An aspect of pottery production that is not all that well-known today is that there was some migrant German potters working in Essex County, Massachusetts in the nineteenth century, as well as migrant potters from France, Italy, etc. For instance, it was previously published that there was a "Jacob Steinbrecher" who worked at the Joseph Reed Pottery (previously owned by the Osborn family and later Moses Paige) in Peabody, Massachusetts. This potter was then cited as working in Lynn, Massachusetts in 1875 with no further information included about his career as a potter.
Jacob Steinbrecher (1866-1942) was actually the son of Henry Steinbrecher (1837-1904); they appeared in the 1870 United States Federal Census in Peabody, alongside the potters George Deibel (1846-1910) and Martin Klemke (1844-1902), among others, all of whom were born in either Bavaria or Prussia in Germany.
Henry and Jacob then appear in the 1880 Federal Census in Lynn, where Jacob is fourteen years of age, and "works at a pottery factory," while Henry is cited as a "potter." The Steinbrechers arrived in the United States in 1864.
However, by the 1900 United States Federal Census, Henry was working as a potter in Cincinnati, Ohio. This is where he died in 1904; his son Jacob also died in Cincinnati in 1942.
As for Deibel and Klemke, they remained in Massachusetts; Deibel continued to work as a potter for Moses Paige (1847/48-1941) in Peabody, until he died in 1904, and Klemke was a listed as a "gardener" in Methuen, Massachusetts in the 1900 United States Federal Census, where he died in 1902: https://historicbeverly.net/product/the-moses-b-paige-company-the-last-of-the-peabody-potteries/.
Furthmore, back in 2019, I acquired the nineteenth and early twentieth century notes, photography and some of the the pottery owned by Prof. Frederick H. Norton (1896-1992), a descendant of the Norton family of potters in Bennington, Vermont and Worcester, Massachusetts. One of the photographs showed four men standing outside of the M.B. Paige Pottery in Peabody in the late 1800s, which includes Deibel, who is standing second from the left, whereas Norton indicates the other men were Charles Boynton, Charles Richmond and Ed Rich.
Interestingly, Charles A. Lawrence (1829-1904) also emerged from this group of potters; he was the son of an immigrant and established a business in neighboring Beverly, Massachusetts after 1865, which operated until the early 1900s: https://historicbeverly.net/product/the-beverly-pottery-the-wares-of-charles-a-lawrence/.
Note: For more information about Italian migrant potters working in Peabody - see a feature story I wrote for the May 12, 2023 issue of Antiques And The Arts Weekly, titled, Ermano & Luigi Paolucci: Two Italian Immigrant Potters In Peabody, Mass.: http://www.earlyamericanceramics.com/2023/05/new-published-article-in-antiques-and.html.
Also for more information about Norton - see a feature story I wrote for the August 16, 2019 issue of Antiques & Auction News, titled, The Career, Research And Collection Of Frederick H. Norton: http://www.earlyamericanceramics.com/2019/08/feature-story-about-career-research-and.html.
Some German Migrant Potters Who Worked in Peabody, Mass
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