Three Rivers, TX — Handbook of Texas (TSHA, V. Sue Nance)

Source: https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/three-rivers-tx Article: “Three Rivers, Texas” by V. Sue Nance; last updated 2025-11-18. Ingested: 2026-07-26 (WebFetch extraction of the glass-relevant passages)

Glass factory passages (verbatim)

“The first glass factory in Texas was built at Three Rivers in 1922 as the gas fuel and local sand was plentiful.”

“The Great Depression forced the sale of the factory to the Ball Glass Company in 1937, and the factory was permanently closed in 1938.”

Context

The glass factory was part of Three Rivers’ early industrial development, alongside a natural-gas discovery (1920) and a refinery. By the 2025 revision, the town’s economy centered on area refineries and a federal prison rather than glass manufacturing. This is an authoritative encyclopedia citation carrying the standard 1937-sale / 1938-closure account (which the wiki’s closure-timeline-dispute article contextualizes against the December-1936 operational-takeover evidence).