a veteran year blower Charles Miller at the Poughkeepsie, NY plant of Robert Good Sr. seems appropriate: "Glass blowing was an elegant trade. I don't think there's any hand blowing now. Even little glass pill bottles are made by machine. Machines killed everything. Eventually the whole thing here, tools, molds and everything was sold as junk. All was taken away on a barge."(23)

Color comparison between WGM and AMTEL CD 121s. 
Evidence now suggests that WGM Co. made the 
unembossed AMTELs late in their production history.

Notes:

1. Denver Times, February 28,1901 
2. Porter Papers; Colorado Historical Society 
3. Rocky Mountain News, December 7, 1901
4. Denver Times, December 28, 1901
5. Denver Times, May 25, 1902
6. Denver Times, December 28, 1901
7. Porter Papers, loc. Cit.
8. Ibid.
9. Denver Post, January 11, 1903
10. Rocky Mountain News, November 21, 1886
11. Commoner & GlassWorker, V24, #28, April 18, 1903
12. Ibid.
13. Denver Republican, May 5, 1906
14. Ibid.
15. Denver Times, May 5, 1906
16. Ibid.
17. Walbridge, William S., American bottles Old & New, Toledo, OH, 1920
18. Porter Papers, loc. Cit.
19. Deliver Post, October 5, 1908
20. Western History collection, Norlin Library, CU, Boulder, CO
21. Porter Papers, loc. Cit.
22. Poughkeepsie Sunday New Yorker, February 7, 1948 
23. Poughkeepsie Sunday New Yorker, March 1, 1953; Charles Miller as quoted by Helen Myers 
24. Toledo Blade, February 22, 2005