From John Fenton to Joe Edinger: What’s your history?

While Millersburg Glass’ roots in Holmes County may date back to the early 1900s, Joe Edinger’s trip through the history of John Fenton’s short-lived carnival glass company at the annual Millersburg Glass Association meeting on Friday, Aug. 29 at Comfort Suits in Berlin began a tad earlier than that.

Edinger’s knowledge of the history of Millersburg Glass led his keynote talk to begin way back in early Egypt, where they were known to have worked with irradiating glass, something Fenton became well known for during his glassmaking days around 1910.

For Edinger, discovering and honoring where people come from is of the utmost importance, especially because his arrival in Holmes County came about courtesy of a grant built around a relationship Fenton had developed in Millersburg.

Edinger began delving into the history by asking people one simple question: “Where do you come from?” It led into exploring the history behind one of Millersburg’s most intriguing men.

“It’s Fenton’s story, it’s my story and it’s your story too,” Edinger said. “For many of us, our story is about keeping our kids here at home, providing for them so they have good jobs. That’s exactly what Fenton tried to do. Could he have invested better? Probably, but Mr. Fenton gave everything he had in trying to create and save the jobs for the people of Millersburg. He never owned a home. He gave everything he had to the glass factory and to trying to create jobs for people here. This glass reminds us of his story.”

As a lifelong educator, Edinger is a huge fan of history.

Edinger’s look back in time rolled through the Victorian Era, the politics of yesteryear during women’s suffrage, the growth of carnival glass around the Ohio River Valley, the Spiegel family who hailed from Millersburg, and plenty of other intriguing facts and figures that have helped Millersburg Glass become one of the carnival glass collecting community’s most prized collectibles.

Fenton’s venture into creating his own carnival glass company roared into Millersburg, grew rapidly and flamed out just as quickly because Fenton constantly found himself in dire financial straits because of poor money management.

One thing that wasn’t in short supply for his company was creating stunning glassware like no one had ever seen before.

“John’s downfall was that he was an artist first,” Edinger said. “He loved to create new and exciting pieces of glass, each unique unto itself. He would always say, ‘I can’t tell what it looks like until I make it,’ and so he created a lot of one-of-a-kind pieces.”

However, that meant a lot of one-of-a-kind molds, which led to a lot of expenses. As bills piled up, payments were not forthcoming, and glass mold maker Stephen Hipkins eventually decided enough was enough, bailing on Millersburg Glass.

Edinger said one thing Fenton recognized through his creativity was iridescent glass was much prettier when the design was on the inside of the piece rather than on the outside (bottom) of the glass. That was a concept that had prior to Fenton gone unrecognized.

While that concept created great beauty and today drives the price of his hugely collectible glass pieces high, it was in large part the reason for his downfall. Creativity came at a great cost for Fenton.

“John was an artist, an innovator, a risk-taker and a visionary when it came to creating new glass. He was just not a great businessman,” Edinger said.

During his years here in Millersburg, Fenton developed many strong relationships with people, important people. He helped bring some big-time businessmen to the area including Spiegel, future creator of the now famous Spiegel Catalog, and Otto Elliott, who created a funeral home here that later became Alexander Funeral Home.

It also led to the creation of Flxible. Other key companies such as Seaman Corp. and Castle Nursing Home had their roots steeped in Fenton’s history.

Another connection was with Hugo Young, who later gave a great deal of money to fund all the new technology for West Holmes School District. Along with that funding came the creation of a grant to bring a teacher into the district.

Joe Edinger is that teacher, coming here after graduating from Bluffton College.

“I’m here in this community because of that grant, and it all stems back to connections with Mr. Fenton,” Edinger said. “That’s my history.”

What would Fenton’s legacy have been had his glass company become ultra-successful? How would his history have changed? Just as importantly, what would that mean for the local economic outlook of Millersburg today?

All viable questions, all of which are unanswerable. However, Edinger said had it all been different, had he had a contingency plan when he first started, had he been a more responsible businessman and thought less about the artistic side of carnival glass and more about productivity costs, the rare Millersburg Glass pieces being collected today wouldn’t be anywhere near as valuable as they are because of the sheer rarity of the pieces that have become so highly sought after by collectors.