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Telechan's Glassworks Factory
I first heard many years ago about a huge glass factory in Telechan called the "hutte". Many members of the Kagan family worked at the factory doing various jobs. Each of the workers were allowed to make their own piece of glass with their initials etched in. During World War I, the hutte was burned down. After the war, a saw-mill was built in its place. Recently, Jordan Schaps
visited his sister Carole in Chicago. Carole has two pieces that their grandmother, Ettel (Kagan) Raben created and brought with her
from Telechan over 75 years ago.
The first is just a glass plaque with the initials "EK" (the "E" is artistically backwards). The second is in the shape
of a book. The front has the initials "E.K." (Ettel Kagan) and the date 1903. The back has etched and painted floral patterns.
I did some reseach and came across some very interesting history which was documented in the Telechan Yiskor Book, published on this website: http://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/Telekhany/tel005.html Here is an excerpt: Telekhany Becomes a Factory Town
In the late 19th century, Three Chernichov brothers from Slonim, Shmuel, Leima and Abba, arrived in Telekhany to
build a glassworks factory. The town was overjoyed since people would have work. They'd have a way to earn a living.
The city would expand. People said that the glass factory would employ 5,000 people, and this actually came to pass.
In the past, a factory would open, and would then close down shortly thereafter. The three brothers, and especially the middle
brother, Shmuel, were great scholars, talmudists and familiar with modern Hebrew literature and language, and
therefore nationalists. The brothers mainly sought to employ Jewish workers, artisans and various specialists
from Germany, Austria and Russia.
The Telekhany Jewish population came to life. The Jews couldn't figure out what was happening. Every Jew developed strength and encouragement, and saw the factory as the end of poverty. In 1895 the construction of the factory was completed, and began a new page in the history of Telekhany. Let us now evaluate what influence the factory, with its various types of Jews who settled in and around town had on the cultural, social and political life in Telekhany, and how the cultural and community life started to be transformed from a lifestyle from the Middle Ages, and started creating new groups among the Jews who came to town because of the people who arrived from the outside world, and who settled in Telekhany because of the glass factory. (Continued at http://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/Telekhany/tel005.html)
Here is a correspondence I received from the Corning Museum of Glass: September 10, 2007 Dear Mr. Kagan, Thank you for your e-mail enquiry. You had requested information on the Telechan glasshouse from our library already in 2005, and I am afraid that we did not come accross more information on that glasshouse in the meantime. In many if not most of the glasshouses in Europe, glassmakers and decorators were allowed to make experimental things in their sparetime. This provided good training, and often funny, or awkward results. Almost never, however, can these products be attributed to a certain glasshouse or glassmaker; unless, of course, they have come down in the family and are signed. It will not be easy, but I wish you best luck in finding more products of the Belarus glasshouse.
With kind regards,
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Dr. Dedo von Kerssenbrock-Krosigk |
