Steve/sewell
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In 1825 John Scott erected a glass works on Stephen's Creek in Estellville in an area next to the old Game Preserve. In 1834, Brothers Daniel and John Estelle became the new owners of the glass factory. In the year 1825 the new Tariff Law had given a preference to glass made in this country and John Scott and then Daniel and John Estell took full advantage of it. The works first produced window glass and there were many grades of glass offered. A short time later around 1830 the factory began to produce hollow ware. The Estells employed approximately eighty men and boys in 1834.The site also had nearby a gristmill and sawmill. The glass works operated until the spring of 1877 when the fuel supply was depleted.
The factory was always thought to have mostly produced Clear aqua window glass. Although a sizable amount of light aqua window glass shards are still found just about everywhere on the site to this day it is the dark green and the dark to light shade of ambers which dominate the site in all directions when walking the area between the factory buildings.Enormous amounts of glass slag frit abounds as some of the pieces are the size of grape fruits!!. With this amount of dark glass an obvious prodcut of this factory was plain and simply alcohol.The bottles blown were porter,wine and whiskey bottles in great numbers.
I would recommend visiting this site when in the area of Atlantic City which is just 15 minutes East of Estellville.I know the Pitkin works in Connecticut still has a couple of walls standing but not to this degree.If you love old glass and want to see first hand what an early 1800s glass factory looked like then this is the place.There is a lot to see and do in this area.There is a 15 mile walk/bicycle path surrounding the entire park where the glass factory is located.