In the 1967 film “The Graduate,” Ben Braddock played by Dustin Hoffman, gets a word of career advice from his parents’ friend: ‘plastics.”
Had Ben been an aspiring historian, Gerry Treadway might have advised “glass.”
The Parkesburg resident will share the history of local glass bottles at an upcoming meeting of the Parkesburg History Group.
The author of the self-published book “Parkesburg Bottles” uses his collection of about antique 400 bottles to talk about days gone by in the Chester County borough located just east of the Lancaster County line.
Treadway’s delicate finds, ranging in value from $10 to $450, once contained everything a household could need, from poison to pickles and medicine to milk.
Parkesburg History Group hopes to one day have a museum to display such memorabilia. But for now, “this is the museum,” said Treadway of his Victorian house on Strasburg Road.
“If bottles could talk, what would they tell us?” the Millersville University graduate and retired teacher asks.
• That Parkesburg’s bottles were manufactured by firms such as Thatcher Glass in Elmira, N.Y., and Armstrong Cork Co., which ran a glass factory in Millville, N.J., until 1969.
• That Parkesburg pharmacies, distilleries, dairies, hotels and taprooms ordered glass embossed with their names and the name of the town to contain their products.
Treadway has malt liquor bottles sold in 1852 by Taylor and Owens, Trimble Whiskey sold at the Parkesburg Hotel, Jimason spirit bottles, milk bottles from the long-gone Maple Grove Farm and Parkesburg Dairy, medicine bottles from druggist Harry Smith and dosage glasses from Seltzer Pharmacy.
A hundred years ago, Treadway said, “the pharmacists would have their ‘bible’ with a formula for arthritis, for example, and shelves full of jars with chemicals. They would mix the prescription with the ingredients and put on a paper label.”
One of Treadway’s favorite items is an 1895 cork-top bottle from Smith, with some quinine pills still in the bottle.
Such surprises can be found at yard and estate sales, but old outhouses, digging projects near older homes and road excavation sites also yield good finds.
“Old dump digging is part of the business,” he said. “If there’s a hole being made in Parkesburg, I’m there looking. You always have to have your antennae up for a sewer project or a drain repair.”
Treadway spent 50 years collecting Parkesburg glass pieces and researched each piece’s place in the town’s history as he collected. His book, which took six years to write, includes photographs of vintage glass, bits of history about the local businesses from which they came and photographs of early Parkesburg.
The business of collecting vintage glass — irreplaceable pieces of the past — is a popular hobby. Collectors zero in on glass by country or town, by category, period and maker.
Treadway plans to bring a sampling of Parkesburg glass to Tuesday’s program and focus on antique milk bottles from farms and milk sellers around Parkesburg. His book lists the farms and dealers and includes a map.
“Once, a local dairy farmer would have five or 10 cows he milked by hand,” Treadway said. “He would sell the milk right from the bucket to the bottle with his name on it. There were quarts, half-pints and pint bottles. The farmer would also do his own delivery.”
Joining Treadway for his presentation will be former state Rep. Art Hershey, a retired Cochranville dairy farmer.
“Parkesburg Bottles” will be available at the upcoming event for $20. It also is available for $25 (including shipping) from him at 410 Strasburg Road, Parkesburg, PA 19365. For more information, contact Treadway at 610-857-3677.
610.456.9692
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