19th Century Brick Making Operation in the White Mountains in New Hampshire

While recently researching the history of lead glazed earthenware production in the White Mountains in New Hampshire, I learned about this wonderful painting from historian, Bob Cottrell at the Conway, New Hampshire Historical Society. The artist is unknown, but the subject of this painting is fascinating, seeing that it illustrates a nineteenth century brick making operation along the Saco River in the White Mountains. Pictured in the background is Cathedral Ledge and the Saco River Valley.

To my knowledge, the identity of this business is unknown today, proving that there is still much to be learned about the domestic clay industry before 1900. Although, this operation may be responsible for some of the nineteenth century brick structures that were built in the North Conway area in the 1800s.

Brick Making Business in the White Mountains

19th Century Painting Depicting a Brick Making Operation in the White Mountains in NH

The Business is Illustrated Along the Saco River with Cathedral Ledge in the Background

The Artist is Unknown

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Photo Courtesy: Private New England Collection

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19th Century Print Depicting George Ebey's Circa 1834-1836 Pottery in Winchester, Illinois

Alfred Theodore Andreas (1839-1900) was born in Amity, New York on May 29, 1839; following his discharge from service in the Civil War, he took advantage of the growing interest in the publications of maps and atlases by becoming a salesman for the firm of Thompson & Everts, which published individual county maps.

After learning the needs of this industry for a few years, he founded Andreas, Lyter & Company in Davenport, Iowa in 1869 to 1870, compiling an estimated two dozen county atlases from 1871 to 1875. Overall, the business was quite profitable, and the company eventually reorganized and moved to Chicago.

Yesterday, I wrote about the lead glazed earthenware potteries, which operated in Sagamon County in central Illinois, circa 1825-1860. A number of potters were employed by these companies, including the Ebey and Brunk families.

Interestingly, while I researched this subject, I learned about a print published in 1873 by Andreas, Lyter & Company, which depicts the farm residence and pottery of George Ebay (1811-1889), located one mile northeast of Winchester, Illinois. Winchester is located about 50 miles east from where the lead glazed earthenware potteries were located in Sagamon County.

Ebay was born in January 1811 in Ohio, and came to Sagamon County in 1828, relocating to Winchester sometime before 1834, when he purchased a pottery. He married a woman named Matilda Kirkpatrick, whose surname may somehow be related to the famed Kirkpatrick potters of Anna, Illinois.

According to the Old School Museum in Winchester, "In the summer of 2010, the City of Winchester was widening a ditch along Maple Street. The workers found a large deposit of pottery sherds, or broken pieces of pottery. The city contacted the staff at the Old School Museum and archaeologist Dr. Claire Dapper was given permission to conduct a dig in order to assess the significance of the site.

The one by two meter excavation produced almost 50 buckets of material and the careful process of matching  pieces began. The museum displays the most complete pottery from the excavation, including one of the oldest known stamped pieces of pottery in Illinois.

The pottery kiln was associated with four potters: Robert Harrison from 1830 to 1834, George Ebey from 1834 to 1836, Thomas Killpatrick from 1834 to 1845, and Francis Nash from 1850 to 1860. During the nineteenth century, 19 known potteries were operating in Scott County, Illinois, and at least 13 potteries were operating in Winchester."

To my knowledge, Winchester was primarily a stoneware manufacturing district in the 1800s, but lead glazed earthenware may have been produced here as well, seeing that some of the potters may have originally come from that type of background. It should also be noted that some of the reassembled stoneware bowls (see below) displayed by the Old School Museum are similar in form to lead glazed earthenware forms manufactured by the Ebey and Brunk families at the Cotton Hill Pottery in Sagamon County.

