DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about this place — so let's get into it. Now, it's 1941, and somewhere up in Pennsylvania, a man named Chester Underwood picks up the phone. He's with Knox Glass Bottle Company, and he's got a notion.
Product demand out west — bottling, canning, all of it — has been climbing, and Underwood wants a new plant to meet it. So he calls Jim Keller, the company's man in Texas, and he says: find me a location. Good rail access.
That's the requirement. Keller doesn't waste time. He sits down with the Palestine Chamber of Commerce and a banker named Clifford Huffsmith, and those two get to work.
Huffsmith pulls in fellow bankers Clyde Hanks and J.E. Angly, and together they start mapping out what this corner of Anderson County has to offer — resources, transportation, the whole picture. What they put together is a real deal.
Natural gas, supplied by brothers Julian and Jack Meeker. And a Missouri Pacific Railroad spur running right to the plant site. That's the kind of groundwork that turns a phone call into something built out of steel and sand.
The new facility came to life fast. Production began July 5, 1941. Inside, there was a ninety-ton-capacity furnace and equipment for manufacturing clear glass.
Frank Hicks stepped in as plant manager and would hold that post for ten years. Then, on July 19 — just two weeks after the first run — company officials and area residents gathered for a formal dedication. Palestine had itself a glass plant.
Now, the workforce that filled that place was no single trade. Employees belonged to unions tied to their specific jobs — mixing and machine operations, mold makers, packing. The products rolling out the door were glass jars for the food industry and for home bottling.
Jars that ended up on pantry shelves across the country. And at its peak, more than four hundred and fifty people punched in at that plant. For decades, Knox Glass was woven into the fabric of Palestine's economy.
In 1969, Glass Container Corporation purchased Knox Glass. The name on the letterhead changed, but the furnace kept burning. Then the industry started shifting — the way industries do — and by 1984, the pressures had become too much.
The plant closed. The final glass jars manufactured there carry the closing date right on them: December 20, 1984. Those last jars are still out there.
Three generations of area residents hold onto them — not because they're rare, but because they mean something. They're souvenirs of a plant that represented, for a whole lot of families, a secure way of life. Chester Underwood made one phone call in 1941, and Palestine answered it for forty-three years.
What the marker says
In 1941, Chester Underwood of Pennsylvania-based Knox Glass Bottle Co. called Jim Keller, a company representative in Texas, with plans for a new plant. Product demand in the western United States for bottling and canning operations had increased, and Underwood asked Keller to scout locations for a plant with good rail access. Keller met with the Palestine Chamber of Commerce and banker Clifford Huffsmith, who in turn worked with bankers Clyde Hanks, J.E. Angly and others to identify area resources, including transportation. The final deal included natural gas provided by brothers Julian and Jack Meeker, and a Missouri Pacific Railroad spur to the plant site. The new facility began production on July 5, 1941. It housed a 90-ton-capacity furnace and equipment for manufacturing clear glass; Frank Hicks served as plant manager for 10 years. Company officials and area residents celebrated with a formal dedication on July 19. Employees belonged to unions related to their jobs, which varied from mixing and machine operations to mold makers and packing. Products included glass jars for the food industry and home bottling. The Knox plant played a vital role in the local economy for decades, with more than 450 employees at its peak. Glass Container Corp. purchased Knox Glass in 1969, but demands of a changing industry led to closure of the plant in 1984. The final glass jars manufactured here, bearing the closing date, Dec. 20, 1984, serve as souvenirs for three generations of area residents for whom the Knox plant represented a secure way of life. (2006)