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Anchor Hocking was founded
in 1905 by Isaac Collins and 6 of his friends when they raised
money to buy the Lancaster Carbon Company in Lancaster, Ohio
out of receivership. Mr. Collins was working at the time in
the decorating department of the Ohio Flint Glass Company, a
native of Salisbury, Maryland and ambitious for entrepreneurial
success. Collins raised additional operating capital from E.B.
Good and other local businessmen, and the purchase was consummated
for a total of about $25,000, 50 employees, and in business
under the new name Hocking Glass Company after the Hocking River
near which the plant was located. The company was known locally
as the "Black Cat", so named because of the carbon
fiber dust generated in the manufacturing process. In its first
year of operation, the company sold approximately $25,000 of
its glassware, an adequate start to expand operations by raising
additional capital through the issuance of new stock in the
company. The company's fortunes changed in 1924 when a devastating
fire burned the plant down to the ground. Hocking's management
persevered however, and they raised sufficient capital to rebuild
a new glass plant on the exact site of the former plant now
in ashes and to buy 2 other local glassworks, the Lancaster
Glass Company and the Standard Glass Manufacturing Company.
Each acquisition expanded Hocking's production capacity and
in some manner improved their manufacturing techniques. Hocking
was one of the earliest mechanized producers of glass in the
U.S., evolving the machinery to produced pressed glass which
looked great but was much less expensive to produce than traditional
blown glass. This operational efficiency and the cost advantages
of producing larger quantities of pressed glass helped Hocking
to sustain operations during the downturn of Depression. By
this time, automated machinery allowed the company to consistently
expand production from 30 pieces per minute to 90 pieces per
minute. Hocking Glass Co. began making glass containers in 1931
when they purchased controlling interest in the General Glass
Company and followed by acquiring the Turner Glass Company in
Winchester, Indiana in 1933.
While Hocking grew rapidly
through acquisitions, they also continued to innovate and began
producing their first beer bottles in 1934. The company's name
was changed to Anchor Hocking Glass Company in December, 1937
when Hocking merged with the Anchor Cap & Closure Corporation
which had plants in Long Island, NY and Toronto, Canada as well
as glass container plants in Salem, NJ and Connellsville, PA.
Anchor Hocking continued to expand into new areas, introducing
cosmetic containers, tableware, toiletries, and other housewares,
and they continued making acquisitions including the Carr-Lowry
Glass Company of Baltimore and Maywood Glass of California.
In 1942, Anchor Hocking introduced the popular Fire King glassware
line which they continued making into the late 1970s. Fire-King
was pressed glass dinnerware and kitchenware made from oven
proof glass, usually opaque apart from a few items like the
clear "crystal" line in ovenware. Two colors of Fire King are
particularly popular with collectors today: pale green Jade-ite
and the iridized peach color with a mirror finish called Peach
Lustre.
Anchor Hocking established
a new R&D facility in Lancaster during the 1950s, and research
became fundamental to the company's continued innovation in
its glassware and production techniques. Anchor Hocking began
designing and manufacturing its own molding equipment, which
they continued to use for the production of glassware but also
moving into new areas such as blown mold plastic containers
which were coming into general usage. As the company diversified,
they dropped "Glass" from the company's formal name
and continued operating as Anchor Hocking, and they continued
expanding the product line by introducing lighting in 1970 when
they purchased the Phoenix Glass Company of Monaca, PA. They
expanded into stoneware, earthenware, restaurant china, and
commemorative collector plates when they purchased the Taylor,
Smith & Taylor Company of Chester, West Virginia and Shenango
China of New Castle, PA. In 1983, Anchor Hocking spun off its
glass container operation under the name Anchor Glass Container
Corporation with headquarters in Lancaster, OH. The Newell Corporation
acquired the remaining assets of Anchor Hocking in 1987, and
Newell helped to restructure the company by investing in the
company's profitable lines and divesting or closing unprofitable
lines. Anchor Hocking is still in operation today, although
the company's tumultuous history has continued through successive
ownership groups and varying states of marketplace success.
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