C. Ihmsen & Co.

American, active 1855–1862

LocationPittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States

BiographyAllegheny County's Hundred Years By George Henry Thurston, p. 186:

In 1888, Thomas I. Whitehead, Christian Ihmsen, Chas. Ihmsen, and William
Phillips, organized a firm under the style of Whitehead, Ihmsen & Plunket, and
built the glass works on the corner of Sonth Tenth and Carson streets. Subsequently
this firm changed to Young, Ihmsen & Plunket, (W. P. Young, Francis
Plunket, Christian Ihmsen,) and afterwards to Ihmsen, Plunket & McKnight, (
Charles McKnight, Chas. I. Ihmsen, Francis McKnight.) The other partners
retiring, the works passed into the ownership of Chas. I. Ihmsen. Thomas I.
Whitehead went to Cincinnati, where he died ; Wm. P. Young went to St. Lonis,
where he died; Francis Plunket died at Pittsburgh. In 1855 the firm became C.
Ihmsen & Co., (Christian Ihmsen, Chas T. Ihmsen, Franklin McGowin, and Wm
Ihmsen.) In 1860, Franklin McGowin retired from the firm, and its style wa-
changed to C. Ihmsen & Sons. In 1862, Christian Ihmsen died, and the business
was continued under the same firm style, composed of Chas. T. Ihmsen, Wm.
Ihmsen, and Christian Ihmsen, Jr. Subsequently the firm became the Ihmsen
Glass Co., Limited, occupying the same site of the glass works of the firm of Beltz-
hoover, Wendt & Co., of 1812. The works at the corner of Tenth and Carson
having been during the changes, vacated, and subsequently occupied by new firms.
This genealogical record of this particular firm is given because it not only
directly connects the glass business of to-day in the city of Pittsburgh with the
second window glass house successfully established in Allegheny county, but has
virtually, by heritage, remained in the family for over seventy-five years, and thns
becomes the oldest firm in the glass trade, having continuous family membership.
In 1829 the Union Flint Glass Works were established by Hay * McCully. In
1831 the firm became Hay & Campbell. In 1834 the firm became Park & Campbell,
and in 1836 Park, Campbell & Hanna, and in 1838 Park & Hanna; in 1846
Hannas & Wallace ; in 1849 Wallace, Lyon & Co. With the formation of this
firm James P. Wallace, of the firm, inspired with the ambition to improve the
quality of the flint glass then made, turned the efforts of the firm in that direction,
and it is to him the credit is due of creating the rivalries through which the flint
or crystal table ware of the Pittsburgh factories began to increase in its beauty
and quality.
In 1852 the style of the firm was changed to James B. Lyon & Co., the title of
the works having been previously changed from its original one of the Union Flint
Glass Works to the O'Hara Works, and in 1875 a company by the title of the
O'Hara Glass Co., limited, came into the proprietorship of the works — James B.
Lyon, chairman ; John B. Lyon, treasurer, and Joseph Anderson, superintendent.
In 1830 Curling & Price (Alfred Curling, Price) established what was
known as the Fort Pitt Glass Works on what is now Washington street, near Fifth
avenue, for the manufacture of flint glass ware. Subsequently this firui became
Curling, Robertson & Co. (A. Curling, Morgan Robertson, Ditheridge).

Person TypeCorporate Body