This is an excerpt about Nathaniel Rochester's (1752-1831) impact in Hagerstown, Maryland and how Hagerstown's red earthenware production may have been influential with his company's circa 1818-1831 production in West Bloomfield, New York, which will be included in my forthcoming two-volume Western New York book, titled, America's Great Awakening and Migration: The Red Earthenware of Western New York.
--------------------
"As previously noted in this chapter, Nathaniel Rochester had strong ties to Hagerstown, Maryland, although the potter or potters who worked for him are not entirely known. But what is evident with some of the slip decorated wares produced at the Rochester Pottery in West Bloomfield is the use of two and three-colored slip decorated wares, some of which were manufactured with multiple chambered slip cups. A lot of the slip applied at the Rochester Pottery was also done so where it flowed sideways on the object, a rather unusual style when compared to a lot of the wares produced with slip elsewhere in America in the eighteenth and nineteenth century. However, this was also a style that was perhaps created as part of the potting tradition in Hagerstown about the same period, and this may have been the origin of this potting technique in West Bloomfield.
Furthermore, Rochester had strong ties to Hagerstown; he moved there about 1780 with Thomas Hart (1730-1808), a leading merchant in North Carolina, whose daughter, Lucretia, would eventually marry Henry Clay (1777-1852). Rochester had also previously been involved with James Monroe in North Carolina, but he lived in Hagerstown for nearly thirty-years, circa 1780-1810.In Hagerstown, Rochester built his house, known as “Mount Prospect” in 1789, on ground which once belonged to Jonathan Hager (1752-1810), the founder of Hagerstown. Rochester also rented a gristmill and established a nail and rope factory. He also served as a member of the Maryland legislature for one session and as postmaster for two years. He was also elected judge in 1797, although he found that he needed more legal training to fill this role.
Rochester was also a private banker in Hagerstown and took the lead in 1807 in founding the Hagerstown Bank of which he became the first president. Additionally, Rochester’s role in Hagerstown may explain why some of the slip-decorated red earthenware produced at his circa 1818-1831 business in West Bloomfield appears to have a Hagerstown influence. Being the businessman that he was, he may have observed production from such potters in Hagerstown as Henry Adam (1782-1819), Peter Bell (1775-1854), John Snavely and Daniel Reichard (1780-1859, among other potters.
After 1803, Rochester served successively as postmaster, as sheriff, and, as a staunch Jeffersonian in politics, as an official elector in 1808 when he helped to cast the state's majority vote for President Madison. Nonetheless, he had to have been aware of the red earthenware production that was happening in Hagerstown during this period.
Rochester also assumed the direction of local street improvements in Hagerstown made under a legislative authorization and served as commissioner of a lottery to raise £600 for the completion of St. John's Episcopal Church of which he was a vestryman. As president of the only bank in western Maryland, his influence and leadership in the community were assured; Rochester was impactful in the early development of Hillsborough, North Carolina, Hagerstown and Western New York."
Please Stay Tuned...Much More to Come...
No comments:
Post a Comment