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Linns History of Centre and Clinton Co, page 244, 245
"Under act of Assembly, approved April 4, 1867, the Bellefonte Glass Manufacturing Company was incorporated, with a chartered capital of one hundred thousand dollars. An eight-pot furnace (enlarged soon afterwards to ten pots) was straightway constructed under the direction of a Mr. Zeller, a Pittsburgh glass-maker, and in October, 1867, the manufacture of glass was begun, James Cline being in charge as superintendent. The incorporators of the company were Henry Brockerhoff; D. G-. Bush, Edmund Blanchard, John Irwin, Jr., William F. Reynolds, Robert Valentine, Jacob Valentine, L. A. Mackey, W. P. Wilson, E. C. Humes, A. T. Valentine, and M. T. Millikin. All were enterprising, pushing men, and went in to make the affair a great success. Difficulties and misfortune seemed, however, to beset the enterprise from the first. The price of glass, standing at four dollars per box when the works was projected, hail declined to two dollars by the time the first glass was blown. In 1870 the company acknowledged the wisdom of a change of policy, and leased the works outright, to Jacob V. Thomas, who, after a two years' experiment, ended with a failure. Roland Curtin, Adam Hoy, Adolph Loeb, and J. H. Sands then organized the firm of Curtin, Loeb & Co., and leased the works. A year's trial satisfied them. A company of the operatives, styled as the firm of Schadd, Seigworth & Co., then engaged to carry on the enterprise, but came to grief in less than a twelve-mouth for want of sufficient capital. The mortgage creditors of the manufacturing company then took possession of the property. In 1882 the enterprise of John Ardell, Jr., put the glass-works again in operation."
This company included Hammon Sechler, John Ardell Jr. Harry Sayre, Emil Joseph, J. Kyle McFarlane, W. R. Teller, John Anderson, Nicholas Redding and L. T. Munson. Mr. Munson was manager and Mr. McFarlane secretary.
In June 1886 this company bought the factory and operated it until Sunday morning, Oct. 10th, of that year, when it was totally destroyed by fire. Seven buildings were destroyed along with fifty-two new pots, a full set of stones for a new furnace and a thousand boxes of glass. The loss was estimated at $50,000. But coverage was only carried in the amount of $20,000.
The work of rebuilding was begun at once and the fires were relighted in February of 1887.
Dispite all efforts, the factory was never very successful after that and finally fell into the hands of some glass workers living here who decided to try it on the co-operative plan. This scheme proved fairly successful and the men were just beginning to get firmly established when a coal strike so crippled them that they were forced to shut down. They had already matured plans for remodeling the furnace and getting the factory in blast. Those interested in it were Oscar W. Hunter, George Rhoads, George Knisely, John Knisely, Jesse Cox, Samuel Smith, Allen Waite, John Waite, Philip Garbrick, Clayton Rote, Win. Rider, Clay Rider, Isaac Smith, Joseph Smith, Lewis Borden, Chas. Guisewbite and Collins Pemberton.
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