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Pioneers of all ages have been compelled by their urgent needs in the building of their homes to turn to mother earth and her offerings to supply themselves with the materials with which to protect their loved ones from the battles of the elements. The clay soil found everywhere in the Ohio Valley offered at once this needed protection and added comforts to their well being in many ways. Undoubtedly the first efforts in the use of these clays was the need of a fire resistant for the hearth of the home and as a mortar which would bake hard in building the fire places of the new homes. It was also the most available and easily obtained material for the "chocking" of the cracks between the logs of their cabins and to thickly plaster the walls of the chimneys which, above the fire line, were always built of crossed sticks in the first efforts at home building. This class of a chimney needed something to prevent the sticks from (plan was) catching fire and the natural plan was to coat them with the clays which abounded everywhere. In many places stone was not at first available for the fire places, this lead very naturally to making of "dobe" bricks, in crude moulds, laid simply sun dried, with mortar made from the same clay, all of which soon hardened and soon made

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a permanent fire place. The outside of these huge fire places were nearly always protected by a casement of small logs, to protect the clay from the action of the weather, where the fire did not harden it.

The next crying need came from the housewife and mother, in a demand for a place to bake. Again the handy clay was called upon to furnish the materials for the large out ovens which were an adjunct to every kitchen. These were made by mixing the clays with chopped straw, to keep it from cracking while drying, built upon a mound or platform so that the housewife need not stoop low while placing the baking. These ovens were always quite large being of a capacity to take in the whole baking of a large family at one heating. The oval clay arch was made about four inches thick with a smoke vent at the opposite end from the door.

Often, however, a "squirrel tail" flue was constructed along the top and the vent made over the door in the form of a partly overhanging chimney to direct the smoke upward. This form of clay ovens endured till the late sixties and only passed away with introduction of baking stoves and natural gas for fuel. Later types of them were, however, built entirely of brick after the making of bricks had become one of the staple products of the new settlements.

These ovens were undoubtedly in the earlier days the cause of the making and fireing of many small articles of crude pottery, such as pipes, small pans crude crocks, &c. which could be left in the oven for

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several heatings of the same in order to have the articles fired hard enough. The writer can well remember as a child of burning marbles made of clay in those ovens having but followed the efforts of the older children as it had been handed down.

Those crude beginnings and the great need of the early pioneers for household crockery resulted in many small efforts and crude kilns to burn the required articles. Perhaps also many of the first settlers gained not a little of their knowledge of these things from the Indians who had not a little skill, in a crude way, in such matters.

On the very heels of the pioneer home seeker must have come the brick maker for we find iron being smelted in less than ten years after the first pioneer homes were built, thus proving that the brick maker had not only come but had established himself in a way as to be able to make good bricks, possibly not those for the furnace linings, but those good enough for the bodies and stacks for the furnaces. This is known to have been done before 1807 as iron furnaces were erected in that year on Beaver Creek below New Lisbon in that year. Even before this there must have been bricks made as The Ohio Paper Mill was erected on lower Beaver Creek in 1806 which would require the use of some bricks though the main part of such buildings at that time were usually built of stone.

So abundant were the clays suitable for the making

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of ordinary bricks that it was the universal custom in those days to make the bricks very near where a structure was to be built and, indeed in many cases the brick yard was laid out for the single purpose of making the brick for one structure providing it was of a size to deem such a procedure necessary.

After the introduction of the saw mills and the frame structure began to take the place of the log cabin it was the custom to make sun dried bricks with which to fill the spaces between the studding and for many years it was the custom among the saw[?]ers to cut all studs 4 x 3 inches in order that the faces of the bricks would come flush with the edge of the studs. Later on the refuse bricks from the kilns were used for this purpose, the whole wall was then finished with a smooth coating of clay in plastered form, the ceilings as a rule being left in timbered effect.

