The story of a glass company named after the town of Fostoria, Ohio, is told almost 300 miles away in Moundsville, West Virginia.
The company was founded in 1887 near the town of Fostoria, Ohio, to take advantage of a newly discovered natural gas field. But after just four years, the gas was nearly tapped out, and the company had to look for a new location to get their gas. In 1891, the company moved to Morgantown, West Virginia, where there was an abundance of gas and coal.
Fostoria would become a famous name in the glass industry, with a reputation for fine quality. Eventually, they became the United States’ largest producer of handmade glassware. Despite their reputation, the company declined due to cheap competition and obsolete production. In 1983, the company was bought by Lancaster Colony, who folded Fostoria three years later.
In 1990, the Fostoria Glass Society, an association of glass collectors, purchased a house in Moundsville. Today, the house holds donated glass pieces and objects from the Fostoria factory that tell the story of the itinerant company.
