The Owens-Illinois Glass Company, based in Ohio, ran three major glass factories in West Virginia: Fairmont, Huntington, the Kanawha City section of Charleston--opposite the Libbey-Owens-Ford plant--and Clarksburg. These factories all used a bottle-making machine invented by West Virginia native Michael Owens.

The Fairmont factory opened in 1910, ran 24/7, and made up to 180,000 bottles a day. It grew to over 1,000 workers but closed in 1982 after years of job cuts.

The Huntington plant began in 1914 and was bought by Owens-Illinois in 1918. It became a major glass-container producer, employing over 1,100 workers by 1947. It closed in 1993.

The Kanawha City plant opened in 1917 and became the world’s largest bottle factory in the 1930s. It made jars and beer bottles but closed in 1963. Today, the site is a shopping center.

The Clarksburg plant operated from 1930 to 1944.