The Root Glass Company the center portion of the newly designed sample Coca-Cola bottle. With limited time remaining before the molten glass furnaces would be shut down for cleaning, Dean produced a few sample bottles that would be submitted to the national Coca-Cola bottle contest. The Root Glass Company The Root Glass Company originated as Root Glass Works in Vigo County, Indiana. Businessman and Pennsylvania native Chapman J. Root (November 22, 1864 - November 20, 1945) opened the original glass company on May 27, 1901, at Third and Voorhees Streets a year after he moved to the city of Terre Haute, Indiana. By 1904
Indiana Glass Company bonds, and a bank brought suit for the foreclosure of mortgages that were used as security. National Glass went into receivership during December 1907. During the year, Frank Merry and associates formed a company to buy the Dunkirk glass plant. The assets of National Glass were sold at auction during November 1908. The purchase of the Dunkirk plant was final in 1909, and Frank Merry continued as president. The major stockholders were Frank Merry, Henry J. Batsch, Harold H. Phillips, Charles W. Smalley, Rathburn Fuller, and James E. Merry. Management from this time until 1915 included James Merry as vice