George Ebey's Winchester, IL Pottery

 Farm Residence and Pottery of George Ebey, Located One Mile Northeast of Winchester, IL

Ebey Operated the Pottery Circa 1834-1836

Others Potters also Operated at this Pottery Site During the Circa 1830-1860 Period

Winchester Employed 19 Known Potteries in the 1800s

Published by Andreas, Lyter & Company in 1873

See Article for More Information
Photo Courtesy: Illinois State Museum

A Closer Look at George Ebey's Circa 1834-1836 Pottery in Winchester, IL

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Photo Courtesy: Illinois State Museum

Artifacts Recovered by Archaeologists in Winchester, IL

Artifacts Recovered in Winchester, IL in 2010

Some of these Objects may have Been Made by George Ebey, Circa 1834-1836

Overall the Site of these Artifacts Date from the 1830-1860 Period

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Photo Courtesy: Old School Museum

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19th Century Sketch by Christian Schrader of a Pottery Workshop in Indianapolis, Indiana

According to the Indiana State Library, "Christian Schrader was born in Indiana on January 6, 1842, to John and Johanna Schrader. As a child, Schrader dreamed of making a living as an artist. During the 1850s and 1860s, he learned the importance of history and technique of art with a group of men, including prominent portrait and landscape artist Jacob Cox and Henry Waugh. Schrader predominantly sketched in pencil, using people, buildings and landscapes to record early Indianapolis.

Never identifying himself as a professional artist, Schrader decided on a mercantile career during the 1850s. By 1854, he was a clerk at George G. Homan's dry goods store located in the Odd Fellows building. During the 1860s and 1870s, Schrader worked as a clerk at John Woodbridge & Company, a china and glassware shop on West Washington Street. In 1872, he opened his own store on 116 East Washington Street, known for exquisite china, glassware, queensware, and statuary.

Schrader retired from his business in 1909 and moved to Denver, Colorado to live with his daughter Lotta. Around 1911, he moved to Madison, Indiana to live with his daughter Louise. After retirement, Schrader began pencil drawing once more, renewing his interest in early art sketches he created during the mid to late 1800s.

Schrader is well known for sketching Indianapolis street by street and block by block, accounting for 170 buildings total. He relied on his early sketches to record Indianapolis as well as from his memory and memories from others. 

Christian Schrader died of a stroke on February 20, 1920 in Madison, Indiana."

Over 100 of Schrader's sketches and paintings were published by the Indiana Library and Historical Department in 1987 in a book titled, Indianapolis Remembered: Christian Schrader's Sketches of Early Indianapolis. However, one of these sketches really stood out to me, while recently studying a group of archaeology reports from Illinois; the information on file with the Indiana State Library identifies this sketch as a pottery workshop that was once located in what is today Indianapolis. But it is unclear if this was a business that Schrader sketched while he stood in front of it or if it was a project that he completed from memory.

Sketch of Indianapolis Pottery Workshop

19th Century Sketch by Christian Schrader (1842-1920)

The Sketch Depicts a Pottery Workshop Located in What is Today Indianapolis, IN

Probably Circa 1850s or 1860s

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Photo Courtesy: Indiana State Library

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The Circa 1825-1855 Cotton Hill Pottery in Central Illinois

According to the archaeology report, The Sangamo Frontier: History and Archaeology in the Shadow of Lincoln, "Pottery making on the early nineteenth century frontier was still a family business, built on the skills of a group of young men who were interrelated, and who passed on their expertise to other members of the family. Potters were usually farmers as well as depended on the extended family to make a decent living, much like other farmers in the neighborhood. Their niche in an increasingly international economy was to supply the local community with inexpensive utilitarian wares that were less commonly part of the inventories kept by large wholesalers in the cities. With the regard to the potteries in Sangamon County in central Illinois, ongoing research is making it clear that the proprietors of each of the competing potteries were actually related and members of a tightly knit community.

The first pottery to be established in the Samgamo region was located along Sugar Creek, in a community that would become known as Cotton Hill. Now known as the Ebey-Brunk site, the Cotton Hill Pottery was probably constructed in 1826 by the extended Royal-Ebey-Brunk family that moved here from Oho; some of the families also traced their origins to central Pennsylvania, a region with a long standing pottery-making tradition. The shop closed no later than 1854. This site is the only kiln in the region that has received intensive attention from archaeologists.

Another pottery shop was located less than 2.5 miles from the Cotton Hill kiln, along Horse Creek. Little is known about this site, which was only recently discovered and has yet to be excavated.

In Springfield, Illinois, John Ebey, who had begun his career at the Cotton Hill pottery, and opened a new shop near the public square in 1831, but Ebey left the Springfield area less than two years later.

