Henry Clay Fry

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Henry Clay Fry
Henry C Fry 1914.jpg
circa 1914
BornSeptember 17, 1840
Shelby County near
Lexington, Kentucky
Died1929
Resting placeRochester, Pennsylvania
NationalityAmerican
Occupationbusinessman, entrepreneur
Known fordeveloping glass techniques
Political partyRepublican
Spouse(s)1st wife Emma Mathews,1862
2nd wife Belle McClintock, 1889
Children2 sons, 3 daughters
Parent(s)Thomas Cousins Fry
Charlott Fry
RelativesJohn Fry, grandfather
Signature
Henry C Fry signature.jpg
Rochester Tumbler Company letterhead
Fry heat resistant glass, c. 1916
Rochester Tumbler Company, c. 1900
H. C. Fry Glass Factory, c. 1910

Henry Clay Fry (September 17, 1840 – January 3, 1929) was an American businessman and entrepreneur in the glass industry in the second half of the nineteenth century and first half of the twentieth century. He first organized a large glass manufacturing facility with others that made glass tumbler beverage containers that were sold worldwide. In 1901 he organized with his sons H. C. Fry Glass, a glass manufacturer that had state-of-the-art techniques and made all kinds of glass. In 1916 under an agreement with Corning Glass Works he made heat-resistant glassware. The glass now is a collector's item of historical significance and there is a H. C. Fry Glass Society for the study and preservation of his glass.

Biography

Fry was born in Lexington, Kentucky, on September 17, 1840.[1] His father was Thomas Cousins Fry and his mother was Charlotte Fry, a cousin of Thomas.[2] Fry's maternal grandfather John Fry was the first American in his family line and in the eighteenth century had emigrated from Dublin, Ireland, to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. John had a brother in Dublin by the name William. He immigrated to America about the same time as John but settled in New York City. During the time of the American Revolution War John moved to Washington County, Pennsylvania. About 1804 he had moved to Lexington and took up farming.[2] He married Elizibeth Miller and they had a daughter by the name of Charlotte Fry.[3]

Fry's paternal grandfather William Fry (brother of John Fry) also married and among his children was Thomas Cousins Fry. Thomas's parents died when he was an infant. Thomas enlisted in the Army when 16 and fought in the War of 1812. After he mustered out at the end of the war he got employment with the glass firm Curling, Robinson and Company in Pittsburgh. He then later moved to Lexington and married his cousin Charlotte Fry and one of their many children was Henry Clay Fry, the subject of this sketch. He got his birth name from Kentucky's statesman Henry Clay.[3]

Fry went to the local public schools of Lexington when he grew up. He got his first job at the age of sixteen as a shipping clerk in the glass manufacturing firm of William Phillips & Company in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 1860, Fry met Abraham Lincoln while on a sales business trip. It is not known if they discussed the topic of glass. In 1862, he enlisted in the 15th regiment of Pennsylvania cavalry of the American Civil War. He was in the cavalry until the close of the war. He then became a member at a glass company initially called Lippincott, Fry & Company in Pittsburgh. The name was changed later to Fry and Scott and finally to Fry, Semple, and Reynolds.[2][3][4]

Fry got his first recorded patent for cut glass on November 3, 1868. He sold his interest in Fry, Semple, and Reynolds in 1869 and became general manager of O'Hara Glass Works in Pittsburgh. Fry with his family moved in 1872 to Rochester, Pennsylvania. There with some local businessmen he formed Rochester Tumbler Company, a glass manufacturing facility. He became their first president and his brother George W. Fry became the vice president. They built extensive plant building structures on 10 acres (40,000 m2) of land they purchased. The company manufactured pressed and blown glass tumblers, being the largest such manufacturer in the world. They sold these tumblers throughout the United States and worldwide.[2][3]

The Rochester Tumbler Company made on their premises all the equipment needed in glass production. They were the first glass manufacturing facility to use natural gas for fuel, obtaining it from their own well. The well supplied natural gas for fuel for the furnaces, lighting inside the factory, and two barrels of oil a day. The company introduced the Owens Punch-Tumbler Machine in 1897 and that enabled them to greatly increase their yearly production output of tumblers and thereby the cost of the product dropped considerably. The company had a product capacity of 75,000 dozen tumblers per week.[2][5][6]

