According to a research article written in the summer of 1953 by G. Hubert Smith for the Minnesota Historical Society, titled, Minnesota Potteries: From Pioneer Craft to Modern Factory, "The earliest Minnesota earthenware plant doubtless was the St. Anthony Pottery established by Louis Kampff in August 1857, only three years after he emigrated from Germany. His workshop was located near the river in what is now Minneapolis just outside the limits of old St. Anthony. Kampff began to make pottery in a log shanty back of which was a clay pot where he obtained his raw material. In 1860 he erected for his plant a two-story stone building. Somewhat altered, this building on Marshall Street Northeast, was still being used as a residence by one of his sons as recently as 1947.
The extent of Kampff's early venture is reflected in the manuscript early census records for 1860. They indicate that in 1859-60 Kampff used glazing supplies value at two hundred dollars as well as forty cords of wood costing eighty dollars. During the same year he paid three employees a total of six hundred dollars in wages, and his plant produced twenty thousand gallons of earthenware valued at a thousand dollars.
In the course of the decade that followed, the business of the St. Anthony Pottery grew to such an extent that by 1870 Kampff was producing three thousand dollars of pottery annually. His capital investment for the same year was placed at two thousand dollars. In 1876, Kampff sold the business to Jonas G. Swahn. With his son Charles, who joined the firm in 1883, the latter manufactured "flower pots, garden vases, hanging baskets," and terra cotta work "to order." After the elder Swahn died, the business was continued until 1904 as J.G. Swahn's Sons."
Site of the St. Anthony Pottery in Minneapolis, MN
Louis J. Kampff (1828-1903) was born in Hanover, Germany in 1828, where he learned the pottery trade and emigrated to the United States in 1854. He settled in Galena, Illinois; it is likely that he was employed in Galena's pottery industry. This is also where he met Mina Koehlberg in 1857, the same year the couple moved to Minnesota.
In August 1857, he built a 16 foot by 20 foot log shanty on the outskirts of St. Anthony near a clay pit along the Mississippi River and began producing red earthenware. He likely utilized the river to export some of the pottery he produced. Among the businesses that he is thought to have sold his wares included John Orth and Gottlieb Gluek, both immigrants who owned local breweries. The success of this early business is what led to Kampff building his new factory in 1860 that G. Hubert Smith wrote about in 1953.
Nonetheless, I have not been able to find a lot of evidence of Kampff's early red earthenware production, but I suspect it was largely influenced by the wares he made in Germany, and perhaps even the red earthenware he was involved with in Galena. As a result, I have to ponder the question whether any of the red earthenware made by Kampff in Minnesota resembled Galena red earthenware. I am curious to know if any slipware was manufactured at the St. Anthony Pottery.
Interestingly, though, the Minnesota Historical Society does own the remains of this red earthenware pitcher recovered by archaeologists from the schoolhouse area in the 1957/58 excavations of Historic Fort Snelling in Minnesota. The fort was located less than ten miles from the St. Anthony Pottery, and it was certainly in operation when Kampff was producing red earthenware. It should also be noted that the color of the glaze is similar to some glazes manufactured in Galena.
Red Earthenware Pitcher Recovered at Historic Fort Snelling in Minnesota
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