Need some help identifying :)

[iamhereru23]

What has me stumped is why this company made un embossed clear coke bottles that were identical to mine and I can't help but wonder if this was a beer or a flavor of soda lol. It would be neat to know what was in it!

 

[ScottBSA]

I was doing some more work on the Interstate Glass Company of Kansas City in the last few weeks and revisited this thread. I have some updated information about the company. In a nutshell it was open from October of 1901 to mid March 1903 when it was sold to the Obear-Nester Glass Company of East St. Louis, Illinois. It is most certainly a beer bottle and could have come from Kansas City or one of the Omaha breweries. Too bad it is not embossed.

 

[RED Matthews]

I don't think we should be worth advisers - collecting to learn how they were made is what appeals to me. And I stick close the the blow pipe products. You can check with a lot of different books and auction listings and of course EBAY for values. I know what I can pay for something I want to study, and the value isn't enough a lot of the time. RED Matthews.

 

[cowseatmaize]

Where is your info coming from Scott. Did they rebuild? It seams to have had a few problems.I'd like to send it to David Whitten along with this. Jefferson City. Mo Aucust 9.The following articles of Incorporation were filed in the
office of Secretary of State Sam B. Cook:
The Interstate Glass Company. Kansas City;
capltal. $50.O00. Incorporators Joseph J. Helm.
louis F. Pitts, J. D. Riddell, Harry Rankin, W.
F. Modes.
The Republic: Sat. Aug. 10, 1901

A unsuccessful attempt had 'been made to burn the plant of the Interstate Glass company, immediately west of the yard. The fire at the glass plant was discovered and extinguished before it had made any headway.
October 31, 1901
http://www.newspapers.com/newspage/58361811/
KANSAS CITY. Mo.. July 11.—Fire totaly destroyed the building and stock of the
Inter-State Glass Company In the East
Bottoms in this city, last night, entailing a
loss of $50,000; covered by insurance.That's the paper David referred to below.http://fultonhistory.com/Newspapers%207/New%20York%20NY%20Times/New%20York%20NY%20Times%201902%20Jul%20Grayscale/NYTimes-Jul-1902_0218.pdf

I S G CO…………..Inter-State Glass Company, Kansas City, Missouri (?-1902). Information on mark ID courtesy of Tom Neff. Rarely seen on soda bottles, including Coca-Cola. I have also recently discovered that this factory burned on July 11, 1902, and was a total loss. $50,000 was covered by insurance. Info from brief newspaper article in The New York Times, Saturday, July 12, 1902, courtesy of http://fultonhistory.com . Exact beginning date of company is uncertain at present time, but perhaps 1901, or early 1902. If you know, please contact me!

 

[cowseatmaize]

Also Scott, do you have any bills or anything. I'd like to know if it's Interstate or Inter-State.[8|]

 

[ScottBSA]

Eric,I got some glimpses through newspapers.com, but the Midcontinent Public Library doesn't subscribe to that nor another newspaper archive that is escaping me right now as the note are still in the car. We have the Kansas City Star and Times on microfilm, then I used the Cole's City Directories and back and forth I went. I also use fultonhistory.com quite a bit. I am originally from Syracuse and use it for finding out stuff about my NY bottles and recently, since he has expanded for other local stuff. I did not have the Republic article. I have the first draft of an about 1200 word article on the company. No ephemera yet. The site is a trailer parking lot for the General Mills plant now. There seems to be a real connection between Modes, the Heims and Obear-Nestor in this. They did reopen as the Kansas City branch of Obear-Nestor in October of 1903. I have an advertisement of ON looking for 14 year old boys to be helpers.If I had a lot more time, it would be possible to find out some more details. I am looking a postcards of the East Bottoms of Kansas City taken from the cliffs above. Now that I know were the plant was I might be able to identify it from a smoke stack a little west of the Heim Brewery.The house Michael Nester lived in in the early 1900's is still standing. Wow. When I finish the article I plan on sending it to David. I need to let it rest for a couple of days before editing it again. All I have seen so far is Interstate.More later.Scott

 

[ScottBSA]

Another thing I am going to do this spring is go to the General Mills office and see if they will let me onto the trailer lot to look at the pile of stuff next to the train tracks. Obear-Nester had a plant there until 1967 give or take. Maybe there is some wreckage worth photographing. Scott

 

[BillinMo]

Jefferson City. Mo Aucust 9.The following articles of Incorporation were filed in the
office of Secretary of State Sam B. Cook:
The Interstate Glass Company. Kansas City;
capltal. $50.O00. Incorporators Joseph J. Helm.
louis F. Pitts, J. D. Riddell, Harry Rankin, W.
F. Modes.
The Republic: Sat. Aug. 10, 1901

The name W. F. Modes rang a bell, but I had to dig through some sources before I figured it out. William F. Modes had been involved in glass making in the Pittsburgh, PA area and he was one of the key people in the Beaver Falls Glass Company around 1869-1879. They're believed to be the source of the early threaded insulators marked B. F. G. Co. They're also the probable source of the S. T. Paisley insulators and the Emminger patent. Here's a brief outline: http://www.insulators.info/articles/beaver.htmI suppose the KC person could be someone else - a son, perhaps? It might be worth looking at the census schedules to get idea of his age and place of birth.

 

[cowseatmaize]

This is kind of like History Detectives on PBS but without the plane fare and other travel expenses. Bummer! []I see Modes as the Etna Glass Works also on this site http://reference.insulato...ications/view/?id=7392
I don't see Etna in Jay Hawkins book Glasshouses And Glass Manufacturers Of The Pittsburgh Region: 1795 - 1910. I have no idea what that means if anything. [8|]

"Forty-second street, Pittsburgh, was the site of the office and factory of the Etna Glass Works, conducted by W. F. Modes. The factory made "black and green glassware, druggists' ware, bottles, demijohns, porter, ale and soda bottles" and also made the "Victor," "Triumph" and "Grooved Ring" fruit jars." I think I'll look at a fire at a lumberyard in 1901. That newspapers.com started as... "INCENDIARY F 1 3 E. The Kansas City Lumber Company's Yard Destroyed Through Fire-hues Attempt Made on Interstate J'.ass Plant. Kansas City, Mo., Oct. 31. One of the fiercest fires that has occurred in Kansas City iu a long time broke out last night in the northeast yard of the Kansas City Lumber company. From the time it was first discovered at 8:30 o'clock last night until one o'clock this morning, it defied the efforts of the firemen to master it and continued to burn steadily, complete- flpstrnvil1fr lnrrP stnolr of 1,. which wag in tbe The losg wag about $18000 The fire gtarted b incendiarieSj after an ... , ... A unsuccessful attempt had 'been made to burn the plant of the Interstate Glass company, immediately west of the yard. The fire at the glass plant was discovered and extinguished before it had made any headway." OCR stinks but I can't afford to pay the site. Did someone try to burn in intentionally?

 

[ScottBSA]

We're having some fun now! Been doing all of the above. William F Modes. A William Fredrick Modes Jr. of Kansas City was born 1917 and died in 2008.And yes, it was arson. More than likely started by boys that had been fired from the plant. I don't know if police records in KC go back that far. I saw a name of a suspect, but can not relocate the information. I neglected to bookmark the site. When I can get my paper cleaned up with credible sources, I'll get it to you guys. Scott