Wistarburg Glass Works

Wistarburg Glass Works roadsign

The Wistarburg Glass Works (sometimes spelled Wistarburgh Glass Works; also known as the United Glass Company) was the first successful glass factory and joint-venture enterprise in the Thirteen Colonies, referred to as Colonial America. Caspar Wistar founded the glass works company in 1739. He began by recruiting experienced glass artisans from Europe, and built homes for the workers along with a mansion for the factory's foreman. Wistar also had a company store built near the factory.

Because of the company's success, the village that developed around the factory adopted Wistar's name and became known as Wistarburg. The village was in Salem County, New Jersey, in the township of Alloway. The factory produced thousands of glass bottles per year, but its main product was window glass, of which it became the main supplier for the Colonies. Wistar was a friend of Benjamin Franklin, and made glass globes for Franklin's electricity-producing machines used for scientific research. Wistar's son inherited the business and his son, Wistar's grandson, eventually gained control of the company, but owing to his mismanagement it had closed by 1782.

Company foundation

Casper Wistar (1696–1752) immigrated from Germany to Philadelphia in 1717. His profession while in Philadelphia was making brass buttons, which he would take with him on sales trips to Salem County, New Jersey. On one such trip he noticed that the township of Alloway had an abundant supply of the necessary materials for glass manufacture – white sand, clay, wood, and accessible waterways of the nearby Deep Run and Alloway Creek rivers. He was thus encouraged to establish a glass factory there. Wistar's was not the first to be built in colonial America. Earlier establishments had been setup at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607 and 1621. They were founded to export glass items to England, but ultimately failed, having produced little, if any, glass.

Wistar's button-making business was a success, and together with land speculation allowed him to accumulate sufficient capital to fund a new enterprise. He began his glass-making venture in 1737 by buying 2,000 acres (810 ha) of land about eight miles (13 km) from Salem, New Jersey, and commenced construction of his factory – which became the first commercially successful glass factory in America. He arranged in January 1738 to lease 50 acres (20 ha) of land containing 18,000 cords (65,000 m³) of wood from John Ladd, a local land owner. Wistar then recruited four experienced glass makers from the Palitinate region of Germany  – C. Halter, S. Griessmeyer, J. Wentzel, and J. Halter – to make the factory operational. He organized a joint venture with them, dividing profits in exchange for the art of glass making. Wistar had arranged for their journey to America, and they arrived in Philadelphia on a ship from Europe in September 1738.

Wistar had houses built near the factory for the workers to rent. He also had a mansion constructed for the factory's foreman, and which also served as a lodging and office for Wistar while on his visits to the factory from his home in Philadelphia. A company store was constructed for the workers' needs. They purchased products on credit against the glass they would make in the future; a bookkeeper was employed to keep track of the store accounts and housing rents. The store also served the people of the village of Alloway, and was the center of community life.

Joint venture

Wistar entered into a profit-sharing arrangement with the four German artisans who had helped to make his new factory operational. To ensure their continuing support he set up a joint venture between five members, the first cooperative manufacturing joint-venture business in America and the first long-term successful glasshouse. The 1739 company began trading as the United Glass Company, which consisted of three individual joint ventures. Wistar was the general manager and primary share holder, with a two-thirds majority ownership in each of the three individual joint ventures. The four Germans held one-third ownership and shared in expenses, assets, and profits of the three individual joint ventures. The first entity under the umbrella enterprise was held between Wistar and Wentzel, the second between Wistar and C. Halter, and the third between Wistar, Griesmeyer and J. Halter. The joint venture arrangement remained in effect until Wistar's death of dropsy in 1752.

History

Glass globes for Benjamin Franklin's electrostatic machines were made by Wistarburg Glass Works for research.

Wistar's factory produced about 15,000 glass bottles per year, made in the Waldglas style - which was a way of making glass in Europe since the Middle Ages. It was an inexpensive traditional method that contained impurities and produced a greenish-yellow glass. But the factory's primary product was window glass; at the time the main supplier of window glass for the Colonies. Wistar had unlimited access to white silica sand, as well as other necessary materials, and the company's success was further aided by New Jersey's low taxation; Wistar was easily able to obtain more assets for the business.

Wistar lived in Philadelphia and was aware that the English forbid the making of items that were in competition with certain English imported products and therefore gave little importance to his glass business profits. Wistar ran his business affairs from Philadelphia, spending little time in Alloway. He sold the manufactured glass products through his store in Philadelphia, the Wistarburg company store, and his son Richard's store in New York City. When Wistar died Richard inherited the glass factory. He also mostly ran the business from Philadelphia, but worked on increasing sales volumes and expanding the company's product range. Just like his father, he relied on hired artisans to run the business.

Wistar was friends with Benjamin Franklin of Philadelphia. He made glass globes for Franklin's electricity producing machines that were used for scientific research. Franklin built several of his machines, using the Wistarburg glass globes, for Cadwallader Colden and Lewis Evans, for which they paid him between ten and twelve pounds each.

Wistar died in Philadelphia of dropsy on March 21, 1752. His son Richard took over the business. The glass enterprise was in operation into the 1770s, but struggling due to declining forests around Wistarburg. The wood from the trees was used as fuel to melt the glass and was mostly used up. Because of this some of their key artisans resigned and went to start their own glass company in Glassboro, New Jersey. There were new uncut forests there and plenty of wood for new glass operations. Richard had personal problems that used up much of his time and financial difficulties caused by the Revolutionary War. All of this forced him to sell off a major portion of his father's New Jersey real estate. Richard died in 1781 and his son John took over the business. John didn't put forth the effort to run the glass works properly and let it go out of business. The company closed its doors on December 29, 1781.

References

Sources

• Beiler, Rosalind J. (2008). Immigrant and Entrepreneur: The Atlantic World of Caspar Wistar, 1650–1750. University Park, Pennsylvania: Penn State Press. ISBN 978-0-271-03595-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Cantele, Andi Marie; Kaplan, Mitch (2010). Explorer's Guide New Jersey (Second Edition (Explorer's Complete) ed.). Woodstock, VT: The Countryman Press. ISBN 978-1-58157-904-8. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Davidson, Marshall B. Davidson; Stillinger, Elizabeth (1985). The American Wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN 978-0-87099-424-1. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Lemay, J. A. Leo (2014). The Life of Benjamin Franklin, Volume 3: Soldier, Scientist, and Politician, 1748–1757. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-0-8122-9141-4. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Pierce, Arthur Dudley (1960). Smugglers' Woods: Jaunts and Journeys in Colonial and Revolutionary New Jersey. New Brunswick, N.J: Rutgers University Press. ISBN 978-0-8135-0444-5. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

• Veit, Richard (30 January 2014). Historical Archaeology of the Delaware Valley, 1600-1850. University of Tennessee Press. ISBN 978-1-57233-997-2. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Further reading

• "Wistarburgh". Corning Museum of Glass. Retrieved July 21, 2015.
• Murschell, Dale (2007). Wistarburgh: Window Tiles, Bottles and More. Springfield, W.Va.: D. Murschell.
• "The Wistars and their Glass 1739–1777". Retrieved August 4, 2015.