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Hisory of Glassboro

Glassboro's beginning dates back to September 23, 1779 and is best described as a The Challenge and Conquest. Glassboro, New Jersey bears its name from a long and rich heritage in glass manufacturing. Glassboro, "A town with a foundation built from glass."

The ancient relics and the early trails blazed in the pre revolutionary war era of the Glassboro landscape are the workings of the Unalachtigo Indian tribe who referred to themselves as "the people who lived near to the ocean." The Unalachtigo Indians occupied and traversed the land in and around Glassboro.

Fortunately for the early settlers of Glassboro they didn't have to deal with Indian attacks as the Unalachtigo Indians were long gone prior to the arrival and settlement of Soloman Stanger, the original deed holder for the track of land we now know as Glassboro, NJ. According to the recorded deed Soloman Stanger paid Jacob Gosling, 700 pounds on September 23, 1779 for 200 acres of ground.

In 1780 Soloman Stanger established the Stanger Glass Works on the 200 acres he recently purchased. Challenged by the acres of Chestnut, Oak and Pine trees that dominated the landscape and by the make shift roads barely visible by the forest density wagon's loaded with fragile glassware traveled uncertainly to Carpenter's Landing. From there the glassware was shipped on the Mantua Creek to the Delaware River and then onto the Philadelphia market. These same roadways are what made it possible for Glassboro's early settlers to get to know their neighbors in the adjoining settlements.

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Shortly thereafter disaster struck and the Stangers found themselves unable to whether the financial storm. A National Congressional Act required the currency system to be revalued. Leaving every dollar of paper money the Stangers accepted as payment for their goods with a value of 2 cents. This lead the Stangers to voluntarily sell off their property, land and the Glass Works to pay their creditors.

Over the course of three years the Stanger Glass Works was sold off to Col. Thomas Heston and Col. Thomas Carpenter. It was these two Quakers who salvaged the Stanger Glass Works and made it profitable. They did this through skillful management, a willingness to gamble on expanding the facilities and implementing new and innovative products. The expansion included the manufacturer of window glass and flint-ware glass. The Heston Carpenter Works (as it had become known) consisted of two furnaces, a pot house and ware sheds.

Community Growth was on the rise by 1860. From a business perspective this was evident during the early 1800's when Glassboro grew industrially from the small Heston-Carpenter Glass Works to the 1860 Whitney Glass Factory. The Whitney brothers (relatives of the Heston family) ran the Heston-Carpenter Glass Works and eventually took it over. Thus it became the Whitney Glass Factory.

The Whitney Glass Factory, was quite prosperous and a company on the verge of becoming a big business. Certainly New Jersey's largest glass manufacturer. Growth was also evident in the population gains, an expanded occupational status throughout the community, roadway development, the communities first post office, and expansions in building and housing. Glassboro was considered by many to be a large community with two glass houses, three churches, one tavern, an academy and one hundred dwellings. The total population was 604 ranging in age from five through sixty and over.

New home dwellings like the Holly Bush Mansion were built during this boom in community growth. The Holly Bush Mansion built for Thomas and Samuel, the Whitney Brothers is still today a very unique and attractive structure.

Other buildings that helped shape the Glassboro architecture during the 1840s and 1850s is the attractive stone structure known as St. Thomas Episcopal Church which was established in 1847, the other is the Glassboro Academy constructed in 1842. Two of these structures, the Holly Bush Mansion and St. Thomas Episcopal Church are on the State and National Registers of Historical Place in the Borough of Glassboro, NJ.

The glassworks continued on through 1870 when Owen-Illinois Glass Company opened. Owens-Illinois was well known for its Automatic Bottle Machine and their facility here in Glassboro was not only the largest in the eastern United States, it was the most modern.

In addition to all the modern conveniences many of us enjoy today the twentieth century brought to Glassboro in 1917 the New Jersey State Normal School. This was brought about when the State of New Jersey acquired land in the Borough of Glassboro. Later the school became known as Glassboro State College and today we fondly refer to it as Rowan University. This land included the Holly Bush Mansion.

In the early months of 1920 the Progressive Republicans had gathered 608 signatures on a petition calling for changes to the Borough form of government. The signatures gathered amounted to more than eighty percent of Glassboro's registered voters. Far more than the number needed to have Senator Edward Sturgess of the State Legislature have a law passed changing Glassboro to a community governed by a Mayor and Borough Council. The first Borough Council election, was held in March of 1920.

Glassboro, fondly referred to as "Summit City" was host to the United States Presidential Summit of President Lyndon Johnson and Soviet Premier Aleksei N. Kosygin on June 23 - 25th, 1967. Although no formal agreements were reached at the Summit, the talks led to and improved Soviet American relationship and opened the door to communications between to two countries. The site of the Summit was the Historical Hollybush Mansion located on the Rowan University Campus (formerly Glassboro State College) in the heart of Glassboro, NJ. After the exciting events that took place on June 22 - 25, 1967, Glassboro had emerged from the shadows to bask in the spotlight of world attention.

President Lyndon Johnson returned to Glassboro, NJ almost one year after the historic summit of 1967 to address all attending the Glassboro State College Class of 1968 Commencement Exercises. President Johnson addressed the crowd for 45 minutes and during his address noted it was good to be back in Glassboro, a most hospitable community.

Content courtesy of Glassboro Online.

For more South Jersey History, visit our History page.

Author: Editor

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