M.J. Owens. W.S. Walbridge. E.D. Libbey. Clarence Brown. F.L. Geddes. These five men, known as the “Toledo Glass Faction,” are the featured players in an upcoming book, “Glass in Northwest Ohio,” which holds myriad lessons in what entrepreneurship and good business sense can achieve. [Clarence Brown was the son-in-law of my great grand uncle, Toledo businessmen Charles Leverett Luce. Charles was engaged in the Cattle trade -purchasing his stock locally and taking them to market in New York for market. He was a stock-holder and a Director in the Toledo, Ann Arbor Railroad and in the Toledo, St. Louis and Kansas City Railroad. Col. Charles Francis Adams owned the Kansas City Stock Yards for forty years. His manager was Charles Fessenden Morse. (The surname Fessenden is related to a Harvard president.) Mrs. Morse was an heir of the Howland estate. Nathanial Parker Willis family members were also heirs. Gideon Howland was the family patriarch. He was the 2x great grandfather of Henry Grinnell, partner with Robert Minturn in the shipbuilding business near Staten Island, New York. Cornelius Grinnell was the father of U.S. Artic Exploration.] Written by Quentin R. Skrabec Jr. and scheduled for a March release, the comprehensively illustrated book traces the origins of the Northwest Ohio boom from the discovery of natural gas near Findlay to the 1930s, when 85 percent of the world’s glass was manufactured in Toledo, to the modern-day traces of the glass pioneers. The pride, honor and nobility of the Toledo Glass faction — Owens’ innovations led to the elimination of child labor in the glass factories and facilitated the invention of safety glass for automobiles — make one keenly aware of the hard work and investment that shaped our city. Notably, the Faction built an empire without much government “assistance.” This is a tome that should be read by every executive in Toledo — and everyone who aspires to continue the entrepreneurial tradition of the past masters.
Posted on: Sun, 18 Aug 2013 01:54:55 +0000
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