Howard County IN Archives History - Books .....D. C. Jenkins Glass Company 1909
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Book Title: History Of Howard County Indiana

D. C. JENKINS GLASS COMPANY.

   Among the leading enterprises of Kokomo that have contributed to the solidity
of the city and added to its reputation as one of the most important industrial
centers of the West is the D. C. Jenkins Glass Company, the record of which,
covering a period of about eighteen years, presents a series of continued
successes and the high standard of whose product has won for it prestige in the
domain of manufacture. D. C. Jenkins, the president of this concern, a glass
manufacturer of wide experience, comes of a family of glass makers, his father,
David Jenkins, now a man of seventy-six years of age, having devoted much more
than average lifetime to the industry, as has also Thomas Jenkins, an uncle of
the subject, who is seventy-four years of age. During the past forty-five years
our subject has been identified with the business in its every department and
now stands confessedly among the most skilled and successful artisans known to
the trade.

   Entering a factory at the age of eleven he early became familiar with even*
phase of the business and after working at different places he erected in 1866,
a factory at Findlay, Ohio, which in due time became one of the leading
industrial enterprises of that city, and which he continued to operate until
1893, when he disposed of the business and engaged with the United States Glass
Company to superintend the erection of a large plant at Gas City, Indiana. When
the plant was completed and equipped he took charge of the work and continued as
manager until the year following when he resigned his position and again
embarked in the business upon his own responsibility, erecting in 1894 a factory
at Greentown, known as the Goblet Company, which he operated with encouraging
results until 1900, when he sold the plant and within a short time thereafter
established at Kokomo, the company of which he is now president and manager.

   Inaugurated under favorable auspices the business in this city proved
successful from the beginning and continued to grow and expand until the
patronage took a very extensive range and gained for the establishment much more
than local repute. The superior grade of the product which consisted of a full
line of table glassware, created a wide demand among the dealers in Indiana and
other states and to meet the same, a large number of workmen were employed, all
selected with special reference to efficiency and skill as artisans. The growth
and prosperity of the company continued without interruption until 1905, at
which time the first serious misfortune was experienced in the complete
destruction of the plant by fire, entailing not only the loss of the buildings
and equipment but also a heavy damage to the business in many ways, not the
least of which was the time required to recover from the disaster, the
interferences with trade, and the heavy expense entailed by the erection of the
new and more commodious structure, which was completed and ready for operation
in June of the following year, when the enterprise was re-organized as the
Jenkins Company with greatly enlarged facilities and more encouraging prospects
than it had hitherto enjoyed.

   Since the latter year the progress of the company has fully realized the
expectation of the promoters and as already indicated, it now occupies a
prominent place among the industrial enterprises that have given Kokomo its high
reputation as an industrial center, and under the able management of the
efficient and public-spirited president. The company now represents a large
investment of capital and bids fair to grow to still greater proportions and to
become in the no distant future, the leading glass works in the northern part of
the state. The company represents a large investment of capital and with its one
hundred and fifty employes, and an annual payroll of over one hundred thousand
dollars, the greater part of which is circulated locally, its benefit to the
general business interests of the city can hardly be estimated. The out-put
which, as stated in a preceding paragraph, includes the articles of glassware in
general use together with milk bottles, fish globes and full line of
machine-made goods, all of which finds ready sale, and at certain seasons the
demand is so great as to require large additions to the working force. Primarily
it was the intention to use natural gas exclusively, and the plant was
constructed with this object in view, but with the gradual diminishing in the
volume of that fuel, it was found necessary to resort to other means of
supplying fuel. Accordingly a large gas plant was recently erected, the
resulting gas from which is now amply sufficient to operate the plant at its
full capacity. The stock of the company is all owned by the Jenkins family, who
also hold its several offices and look after its management and general
interests. The personnel of the company at this time is as follows: D. C.
Jenkins, president; Addison Jenkins, secretary and treasurer; David, Thomas,
Addison and David C. Jenkins, and D. C. Davies, directors, and Howard A.
Jenkins, salesman.

     Since coming to Howard county the life of D. C. Jenkins and the history of
the important enterprise with which he is so closely identified have been pretty
much one and the same thing. A master of his craft and a man of sound judgment,
rare foresight and superior executive ability, he has taken advantage of
opportunities and when circumstances appeared discouraging his tact and
fortitude have enabled him to bend them to suit his purposes with the result
that he gradually overcame every obstacle in his way to success and moved
steadily forward to the influential position which he now occupies in the
industrial world. From the beginning of his career to the present time he has
been actuated by the laudable motive of making his work worthy of patronage and
to meet this end no efforts were considered too great and no expense too heavy.
That he has fully realized his expectations as a manufacturer is amply attested
by the rapid growth of his business, and the high reputation of his brand of
goods wherever sold, the local patronage being very satisfactory, while large
quantities are consigned to many different points where they easily hold their
own in competition with the product of the factories of the land. As already
indicated, Mr. Jenkins' close personal attention to the management of the
company whose honorable career in the past and present and creditable standing
in industrial and business circles afford sufficient assurance of its permanency
and future prosperity as one of Kokomo's most prosperous and remunerative
enterprises.


Additional Comments:
From:

HISTORY OF HOWARD COUNTY INDIANA
BY
JACKSON MORROW, B. A.
ILLUSTRATED
VOL. II
B. F. BOWEN & COMPANY
INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA

(circa 1909)

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