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Biography
Christian Dorflinger
Born March 16, 1828 at Rosteig, Canton de Bitsche, Alsace, France, Christian Dorflinger was the oldest of five children. The untimely death of his father compelled Christian in his early youth to assume responsibilities far beyond his years. At the age of ten, he was apprenticed to an uncle in St. Louis, Province of Lorraine, and there learned the fundamentals of glassmaking in one of the largest and most renowned establishments of its kind in Europe.
For the next eight years, young Christian remained in St. Louis, diligently applying himself to his chosen profession, and being by nature endowed with a strong physique and by force of circumstance with a resolute and resourceful spirit, he so on absorbed intimate knowledge of this delicate and complicated art. Realizing the limited opportunities for her children in their present environment, and animated by the enthusiasm of her elder son (who desired a broader and more fertile field of endeavor), Charlotte Clemens Dorflinger decided to come to America. Upon their arrival in this country the little family separated, Mrs. Dorflinger taking her daughters to live with friends in Oldenberg, Indiana, while Christian and his younger brother Edward obtained employment in a glass factory at Camden, New Jersey, engaged in the manufacture of druggists' wares and prescription bottles.
In 1852, when kerosene oil was first discovered, young Dorflinger was delegated to fashion a type of glass chimney that would provide a satisfactory complement for the oil burner. In this he was successful, and realizing the great potentialities of this new product, he moved to Brooklyn, New York, and started a five-pot factory of his own on Plymouth Street. In 1853, the Long Island Flint Glass Words came into being, and while the first year's operation amounted to a modest $30,000, this sum was doubled three years later.
By 1858, his enterprise as prospered to the extent that he was able to pay off the remaining mortgage on his initial venture and build a larger factory on Concord Street. He now broadened his line of merchandize to include all kinds of cut, engraved and plain table ware, and his expanding business soon made it necessary to seek additional manufacturing space. Accordingly, in 1860, he removed to a site on the North River at the mouth of Newtown Creek, where he built the Greenpoint Glass Works.
On September 17, 1862, he purchased his farm in Wayne County, Pennsylvania, comprising house, outbuildings and 300 acres of good pasture and timber land. At the same time he disposed of the Long Island Flint Glass Words, and as the operation of the Greenpoint factory was in subordinate hands which he deemed both capable and trustworthy, he planned for the summer to repair to his newly acquired property.
And so we find him, in his thirty-fifth year, pausing long enough to gather the necessary momentum for a still greater effort.
In 1865, he cleared some land on the east bank of the river level and by fall had a five-pot furnace in operation. The following year he brought some of the experienced workmen from his Greenpoint factory to assist in training the local farm lads, and soon there were nearly 100 men and boys at work.
The next five years witnessed a miraculous transformation in the once sleepy little settlement on the bank of the Lackawaxen River. Under the relentless attack of axe and saw, forest gave way and in its stead appeared rows of workmen's cottages, rooming shacks and additional units of the growing new industry. In 1867, the first cutting shop was introduced and constant improvements in buildings and methods of operation gradually increased production and imparted renewed prestige to the reputation of Dorflinger glass.
That the firm's reputation for excellence in glassmaking was unsurpassed by any American competitor for over fifty years is further attested by the many special commissions with which it was entrusted. Foremost among these was the distinction of supplying the tableware for the eight presidents of the United States from Abraham Lincoln to Woodrow Wilson. The first of these sets, and one of exceptionally fine and delicate design, came from the Brooklyn plant in 1861 when Mrs. Lincoln was refurbishing the White House, and was purchased through A.P. Zimandy, a Washington dealer, at a cost of $1,500. All were engraved with the U.S. coat of arms, each having its own individual pattern, and it is further interesting to note that Theodore Roosevelt ordered the first highball glasses. Other prominent customers were the Smithsonian Institute and the United States Navy. Many orders of elaborate design were prepared at the White Mills factory for use on some of the largest private yachts, including the Vanderbilts, Goulds, Reids and one for Henry Clay Pierce, valued at $60,000. In the early 1890's, a set of fluted tableware was specially designed for the Prince of Wales and another, comprising 2,300 pieces, was assembled for President Mario Menocal of Cuba, and engraved with the coat of arms of the Cuban Republic.
On Wednesday, August 11, 1915, he passed quietly away at his own, surrounded by the members of his family as well as the love and veneration of the entire village to whose welfare so much of his life had been dedicated.
The period immediately succeeding his death proved an especially trying one for the glass industry in general and the White Mills concern in particular. Production of the fine stemware for which Dorflinger glass had become so celebrated was largely dependant upon potash from Germany, and the war now indefinitely suspended this source. Furthermore, after 1917 (when America entered the conflict and Prohibition came into effect), the demand for wine and table services, formerly such an important factor in its line of merchandise, suffered an alarming decline. Confronted by these economic exigencies and lacking the characteristic resourcefulness with which its founder had met each previous crisis, the firm carried on until 1921, when it yielded to the inevitable and closed its doors for all time.