One of the advertisers in the 1946 Mississippi edition of Manufacturer’s Record was Knox Glass Company. This rang a bell for me, and I went searching back through the trusty WPA Guide to Mississippi, which gives directions and a little information about the company. If I’m reading this right, the company’s big complex shown in the aerial image below was located on Flowood Drive across the river from downtown Jackson.
Between Brandon and Jackson the highway is bordered with small but neat truck farms. Back of the truck farms but not visible from the highway is the RANKIN COUNTY NATURAL GAS FIELD, a recently exploited source of much potential wealth. At 110.1 m. is the junction with a graveled road.
Right on this road to the KNOX GLASS MANUFACTURING COMPANY, 1.9 m. (visited by permission), the only plant of its kind in the State. Here bottles of all shapes and sizes are manufactured for distribution to all parts of the United States. The plant is a modern building with recreational facilities provided for its employees.
Mississippi: A Guide to the Magnolia State, 1938, p. 308
I don’t think any of the complex survives, but there is that intriguing long metal building in the bottom of this aerial view that may be a remnant.
Another reason architecture lovers should be interested in the Knox Glass Company? Chester R. Underwood, owner of this Overstreet & Town-designed Art Moderne house, built in 1939 in Jackson’s Belhaven neighborhood, was, according to the Jackson city directories, the president of Knox Glass Company.
C.R. Underwood House (1938), Pinehurst Street, Jackson
Categories: Historic Preservation, Industrial, Jackson
Preservation in Mississippi 
This is a very interesting story, E., and only the tip of the iceberg. Underwood worked for Knox in Pennsylvania (owned by his brother, Roy), and it was he who scouted the location in Mississippi. He was allowed to come down and set up shop and became the president of Knox in Miss. In doing so, he founded Flowood named for his wife, Florence Underwood. If you look at the street view above, just north of Mississippi Warehousing is a street called Underwood Dr. The Mississippi Warehousing facility is the remnant of the Knox factory; it was a lot more obvious until recently, when some roofing and other work went into the complex. Here is a history of the company: https://sha.org/bottle/pdffiles/Knox2_BRG.pdf
And if that’s not enough for interesting, Mr. Underwood eventually built a duplicate factory right next to the Knox factory (I believe that is the long metal building, but I’m not certain). He built it with Knox funds and staffed it with Knox employees who were paid by Knox, but he retained ownership and reaped the profits from the new factory. When it was discovered, he was brought up on fraud charges, but it seems that he was never actually prosecuted, or maybe he was just not convicted. (I am telling all of this off the top of my head and I should probably stop and go back and look it all up.)
Anyway, we have Mr. Underwood to thank for that beautiful Overstreet & Town house, but we also have him to thank for the city of Flowood. I will let you take from that what you will.
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Very informative. How long has the gas field been there?
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Sorry, I know nothing about the gas field.
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April, 1954. Upon review of the minutes of the board of The Flowood Corporation, several plots of land were sold for drilling and equipment, and the balance of the corporation’s land (several hundred acres) was to be leased to United Gas Pipeline Company for $ 1,500 per year. The storage reservoir is in the Selma Gas Rock formation between 2,100 and 2,700 feet in depth. That lease is still in effect.
Interestingly, one of the directors was N. W. Overstreet. He designed the motel they built on Hwy. 80 (Heidelberg Jr./Airways Inn/current women’s prison.). Mr. Roy L. Heidelberg was also a director at this time.
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Before there was a Knox Glass of Mississippi, William Snyder and Mississippi investors formed the Dixie Glass Bottle Manufacturing Company and was granted the Charter to operate with Governor Theodore Bilbo affixing the Great Seal of Mississippi on 26Sept1930.
Tom B. Scott was awarded the construction contract to build the plant on Fannin Rd. across the Street from Gulf States Cresoting Plant. The Mobile, Ohio and Northern RR was to provide a spur line to the five(5) acre plant site. Official groundbreaking ceremonies were performed in 1931 just about the time, and architectural sketches I found online.
About this time it was announced that glass engineer John Kirkpatrick formerly, of the Hazel-Atlas Glass company, had moved to Jackson.
There the trail ends except for William Snyder announcing that Dixie glass was going into receivership in 1933. Dixie Glass dissolved its Charter in 1937.
During this period, two more glass molten machines were purchased.
Question is was Chester Underwood up to no good and was there ever a Dixie Glass Bottle Manufacturing Plant– as shown on the achitectural drawings–built by Tom B. Scott on the 5 acres on Fannin road?
I did see that the Knox Glass Bottle Company of Mississippi located in Palestine, Texas was in operation from 1941-1985.
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Well, as you say, interestinger and interestinger! The plot thickens!
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Yes. And looking into to the
W.S.F. Tatum archives at the McCain Library on the USM campus on the Rankin Oil Field acquisitions bought at a public auction thickens it more. This is time when coke-gas generators supplied electrical power to light the city and Louisiana NG was sitting at the gates wanting in. Never understood why he had the Tatum mansion demolished.
He blamed it on thieves stealing the chandelie, I recall.
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Only a few years back there were a few very large piles of broken glass to the north of the buildings that were probably being kept for recycling.
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I think that the second factory might be the complex at the end of Underwood Dr.?
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Correct!
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The complex at the end of Underwood Drive was the Cataphote plant up until around 2000. It is now used for warehousing it appears.
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This also reminds me that I have an article somewhere about the origins of Flowood that features N.W. Overstreet prominently. I need to find that again and post it.
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Oh, please do!
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The long metal building was Knox Glass #2. It was just cleaned up and is currently for sale. Underwood Drive was originally known as Knox Drive, and once had many small homes (separately) for white and black workers. They were wiped out by the “Candlestick” tornado around 1966. The land was all owned by The Flowood Corporation, headed by Mr. Underwood, and marketed as an industrial park. The Flowood Corporations assets were absorbed by the steel mill, Mississippi Steel, in 1960.
