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concepts · updated 2026-07-26

Three Rivers Glass Co. — Bastrop, Louisiana Plant

confidence: medium volatility: cold verified: 2026-07-26fresh

Three Rivers Glass Co.'s second factory: the former Bastrop Glass Co. plant at Bastrop, Louisiana, taken over in June 1929 and operated until 1933, when it became the first Three Rivers plant closed under Depression pressure. Documented solely by the Bottle Research Group (2019, citing Roller 1997 and period trade listings); no other source in this vault mentions a second plant at all.

From June 1929 to 1933, the Three Rivers Glass Company operated a second factory at Bastrop, Louisiana — the former Bastrop Glass Co. plant. It was the first casualty of the firm’s Depression-era decline, dropping out of the trade listings in 1933, three years before the Texas plant itself stopped. The entire claim set rests on a single rigorous secondary source: the Bottle Research Group’s 2019 encyclopedia chapter (Lockhart, Schriever, Brown, Lindsey & Serr), itself citing Roller (1997) and period trade-press listings.

Plant Prehistory (1919–1929)

The Bastrop factory predates Three Rivers’ involvement by a decade:

  • Late 1919 — The Ouachita Valley Glass Co. contracted to have a factory built at Bastrop with a 35-ton, 12-ring continuous tank. Officers: Theodore Shockney (president), James H. Moroney (vice president), G. Hiatt (general manager), Bert E. Noodbury (secretary), Zora C. Cox (treasurer), and Mike Somers (plant manager) (National Glass Budget 1919, via BRG 2019).
  • May 1923 — The factory was “sold under foreclosure proceedings to representatives of the Frost Johnson Lumber Co.” for $12,500.
  • May 1923 — The Bastrop Glass Co. was organized (probably by Frost Johnson interests) to take over the plant, lighting its fires on July 25.
  • September 1923 — The Southern Glass Co. of Winchester, Indiana, leased the factory. The BRG explicitly flags an evidence gap here: “We have not discovered whether Southern Glass continued to operate the plant or only leased it temporarily while its own was built.” Nothing is documented between late 1923 and 1929.
  • June 1929 — Three Rivers took over the plant of the former Bastrop Glass Co. (Roller 1997). The BRG states: “In any event, the Three Rivers occupation in 1929 is confirmed.”

Under Three Rivers (1929–1933)

The takeover came at the peak of Three Rivers’ expansion — the same period in which the firm raised its capital to $250,000 (August 1929) and took Hartford-Empire feeder licenses. By 1930, per the BRG, “the firm used one 35-ton tank and one 45-ton tank, presumably a single tank at each plant” — the 35-ton figure matching the tank the Ouachita Valley Glass Co. had installed at Bastrop in 1919-20.

As the Great Depression bit, Bastrop was sacrificed first. Three Rivers “closed the Bastrop factory first — last listed in 1933” in the American Glass Review’s Glass Factory Yearbook and Directory (American Glass Review 1933, via BRG 2019). The Texas plant, by contrast, kept producing through the receivership until 1936 (see the Primary Source Timeline).

Source Situation: A Single-Source Claim Set

Every claim in this article traces to one source: the Bottle Research Group’s 2019 chapter, which in turn cites Dick Roller’s 1997 “Three Rivers, TX History Notes” and period trade listings (National Glass Budget 1919, Glass Industry 1923, Manufacturer’s Record 1923, American Glass Review 1933).

The silence of the vault’s other sources is itself notable: Smith’s 1989 book Texas Glass, Charles R. Tips’ own retrospective accounts, Kevin Mackey’s article collection and corrections, and the historical marker research binder never mention Bastrop or a second plant at all. None of them contradicts the BRG — they simply do not address it. Until a second independent source (e.g., Roller’s original notes, the 1929–33 American Glass Review directories, or Louisiana records) is ingested, the Bastrop plant should be treated as well-attested by one rigorous secondary source but uncorroborated within this vault. Hence confidence: medium.

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