Although bricks were undoubtedly made in Columbiana County several years before the following date, the earliest written record of regular manufacture of bricks was for the erection of a church at Salem, Ohio, in 1806, for the Society of Friends. It is also written in McCords History of Columbiana County, Ohio, that the ancestors of the present Strawn families in Salem made bricks in 1812 for the erection of a cotton factory. Bricks were made in New Lisbon before 1830 and it is recorded that a brick warehouse was built at the southeast corner of Union and Main (now Second) streets in East Liverpool,

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in 1832, but there are brick houses still standing in East Liverpool, which are known to be much older than the above date. The Old Roger Hill (later called the John Henchel house) Homo ante dates the platting of the part of East Liverpool bounded by Broadway, East Fourth, Walnut and East Fifth streets from the self evident fact of the building projects out into Apple .Alley several and the alley makes an angle to avoid the house. This is at the northwest corner of East Fourth street and Apple Alley. The old Morris brick cottage is another example of the early brick maker, located at the southeast corner of Second Street and Poach Alley. The "Jerry Webber Tavern" (Southwest corner Fourth and Market Streets) is older than the "East Liverpool and Warren Road," from the self-evident fact that it is named as the starting point of the road, at the southerly end.

ANDREW RUSSELL AND GEORGE McCOLLOUGH

In 1841, Andrew Russell located at a point midway between East Liverpool and Wellsville and started to manufacture brick. The year following George McCollough located near the Russell plant and began the manufacture of tiles. These two plants seem to have operated for several years with considerable success. In 1845, both Russell and McCollough were bought out by Phillip F. Geisse, a prominent iron founder, of Wellsville, Ohio. Geisse operated both of these plants in the manufacture of brick, in a very successful manner, until 1852.

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NATHAN URIAH WALKER

In the year 1852 N. U. Walker purchased the plant of Geisse and began a complete reconstruction of the same, building what was practically a new plant. For a number of years Mr. Walker confined his efforts to the making of bricks, the larger part of which were fire bricks. By experiments and a careful blending of his clays he was enabled to turn out a good class of refractory bricks which had a large sale for many years bricks from the Walker plant were used among the earliest efforts in the Upper Ohio Valley for street paving. A sample of the endurance of Walkers bricks may be seen at the "Old End" plant of The Knowles Taylor & Knowles plants. This was the first bit of street paving put down in East Liverpool, on the west side of Walnut street adjoining the wall of the plant being about 15 x 180 feet laid on a bed of schraff with the joints cemented in sand and coal tar. After the passage of fully forty-five years a large part of this pavement is still in place and still subject to heavy hauling.

Mr. Walker developed a large business in the grinding of his clays and shipped many thousands of tons annually for many years, the same being used in the making of furnace lineings for many purposes.

The all round excellence and variety of his clays, in addition to their refractory qualities soon led Mr. Walker into the manufacture of chimney tops, flue lineings

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terra cotta flues, drain tile, hollow building blocks, band courses, for brick buildings and architectural terra cotta, also lawn vases, pedestals and panel:;. In this line Mr. Walker was undoubtedly the pioneer in the central states and the excellence and variety of his goods soon made him the largest manufacturer of this class of goods in this country, which lead he held as ions as he was actively connected with the business. McCords, "History of Columbiana County" places the beginning of Mr. Walker's activities in terra cotta products at about 1878. In this, however, he is in error by more than a decade. Walker began the extensive manufacture of large machine made sewer pipe about 1878, but his terra cotta products were on the markets of the country soon after the close of the Civil War. This the writer knows from 'his own knowledge, having seen these products made at the lower works, when he, who was born in 1856, was not over ten to twelve years of age.

One Samuel P. Jackson was, for a number of years one of Mr. Walker's most skilled and artistic workman in the production of terra cotta designs and in the production of the same. When Mr. Jackson became associated with Walker the plant was, at that time, well established and putting out a large volume of goods. Mr. Jackson had worked at the yellow ware pottery of Isaac W. Knowles being the fastest fruit jar maker in the district. About 1867-8 the fruit jar trade in the potteries fell off owing to the inroads made on the business by the better product of the glass houses. This brought about the

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change of Mr. Jackson to the Walker plant where he remained for a number of years until the beginning of the white ware potteries when he went to the Homer Laughlin plant.

While at the height of his production in architectural terra cotta Mr. Walker furnished all the terra cotta corbles, caps and arches for the church in East Liverpool, which has just been razed to make way for a new edifice for the Methodist Episcopal Congregation. As this building was erected in 1873-4 the production of the terra cotta is a fixed fact.

Mr. Walker continued his successful lines of operation for many years but with the forming of the sewer pipe trust in 1899 by The American Sewer Pipe Company he disposed of his interests, however, with a condition that the plants should operate as long as he lived which condition was carried out till Mr. Walker died at the advanced age of 81 years. After this the plants were dismantled and passed out of existence early in the present century.

