This letter was partially cited by Lura Woodside Watkins (1897-1982) in Early New England Potters and Their Wares, as well as Manlif Lelyn Branin's book, The Early Potters and Potteries of Maine. However, this is certainly a first-hand account that should be read in its entirety, seeing that much of this information has not been seen since it was originally published.
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Benjamin Dodge and His Pottery
To the Editor of the Press:
The poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) is one of several men of genius whom the institutions of Massachusetts drew away from Maine. We occasionally see that he is not forgotten "the hole of the pit from which he was digged, nor the rock from which he was hewed." It is understood that he claims to have received the first suggestion of Keramos, the song of the potter, from an old Portland potter and his wheel.
After learning the source of the poet's inspiration, I felt an impulse to give an unvarnished history of Benjamin Dodge, whom Longfellow has immortalized, as when a boy, I have often been censored for absence of my employment, the time having been spent in watching the (to me) miraculous creations from "clay in the hands of the potter." This impulse to write has recently been quickened by having my attention called to a letter from a Portland correspondent in the Salem Gazette. He well describes Dodge and his pottery, but he does not go back to the founders of the potters - his Benjamin Dodge is the second generation in the business, of the same name. Benjamin Dodge senior (1774-1838) came from Exeter, N.H. - the year is uncertain. Dr. Deane, in his list of new dwelling houses built in 1891 has this, "Dodge's the Potter." This was a two-story wooden dwelling which stood on the west corner of Congress and Green Streets. In the summer of 1822, during a severe drought, a fire broke out near New High Street and destroyed all the buildings east on that side of Congress to Green Street, including Dodge's house and pottery, and continued about the same distance on Green Street. This was the most extensive conflagration Portland had seen after Mowatt's burning.
The next year Mr. Dodge built on the same spot, three story brick house, which now forms the corner of the City Hotel. This house he kept as a tavern, first to put up his customers and their teams who came to buy his wares, and finally he entertained many others. He kept a quiet, orderly house at moderate prices, which brought him many guests from the country. The lower part of Green Street and Deering's bridge were opened in 1806, but there was no Portland Street for twenty years later. Mr. Dodge rebuilt his pottery in the rear of Osgood's tannery, next below Portland Street and the narrow lane leading from Green Street to it was called Potter's Lane. The son, Benjamin Dodge (1802-1876) was then about 17 years old, and was then in college. My first knowledge of the pottery commenced in 1824. When sent to that part of the town, I always hurried to have time to look into the pottery where out of school hours were collected a party of boys who watched the moulding of the ware, and those who liked it, drove the horse in his rounds to grind the clay. Mr. Dodge made progress in his art. He commenced to ornament the most expensive jars, pots and water pitchers, especially those made to order, marking them with the initial letters of names. I recollect one piece of ware made to order in 1825, on which was a figure purported to be a likeness of Gen. Lafayette, who was then the Nation's guest. This was in the best style of Dodge's art, having the initials on the opposite side, of the lady of whom it was intended as a humorous present. On some of the ware made by Mr. Dodge, were attempts at the likeness of animals and birds, some in relief, and some made in the glazing. Of those in relief, the legs and tails of animals seemed to have been placed without due care. A horse would have the forward legs of a giraffe and perhaps the tail of a cow - cats had a severe curl in their tails, like that of a nervous dog. Some of them would now remind us of Dickens' tomcat, which in one of his Christmas stories, is represented as being chased by a dog, which magnified his tail to such a size that he could not get back through the hole by which he came into the street. Indeed if Noah had been obliged to select from such animals for his pairs for his ark, he would have-been puzzled as to the species in some cases. The busts of persons seem to have been put on with more due care, most of these were profiles. After the vessels were finished, and set in another room to dry, it was a favorite trick of some bad boys (whom the good men tolerated notwithstanding) to disfigure the human faces by drawing down the corners of the mouth with the finger, producing a ludicrous expression - In this mischief some of the vessels were knocked askew. This disfiguring, the potter did not often observe, until it was too late to mend, and this, "imperfect" ware was burnt in the kiln with the other and set away on a shelf by itself, to be sold at a less price. This row of pots, jugs and pitchers was a curiosity. The faces looked as though they were making scornful mouths at their neighbors, or in a broad grin at some other caricatures. There were jugs with compressed nozzles which a round stopple would hardly fit. Longfellow could not have been one of these urchins, as he was then in college, but he may have had a hand in it at the other pottery years before. Mr. Dodge senior must have been the artist who so impressed the young poet, as the younger Dodge was less than two years his senior. The old potter finally left his kiln and wheel to his son and became melancholy and finally insane, often retreating to his garret and calling on his son to protect him from imaginary foes. In one of these frenzies he put an end to his mental misery by severing his jugular with one stroke of a knife. Mr. Dodge was a good citizen and a kind neighbor. He had long been a consistent member of Dr. Payson's church.
On the eastern slope of the hill in the old cemetery, is an upright slab of slate, with this inscription, "Benjamin Dodge born in Exeter, N.H., May, 1774, Died in Portland, Jan. 1, 1838."
The son of the same name, who had learned the business and was a partner in it with his father, continued to manufacture brown ware from common brick clay. He invented a very valuable green glazing - the secret of its composition he could not be prevailed upon to impart to anyone, and it is now one of the lost arts. During the time of the son, a stranger came into the pottery, and after looking at the process of moulding a while, he repeated these lines:
"No handicraftsman's art can with our art compare, We potters make our pots of what we potters are." They pleased Mr. Dodge, who asked to have them repeated, again, and then wrote them down. He afterwards moulded them on a clay tablet and burnt it like his ware. It was then set in a gilt frame, and was hung up in the pottery, which is still a pottery, and the tablet is still there. If Longfellow ever saw it was after he became a poet of celebrity. Mr. Dodge lived a bachelor, but at last the hereditary melancholy came upon him, but he was never considered insane, although he died by his own hand in 1870, aged 70.
W.G. Windham, June 18th
Green Glazed Urn with Two Busts of Lion Heads from Portland, ME
19th Century Red Earthenware Urn Manufactured in Two Pieces
Made at the Dodge Pottery in Portland, ME
Decorated with Busts of Two Lion Heads
Retains a 19th Century History of Ownership in Portland
See Article for More Information
Photo Courtesy: Maine Historical Society
View of One of the Lion Heads
See Article for More Information
Photo Courtesy: Maine Historical Society
Please Stay Tuned...Much More to Come...
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