Baron Stiegel
Manheim, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
The famed glassmaker and ironmaster of colonial days founded Manheim in 1762, and set up his glassworks in 1764. He gave land for the Lutheran Church which still pays his heirs one red rose a year.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
In the mid-1700s, German immigrant Henry William Stiegel — known in his heyday as "Baron" Stiegel — turned a Lancaster County iron furnace into one of colonial America's most ambitious industrial ventures, laying out the town of Manheim in 1762 and opening a celebrated glassworks two years later. His fine flint glass rivaled European imports and made his name, even as his lavish living later ruined him. His famous gift of church land carried a nominal rent of one red rose a year, a token still paid to his heirs.
Why it matters
Stiegel embodies the enterprising, sometimes overreaching spirit of colonial American manufacturing, when a single immigrant craftsman could build a town and a nationally known industry from a frontier furnace.
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Related people
- · Henry William "Baron" Stiegel
Themes & tags
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