Something that I have thought about for sometime now is whether the completion of the Erie Canal in New York State in 1825, with port cities located in Western New York in Buffalo and Rochester, had any impact with stoneware production in Ohio. Nearly every major city in New York can be found along the trade route established by the Erie Canal: it links Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Utica, and Albany with New York City. When fully completed in 1832, the Ohio and Erie Canal traveled 308 miles through 146 lift locks on its path between Cleveland and Portsmouth, Ohio. The canal almost instantly turned Cleveland into a major commercial center.
Furthermore, the Ohio and Erie Canal, connecting Lake Erie at Cleveland with the Ohio River at Portsmouth, was constructed by the State of Ohio between 1825-1832, in order to provide cheap transportation and to promote the state's economic development.
In consideration of this, I have wondered how stoneware and red earthenware production during the post-1832 period in Cleveland and elsewhere in northern Ohio was impacted, perhaps partially by potters located in New York State, seeing that utilitarian pottery production increased dramatically in both Rochester and Buffalo, once the Erie Canal opened in those port cities in 1825.
For instance, one potter that comes to mind is Daniel Fisk (1792-1868); Fisk was a stoneware potter, owning several pottery businesses in Springfield (Akron), Ohio and Cleveland. He appears in the 1837 City Directory for Cleveland, living near Public Square and owning a pottery on Orange alley. This was only a few yeas after the canal opened in Cleveland, although Fisk was actually born in Whitesboro, Oneida County, New York.
Interestingly, I do not know when Fisk first moved to Cleveland, although Whitesboro is located less than five miles from the port city of Utica, New York, whereas some of the forms produced by Fisk in Cleveland appear similar to shapes made in Utica before 1832; there were a few different stoneware businesses operating in Utica during the 1820s and early 1830s period. Fisk also lived for a time in Hamilton in Ontario, Canada, as well as Minnesota, before dying in Wisconsin in 1868.
(Left) 19th Century Cobalt Decorated Stoneware Crock Made in Cleveland, Ohio
Stamped "D. Fisk"
Made As Early As 1837 (Possibly Earlier)
(Right) 19th Century Cobalt Decorated Stoneware Crock Made in Utica, New York
Marked "D. ROBERTS & Co / UTICA"
Circa 1827-1830
Photo Courtesy: Freeman's | Hindman and Crocker Farm
There are other instances of potters moving from New York to Ohio in the nineteenth century, such as the Mormon leader Heber C. Kimball (1801-1868), who relocated from Mendon, New York to Kirtland, Ohio about 1835, before moving to Salt Lake City, Utah in 1848. Kirtland is located around twenty miles northeast of Cleveland. Kimball will also be a subject of a chapter in my forthcoming two-volume Western New York book, titled, America's Great Awakening and Migration: The Red Earthenware of Western New York.
Interestingly, though, it was probably around fifteen years ago that I found a nineteenth century cobalt decorated stoneware butter churn with its original lid at a flea market in southern Maine; at the time, I thought the churn may have been made in Rochester, New York, although it was unmarked.
However, I later learned that it was a Midwestern churn, possibly made in Ohio, and perhaps in the Akron or Cleveland area. But the manner of the cobalt decorated flower with the number "6" has always reminded me of production in Western New York. The style of the flower and the gallon capacity is similar to types produced at John Burger's (1811-1885) circa 1854-1867 pottery business in Rochester, along with Frederick Stetzenmeyer's (1815-1882) production in Rochester, and other businesses in Rochester, as well as Charles W. Braun's (1821-1899) stoneware factory in Buffalo.19th Century Six-Gallon Cobalt Decorated Stoneware Butter Churn
Decorated with a Cobalt Flower and the Number "6"
Made in the Midwest, Possibly Made in Ohio
Possibly Made in the Cleveland or Akron, Ohio Area
The Decoration is Similar to Types Produced in Rochester and Buffalo, New York
See Article for More Information
(Right) 19th Center Cobalt Decorated Crock Made in Rochester, New York
Decorated with a Cobalt Flower and the Number "2"
Stamped "JOHN BURGER / ROCHESTER"
Circa 1854-1867
(Left) 19th Center Cobalt Decorated Crock Made in Rochester, New York
Decorated with a Cobalt Flower and the Number "2"
Stamped "F. STETZENMEYER.&.Co / ROCHESTER.N.Y."
Circa 1855
See Article for More Information
Photo Courtesy: Crocker Farm
19th Center Cobalt Decorated Crock Made in Rochester, New York
Decorated with a Cobalt Flower
Stamped "C.W. BRAUN / BUFFALO N.Y."
Circa 1870
See Article for More Information
Photo Courtesy: Crocker Farm
19th Center Cobalt Decorated Crock Made in Rochester, New York
Decorated with a Cobalt Flower
Stamped "Harrington & Burger / Rochester"
Circa 1852-1854
See Article for More Information
Photo Courtesy: Private Maine Collection
The first crock was made about thirty-five miles to the south of Cleveland in Akron; there are aspects about this object that remind me of production in Western New York. The crock was made at a business owned by Phillip H. Smith (1812-1897), who was actually born in New York. The fish decoration applied on this crock is probably one of the more iconic designs produced at this company, whereas the most recent example sold at Freeman's | Hindman in Philadelphia last fall, as part of the Dr. Richard J. Wattenmaker Collection; that crock sold for $4,763, including the buyer's premium, although the cobalt decoration was not as good as this example:
https://hindmanauctions.com/auctions/2083-For-the-Love-of-Barnes-The-Collection-of-Dr-Richard-J-Wattenmaker/lot/82.
Additionally, among the most important examples of this type of fish design from Akron is one that sold at Christie's in Manhattan in 2012, which was previously owned by
Vicki and Bruce Waasdorp in Clarence, New York and Leigh Keno in New York City; that crock was decorated in cobalt with a fish, the number "6" and the inscription, "P.H. Smith & Sons" - https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-5526974.
(Right) 19th Century Three-Gallon Stoneware Crock from Akron, Ohio
Decorated with a Cobalt Fish and the Number "3"
Attributed to Phillip Smith and His Family's Stoneware Company
Circa Second-Half of the 19th Century
See Article for More Information
Photo Courtesy: A.A.A.W.T.
19th Century Six-Gallon Stoneware Crock from Akron, Ohio
Decorated with a Cobalt Fish and the Number "6"
Inscribed in Cobalt "P.H. Smith & Sons"
Circa Second-Half of the 19th Century
See Article for More Information
Photo Courtesy: Christies
The maker of the second object is unknown to me outside of an Ohio origin, although it may have been made by a potter who worked somewhere around the Ohio River. This is really an impressive object to see in-person because of its size and the cobalt design; the style of the tulip applied on this object is certainly reminiscent to decorative types used by German immigrants and potters throughout Pennsylvania and Ohio during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The crock is also decorated with a Roman numeral “X” in cobalt, which likely represents the ten gallon capacity. But I also want to mention that there was a heavy influx of German potters who migrated to Erie County, New York in the nineteenth century, and especially in the Buffalo area, where those potters worked with both red earthenware and stoneware.
19th Century Ten-Gallon Stoneware Crock from Ohio
Decorated in Cobalt with a Tulip and the Roman Numeral "X"
Stands 16 1/2" Tall
See Article for More Information
Photo Courtesy: A.A.A.W.T.
Please Stay Tuned...Much More to Come...
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