Elmira's Thatcher Manufacturing company made milk bottles for U.S.

Nov 18, 2023

The Elmira Advertiser of Feb. 17, 1906 boasted, "The future industrial success of Elmira is assured. There is no longer doubt of the fact that the Queen City of the Southern Tier is to become one of the most important manufacturing centers of this section of the country …"

The article referred to the decision by Kennedy Valve to locate in Elmira after a two-year competition with 21 other cities, bringing in 400 jobs.

That same year, the Elmira Foundry began construction of its plant at the corner of Woodlawn and College avenues.

Six years later, the Star-Gazette reported on April 11, 1912, "After keen competition among several cities, Elmira lands big plant for manufacturing milk bottles — thirty-two-acre tract just north of Eldridge Park is secured — big factory will be built at once to employ many Elmirans …." The company was the Thatcher Manufacturing Co., and it anticipated the hiring of 300 men within two years.

By 1919, Elmira would be the headquarters of a $6 million glass company that by then had "secured ownership and control of seven big glass manufacturing companies in various parts of the United States," the Star-Gazette reported at the time.

The competition faced by Elmira to bring Thatcher here was fierce. Financial inducements, land and even an empty factory were used to lure the company elsewhere. Apparently for Elmira, the "most important feature that entered into negotiations was the matter of railroad rates," the Star-Gazette reported in 1912.

In terms of operation, skilled help was needed, with average pay better than $2 a day. The Elmira factory would run continuously 24 hours a day over three eight-hour shifts.

According to the Elmira Telegram, "Hervey Dexter Thatcher was a dedicated druggist and chemist in Potsdam, New York. Early in 1884, he concluded that contaminated milk was the major cause of epidemic in his community. Milk was then sold from a drawn wagon by pail and dipper. This casual method left the milk exposed for long periods to bacteria …"

The story continued, "once Dr. Thatcher watched a child accidentally drop a ragged, soiled doll into a pail of milk. The delivery man, unconcerned, pulled the doll out and continued to portion out milk to his customers ... In his own words, (Thatcher) said he ‘finally turned with my own hands at the lathe a wooden mold, including wood stopper for the milk bottle.’ The original Thatcher bottle was made by men using blowpipes to shape a white hot gob of glass in a mold."

Perhaps the key figure in the development and growth of the company was Elmira lawyer Francis Everett Baldwin. Former Chemung County Historian Tom Byrne, in his book "Chemung County 1890-1975," described Baldwin as a "remarkable blend of dynamic business leader, devout Methodist, prohibitionist and community builder ...."

Baldwin became interested in the development of the Owens glass blowing machine in the late 1890's. In 1904, he and other Elmirans created the Baldwin Travis Co. and "secured a contract whereby it controlled the Owens bottle machine for the manufacture of milk bottles in the United States. The Owens bottle machine eliminates all hand labor in the manufacturing of bottles, making every bottle uniform in weight, accurate in capacity and perfect in finish" (Star-Gazette, Feb. 18, 1905).

Baldwin had become interested in the Thatcher Manufacturing Co. on a business trip to Potsdam in 1900. The company had been in existence for approximately 16 years. When Dr. Thatcher sold his interests, Baldwin became president of the company in 1903 and merged it with the Baldwin Travis Co., keeping the name Thatcher Manufacturing Co.

Over time, the company became the owner of 10 glass bottle factories and also owned the company that manufactured the new Hartford-Fairmont glass bottle making machine, noted in a 1919 Star-Gazette article to be the "best machine of the kind in the world today."

In 1966, Thatcher Glass was purchased by Rexall Drug and Chemical Co., later known as Dart Industries. In 1981, Dominick and Dominick, a brokerage firm in New York City, acquired the company. Diamond and Bathurst purchased the company in 1985 but went bankrupt in 1987. Subsequently, Anchor Glass Container Corp. took over. As of 2022, only two of the factories that were once owned by Thatcher Glass, in Elmira and in Lawrenceberg, Indiana, are currently operating as part of the Anchor Glass Container Corp.

The story of Dr. Hervey D. Thatcher, "Father of the Milk Bottle," is a sad one. According to the St. Lawrence County Quarterly of April 1987, "It is ironic that this man who contributed so much to his community should have come to the end of his life with so little of the material comforts that his efforts might have earned him ... Thatcher was said to be set in his ways and disinclined to listen to good business advice. He was generally said to be better at starting than at finishing a project. Many of his products had not been protected by patents, and little was done to redress patent infringement."

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Thatcher died in 1925 at age 90. According to his Ithaca Journal obituary of May 27, 1925, "His eccentricities and kindly nature had brought him a circle of friends that spread over the entire state but in his declining years his activities became curtailed until he lived alone in an abandoned shack on some old mill property near Fall Island (near Potsdam)."

New York Heritage notes that in an editorial a year after his death, the Los Angeles Daily Times wrote, "He vied with Pasteur in saving babies by protecting the milk of the great cities from dust and germs … that the institution has not changed in forty years shows his wisdom. By so serving, he has saved millions without fanfare or fuss. He needs no bust with name engraved thereon to preserve his name. While he may never be admitted to the Hall of Fame, yet the little glass bottle standing on the front stoop and ever removed each morning will be an enduring memory of Dr. Hervey D. Thatcher."

Jim Hare is a former history teacher and mayor of the City of Elmira. His column appears monthly in the Star-Gazette.