As I have recently noted on this website - I am working on an eleventh book with a group of researchers, including New York author Warren Broderick, titled, A Monumental History: Stories of Red Earthenware Production in Western Massachusetts, the Berkshires and Vermont.
While the book primarily focuses on those regions, it will also feature new research into Worcester’s red earthenware history, etc., including insights from a descendant of potters who worked in Orange, Massachusetts. However, I have yet to identify a single surviving piece of red earthenware that can be definitively linked to Worcester production between 1773 and 1830.
If you have an artifact that might be related to this production, please feel free to contact me. In the meantime, here is a general overview of that production history as it will appear in the book.
"...The history of red earthenware production in Worcester, Massachusetts, began with a small pre-Revolutionary business in the 1770s, which eventually led to the production of industrial stoneware around the mid-nineteenth century. It is possible that Worcester-made red earthenware may have reached the western part of the state between 1773 and 1810, though it is undocumented. It was also likely limited in quantity due to the logistics of eighteenth century trade.
In the years leading up to the American Revolution, Daniel Goulding (1752-1843), a native of Worcester, established one of the earliest operations near Front Street in Worcester around 1773, providing the community with everyday household red earthenware. Furthermore, he was also a town leader and even helped build the city's first water system by piping a spring from his land to his neighbors.
In 1798, Goulding was authorized by the state to establish Worcester's first organized water system, utilizing hollowed-out log pipes to carry water from a spring on his property to the residents of Front Street. While modern urban development has made formal archaeological excavations of his original kiln site difficult, utility work in downtown Worcester occasionally unearths red earthenware sherds alongside the remains of his log aqueducts.
By the time of Goulding’s death in 1843, his family had fully transitioned away from the red earthenware industry; his son, Henry Goulding (1802-1866), became a prominent manufacturer of wool-carding machinery, marking the shift from Daniel's handmade red earthenware to the machine-driven economy of Worcester in the nineteenth century.
Goulding ‘s red earthenware business was followed by Thomas Stearns (1778-1826), who was born 25 to 30 miles north of the city in Lunenburg, Massachusetts, in 1778. He began producing red earthenware near the Worcester Common around 1805. During this period, Worcester Common was a busy field used for everything from cattle shows to military drills. Stearns lived the traditional "farmer-potter” lifestyle of the early 1800s, perhaps similar to Hervey Brooks (1779-1873) of Goshen, Connecticut: https://historicbeverly.net/product/a-city-on-the-river-the-early-red-earthenware-of-the-hartford-connecticut-area/.
Like Goulding, Stearns made household utilitarian red earthenware until his death. His son, Thomas Stearns Junior (1811-1896), decided not to become a potter and instead moved into the shipping and trading business, finding success in Baltimore and Boston, while embracing how the next generation moved toward bigger industries that were beginning to emerge in Worcester.
However, during this early period, the Standish family also contributed to the local trade, led by Lemuel Standish (1746-1824) and his son, James Standish (1782-1846). They descended from the Pilgrim Captain Myles Standish (1584-1656), who arrived in America aboard the Mayflower in 1620, eventually living in the Plimouth Colony. Myles died in Duxbury, Massachusetts, October 3, 1656.
Lemuel was born in Pembroke, Massachusetts (though his birth was also recorded in nearby Duxbury) in 1746. Before his move to Worcester, 1776-1780, Lemuel lived on the South Shore in Pembroke and served during the American Revolution. Lemuel may have initially worked for Daniel Goulding’s business, since both men were also active in the local Worcester militia.
By the 1830s and 1840s, red earthenware production expanded northward and eastward as the city grew. The Gates family established a kiln on Lincoln Street, primarily led by Horatio Gates (1803-1851), a descendant of the town's early colonial settlers.
Around the same time, Amasa G. Davis (1811-1888) began his work as a red earthenware potter on Grafton Street, eventually becoming a pivotal figure in the 1850s, as he partnered with other local makers to transition the city’s output from local red earthenware to mass-produced stoneware. This was a monumental change for how Worcester’s pottery industry had previously operated.
Nevertheless, everything changed in 1858, with the arrival of Frederick Hancock (1817-1891), a master potter from Vermont. Hancock partnered with Franklin B. Norton (1829-1886) at Washington Square, marking the city’s official shift from small scale red earthenware production to large-scale industrial manufacturing. While they initially produced some utilitarian red earthenware, Hancock and Norton’s collaboration essentially laid the groundwork for the Norton Company. In fact, by 1860, Worcester’s red earthenware production was nearly non-existent, replaced by salt-glazed stoneware and the dawn of Worcester’s industrial revolution..."
Note: For more information about red earthenware production in central Massachusetts - see my eighth book, titled, An Influential Family of Early Potters: The Clarks of New Hampshire and Related Businesses: https://historicbeverly.net/product/an-influential-family-of-early-potters-the-clarks-of-new-hampshire-and-related-businesses/.
This is an AI-Generated Image of How Worcester Common May Have Appeared in 1810
There are Similar Woodcuts and Engravings from this Period
See Article for More Information
Please Stay Tuned...Much More to Come....
