Today’s post is a bit of a departure from the usual doom and gloom. Sorry to disappoint. But I wanted to highlight an occupation followed by a number of our relatives, especially our West Virginia cousins who were part of or descended from the Seventh Day Baptists.
In particular, the town of Clarksburg, West Virginia, became well-known for its glass factories. According to an article in The Exponent Telegram, the glass industry started in Clarksburg in 1899 when Belgian glassworkers were convinced to move to the area from Pittsburgh. The first window glass plant built was the Lafayette Cooperative Glass plant, followed by the founding of companies such as the Salem Cooperative Window Glass Company, the Peerless Window Glass Company, Rolland Glass Company, and others.1
In addition to window glass, the industry in the area extended to the production of glassware. The Hazel Atlas company operated the world’s largest factory for producing glass tumblers in Clarksburg. Hazel Atlas produced a large quantity of “Depression Glass.”2
I was able to find 78 individuals in our family tree who had some connection to the glassmaking industry. I will not be detailing all of them. Cazzie B. Barnes, fourth cousin 3 times removed, whose mother was one of our Davis relatives, was born between 1869-1870 in West Virginia. In 1920 he was enumerated with his wife and 8 children in Clarksburg. The occupation for “Cass” is listed as “Laborer, Glass Factory.”
Ten years later Cazzie’s nephew, Richard Clark Barnes, son of Cazzie’s brother Erna Riffey Barnes, was listed as “laborer, glass company.” He was eighteen years old and still living at home, though this was in the “Coal District” of Harrison County, West Virginia rather than in Clarksburg proper.
Did I say there was to be no doom and gloom in today’s post? Oops. Edgar Francis Bonnell, my fourth cousin twice removed, was 32 years old when he was struck by a train and killed. This was in Salem, West Virginia. His death certificate lists his occupation as Glass Worker.
Then we have a whole slew of Davises involved in the glass industry: Artie Davis, fourth cousin twice removed, was a glass plant laborer in 1930 when he was 19 and living in Clarksburg; Artie’s father Lennis was also a glass company laborer in both 1910 and 1920, though by 1930 he was working as a watch repairman. Cleo Jefferson Davis, fourth cousin three times removed, was a press operator at a glass factory in 1940. Cleo lived in Doddridge County.
As with Edgar Bonnell, we are able to learn the cause of death for Cleo’s father, Corles Davis (third cousin four times removed), from his death certificate. In 1946 he was a glass worker for the McBride Glass Company when he died of a cerebral hemorrhage. Two McBride Glass Companies are among the list of 50 “West Virginia Glasshouses” appearing in the 1930 census according to the National Depression Glass Association website.
Both Corles’s twin brother Harland, and Graden F. Davis, sixth cousin once removed, worked as glass blowers, though 30 years apart: Harland in 1910 and Graden in 1940. At the time of his enumeration, Graden was 25 years old and living in his grandmother’s boarding house in Salem.
Others had equally specific job titles listed in various censuses: paper cutter, glass factory (Haymond Rankin Davis, sixth cousin once removed); packer and grinder, glass factory (Hazel Aretta Davis, fifth cousin twice removed, and Lagretta A. Davis, fourth cousin three times removed, two of the few females on the list); mould polisher, glass factory (John Jefferson Davis, fourth cousin three times removed); and snapper, glass factory (Noah Lewis Davis, fourth cousin three times removed).
I could go on…but I won’t. My fingers are getting tired, and I promised not to list all 78 individuals. But it’s easy to see the impact the glass industry had on our family many times over. Which also makes me think I have a good excuse to add to my glassware collection….