Glassboro

Maddie De Fino
Revised draft
Comp 1

Glassboro

Nearly every town has some sort of specialty or something important that they’re known for. Each town has their own personal history that makes that particular place unique from the town next it, or the town two hours away. Life in each of these towns is different in today’s world, however, the history behind it will always be important to the town. In Glassboro, New Jersey, besides being known for being the home of Rowan University, it also has a rich history behind the name. The town was originally founded and established in the year 1779. Before it was even called a town or boro, it was called “Glass Works in the Woods” of Gloucester County. After several different ownerships of the glass company throughout the years, the glass industry in Glassboro began to die away away after a good run of over a hundred years. Of course, the town is still known as Glassboro, for they would not change the name due to the plentiful history behind it. After the fall out of the glass industry, Glassboro was transforming and started to become known for an important school, which eventually led to where we are today, Rowan University.
In 1779, a man by the name of Solomon Stanger, who originally migrated from Germany, established “Glassworks in the Woods” when he purchased 200 acres of land in what is known today as Glassboro. He was the original owner of the first glass company in the town. He conveniently located his company in today’s Glassboro for a number of reasons. The sand in the area is of good quality, and sand was a very important ingredient to manufacture glass. Also, there are a lot of oak trees in the area, which were used to fuel the glass furnaces. Lastly, the area is close to Philadelphia, which was an important area for commerce so that the company could sell and ship their products out to ports. Although Stanger was the founder, his ownership of the company didn’t end up lasting as long as he had probably expected it to. In 1781, due to the revolutionary war, the value of one dollar became only 2 cents, and Stanger no longer had enough money to keep the company going strong. He had no choice but to sell his company.
The company was bought by two men named Thomas Heston and Thomas Carpenter, and then became known as Heston-Carpenter Glass Works. The company stayed under this name until three brothers that were descendents of the Heston family ran it and eventually took it over. They renamed the company to be the Whitney Brothers Glassworks. According to searchroots.com, the story goes that a man named Ebenezer Whitney was shipwrecked off Cape May in 1806. He was injured by the shipwreck and was sent to Philidelphia by stagecoach for medical help. At some point in the journey, he stayed over at the “Heston House”. At his stay there, he met and fell in love with Bathsheba Heston. The two got married and had three sons named Thomas H., Samuel, and Eben. These three men were the ones who eventually took over the company. Under the brothers, the company led the entire glass industry in New Jersey and was most wide-ranging in the country with many varieties of style and color in the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries. The Whitney Brothers Glassworks was then taken over by the Olive works. After the Olive works, it was re-owned and re-named several other times over the course of the years. It became the Harmony Glass Works, the Temperanceville Glass Works, Owens Bottle-Machine Company and lastly the Owens-Illinois Glass Company. Today, the last company still exists, but the products produced by the company are no longer glass based on sand. The company now produces metal tops for bottles and jars.
A little before the 1920’s, the glass industry in Glassboro was no longer as big as it had once been. At this time, Glassboro now had South Jersey’s first Normal School. According to Rowan’s school website, other towns in the county had been competing to be the home of the new school, however Glassboro had won the title. The school was a two-year training school for teachers. Many teachers in New Jersey at the time hadn’t acquired training to the extent that they should have, and adding the school to South Jersey was to fix this issue in South Jersey. A little over ten years later, the school was made a four-year school, and 3 years after that the name of the school was changed to New Jersey State Teachers College at Glassboro. Eventually the school was expanded beyond teaching, and became bigger. In 1992, an extremely generous Henry and Betty Rowan donated $100 million to the school, and the school then changed its name to Rowan to honor the donation.
Over the years, Glassboro had evolved from a town known for huge glass making companies to being known for schooling. It all began with the small purchase of 200 acres for a company, and is now a college town where many citizens live. Glassboro’s name derived from the glass making, and this history will never be forgotten, especially due to the proper name of the town. Today, there is a glass museum in Glassboro called “Heritage Glass Museum” to keep the town’s history in tact.
Works Cited
www.Glassboroonline.com
www.nj.searchroots.com
Heritage Glass museum