In response to an article by Mr. N. R. Woodward in the May, 1987, issue of CROWN JEWELS (page 6), I would like to offer the following information and story.

The location of the factory that produced the insulators embossed O.V.G.CO. has been known by some of us for quite some time. Among the first to discover its whereabouts was Mr. Jerry Turner, who ultimately started our research in this area.

Darrel Moore and I met at the St. Charles show and decided to do some insulator hunting as he passed through Ohio on his way to the show in Perkiomenville. I mentioned the location of the factory and my planned research on its history and he volunteered to accompany me.

We met at the site on Wednesday, June 10th. Most of the original factory floor was filled with 3 feet of gravel and concrete was poured on top. The exceptions were the floors of the offices and pier section. Undoubtedly, it is the location where the O.V.G. insulators were manufactured. Before I arrived, Darrel had already been given access to the inside of the building and had made a neat find -- a melted O.V.G. #11. This was found underneath the office section of the building which was built about four feet above the original glass factory floor. We also found many pieces of O.V.G.CO. insulators and slag.

Above and below: The abandoned factory in 
Pleasant City, Ohio, which housed the Ohio Valley Glass Company.

Later we proceeded to the courthouse and library in Cambridge where we obtained the history of the company. We would especially like to thank the kind librarian in the Finley Room for putting us in touch with Mr. Charles Upton who provided us with information linking O.V.G. CO. to Hemingray. Mr. Upton invited us to his house where he gave us quite a bit of information and showed us his beautiful collection of Cambridge glass.

The large reserves of fossil fuels and natural gas in the southeastern Ohio Valley attracted many glass houses and pottery makers since the early 1800's. Such was the case with the Pleasant City glass works. The coal fields in the area were bound to last many years and the shipping facilities were more than adequate with the railroad and canals close at hand.

A Cincinnati firm, the Ohio Valley Glass Co., purchased land in 1902 from Johnathan and Mary Rosa Kackley of Pleasant City. The factory was located in Valley Township in Guernsey County, Ohio. The products produced by this factory were telephone and telegraph insulators and battery jars. The Pleasant City Glass Works had one operating tank with five rings. In 1904, The Pleasant City Glass Works was listed in the Complete Directory of Glass Factories in the United States and Canada. Company officers in 1904, were B.L. Kilgore, President; D.S. Keichler, Secretary-Treasurer and W. M. Cleis, Manager.

In 1905, the name was changed to Ohio Valley Glass Company with officers H.E. Cobb, President; H.E. Stephenson, Vice President; W.B. Stier, Secretary; and J.B. Sulivan, Treasurer and Manager. The factory continued to produce insulators until 1906, when it was purchased by the Hemingray Glass Company of Covington, Kentucky. Operations were ended at this time.

The building was used for a short time afterward by a Pittsburgh steel-making firm and later became the Pleasant City Flouring Mills. It still stands today and is being used for storage by the township. It is located on S.R. 146, just east of S.R. 821, in Pleasant City, along the abandoned railroad. It appears that the demise of the Ohio Valley Glass Company was to strengthen Hemingray's foothold in the ever-increasing insulator market.

N.R. Woodward shares the following letter from Bayard L. Kilgour's son:

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and listings from the Cincinnati telephone directory from 1902 through 1905 show the progression of company officials: