EarlyAmericanCeramics.com: A Wonderful Red Earthenware Cooler in the Collection of the Livingston County Historical Museum

Monday, August 19, 2019

A Wonderful Red Earthenware Cooler in the Collection of the Livingston County Historical Museum

While traveling through upstate New York last week with my nephew Jason and niece Alexis, we visited the Livingston County Historical Museum in Geneseo, New York. We were introduced to a number of great objects inside this museum, but the purpose of our visit was to see a wonderful nineteenth century red earthenware cooler inscribed "Ice Cream" that I wrote about last winter.

I had initially suggested that this jar was very possibly made by Heber Kimball (1801-1868) in Mendon, New York. And after seeing and handling this object, I still feel this pot was made by Kimball. The form and glaze seem to correspond with two jars said to have been made by Kimball in the collection of the Museum of Church History in Salt Lake City, Utah; however, I also noticed small traces of slip-decoration all over this cooler, and Heber Kimball was also known to have decorated some of his wares in various colors of slip.

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, but it is thought that he may have learned the craft in West Bloomfield, New York.

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"

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."

Western New York Red Earthenware Cooler