Elizabeth Hall
A Walk Through History
John Herring was born Feb. 17,1818 in Lewis County, New York. He was a builder and a teacher there before he immigrated to Kingston, Ontario in 1841, and later settled in Napanee in 1843 at the age of 25. He opened a foundry (a factory that produces metal castings), that specialized in the manufacture of reapers, movers, ploughs, and domestic cook stoves. He was a prominent figure in Napanee at the time, which ultimately led him to become part of local politics in 1860. He served as a town councillor and later held the office of reeve (a reeve was the head of a local (lower or single tier) municipal council, they are either called the mayor or the reeve).
In 1863 he secured the contract to build the new West Ward Academy and also engaged in brick and potash making along with lumber and the paper industry. Herring was involved with many companies in the area, but his most well-known company was Napanee Glass Works, owned by him. During the 1878 federal election, a high protective tariff was put on American goods. Some of those goods included glass, which raised the cost of importing it considerably. Herring began visiting glass houses in Syracuse, New York, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to research glass production, with the hope of outselling his American competition. When he returned to Napanee he purchased 12 acres of land where he would begin work on building his glass factory.
The factory officially opened the second week of November, consisting of more than 14 buildings and around 33 employees. It was estimated that a factory of that size would have produced $33,000 in finished glass every year. Herring brought glass makers from Germany, Belgium, France and England to train the new workers of his factory. Some of the things that the factory made, besides fine window glass, included canes, candlesticks, glass hats, bowls, pitchers, and various glassware.
By late 1883 the factory went out of production and remained closed despite attempts by both Herring and the mayor of Napanee to get it up and running again. Herring sold the property in 1889 to the N.T.Q Railway company for $2,500 so they could use it for freight sheds, as the N.T.Q Railway had a track that ran right by the factory, cutting off the entrance into the building.
Herring remained a respected member of Napanee despite the failure of his company. He died in October of 1896 at the age of 80.
Random History Fact: The only known image of the factory is in the background of a photograph taken of the West Ward Academy in 1883.