GEORGE JONES

George Jones operated a clay products plant in Wellsville, Ohio, from 1867 till near 1880. This plant was located on the present site of Burgess & Cunning, stilt and pin manufacturers. This plant was known as The Wellsville Terra Cotta Works. Mr. Jones manufactured fancy Terra Cotta products, sewer pipe, drain tile and the writer is of the opinion that he made some progress in the manufacture of roofing tile, he having gone by

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the plant and seen products of this class in stock. It is also certain that Mr. Jones made a durable class of sills, caps,. band courses and hollow blocks. This may be classed as a fact on the account of some of these products being built into the present structure which were made at the Jones plant.

During the latter part of the operation of this plant Mr. Jones took a partner, the firm afterward being known as Lomand & Jones.

JOHN LYTH & SONS

About the year 1880, John Lyth & Sons, from New York State, came to Wellsville, Ohio, and established a plant for the manufacture of clay products. This plant was located about two hundred yards east of the mouth of McQueens about midway between the present rolling mill and the Silver Switch. The Lyths devoted the larger part of their works to the production of sewer pipe, but also made some attempt at architectural terra cotta as may be seen in the construction of their office building which is still standing on the site of the former plant. The Lyths were in all the early efforts to form a sewer pipe trust and in this way aroused quite a sentiment in the city of Wellsville against the idea of combines. When The American Sewer Pipe combine was effected in 1899, the promoters of the same "got back" at Wellsville by dismanteling the plant and removing the machinery elsewhere. Since this time the magnificent clay resources of this site have lain idle.

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OTHER PLANTS IN WELLSVILLE

Thomas H. Silver established a brick plant in the West End of town in 1006, and for a number of years did a flourishing business. He later built The Champion Brick Works to the east of the town. This plant, though having passed through several changes in management is still doing a very large business in high grade bricks.

A few years later, Clark & Michaels built The Buckeye Brick Works near the first plants of Mr. Silver which they operated successfully for a number of years. The projectors of this plant realized a very substantial bonus in the laying out of an extensive addition to the city and selling the lots at a handsome profit.

About 1890, The Vulcan Cire Clay Company built a plant in the same vicinity which is still in operation in a very successful manner.

EARLY BRICK MAKING AT EAST LIVERPOOL

The first brick makers here followed the usual custom in those days of establishing a small-plant near where a structure was to be built. In this way the brick makers were in sort of an itinerate class moving from one place to another as their services were required. At times, of course, the brick lard endured for the needs of several houses or structures but it was common usage to move the yard rather than make any considerable haul of the bricks. This was easily possible Thom the fact that the clays abounded everywhere for the making of the bricks.

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It was soon found that the intense heat of the kiln mouths destroyed the bricks exposed to the direct 'action of the flames and to avoid this bricks of a fine fire resisting quality were made from the blossom clay, or outcrop of the lower clay vein hero which is now used by the Howells at their East Liverpool Brick Works. These bricks were undoubtedly were used later for the linings of the pottery kilns as their fire resisting qualities were well above the needs of the heat of the yellow ware kilns.

Of these itinerate brick makers, the writer has been able to definitely place but three, all of which, as old men, the writer can remember when he was a boy. These men were James McPherson, a scotchman, James Gibson of the same nationality and William Rigby an Englishman McPherson and Rigby it would seem, operated together. William Rigby was one of four brothers, who came from the Staffordshire pottery districts about 1843. William and his brother Job, who was a shoemaker, settled first in Perry County Ill. William it seems was at first much dissatisfied and. returned to England, only, however, to remain a short time when he came to this country again and settled in the then new pottery district, here. It is safe to assume that the brick making operations of McPherson and Rigby began not later than 1845 and was carried on, more or less intermittently, till the early years of the Civil War. Rigby, however, did not remain with McPherson all this time for the writers first knowledge of him is as a sagger maker in the yellow ware potteries.

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One of their places of operation was on the west side of Dresden Ave. about where the Ruggs Brothers Grocery warehouse now stands and possibly also where a part of the Decorating Shop of The Potters Co-Operative Co. now stands. Here Tanners Run, at that time cut through and exposed the big lower clay strata and in addition to this there was plenty of the yellow brick clay, from the decomposed. upper shales, on the surface which would be satisfactory for the making of both red and fire bricks, right at their hand and water in abundance from the small stream for the mixing, while wood for the burning covered the hill slopes immediately adjoining.

