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Akro Agate Company History

AKRO AGATE COMPANY, Akron, Ohio (1911‑1914), Clarksburg, W. Va. (1914‑1951).

The company was initially founded to manufacture glass marbles. By the 1930s, Akro Agate was responsible for nearly 75% of all marbles sold in the United States. Eventually, increased competition forced them to seek additional lines and they began producing children's glassware. In 1936, they acquired the molds of the Westite Company of Weston, W. Va., for items such as flower pots and planters and these were their strongest lines prior to World War II. They also did private mold work. However, it was the decrease in Japanese imports during the war that allowed them to expand their children's glassware production and it is these items for which Akro Agate is best known today. The factory eventually succumbed to the competition of the plastics industry and was bought in 1951 by the Clarksburg Glass Company of Clarksburg, W. Va. Under this name, the new company operated by a group of former Akro Agate employees, made glass for only about six months.

? From The Glass Candlestick Book, volume 1, by Tom Felt, Rich & Elaine Stoer (reprinted with permission)

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Date:	30.04.2007 00:05
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Added by:	Tom Felt