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John Glass was born about 1813 in somewhere in Ohio, perhaps in Licking
County where his eldest son was born. John was a collier, a laborer who
produced charcoal for smelting metal ore and for gunpowder. To make charcoal, the collier built a huge stack of wood,
and then packed wet leaves and clay over it to make a sort of smoldering kiln. The kiln had to be watched 24 hours a day to
keep the stack from bursting into flames. In 1850, he lived in Mary Ann Township,
Licking County, Ohio. By 1860, John, his wife, Louisa Priest and their five children,
William H. (b. 1835), Malinda (b. 1843), James Reason (b. 1846 ), Samuel (b. 1851), and John R. (b. 1854), were living
in Green Township, Hocking County, Ohio. Sometime around 1862, William H. went off to war, serving as a private in Company
C, 39th O. V. I.
John probably died between 1860 and
1870, when the census shows Louisa, James and John living on a small farm in Benton Township, Hocking County, Ohio. Malinda may have married a David Ruble,
as their names are listed as parents in the Hocking County birth register for 1876. Samuel may have married a Mary Ellen Blosser as their
names are listed as parents in the Hocking County
birth register for 1879.
William H., the eldest son of John and Louisa’s children, married Sarah Jane
Helterbrand in 1867. William was probably a collier all his working life, perhaps learning from helping his father keep watch
on the pile. By 1870, his young family lived in Haydenville, Marion Township,
Ohio, probably near the iron furnace there. William H. and Sarah had 3 children: James Raily (b. 1868 and died the next year),
William Gilaspy (b. 1871) and Ellie Janice (b.1873). William H. had retired and
was living in Logan, Ohio
by 1900. He lived there with
Sarah until he died in 1926.
William Gilaspy Glass, William H. and Sarah's middle child, married Emma Angeline Bright in 1894. By 1900, William and Emma lived in a rented a house on Zanesville Avenue in Logan, Ohio. Except for an interval as a steel car builder
in a railroad shop owned by Hocking Valley Railway Co. he worked as a teamster, probably hauling goods from the factories
in town to the railroad or working on road construction. Billy
and Emma had 11 children: Hugh Henry, Charles “Chuck” Paul, twins that died as infants, Sarah Lena, Theresa Agnes,
Daniel Kiefer, Edith Marie, Mary Josephine, [Living], and Freda May. The family lived in various rented houses over the years, on Zanesville
Avenue, Pottery Street,
and Henrietta Avenue.
About 8 May 1964, William moved to Reed City,
Richmond Township, Osceola County, Michigan. He died there several days later.
Sarah Lena Glass was born in 1902, the eldest of Billy and Emma’s daughters. Family lore is that she quit school
after 4th grade to go to work in a shoe factory to help support her large family. She
was a top-stitcher at a shoe factory in 1920, and worked as a carbon factory packer in 1930. I remember her working in a shoe
factory in the 1960’s, supporting herself and her father. The shoe factory
closed in 1964 and she came to live with us in Columbus. About 1976, Lena
had outlived the waiting list at a Logan high-rise retirement community and moved back home to Logan. She died on 8 May 1986 in Riverside
Methodist Hospital, Columbus, Ohio at age 83.
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