The location of this brick yard seems to have been selected from the fact that there was some buildings there at that time left ;by two brothers named Wylie who had built a small pottery but later had returned to England.

Mr. McPherson seems to have all the short tempered qualities of his race and was very easily irritated, The writer recalls an amusing incident which made much sport for all except McPherson. He had in his employ a big lout of a boy, presumably as an "off bearer" who was inclined to shirk in every way possible and be absent whenever the occasion offered. He seems, however, to have been somewhat poetically inclined and wishing, one day to avade work with no excuse in sight, he was heard to get off the following -

"Lord if it be within they power,

Send us down a mighty shower,

Send down big drops and mighty thick,

To keep old Jimmy Mack from making brick."

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It is not recorded whether the boy's plea was answered or not but that little couplet was the war cry for many long years among the boys of the town to the discomfiture and intense disgust of "Old Jimmy Mack."

James Gibson's activities seem to have been in the vicinity of where the Post Office building now stands in East Liverpool. In the early days this part of the city was quite swampy, caused by the water seepage from the lower clay vein. In addition to this there are numerous pools called at that time "Goose Ponds" but which were in reality places where the clay had been dug out to make bricks. Several of Mr. Gibson's locations for yards were near Walnut street between what is now called East Fourth and East Sixth streets. The bricks for the old Wirt mansion and the house occupied. by the late A.W. Scott were undoubtedly made by Mr. Gibson and it is quite Probable that the old "red brick" school house erected in 1851 on the site of the present Central School, were made in these yards by Mr. Gibson.

The old time hand moulding of bricks was carried on in the yards here until about 1870 being displaced by the earlier forms of machine and wire cut bricks. Among the last of the "hand brick moulders" was one William Jolly. a veteran of the Civil War and an exceptionally skillful man.

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JACOB FOWLER

The first regularly established brick yard for the purpose of marketing bricks seems to have been one Jacob Fowler who came from Hancock County, Virginia, now W. Va., and began the manufacture of bricks, some time prior to 1860, on what was then called the Huston Road, this site being where the present Buckeye Pottery and a part of the China Works, of The Knowles Taylor & Knowles Company are now located. Mr. Fowler produced an excellent grade of bricks and for many years controlled the trade in that class of building material. Upon the death of Mr. Fowler the site of the brick yard was sold by his heirs and the Buckeye Pottery built upon the ground.

DANIEL SMITH

The impetus given to all kinds of trade after the Civil War made an increased demand for building materials of all kinds, among which wore a great demand for more bricks. Daniel J. Smith opened b brick yard where, is now, the intersections of Ravine Street, Thompson Avenue and Vine Street. The bricks from this yard went into the majority of the brick buildings of that first boom for the Crockery City. There are a number of the old pottery kilns

still standing, the outer shells of which are built from bricks made in Mr. Smith/3 yard. The writer worked a part of one summer season in this yard in the late '60's, quitting because of the foul mouthed language of the foreman.

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Mr. Smith introduced into this yard what was undoubtedly the first efforts in wire cutting in the making of bricks. The method used in making bricks at this plant was by a crude pug mill operated by a horse which trod in a circle. At the bottom of this pug mill was a compartment which contained five openings the size of a brick, laid flat. The wooden brick moulds were made to fit these five openings. In the compartment was a compression leaf operated by a hand lever at one end of it. The mould was placed under the dies and the lever pulled down filling the mould, then a wire was run between the die and the mould, the lever then being reversed and the mould withdrawn. This method produced bricks at such a rate that it took three "off bearers" who were kept on the run all the time. The moulds, as they came back from the yard, were dipped into a trough of water, then in a box of dry sand, so that the clay would not stick to the moulds and the bricks would come out of the moulds easily on the drying yard. Alvin Kinsey, now an old time brick layer and still living here in East Liverpool, was one of the "off bearers" at this - brick yard. The product was both red brick and fire bricks. The fire bricks were made from the clay under the number red five coal vein and the red bricks from the surface yellow clay, which is the decomposed shale from strata above.

Mr. Smith, however, was operating his plant on limited capital and after several years of operation the march of machine made brick proved too much for his resources. The

financial shortage of ‘73 added, was quite

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a factor in the shutting down and final dismantling of the plant.

