Feb. 27—REDFORD — Spring always holds surprises for most gardeners, and for Michelle Parrotte it's shards or globs of Redford Glass.

"The story of how we got this is when my parents (Wilford and Joyce Parrotte) bought their house in 1972, we moved to Redford," she said.

"And the Redford Glass factory is where my parents bought the house. As the years went by, my dad did some landscaping and when he dug down and leveled out the property we found several different pieces."

A BRIEF HISTORY

In the fall of 1830, Troy businessmen, Gershom Cook and Charles W. Corning, were scouting for a site for their glasshouse, according to Bruce Stark in "The Redford Crown Glass Company, Clinton County, New York."

The place, at an old Indian ford formed of red stones, became known as Redford, after "The Red Ford." This area was considered desirable because of the superior quality of local sandstone found in abundance at Kent's Falls and Black Brook, and a new road connecting the area with Plattsburgh.

In October 1832, Cook and Corning entered into an agreement with Matthew Lane, also of Troy, who became a partner in the venture directed by John S. Foster, an experienced and highly skilled glassmaker, who would part ways with the company to establish Redwood Glass in Jamesville, Jefferson County.

Foster had the recipe for the lustrous aquamarine glass, which he would not share with another white man, but only melt master Martin Tankard, a Black man who was an early settler in Plattsburgh and born in Vermont.

According to the New York Annual Register for 1832, the Redford Glass Company produced about $78,000 of window glass. Throughout most of the decade about ten thousand boxes of window glass was manufactured annually. The value of the product was between $70,000 and $75,000. The company employed about 175 persons, but the number directly engaged in the production of glass was smaller. According to the 1840 Census, the Town of Saranac counted 1,462 persons, ninety-three of whom were engaged in manufactures and trade. Redford with a population of around 500 contained sixty-two in trade and manufacturing. It seems likely, therefore, that about sixty persons took part in the glass manufacturing process. The 1850 Census, taken shortly before the final closing of the ailing Company, recorded the names of twenty-four men in Saranac employed as glass blowers, glassmakers, or glass manufacturers.

The crown window glass manufactured by the Company was by all accounts of superior quality, due to the ingredients and the mixing skills of Foster and the other glassmakers. The chief ingredient was sand, called either white Potsdam sandstone or white flint sand, and it was the only crown glass made from that type of sand. The glass was "capable of standing every variety of climate" and was "distinguished from the ordinary crown glass by its uncommon clearness and beauty of surface, its superior transparency and lightness of color, and by its great thickness and general excellence of the materials which compose it."

The company received a silver medal at the Annual Fair of the American Institute of the City of New York in 1836, a gold medal in 1838, and diplomas in 1839, 1843, and 1846.

Throughout most of its history, the Company produced two grades of window glass, Redford, the firs quality, and Saranac, the second quality. Redford Crown Glass was used "in all the firs class of Public Buildings and Dwellings, also for Show-cases, Bow-Windows, &c." and was called for in government contracts for light houses, barracks, rope walks, and shiphouses.

Its desirability was due to its great thickness which made it less liable to crack in cold weather and better able to withstand violent winds, hail storms, and the sound of a cannon. The glass was not polished after being blown, thus it retained its enamel, hardness, and luster and did not become 'permanently bedimmed by dust' as ordinary plate glass.

The Redford Crown Glass Company is remembered today, however, not for its excellent window glass, but for its 'offhand" table and decorative ware. Considerable uncertainty exists as to whether this glassware is truly 'offhand' or not. Offhand pieces are those made by workers from left over window glass melt on their own time. It is probable that most extant glassware was especially manufactured for sale. J. W. Havens, who worked as a clerk in the company store from 1836 to 1842, reported that William and Andrew Davidson "frequently made pitchers, lamps, and other articles, which were sold at the company's office." While the Company was shut down in 1844, Peter Strock, a glassmaker formerly employed at the factory, placed an advertisement in the Plattsburgh Republican. He announced that he had begun to manufacture "GLASS HOLLOW WARE" in every variety, from a vial to a gallon jar, Sauce dishes, Bowls, Pitchers &c." at the Redford factory. Whatever their origins, these beautiful pieces stand as outstanding examples of glassware in the South Jersey tradition.

The Redford Glass Company closed its doors in March 1842. In the spring of 1846, the renamed company, Matthew Lane and Company, opened and closed its doors in 1851.

Examples of the serene sea-green glassware is is on exhibit at the Clinton County Historical Association and Museum located at 98 Ohio Ave. in Plattsburgh.

Pieces of this historic past still surface at 23 Champlain Street in Redford.

"And still to this day, we're finding pieces as we till up the garden," Parrotte said.

"Or if you go out and you're taking a walk, and it's been a rainy day, you may find a piece laying on top of the ground."

Parrotte took a box of her family's finds to Lake Forest Senior Living, when she attended Tuesday's "Redford Glass Uncovered" presented by Helen Nerska, director of the Clinton County Historical Association Museum in Plattsburgh.

"These are all pieces that we have found over the years as well as that (small jar with lid) was found when they were digging their septic up in the '70s," Parrotte said.

"This was found whole just like this, the only piece that we have that's whole. But it's very interesting pieces. To this day, I still enjoy.

It is assumed that the molten slag was buried by the company.

"Even some of the neighbors can find pieces," Parrotte said.

"We have a very long history of the Redford glass. Like I said, still finding it and some pieces are beautiful."

Parrotte rotated hunks of the glass in her hands.

The famous white sand, half baked perhaps, layered one piece.

"This is just strange what this could have been prior," she said.

"Isn't this very interesting? As well as this piece that I find to be pretty different because you got all the little white pieces on this side, and you have some of the darker green and the lighter green."

Email: rcaudell@pressrepublican.com

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