West Virginia Glass: Between the World Wars

West Virginia Glass: Between the World Wars

By Dean Six

160 pages

West Virginia has been long known for its glass industry. Although glass has been produced in the state before the Civil War, the industry took off around the turn of the century in the early 1900s. The number of factories increased and peaked in the mid-1920s.

This publication provides a short summary of each glass company between World War I and World War II. The histories of twenty three companies are given. Plus wonderful photographs of collectible glassware and price guide for each company. 

The author also mentions that there is a West Virginia Museum of American Glass located in Weston, West Virginia. 

Lewis County

Lewis County

By Joy Gilchrist-Stalnaker & Bradley R. Oldaker

127 pages

I found this book extremely interesting since my ancestors lived in Lewis County for over seventy years. A photograph of the founders of the glass industry in Weston is included in the pages, which contains my great grandfather, Rudolph Bauer.

Lewis County is an area in central West Virginia. This book provides a short history of the county mostly through photographs and accompanying text. The earliest photo was of the general store in Weston dated c. 1865. The largest town and county seat of Lewis County is Weston. Thus a large section of this publication is dedicated to the town and its history. However, other small towns such as Jane Lew, Jackson’s Mill, Roanoke, Crawford, Walkersville, Copley, Gaston, and Vandalia are pictured.  

Important commerce of the area was the glass industry, oil and gas extraction and timber.