WISTARBURGH
The Wistarburgh Glass Manufactory was in operation from 1738 until the
beginning of 1782. It was located
near Alloway in Southern New Jersey.
The name can be found with several spellings. (Wistarberg)(Wistarburg)(Wistarburgh) The spelling on a recently found 1760’s map
shows the spelling as Wistarsburgh. Casper Wistar had come to Philadelphia in
1717 and had become a button maker in Philadelphia. At first, he would buy, divide, and sell land
to the newcomers. He soon invested in
an iron furnace, and then a forge in Bucks County. He went into the business of making brass
buttons. He got married to Catherine
Jansen in 1726. Casper became one of the
city’s leading merchants, living on Market Street near Mayor Charles Willing
and Ben Franklin.
In 1738,
he built the first successful glass factory in America. Casper was traveling in Salem County on a
trip to sell buttons. The area around
Alloway seemed ideal to Casper, as the site of a glass factory, when he noticed
the abundance of white sand. There was
sand, wood for fuel, and water transportation nearby. Casper had some experience with a factory
requiring heat having owned two iron forges in Berks County. This had prepared him to know what to look
for when looking for a site for a glass factory that needed a good supply of
wood for fuel. For the task of actually
building and working the glass factory, he arranged to have four experienced
glass workers come over from Europe.
Casper created a profit sharing system with the four glass workers to
insure their full support. The
products of the glass factory were eventually flat glass for windows and
various types of utility and beverage bottles. Some tableware may have been made, but not
as the normal production, since the tableware did not show up in the
advertisements of the products.
There were also many other workers required to operate a glass factory,
so Casper had workers homes built near the glass factory. A mansion was built to accommodate the
factory manager and to serve as a place for him to stay when he visited the
factory. A company store was built to
provide the needs of the workers and other local residents. Much of the wages of the workers was issued
in company money to be used in the company store. Casper helped his friend Ben Franklin, by
having scientific glassware made at the factory. Casper Wistar died in 1752, leaving the
glass factory to his son Richard. When Richard ran the glass business, he made
an effort to increase the volume of production and increased the number of items of
production. Richard ran the glass
business mostly from Philadelphia as his father had. Neither Casper nor Richard actually
worked with the molten glass. When
they needed additional glass workers, they made contacts in Europe, and
experienced workers were obtained to come to America. As a resident of Philadelphia, Casper had
observed a need for certain glass items, but was also mindful that the English
Law did not allow for the manufacture, in the colonies, of anything that would
be in competition with England. For
this reason, much that was written at the time of operation inferred a less
than successful glass factory. The
real success of the Glass factory can better be measured in the wealth
accumulated by Casper and his son Richard.
When Richard died, he owned a large amount of land in Philadelphia, and
he left his sons in a position that they didn’t need to work. In 1780, Richard attempted to sell the
glass factory with no success.
The Wistarburgh Glass Manufactory is considered by some as the first
successful manufacturing site in America in addition to being the first
successful glass factory. There
continues to be difficulty with attribution of production items to the
Wistarburgh Glass Factory. The
factory was in operation for over 40 years, with an obvious good profit, yet
there is reluctance by historians to allow attribution of items to
Wistarburgh. Surely, some of the early
bottles in today’s market, now attributed to later times, are probably from the
first glass factory.
For more on Wistarburgh, go to www.wistarburg.org