Veazie is a coastal community accessible from the Penobscot River, which meets the Penobscot Bay - and, then the Atlantic Ocean, about thirty-miles downriver.
The trading post was established by Jonathan Lowder (1733-1814); according to 'Volume 30 of the Daughters of the American Revolution Magazine,' "Jonathan Lowder was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1731 - and, he died in Bangor, Maine on January 28, 1814. He served at Fort Pownal or Fort Point, Maine. He was captain in Colonel Godthwait's regiment, and was also lieutenant colonel in Colonel Josiah Brewer's regiment.
Lowder was also an agent for the Penobscot Indians and a clerk for Major Robert Treat for many years. Through his influence the Indians were prevented from enlisting in the English ranks, and were kept loyal to the American cause.
He was also one of the original settlers of Bangor, Maine, owning a lot of one-hundred acres of land just above Mount Hope near where a substantial brick house used to stand. A headstone marks Louder's resting place in Bangor today."
The trading post was destroyed in 1779 during the Penobscot Expedition, which was an American crusade that was miscalculated, and an entire American fleet was destroyed in an attempt to regain land from under the control of British authority; this land would become Maine in 1820.
The following eighteenth-century brown-glazed red earthenware jug was excavated by Maine archaeologists in the late-twentieth-century at the location of Lowder's Trading Post. Unfortunately, I don't have access to the jug since it is in storage; however, I have asked permission to gain access to a color photograph. I am hopeful that I will be able to publish this photograph soon enough on this website.
The jug is attributed to the Daniel Bayley Pottery Company (circa 1766-1799) in Newburyport, Massachusetts. It is also related to the trading post having been recovered in a circa 1775-1779 archaeological context. I should note that related slip-decorated red earthenware artifacts from the Bayley Pottery were found in a late-1760's and early-1770's archaeological context at a military trading post in Saint John, New Brunswick. The belief is that those artifacts were exported by the Bayley Pottery to be sold by the proprietors at the trading post.
This jug is likely further evidence that some of the coastal colonial Massachusetts red earthenware potters, who were located north of Boston were producing red earthenware for export before and during the American Revolution. The export evidence remains (so far) today with the Daniel Bayley Pottery Company in Newburyport, Massachusetts, and a few (all?) of the businesses that were involved with the Charlestown, Massachusetts potter's industry before 1775.
Additional evidence from the Daniel Bayley Pottery Company has been recovered in Salem, Massachusetts, Portsmouth, New Hampshire and within a circa 1770 site located near Portland, Maine
Evidence from Charlestown's industry has been recovered in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Portland, Maine, a military fort located north of Wiscasset, Maine and a military fort located on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia.
18th Century Brown-Glazed Red Earthenware Jug Attributed to the Daniel Bayley Pottery Co.
Daniel Bayley Pottery Company Operated in Newburyport, Mass. from Circa 1766-1799
This Jug was Uncovered at the Site of the Lowder's Trading Post in Veazie, ME
Circa 1775-1779
Stands Approximately 8" Tall
Photo Courtesy: Jonathan Lowder's Truckhouse, Lagerbom, 1991
Please Stay Tuned...Much More to Come...
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