Ball Brothers Glass Manufacturing Company
Muncie, Indiana. Late-chapter glass supplier of the Hoffmann-Hayman Crystalvac jar story via the 1936 acquisition of Three Rivers Glass. Ball-era lids and transition-era marks appear on Crystalvac jars documented in collection posts. Named alongside Hartford-Empire Co. and Owens-Illinois Glass as a co-defendant in the 1946 $1,350,000 Sherman/Clayton Act suit filed by former TRG shareholders (Tips, Moody, Rogers) in U.S. District Court (San Antonio); the Texas filing was voluntarily dismissed by plaintiff in November 1947 to refile in U.S. District Court Indianapolis under Indiana’s 15-year SOL (see 1947 dismissal event). The Indiana refiling’s disposition is undocumented.
1936 Three Rivers acquisition — period-source detail
Per the 1936-12-05 The News (San Antonio) “Three Rivers Glass Plant Reorganized” primary-source clipping:
- The acquiring entity is named as George A. Ball Manufacturing Company of Muncie, Indiana — i.e. a Ball-family corporate vehicle distinct from the parent “Ball Brothers Glass Manufacturing Co.” name. The clipping does not use “Ball Brothers” or “Ball Bros.” On this site we continue to file the page under Ball Brothers Glass Manufacturing Company as the umbrella corporate name; the period-source naming nuance is recorded here for accuracy.
- Purchase price: $130,000.
- The Three Rivers plant had been in the hands of receivers since 1932.
- The reorganization was announced by local attorney William C. Church after a conference with L. L. Bracken, representative of George A. Ball Manufacturing.
- New corporate name post-reorganization: “Ball Glass corporation.”
- Plant was briefly idle pre-purchase; renewed operation projected within days of the announcement.
- Output target: >$500,000/yr in glassware for liquid-foodstuffs distributors; territory Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana; described as “the only glass manufacturing plant in South Texas.”
The 1946 anti-trust petition by former TRG shareholders names “Ball Bros. Co. of Muncie, Ind.” as co-defendant — the petition’s shorthand reconciles back to the same Ball-family corporate umbrella.
1938 TNEC monopoly testimony — patent-pool context
In December 1938 Senate monopoly-committee (TNEC) testimony, Hartford-Empire’s president F. G. Smith acknowledged that Ball Brothers Glass operated outside the Hartford-Empire patent-licensing scheme (the so-called “Ball clause” exception), a status that period press described as anomalous within the glass-container patent pool. See Hartford-Empire Co. and the 1938 TNEC testimony event. The 1946 TRG shareholders’ suit named Ball as a co-defendant alongside Hartford-Empire and Owens-Illinois — the petition’s theory connecting Ball to the broader monopoly is undocumented on this site pending federal court records.
Bottle catalog notes
Per Smith’s Texas Glass (1989) and the project’s bottle catalog, at least one Three Rivers / Ball transition bottle (the “Ideal Bottling Co.” piece in the Three Rivers Glass Bottles catalog at #37) carries both the “3 Rivers” mark and the “Ball” logo on the same bottle — an unusual cross-marked production-run artifact from the immediate post-1936 overlap.
Open questions
- Did H&H source Crystalvac jars directly from Ball-Muncie post-1936, or via the former Three Rivers facility under Ball ownership?
- When did the Ball-supplied era end (Owens-Illinois appears later)?
- 1946 anti-trust suit — Texas-side disposition documented (Nov 1, 1947 plaintiff-requested dismissal); Indiana refiling disposition open. S.D. Indiana federal court records 1947–1962 would resolve.
- U.S. Supreme Court sale order — execution. Tips alleged in November 1947 that the Supreme Court (per the 1945 US v. Hartford-Empire decree enforcement) had ordered Ball + Hartford-Empire + Owens-Illinois to sell the Three Rivers plant. Whether the sale ever happened and to whom is undocumented.
- George A. Ball Manufacturing Co. vs. Ball Brothers Glass Manufacturing Co. — corporate structure. The 1936 clipping uses “George A. Ball Manufacturing”; the 1946 lawsuit petition uses “Ball Bros. Co.” Were these distinct subsidiaries of the Ball family corporate group, sequential renamings, or shorthand for the same parent? A Ball Corporation historical-records search would resolve.
See also
People
Events
- 1936 Ball acquisition event
- 1946 Three Rivers shareholders’ anti-trust suit
- 1947 Three Rivers suit dismissed in Texas, refiled in Indiana
- Hartford-Empire testimony names Three Rivers Glass in U.S. Senate monopoly probe
- Ball Corporation exits glass
Companies
- Hartford-Empire Co. — fellow 1946 defendant; glass-machinery patent-pool master
- Hoffmann-Hayman Coffee Company — corporate hub
- Owens-Illinois Glass Company — fellow 1946 defendant
- Three Rivers Glass Bottles
- Three Rivers Glass Company
- Tips Glass Sales Corporation