In the late ‘70's Enoch Bradshaw established 16a small brick yard near what is now the intersection of Avondale Street and Bradshaw Avenue, in East Liverpool, making, for a time, red bricks from the yellow brick clays. This plant, however, operated But a few years and the site is now fully twenty feet below the present grade of Bradshaw Avenue.

HARRY SURLES.

About the year 1880 Harry Surles, untill that time a contracting brick layer, opened up a brick yard about a hundred yards north of the old Jacob Fowler site, at what is now the intersection of Sophia, Minerva and Cadmus Street in East Liverpool. Brick was made here from the hard shale laying below the clay of the number five coal vein, it being the first attempt, in this section to make bricks from this hard shale. This plant was operated with great success for more than twenty years, providing the larger part of all the red bricks needed during the time in which the Crockery City grew from a village to a fair sized city of national repute.

SURLES & CAMBLE

About 1885 Edward Surles and John Gamble operated a brick plant in the East End of East Liverpool, near Pennsylvania Avenue and what is now the extent ion of the Thompson Boulevard. The bricks made here were from the lower vein of clay, the same as is used for the manufacture

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sewer pipe. After operating here for a number of years this plant passed into the hands of John Hall, who operated it for a number of years. The plant was later shut down and dismantled. Very little evidence of its existence now shows on the site except the' hole in the hillside where the clays came from.

The EAST LIVERPOOL BRICK MANUFACTURING COMPANY

This plant was started about 1900 by a company consisting of Robert E. Hill, David Wallace, Harvey McHenry, Robert Hall, Robert Hall Jr. and John Horwell. After operating for several years a very large slip occured in the hillside, where this plant is located, on the river front near the old traction power station in East Liverpool, almost put the plant out of commission. The loss to the promoters of this plant was about $20,000.00. All of those who were interested in the plant were willing to quit except John Horwell who bought the plant even in its very unfavorable condition and started in to restore the wreck. The entire operating part of the plant had to be moved eastward out of the path of the slide. Part of the kilns were mashed like egg shells and had to be reconstructed. Nothing daunted, Mr. Horwell associated with him his son Harry Horwell and they started in to restore the plant and renew its prestige in the trade. This proved a very bitter struggle but the last decade has proven the wisdom of Mr. Horwell's push and determination. The plant is now doing a very large trade with a good profit and have customers extending over twenty-three states of the Union.

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The brick made at this plant shaded from a dark red to a pale straw by blending the clays of the sewer pipe vein with the shales above it. They also make a very good grade of refractory fire bricks for furnace lineings by blending the various stratas of clays.

JOHN PEARSON

During the decade from 1880 to 1899 John Pearson operated a small brick plant on Pennsylvania Avenue in what is now the Calhoun Addition to East Liverpool. This plant was small but Mr. Pearson made excellent bricks. He produced quite a variety of enameled bricks samples of which still show in a brick house he built near the plant.

RICHARD BARLOW & THOMAS BEDDO

About 1868 Richard Barlo and Thomas Beddo built and operated a clay products plant on the site of what 'is now the old power station of the traction company. In 1900, the writer of this article, while superintending the construction of an addition to the power plant, uncovered some of the old drying kilns of this plant. The clays for the Barlow and Beddo plant were gotten from the same beds and at the same place as those of The East Liverpool Brick Manufacturing Company, now' operated by John and Harry Horwell. Mr. Barlow did not remain long in this company but sold out his interest to a man named J. Newton George. Beddo and George operated this plant for a number of years, making fire brick chimney tops, band courses, hollow tile, chimney liners, terra cotta flues &c.

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The financial difficulties of ‘73 were a very serious backset to Beddo and George and after struggling along for a time they closed down and later the plant was torn down. Beddo went to New Albany and conducted a public house there, the writer having seen him there as late as 1881. Mr. George, who was a highly educated man soon after this became the superintendent of the public schools in East Liverpool.

THE PITTSBURGH TILE MANUFACTURING CO.

Early in the present century there was constructed, in the East End of East Liverpool, a plant for the manufacture of floor and roof tiles, under the name of The Pittsburgh Tile Manufacturing Company. This company has gone through quite a number of changes in its management. but still continues in operation turning out a fine line of goods. Their products are made from the shales below the clay of the number five coal vein.

EDWARD COX & OTHERS

About 1905 Edward Cox, the Chief Engineer of the East Liverpool water works, with several other men built a small brick plant on Pennsylvania Avenue, East Liverpool, and began the manufacture of refractory bricks. These bricks were made by taking the sagger refuse from the potteries and bonding it by using a plastic refractory clay. The product proved to be of a highgrade refractory brick which stood up well under very severe tests. The plant, however, being started when prices were very low, did not thrive and after several years suspended operations.