In 1897 Rochester Tumbler Company joined National Glass Company of Rochester and Fry became the president of the newly formed corporation.[4] In 1900 he resigned and formed his own company in 1901 called Rochester Glass Company with his sons Harry and Howard.[3] The Rochester Tumbler Company was destroyed by fire on February 12, 1901.[6] Fry then purchased twelve acres on a high spot to avoid flooding and started construction for a new glass company. With an investment of $400,000 from the Rochester Business Men's Association the company organized as the H. C. Fry Glass.[7][8] Ground was broken for Fry's new glass works company on June 3, 1901. It was in full operation producing products by February 8, 1902. There was a new railroad spur built to Fry's factory to lower shipping costs and it was completed by June 9, 1902.[6][9]

Fry had installed two eighteen-pot furnaces in his modern factory that measured 160 by 300 feet.[9] He developed and manufactured a new cut glass process using pressed blank hot glass techniques.[6] Fry patented this invention. The glass was pressed into a mold where previously the technique of cut glass had only been blown by hand.[10] This technique, according to Pittsburgh Post-Gazette newspaper, produced the finest cut glass made in an American glasshouse in the first years of the twentieth century.[11] There were 500 employees within two years of start. At the peak of production, Fry employed 150 skilled cutters in the cutting shop that measured 80 by 160 feet. He was so successful that in 1904 he constructed a second glass works factory.[6][9]

Fry with this new 1904 company operated under the name of the Beaver Valley Glass Company. He had purchased four acres for this glass works plant in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania. It made glass novelties, bar goods, tumblers and complete packers glassware sets.[12] The glass mixture of ingredients Fry protected and guarded as industrial secrets. The nature element aspects of white sand and Missouri clay were important and closely watched. The glass the company produced had an extravagantly high lead content which made it more attractive and desirable among the general public than other glass.[6] The company at it peak could produce thirty-five thousand tumblers a day with one hundred workers.[9] His cut crystal glass was acid etched marked with a "Fry" or "Fry Quality" in script which was surrounded by a shield from time to time. He made this type of glass until the 1920s when there was a scarcity of materials and silver products became more popular.[13]

Fry made a large variety of heat-resistant glassware from 1916 under an agreement from the Corning Glass Works. Glass inventors Eugene C. Sullivan, William C. Taylor, Fred M. Locke and Ralph F. Brenner were employees of the Corning Glass Works and had licensed their heat-resistant glassware patents to Fry's company for making these glass products.[14] The company heat-resistant ovenware was lime green colored and in 1921 they started to manufacture opalescent ovenware and kitchenware. The kitchenware was also produced in clear glass and colored glass. They also made electrical glass insulators, however few were sold and they are a very rare collector's item.[12][14]

Fry through his glass company of H. C. Fry Glass in 1922 used see through ovenware as the basis for a line of products of art glass. He called the color opalescent pearl and had a range of art glass he designated FOVAL, which was an acronym of Fry Ovenglass Art Line.[15] Those artistic glass products he manufactured were coffeepots, teapots, goblets, and other jug styles. Fry also had produced through his company various tableware items that included plates, saucers, bowls, and cups. He also made vases and candlesticks holders. They were plain see through glass and had light blue or dark green handles. The designs had decorative trim and feet. Some were pulled trail looped decorations on a see through glass.[13]

Fry employed about 1000 people at his company at the peak of product. He earned a reputation for not liking a union and there was never one at his plant. The final glass products Fry manufactured were sometimes decorated with either silver or gold overlay and trim. A few glass objects were produced in a delft blue or a dark shade of green. Most of the glass products was hand blown and polished. Some of the smaller items like lids were pressed. All the products and items had foil labels of Fry Glass Company. None of the manufactured glass was etched or engraved marked.[16] The glass products that Fry produced were sold throughout the United States, Europe, South America, and parts of Africa.[6]

