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Frank O. Myers,
Fenton's First Basket Handler
 About
1900, glassworker Frank O. Myers got his start at a glass factory
in Indiana, Pennsylvania, the very same plant where our company's
founder, Frank L. Fenton, had begun as a glass decorator in 1897.
A loyal member of American Flint
Glass Workers Local Union No. 71, Myers became an apprentice, first learning
to gather glass and, before long, mastering pressing and blowing operations.
By about 1910, Myers was a
skilled finisher, able to reshape pieces, such as flaring and crimping the
tops of vases in many different ways.
He was also adept at attaching
handles to cruets or pitchers then called "jugs." From time to time, his
employer marketed glass baskets, and Myers was the fellow who put the
handles on the baskets.
 The
glass plant at Indiana, Pa., was destroyed by fire in mid-1931, leaving many
without jobs. Myers came to work at Fenton on February 1, 1932, transferring
his union card to Local Union No. 22 of the AFGWU, which enrolled Fenton's
skilled glassworkers.
When Fenton decided to create
baskets about 1939, Myers became our first basket handler. "He was very good
at that job," Frank M.
Fenton recalled. "And, he was very helpful in training other skilled
glassworkers to become handlers. That was important to us in the early 1940s
when several different baskets were in our line."
For more information on
creating Fenton handles,
click here.
To see the marks of the
handler,
click
here.
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