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The building where Mississippi Warehousing is where Knox Glass was located. The westernmost building remnants was part of the factory. The one at the bottom of the map was a glass factory too. Chattanooga Glass/Knox Glass.
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Today being the 50th anniversary of the Candlestick Park tornado, I was helping an old friend to access the digitized images of her father’s slides of the destruction and I ran across this photo: http://mdah.state.ms.us/arrec/digital_archives/vault/projects/patterson/file.php?file=101786-01-photo
which looks a lot like these buildings.
Also, knowing that the tornado passed through Flowood, I looked at Wikipedia and found: “Many homes and businesses in the area were completely destroyed by the tornado, including a glass factory that was severely mangled.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1966_Candlestick_Park_tornado (Though the order of events is somewhat out of order if this is a Knox factory.)
So can anyone tell us if that, indeed, was the fate of some of these buildings?
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Oh my. I find myself wishing I could edit my comments too much lately. John C does mention, above, that the tornado did go through that area. There are several photos of it in this collection: http://catalog.mdah.state.ms.us/cgi-bin/koha/catalogue/search.pl
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Yes, the tornado destroyed the “big cabin”, “Little cabin” and the Pavillion. My Dad was from Knox, PA and was transferred to MS in 1956. Was GM when tornado came through. Much of the plant was damaged. Later KG was sold to Glass Containers.
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My parents Travis and Christine Cates moved to Pearl in 1951 when I was 1 yr old. Mother would later work on the line at KG for many years. It had many female employees. Those were the days when women worked just as hard as any man on the line, but were paid less.
***I have my mother’s KG work jacket in the closet now and would donate it to any museum, historical use.
My mother was a proud KG employee. Hundreds of times Dad would put us youngins in the backseat and pickup mom from the plant after her midnight shift. It was a ritual that was a natural part of our lives. Mom and other women in the community were extremely grateful for employment, although the work was very hard on them physically. The true story of KG was the woman power behind the glass products.
I would give anything if I had kept one of the malformed, but beautiful artful rejects from the line Momma would sometimes bring home. We used them as flower vases, piggy banks and just beautiful random glass art. One time, our family of 6 put pennies in one for months. It took two adults to carry it took the car, and the large jug burst in the cold air. It was my memory of snow.
We were poor, but would have had a much tougher time financially surviving if not for my mother’s job at KG.
I remember the tornado that struck and saw firsthand the damage, like 2 story high ball of barbed wire, etc.
It broke my mother’s heart when the plant closed. It had given her meaningful work, income and a sense of pride. There’s more than just the physical history of KG – there’s the people history and my mom’s story is just one.
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Hi, Judy. I work for the Department of Archives and History and would be interested in knowing more about your mother’s jacket. Could you contact me at nprince@mdah.ms.gov.
Thanks,
Nan Prince
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My name is Dianne Lovell Motsinger. I was born and raised in Flow wood Mississippi in 1946. My daddy worked at Knox Glass Plant on second shift Edward Elliston Lovell. The best part of the day was taking daddy a bag lunch each evening. All the sounds of bottles banging was intoxifying. There was a migit
named Shorty working up on second floor, which had a big open door loks barn would have. We would yell and wave at Shorty. Then my daddy would kiss each one of us through the tall fence. Those were the best days of my life. Daddy was paid well, we never wanted for anything. Back in the 1980’s I took my sons to Floowood from NC to see my beginning of life. We were able to visit and go inside my home place. I searched and Searched for a Knox Jar and found one! Went inside office at Knox when I told them why I was there. My Knox jar sits on a table filled with candy for my grandkids. I wouldn’t take any amount of money for my “memory” sitting on my table. Sincerely Dianne Lovell Motsinger.
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Hello Dianne!
Loved your story.
My uncle also worked at Knox Glass Plant. I am trying to find a Knox jar for her. Would you have any history of the plant, any pictures from there and any idea on where I could find a Knox jar. I came across this site searching Google.com for Know Jars.
Pat
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Patricia, I hope you see my reply! My dad worked for Knox Glass in Pennsylvania. He would love to send you a Knox jar. Feel free to email me at wilburzmom@gmail.com. Hope to hear from you!
Christy
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Looking forward to learning more about part of my history, Knox Glass
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Does Hercules Powder Company get an honorable mention?
I have been watching the goings on around the fenced-in plant area and the still standing two smokestacks. As I travel along Highway 42 where it intersects north Main Street I can see a drilling derrick towering above the tree line in the far distance.
Could this be involved in the monitoring of contamination of the aquifer? It’s been there at least six years. Last week I went by Dr. J.J. Bethae’s abandoned home and the windows have been boarded up. There is bulldozer activity and street diversion around the area.Is there a plan to bring down the smoke stacks…simultaneously I would think?
Richard Schwartz is somehow involved in the plaintiff lawsuits he bought from the original claimant Attorney, the late Johnny Cochran.
My father moved our family to the dead end street at 208 Rawls Avenue…just one-hundred yards from the side rail tracks on which the pine stumps were brought in.
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That area is also the location of Rawls Springs Hill on which is the location of the Hattiesburg water works accessed off 42 Bypass behind the National Guard Armory. There are warnings to stay away.
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My Dad worked for Knox Glass in Oil City PA with Mr Underwood. My parents transferred here to Flowood (Jackson) in the 60’s. My dad was the sales rep and sold bottle to CocaCola Pepsi & Jif peanut butter jars. I spend my early life, looking at the bottom of anything glass for a keystone!! My Dad was W. J. Henderson 💜 Thanks for this article
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