Fifteen miles northwest of Springfield in the town of Athens, a red earthenware pottery was opened sometime in the mid-1830s. By the early 1840s, potter Barnett Ramsey (a brother to one of the potters at Cotton Hill) was running the shop. Census records indicate that the kiln was still running in 1860, making it the longest running of the four Sangamo area shops. Unfortunately, the Athens kiln site has been heavily damaged by development, and little is yet known about the wares and history of the site."

The Cotton Hill Pottery

"At least two red earthenware pottery shops were in operation in the Cotton Hill area between 1825 and 1855, employing members of the first families to settle in the area. The most substantial and better understood kiln site, the Ebey-Brunk site, was first discovered in the early 1970s. Various archival records recall the presence of at least nine potters."

The archaeology report indicates that most of the glazes were simple clear lead glazes, and often decorated with small amounts of manganese. The potters also often applied incised lines for decoration.

Nearly half of the identifiable forms recovered at the site of the Cotton Hill Pottery were bowls used for food preparation in the kitchen. Milk pans, dishes, pipkins, pots, jars, pipes and jugs were also produced.

However, the most exciting of all the discoveries was the production of slip-decoration, a style of decoration hardly associated with the lead glazed earthenware industry in Illinois. "At least three dishes are slip-decorated. Prior to the excavations of the Ebey-Brunk site, it was generally assumed that no such wares were made in Illinois. Two of the dishes are decorated in their centers with a tulip motif, executed in creamy yellow and manganese brown slips. The edges of both dishes are encircled by a single wavy line bracketed by two bands. The third dish is decorated in a more abstract and unusual design; a wavy grid-and-dot pattern in the center, encircled by a wavy line and band pattern as well as two rows of manganese brown splotches made with thumb prints.

Several bowls were also found  similar in form and size to the Chinese-style waste bowls used in tea services. Two of the bowls are glazed in a rich copper green. These delicately potted and carefully glazed vessels are more similar to English Queensware products than to any other vessel recovered from the site."

Artifacts Recovered from the Ebey-Brunk Site at the Cotton Hill Pottery in Illinois

(Top Row) Slip-Decorated Pans Recovered at the Ebey-Brunk Site in Central Illinois

(Bottom Row) Green Glazed Bowls Recovered at the Ebey-Brunk Site in Central Illinois

Circa 1825-1855

See Article for More Information

Photo Courtesy: Robert Mazrim

 Various Pots Recovered at the Ebey-Brunk Site in Central Illinois

Circa 1825-1855

See Article for More Information

Photo Courtesy: Robert Mazrim

Bowls and a Pipkin Handle Recovered at the Ebey-Brunk Site in Central Illinois

Circa 1825-1855

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Photo Courtesy: Robert Mazrim

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Anna Pottery and the Krannert Art Museum in Champaign, Illinois

According to the Krannert Art Museum at the University of Illinois, "In 1859 Cornwall Kirkpatrick (1814-1890) and his brother Wallace (1828-1896) founded Anna Pottery in the southern Illinois town of Anna. The museum owns two of the brother's best works - a snake jug (one of about two dozen known examples) and a directory jug (one of about ten).

The museum's snake jug bears 12 finely articulated timber rattlesnakes and three men. The snakes slither out of the jug and sprawl in tangles across most of its surface. 

Little is known of the reception of the Kirkpatricks' figural works in their own time. In the twentieth century, scholars saw the Kirkpatrick snake jugs as temperance warnings against the evils of drink. More recent interpreters, however, draw attention to the jug's grotesque, macabre, sexual, and scatological aspects, their humor, and their self-consciously extravagant style, and argue that they are an iconic debunking of Victorian values."

Over the past year, I have also written about what I consider to be the best example of figural Anna Pottery in existence today, owned by the New York Historical Society in Manhattan. According to the historical Society, "The Anna Pottery Company made a snake jug as a thank you gift for Thomas Nast, a famous political cartoonist of the 1860s and 1870s. Nast had used his cartoons to attack the massive misappropriation of public funds by Boss Tweed and his henchmen, who controlled the political machine known as Tammany Hall. Tweed is found on the jug with a bearded head with glasses, and most of the other heads are his associates. Also the behinds of all the Tammany Hall members are seen trying to climb into the pot of money and power. A lot of people knew about Tweed's corruption, but it was Nast's cartoons in Harper's Weekly that finally aroused the public, the newspapers and government officials to arrest Tweed and send him to prison. The pottery makers also added their hero Nast to the jug. He's the highest head on the jug, and not attached to a snake's body. Today political cartoonists still see Thomas Nast's cartoons as the gold standard for their profession. And this sculpture stands as a testament to the power of artistic expression."