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THE KNOWLES TAYLOR & ANDERSON CO.

In 1886 Isaac W. Knowles, John M. Taylor, Homer S. Knowles and Thomas F. Anderson organized a company for the purpose of manufacturing fire brick and sewer pipe. Mr. Anderson had a large experience in this line having been a manager for a number of years for N. U. Walker and. before that was with his father in the same line at Anderson, W.Va.

The site chosen was on the old David Boyce farm in the East End of East Liverpool, between what is now Boyce street and Virginia Ave. A very considerable tract of land was purchased and the larger part platted in lots which were soon sold off at a very considerable profit.

This plant had an uninterrupted run of a very profitable nature, owing to the excellent quality of their goods. It was affirmed, without contradiction that the sewer pipe made at this plant was. second to none in the world while the fire bricks were likewise of a very high grade.

This plant operated under the original management until the forming bf the sewer pipe combine in 1899, when the Knowles interests sold out in their entirety. Mr. Anderson, however, remained as a manager in the plant until 1902 when he retired eventually going into the manufacture of electric porcelain with his son.

This plant, soon after beginning operation began to devote its entire time to the making of high grade heavy sewer pipe. The clay used hero is the big lower vein,

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being the same as used at the Horwell Brick Plant.

After the -passing of this plant into the hands of the sewer pipe combine under the name of The American Fire Clay Company it was totally destroyed by fire but was soon rebuilt on a far larger scale and has since operated in a very satisfactory manner, being one of the main industries of the hustling East End of East Liverpool.

This plant has unlimited clay acreage and will, no doubt continue to operate in the same satisfactory manner in which it has in the past.

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POTTERIES OF THE EAST LIVERPOOL DISTRICT

JAMES BENNETT

It is beyond dispute that East Liverpool owes its greatness in the pottery industry to the mearest freak of chance. Several stories are told as to how Mr. Bennett came to East Liverpool. The Writer, W.A. Calhoun, after considering each of them has taken the words of Isaac W. Knowles, related to him personally, as the most reliable of the different versions of Bennetts arrival. As Mr. Knowles was the first customer of Mr. Bennett and in close touch with him during the entire time the Bennetts remained in East Liverpool, his words should have more weight than hearsay accounts of the coming of Mr. Bennett. The father of the writer, William L. Calhoun, and Isaac W. Knowles were brothers-in-law, thus making the writer a nephew of Mr. Knowles, thus he was in a position to hear these old time pottery tales told over an over many times by them and also, as well, by scores of the old time inhabitants of the Crockery City.

Another early customer of the Bennetts was one John Baum. Mr. Baum was also an uncle of the writer and from him came, first hand many of the doings of the early potters. Mr. Baum's methods were, usually, to buy the pottery ware outright and peddle it down the river, in which he often extended his wanderings as far as New Orleans. It is known to the writer that Mr. Baum was in New Orleans with a large shipment

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of crockery at the outbreak of the Civil War and had a very hard time getting through the lines to the north, leaving all his goods in the hands of a commission man. The strangest part of this matter is, however, the fact that the dealer remitted for the goods after the war.

James Bennett came to America from Derbyshire, England in 1834. His home in the various accounts as, Newhall, Woodville and Woodenbox. The name Woodenbox was taken from a small box or hut set up at the side of the toll road from which to collect tolls. At the time of his departure from his native land Mr. Bennett was 22 years of age, having been born in 1812.

Mr. Bennett went directly to Jersy City and worked at a pottery there until 1837. He was a packer by trade but the accounts do not say whether he worked at this or not. In those

days every potter had to be an all round man in the pottery line to hold a position. The day of specialists had not yet come into existence.

Upon leaving the Jersey City Mr. Bennett went to Troy, Ind. where he worked for about a year, leaving there on account of poor health. He stopped at Cincinnati but not finding things to his liking started up the river with the intention of going back east, being thoroughly disgusted with the western country. While on the steam boat he fell in with a gentleman from East Liverpool, with whom he exchanged views, as was the custom in those days and learning of the abundance of clays in this vicinity he determined to stop off and investigate. Thus

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it was by the' degree of chance that the whole future history of Eastern Ohio was changed.

