Histories

Agnew and Chambers Glassmaking in Pittsburgh 

John Agnew and the two Chambers brothers, Alexander and David H., were glass manufacturers in Pittsburgh.   In 1833 John Agnew had been apprenticed to William McCully at the age of 14.   According to  the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh at http://www.clpgh.org/clp/Scitech/invent/pghglassindustry.html, "Western Pennsylvania was the center of the nation's glass industry by the time of the Civil War. Pittsburgh's glass trade was a seven million dollar business in 1869 with twenty bottle and vial factories, twenty-three window glass factories, twenty-two flint glass factories and a number of glass factories devoted exclusively to the production of chimneys. Child labor was a common element in the operation of such factories as Ralph Fenn's sketch of the window glass blowers making cylinder window glass at the factory of Messrs. William McCully & Company vividly illustrates. "

John Agnew and Alexander Chambers started business together as Chambers, Agnew and Co. in 1842 , with a factory on Brownsville Avenue just outside the city limits. (McKearin, American Glass).  Brownsville Avenue is now on the South Side of Pittsburgh in the Baldwin Township area. A history of Baldwin Township (http://www.usaor.net/users/grunion/whatbid.htm) notes that one of the first glass factories in the area was at Agnew Lane of an area now called Carrick Borough.  Agnew Lane and Agnew Avenue can still be found on Pittsburgh maps.  Agnew Road and Brownsville Avenue intersect in Carrick.