Although, aside from those jugs, the Krannert Art Museum displayed a number of objects from the Kirkpatricks in 1986, which were also published in the exhibit catalog, The Kirkpatricks' Pottery at Anna, Illinois. In fact, some of these objects have since sold at auction, through such companies as Crocker Farm in Sparks, Maryland and Jeffrey S. Evans & Associates in Mount Crawford, Virginia; one of these objects, a presentation vase, now sits beside an Anna Pottery temperance jug inside the Americana Wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan.

Krannert Art Museum

 19th Century Stoneware Snake Jug

Made at the Cornwall (1814-1890) and Wallace Kirkpatrick (1828-1896) Pottery in Anna, IL

See Article for More Information

Photo Courtesy: Krannert Art Museum

Metropolitan Museum of Art

 19th Century Stoneware Presentation Vase

Made at the Cornwall (1814-1890) and Wallace Kirkpatrick (1828-1896) Pottery in Anna, IL

Circa 1886

Acquired from Jeffrey S. Evans and Associates in 2017

See Article for More Information

Photo Courtesy: Metropolitan Museum of Art 

 19th Century Stoneware Snake Jug

Made at the Cornwall (1814-1890) and Wallace Kirkpatrick (1828-1896) Pottery in Anna, IL

Circa 1877

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Photo Courtesy: Metropolitan Museum of Art 

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A White Mountain Potter: The Wares Made by Jethro Furber in North Conway, New Hampshire

Living in New England, I have visited the White Mountain National Forest in New Hampshire many times; whether it be for skiing, mountain biking, hiking, swimming or site seeing, it's a beautiful place to visit. Although, I have wondered on a few occasions, where the domestic lead glazed earthenware utilized in this part of New Hampshire came from in the 1800s.

It does not appear that any pottery was manufactured in the heart of the White Mountains in the nineteenth century - and as a result, I have speculated that some of this household pottery must have been shipped north by the potters employed around Lake Winnipesaukee, and some may have even been shipped west from potters located near the New Hampshire border in Maine. But a Concord, New Hampshrie trained potter by the name of Jethro Furber (1800-1876) also capitalized in this area by owning the only known business located in the White Mountains, circa 1839-1873.

According to Massachusetts author, Lura Woodside Watkins' (1897-1982) book, Early New England Potters and Their Wares, "Farthest north of New Hampshire potteries was an earthenware shop in North Conway started by Jethro Furber before 1839. Jethro was probably one of Concord Furbers and connected with the Millville group in that city, for he was in that section in 1827, when he bought 15 acres from Peter Whittemore. Six acres of this land, which was all on the north side of the Hopkinton Road, was the south end of a lot formerly owned by Joseph F. Stickney and adjoined on the east land of Samuel Fletcher. The other nine acres had been part of the dower of Mary Whittemore. Furber and his wife Eliza Eastman Furber (1802-1884) conveyed the two pieces to Hiram Dow and Samuel L. Baker, both of Concord, July 6, 1839. His pottery in the mountains was still running in 1856, when he advertised in the New England Business Directory."

However, it seems that Jethro Furber's career spanned even longer, seeing that he was still listed as a potter in the The New Hampshire Register and Farmer's Almanac for 1873.

Upon Jethro's death in 1876, it appears that his pottery business ceased production. He and his wife had two children, John Furber (1833-1899) and Alpheus Furber (1835-1913), but neither appear to have followed in their father's footsteps. In fact, they are both listed in the The New Hampshire Register and Farmer's Almanac for 1873, which I previously cited; John is listed as being employed in the lumber industry in North Conway, and Alpheus is listed as a carpenter, also in North Conway.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to locate many examples of lead glazed earthenware attributed to Furber's production in North Conway, but there must be some surviving pieces in existence today since he was in business for about 34 years. I also expect that some of this production must be similar to the wares made by the Clark family (ca. 1790s-1880s), Joseph Hazeltine (1799-1880) and other potters employed in the Concord area.

