Centered in Utah, the industry included shops distributed from Logan to St. George, Panguitch to Vernal, but also in Idaho, Arizona, and Nevada. Considered as a whole, potters made improved and unimproved earthenwares with red, cream, and buff-colored fabrics. Some individuals eventually manufactured stoneware. Their products ranged from storage jars to piggy banks, from flowerpots to teapots, from umbrella stands to chimney liners, crucibles, brick, and tile. Pots and other products were bartered, traded, and sold in pottery shops and retails stores, from family wagons, and by independent peddlers. They were even shipped by railroad to distant markets. People used pots in reciprocal gift giving and in the church's tithe-based poverty relief system.
Some of the 19th Century Mormon Potters Located in Utah
Some of the 19th Century Mormon Potters Employed in Utah
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Photo Courtesy: Michael Glascock, Timothy Scarlett and Robert Speakman
The lives of Utah's potters provide stories that are both compelling and important. Their lives do not reflect the typical experiences of Latter-day Saint settlers throughout the Mormon culture area because these artisans lived widely varied lives. They struggled with the industrialization of ceramic production and the steady growth of a heavily capitalized economy of scale in the cores of ceramic industry. They mediated the increasing obsolescence of their technical skills within a globalizing economy through a myriad of localized strategies. Their profession and shops were important economic and social symbols of permanence."
However, my interest in reading this archaeology report was more than just a desire to learn about Mormon pottery production in Utah. Instead, I am very curious to determine if there was any type of influence on pottery production in this area by the nineteenth century red earthenware industry in Western New York.
According to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, "Heber C. Kimball (1801-1868) was born on June 14, 1801, in Sheldon, Vermont. He was ordained as one of the original 12 Apostles on February 14, 1835, and later sustained as first counselor to President Brigham Young (1801-1877) who was also from Vermont, on December 27, 1847. Kimball died on June 22, 1868, in Salt Lake City, Utah, at the age of 67. He was a potter by trade, and he frequently referred to the Saints as "Clay in the Hands of the Potter." He delivered his discourse on April 2, 1854."
Furthermore, agreeing to take on plural marriage, then part of church doctrine, Kimball married 43 women throughout his lifetime, and had a total of 66 children by 17 of his wives.
However, before Kimball arrived in Utah, he left Vermont and relocated about 15 miles south of Rochester, New York to Mendon, Monroe County, New York in the western part of the state. This may have been a religious quest, seeing that at the time, parts of New York were engulfed with new religious movements, finding much of this activity in central and western upstate New York.
This was also a time in Western New York history, when land opened up for settlement, men and women left their rocky farms in New England and moved west, while Pennsylvanians and Marylanders migrated from the south.
It was in Mendon that Kimball first became a Mormon leader, but he also bought a pottery owned by his brother around 1822, operating until about 1833. Nevertheless, very little is known about this production today, even though there must be surviving examples in existence. Although, I have found no evidence that suggests any of this pottery was ever marked, nor does it appear that the site has been excavated for archaeological remains. I also do not believe it has been identified where Kimball was originally taught to make pottery, which he may have learned from his brother, but he may have learned the trade in Vermont, as well.
According to one twentieth century historian, Stanley B. Kimball (1926-2003), "The energetic Heber could turn out 20 dozen milk pans on a hard day at the potter's wheel. Apparently he specialized in common brownware made from fine-textured clay burned to a very high degree and covered by a hard brown glaze. It was used mainly for simple kitchen and table items - jars, crocks, pitchers, bottles, mugs, pots, milk pans, cups, churns and plates"
The only proof that I have found so far showing the whereabouts of some of Kimball's Western New York production are kept in museum's in the Midwest today. For instance, Heber's son, Solomon Kimball (1847-1920) donated a jug to the Deseret Museum about 1870, now operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. At the time, Solomon said it was the only pottery in existence made by the Church leader. Although, two other examples of production bought directly from Heber in the 1820s or 1830s have since emerged, and are owned by the Museum of Church History and Art in Salt Lake City, Utah.
In spite of that, I find it quite interesting that Kimball's business operated around the same time that Nathaniel Rochester's pottery produced some of the region's most dramatic examples of slip-decorated red earthenware in Rochester. Seeing that potters must have known each other through the trade, it would fascinating to know how well known Kimball was by his colleagues in Western New York.
Examples of Western New York Red Earthenware
19th Century Slip-Decorated Red Earthenware Handled Pot
Attributed to the Nathaniel Rochester Pottery in Rochester, NY
Circa 1818-1831
Stands 9 1/2" Tall
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Photo Courtesy: Conestoga Auction Company
Another View of the Pot
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Photo Courtesy: Conestoga Auction Company
19th Century Red Earthenware Jug
Attributed to Western New York
Stands 7 1/2" Tall
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Photo Courtesy: Cottone Auctions
It began, Heber said, in the eastern horizon - a white smoke rising toward the heavens with the sound of a mighty wind. The smoke moved across the sky, in the shape of a rainbow toward the western horizon. It grew wide, then bluish in color, and became completely transparent. As Heber watched with his family and several neighbors, a large commanding army appeared, marching in platoons across the sky from east to west. We could distinctly see the muskets, bayonets and knapsacks of the men. Herber recorded, and also saw their officers with their swords and equipage, and heard the clashing and jingling of their implements of war, and could discover the forms and features of the men. The most profound order existed throughout the entire army; when the foremost man stepped, every man stepped at the same time; I could hear the steps. When the front rank reached the western horizon a battle ensued, as we could distinctly hear the report of arms and the rush.
Brigham Young, who at the time was not acquainted with Heber, described what he had seen the same evening. There was a great light in the east and it went to the west and it was very bright, although there was no moon at the time. As he gazed at it with his wife, they saw great armies marching across the night sky. The vision was perfectly clear, and it remained for several hours.
Heber and Brigham and their family members who witnessed the amazing scene felt it must have been a sign from God, but they did not know its meaning.
The following year, Brigham Young and his wife moved to Mendon, New York, where Brigham's father, stepmother, and several of his siblings were already living. Brigham built a home and mill shop on his father's farm, less than a half mile northeast of where Heber Kimball and his wife lived. Brigham and Heber, just 13 days apart in age, and their wives just six days apart, soon became close friends."
Though Heber Kimball gave up his potter's wheel once he was ordained as an apostle, he did not forget his experience as a potter. In later sermons, Kimball compared the shaping of his own life by the Lord "to the molding of malleable clay with his own hands."
Heber C. Kimball's 19th Century Tool Chest
Heber C. Kimball's 19th Century Tool Chest
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Photo Courtesy: Museum of Church History and Art
Please Stay Tuned...Much More to Come...
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