Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1907-03-12
resigned, on the goth Of February

politicians who had been surprised
ana panied in the summer of 1897
when President Mckinley sent this
nonpolitician to Russia We're surprised
and panied some more People in
many sections were asking: who is
Hitchcock? Never heard Of Hitch
cock" But in two or three years the
people from the Missouri river to the
Paclhc ocean began to hear quite lot
about Hitchcock By that time the
business man had got down to BUSH
ness. 1t was big job, and it required
time to get the odds and ends sorted
out Oregon heard of him and Cali
forn1a and Nebraska and Idaho and
Montana and New Mexico and North
Dakota and Louisiana, not to mention
several other states where the land
thieves had held high carnival through
half dozen presidential administra-
tons.
Until about twenty years ago plate
glass window was one Of the sights"
In the average American town. Now it
is one Of the ordinary features of a
store or office front even in the small
villages. Who did it? Hitchcock, the
same man who went after the land
grafters and cornered them He cheap
ened plate glass so that it came into
general use, and he did it by becoming
practically the head Of the so called
plate glass trust The story Of plate
glass is really the story Of Ethan AL
len Hitchcock's life up to the time
he was taken out of his glass factory
business and other large enterprises
and sent to ST. Petersburg
Mr.. Hitchcock was born at Mobile,
Ala, In 1885. His father was chief jus
tfce Of the Alabama supreme court, but
had come from Vermont. His mother
was a granddaughter Of Ethan Allen,
that sturdy old Revolutionary soldier
who demanded the surrender Of Fort
TicOnderoga Sin the name Of the great
Jehovah and the Continental congress-"
The father died when Ethan was only
four years old. The family lived in
New Orleans and Nashville and then
removed TO st. Louis, the boy complet-
ing his scholastic education at a mill
tary academy in New Haven, Conn. In
1855 he went to ST. Louis and began
business as Office boy and bill collector
at $40 a month. Five years later he
went to China.
Hitchcock and Plate Glass.
A cousin Of Hitchcock worked the
young man into good position at
Hongkong in a commission house, and
a few years later Ethan Allen Hitch
cock became manager of the business
and member Of the firm He made
only two trips back to America during
his twelve years in China. One of
these was to get married. At the age
of thirty seven he had accumulated
property enough to retire from bust
ness. Mr. and Mrs. Hitchcock spent
two years travelling in Europe, then
returned to st. Louis. But, rich this
young man of thirty-nine was not of
the sort to sit down and loaf. He be-
gan to look around for something to
do. Here is where the plate glass
comes in.
Missouri produces a great many
things in addition to train robbers and
mules. About forty miles south of st.
Louis was a natural curiosity which
the natives and many others knew
about. 1t was a mountain OF pure
white sand, about 700 acres in surface
area. The country people in those
parts had used the SAND to help scour
their floors. They knew no other use
for 1t. From Detroit went a rich, &C.
centric person, a spiritualist, who tried
to manufacture glass out of that sand
hill. He failed because no one In the
United States understood the practical
end Of the industry.
Mr.. Hitchcock had built himself a
fine residence In Vandeventer place,
st. Louis for which he imported plate
glass from England at $3.50 a square
foot All the plate glass then used in
the United States was imported by a
firm In New York, of which the father
OF Theodore Roosevelt was member.
Mr. Hitchcock went down to the Mis-
souri, sand hill and looked it over
Then he made a trip to New York for
information. He visited the elder
Roosevelt and told him about that sand
hi1l
"Mr. Hitchcock" said Mr.. Roose-
welt Solemnly, there IS no plate glass
sand anywhere in this country
But Hitchcock returned to ST. Louis
and went into the plate glass business.
He found it necessary to secure a spe-
cial kind Of furnace, which he bought
In Philadelphia In that city he also
found a young Englishman who knew
how to make plate glass. He engaged
the Englishman. In a short time he
was selling Missouri plate glass to job
bers at $1.05 a square foot Around
his plant grew up the fourishing town
OF Crystal City, with railroad built
to it. Some time before a plate glass
factory had been started in southern
Indiana. Mr.. Hitchcock's was there
fore the second in America. In time
other den0sits of Mate glass sand rrora