Nevertheless, I purchased this simple lead glazed earthenware dish about 10-15 years ago in a small shop in central New Hampshire. My interest in this object was a result of it being attributed to Furber in North Conway, which I thought at the time was a rather specific attribution to a relatively unknown pottery. I asked why this dish was said to have been made by Furber, and I was told that it was found retaining an old context of ownership inside an early home in North Conway.

Jethro Furber's Pottery in North Conway, NH

19th Century Lead Glazed Earthenware Dish

Purchased Years Ago in Central New Hampshire

Reportedly Found in an Old House in North Conway, NH

Reportedly Made by Jethro Furber in North Conway, NH

See Article for More Information

The New Hampshire Register and Farmer's Almanac for 1873

Jethro Furber is Still Listed as a Potter in Conway, NH

Furber's Sons and Their Trades are also Listed Here

See Article for More Information 

The Gravestone of Jethro Furber (1800-1876) in North Conway, NH

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The Continued Study of the Lake Winnipesaukee Area Potters: An Inscribed Jug from Moultonborough, New Hampshire

Last summer, I posted a story that showed a nineteenth century lead glazed earthenware handled pot in the collection of the Meredith, New Hampshire Historical Society. The museum was not able to provide any details into who made the pot, but it was thought to have been made locally, seeing it retained a long history of local ownership.

According to Massachusetts author, Lura Woodside Watkins (Early New England Potters and Their Wares), "There are vague accounts of several potteries in the region around Lake Winnipesaukee. At Gilford, once a part of Gilmanton, Nathaniel Goodhue was running a shop about 1830. Duane Hamilton Hurd's 'History of Belknap County' says that he carried on the business for many years and that he got his clay from The Weirs. Goodhue advertised it for sale in the New Hampshire Patriot and State Gazetteer, March 1, 1833, describing it as a "large pottery for making earthenware and a good kiln on same." He was apparently succeeded by Charles Stark, who four years later "contemplating a removal from Gilford," offered for sale a "shop, kiln, and apparatus for the manufacture of brown ware."

Cornelius Weygandt, in the White Hills has noted a potter named Bennett in Moultonborough and the existence of a pottery in New Durham, near Alton. In November Rowen, the same author describes a quart mug tooled with lines marked "old Cider" that he found in Meredith. He notes its resemblance to pieces from the Gill Pottery. The mug could, however, have been made in Meredith.

During the excavation of a cellar under the house of H.B. Twombley on Plymouth Street in Meredith, setting tiles and other examples of kiln furniture were unearthed. For several years Mr. Twombley did not know the significance of these curious baked clay objects and he was greatly surprised to learn that his house stood directly over a potter's dump. The circumstance was explained by the fact that the house had been moved from another site to its present location. A perusal of Meredith history reveals that Joshua W. Burpee, eldest son of Jeremiah (1781-1862) from Boscowan, New Hampshire, lived in Meredith for about nine years preceding his death in 1839. It is more than likely he was responsible for the waste pile.

Another craftsman of the 1830s, Jeremiah Bean, worked in Bristol. He was a native of the town and was twenty-seven years old when he started his potworks on Hemlock Brook. The business was short-lived, as Bean soon removed to Boston, dying there in 1834."

I suspect the historical society's pot could have been made at any of the local potteries that I just cited, but the potter named Bennett in Moultonborough is a name that is hardly recognized in published material today. But he was clearly skilled at his craft based on an inscribed jug that sold at Northeast Auctions in the summer of 2011; the inscription reads, "Moultonboro / August 5th, 1844 / James S. Bennett / potter." To my knowledge, this jug is now owned by the New Hampshire Historical Society.

Although, I would also like to mention that this jug could be mistaken for production in Maine today based on the colorful glaze if it were not for the inscription. I truly believe that pottery production in this area of New Hampshire deserves more recognition today.

Inscribed Jug from Moultonborough, NH

19th Century Lead Glazed Earthenware Jug Made in Moultonborough, NH

Inscribed "Moultonboro / August 5th, 1844 / James S. Bennett / potter"

See Article for More Information

Photo Courtesy: Northeast Auctions

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