Fry's glass factory operated into the Great Depression of the 1930s and then went into a second receivership due to bankruptcy and was sold out in 1933.[17] The Libbey Company acquired the factory buildings of Fry's glass company and continued production of the glass for another three years and then closed altogether by 1936. The Beaver, Butler Gas Company that furnished the natural gas for the company was controlled by Fry and he sold it to private concerns. Fry sold many of his glass molds to the Phoenix Glass Company in Monaca, Pennsylvania. Fry's factory has deteriorated to ruins and no longer exists. The few glass pieces that remain have become treasured collector's items.[6] There is a H. C. Fry Glass Society for the study and preservation of the historic glass produced by Fry.[16]

Personal life

Fry became president of the First National Bank of Rochester when it was organized in 1883 and continued in that position until 1904.[18] He was director of the Olive Stove Works from 1879 to 1922. He was superintendent of the Baptist Sunday school of Rochester for 27 years.[18] He was president of Rochester Town Council, a member of the school board and the first president of The Duquesne Light Company. He was an active member of the Duquesne Club for 40 years. He was also a member of the Free and Accepted Masons as well as a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.[3]

Fry was married to Emma Mathews of Pittsburgh.[18] They had two sons, Henry Clay Fry Jr, and Jesse Howard; and three daughters, E. Gertrude, Clara B, and Mahel M. Fry. Fry's first wife died in 1884.[2] He then married Belle McClintock of Meadville, Pennsylvania, in 1890.[18] Fry died on January 3, 1929.[19][20]

References

  1. ^ Spofford 1914, p. 95.
  2. ^ a b c d e f White 1904, p. 280.
  3. ^ a b c d e f THCFGS 1990, p. 10.
  4. ^ a b "H. C. Fry Timeline". Archived from the original on November 21, 2008. Retrieved August 31, 2008.
  5. ^ THCFGS 1990, p. 11.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Freehauf, Cynthia (1979). "The Fry Glass Company in Rochester". Milestones. University of Colorado. Archived from the original on July 24, 2022. Retrieved July 23, 2022.
  7. ^ "HC Fry Glass Co". Archived from the original on November 12, 2007. Retrieved August 31, 2008.
  8. ^ "H. C. Fry Glass Company Advertisements". Archived from the original on 2008-09-22. Retrieved August 31, 2008.
  9. ^ a b c d Hawkins 2009, p. 227.
  10. ^ Kane 1997, p. 267.
  11. ^ "Books offer insights to glass makers". Pittsburgh Post-Gazzette. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. August 17, 1990. Archived from the original on July 17, 2022. Retrieved July 18, 2022.
  12. ^ a b "H. C. Fry Glass Company". Archived from the original on July 20, 2008. Retrieved August 31, 2008.
  13. ^ a b "H. C. Fry Glass from Glass Encyclopedia". Archived from the original on October 30, 2021. Retrieved July 18, 2022.
  14. ^ a b "Patents Licenced to H. C. Fry Glass Co". Archived from the original on December 9, 2007. Retrieved August 31, 2008.
  15. ^ "1794 dish is probably not very old". The Baltimore Sun. Baltimore, Maryland. January 25, 1998. Archived from the original on July 17, 2022. Retrieved July 18, 2022.
  16. ^ a b "H. C. Fry Glass Society". Archived from the original on 2008-07-20. Retrieved August 31, 2008.
  17. ^ "Know your Antiques". The Record. Hackensack, New Jersey. October 2, 1978. Archived from the original on July 17, 2022. Retrieved July 18, 2022.
  18. ^ a b c d Spofford 1914, p. 96.
  19. ^ "Q & A". The Akron Beacon Journal. Akron, Ohio. Archived from the original on July 17, 2022. Retrieved July 18, 2022.
  20. ^ Batto 1999, p. 184.

Sources

  • THCFGS, The H. C. Fry Glass Society (1990). Collector's Encyclopedia of Fry Glassware. Paducah, Kentucky: Collector Books. ISBN 9780891453956.
  • Hawkins, Jaw H. (2009). Glasshouses and Glass Manufacturers of the Pittsburgh Region. New York, New York: Hunter Publishing Company. ISBN 9781440114946.
  • Batto, Robert (1999). History of Rochester in words and pictures. New York, New York: Josten Printing Company. OCLC 42935150.


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