When researching antique glass and their glassworks, we sometimes come across stories that we feel need to be retold to show the reality of the times and workers.
This story is about a glass mold maker who would have worked at Doyle & Co. on the South Side of Pittsburgh in the 1880s.
As promised, here are the two links to the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in Weston, West Virginia and the Museum of American Glass in West Virginia.
https://trans-alleghenylunaticasylum.com/
https://magwv.org/
#victorianglass #southsidepittsburgh #wheelingwv #americanhistory #pittsburghhistory #wheelinghistory
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Transcript
[Intro music] 00:00:00:00 - 00:00:32:14
Hi, this is Melanie from Artifact and Landmark. So sometimes I run across stories through articles of glass workers and their lives. And one of these stories I spoke a little bit about, we're covering the history of Doyle and Company and one of the glassworks out of Pittsburgh, PA. If you haven't watched that episode, our main subject is a glass mold maker that worked at the Doyle and Co glass factory in the 1880s.
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And I'll just dive into the story. On Friday, June 8, 1888, Constable J. J. Finney went to Doyle & Co. to serve Henry Gerstman, a mold-maker, with a warrant for deserting his wife, Amelia. Henry is told by constable Finney to either pay the bail or to accompany him. Henry seemed dismissive of the constable and it is unclear if Henry understood the constable’s request.
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But Finney then put his hand on Henry's shoulder, which caused him to get up and dodge behind the machine he'd been working on, and he pulled out a gun. He shot at the constable several times. The constable returned fire, but Henry made his escape through a window. Both Henry and the constable were essentially unharmed from this. The constable then sought a warrant for Henry's arrest for assault and battery, but Henry escaped to Germany.
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But that wasn't the end of the story. And that's where we left it off in the last video.
So the next year, on June 28th, 1889, we see an article appear in the paper from Henry's wife, Amelia Gerstman, who is writing to judge W.H. Davis relating to the shooting of officer Frohme. She believed after her husband shot constable Finney that he had fled and remained in Germany in an insane asylum.
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Although Judge Davis discounted her worries, it would end up being her husband. This time both Gerstman and the officer were injured. So this event occurred on June 19th, 1889, and Gerstman was down at the foot of 43rd Street, and it seemed he was frightening some women. So the officer Frohme was called, and when he arrived, he found what he reported to be a dirty man, essentially a tramp.
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And Officer Frohme tried to proceed to arrest him, but Henry once again pulls out a revolver and fires it at the officer, and this time he does hit him. A bystander named Landkrone, who had accompanied the officer, wrestled the revolver away from Henry and shot him through the eye. One report also says that Frohme tried to also shoot him, but the gun wouldn’t
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discharge. At Henry's arrest, it said that he had other weapons on him, and possibly even a bottle of acid. So Henry ends up in jail for shooting with intent to kill. The bullet that went reportedly through his eye somehow falls through his mouth, and he reportedly refuses to let a physician not only examine him, but to even touch the bullet.
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These are the two lines from that one article.
“There is a very general feeling that Gertsman is insane.”
“During the trial, Gertsman sat quietly at one side of the room with his eyes bandaged, while Frohme stood on the other side with his head tied up.”
And October 13th, 1889, Henry was adjudged insane and taken to the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in Weston, West Virginia.
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You can actually visit this asylum today since it's a tourist attraction that does tours, and it actually also happens to be about a mile down the road from one of the best glass museums in the country, The Museum of American Glass, in West Virginia. I'll post a few links to these in the description.
So, oddly enough, the weapons that were found on Henry when he was arrested for the second shooting, including the gun and the knives, were given to his attorneys to keep as
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souvenirs. Unfortunately, we don't know what happened to Henry Sr after this. We know that his wife, Amelia, and her five children will move back to West Virginia, where her family was living. We see her living in Benwood,, which is a town on the outskirts of Wheeling which you can see on this bird's eye view map from 1882.
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By 1900, we see her listed as a widow. Amelia is actually buried next to her son, Rinehart, who unfortunately passes away at a very young age due to his own mental struggles. So although her husband's story seems tragic, Amelia seems to have been a really kind, empathetic, and pious woman.
So that's it for this episode. I hope you find these stories provide some reality behind the work and the personal lives of the glass workers and their struggles.
