Liberty: Reflections of An Oklahoma Glass Company and Its Family

Plot

The name Liberty Glass makes a statement in Sapulpa, Oklahoma. For more than 7 decades, it served as a symbol of hard work and American ingenuity. Owned by three generations of the Collins Family, the company manufactured glass products, specializing in returnable containers for the dairy and soda industries. Year after year, the people of Liberty stood strong, giving their employer a solid day's work for a solid day's pay. During its lifetime, Liberty was the primary employer in Sapulpa, with many families sending generation after generation to work at the company. It was a good job with good pay and many workers stayed on for decades. The people in the plant considered themselves family, and like all families, things sometimes got complicated. Liberty takes readers from the founding of the company in 1918 by George Collins Sr., through the sale of Liberty in 1994, weaving personal stories of triumph and tragedy, of good times and bad. Little did anyone dream that out of the depths of 1983's Union strike would come a new day and unsurpassed market dominance for Liberty. The imposing batch towers, built during the Liberty era, still loom over the Sapulpa skyline, a symbol to the men and women who worked there. Thanks to the many contributions of both the Collins Family and company employees, the significance of Liberty is still strongly felt. Liberty is the inspiring story of a plant and its people and an incredible legacy that still stands today.