A personal investigation by Mr. Bennett soon satisfied him that the chances for making good pottery had not been under estimated and he, though without capital himself decided to make an effort to interest enough` people to establish a factory for the manufacture of Rockingham arid Yellow Ware.

In this effort Mr. Bennett was almost immediately successful entering into an agreement with Anthony Kearns and Benjamin Harker Sr. to back him in the venture. It would appear from the records that Mr. Kearns furnished the larger part of the money for the construction of tie factory. Just how much Mr. Harker put in is not clear but that he aided in the matter is very certain. The building of the factory was started in the fall of 1839 and the first kiln bf ware drawn in the spring of 1840. The site of this plant was on the south east corner of West Second and Jefferson streets, south of where the C. & P. Railroad tracks now are. The ground upon which. it stood has long since washed into the river. The main building of this plant was two stories, about 20 x 40, built of hewn timbers covered with clap boards, with a roof of the old time shaved oak shingles. The single kiln stood separate and was surrounded by a board shed. On the southeasterly corner of the plot was the "slip" kiln and clay grinding apparatus drawn by a horse under an open shed. A large part of the plot was used to "weather" the clay, it being a peculiar quality of the yellow

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ware clay of being very hard when first mined but exposure to the weather for a few months crumbles it down and makes the mixing, or "blunging" as it is called quite easy. It is an odd fact that after this plant was ruined by the great flood of 1852 one of the fire clay tiles from this kiln was secured by one of the Ball Brothers and built into the foundation of a small pottery which they erected at the southeast corner of Third and Jefferson streets, where it could be seen for many years afterward. This tile was shown to the writer by Volney Ball, a son of Edward Ball, who was one of the brothers erecting this plant.

The drawing of the first kiln of ware at the Bennett Plant was an event long to be remembered in East Liverpool and detailed as an epoch making event for many years thereafter to generations then unborn. A very pleasing incident of that event seems to have escaped all the historians in writing about the drawing of this first kiln of ware.

Mr. Bennett had endured many unheard of trials in his untiring effort to get his plant in operation and in this he had been loyally assisted by the neighbors in the vicinity of the plant even to the providing of shelter and food during the long hard winter of ‘39-- ‘40. One of these was the grandfather of E. B. Bradshaw, still a resident of our city. At the drawing of the kiln, of course quite a crowd collected among those was Mr. Brad-shawls mother, then a girl, still living with her father. As Mr. Bennett took the first piece of ware from the kiln

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he turned and stated that insomuch as her people had aided him so greatly as a small return it was no more than right that she should have the first piece of ware that came from the kiln. That piece of ware is still in existence and in the possession of the daughter of the lady who received it, a sister of Mr. E. B. Bradshaw, Mrs. Olivia Bradshaw Reynolds, residing now out in Illinois.

The drawing of this kiln of glost ware proved it to be a pronounced success thus speaking volumes of praise for the bricklayers who constructed the kiln for Mr. Bennett. These men were George Thomas and George Hollingsworth. They, no doubt were also the men who constructed the "slip kiln" as the clay boiling apparatus of that day was called.

Now came the need of a "Crockery Salesman," and the man was not found wanting. Isaac W. Knowles, a cabinet maker, who had learned his trade with one William Warrick, came forward and bought two crates of Mr. Bennett's ware and, taking it down the river disposed of it to a good advantage. Of the balance of the kiln Mr. Bennett sold it by peddeling it about the town and adjoining country until disposed of. The entire venture proved a most gratifying success realising a net profit over all, of $250.00. This amount in purchasing power, in those days represented more than four times that sum against the shrunken value of our thirty cent dollar of today.

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The clay for Mr. Bennett's ware was obtained from the hillside in the vicinity of where the Harker potteries now stand, but there has been some difference in statements as to whom should go the credit of having furnished the clay for the first ware. George D. McKinnon, a pioneer of that day, always claimed that the clay for the first kiln of ware came from his land. John McKinnon, still living and a son of George D. McKinnon makes the same claim. Benjamin Harker, Sr. had some interest in the Bennett plant and there is still in existence one of his old account books which shows entries of sales of clay to Mr. Bennett in 1840. McKinnon's lands were situated a short distance to the eastward of the Harker lands, along the old "Beaver and Cadiz" river road. There was then, and still is, a big slip on the McKinnon lands which exposed the clay and this may have led to the getting of clay at this point, however, it will probably never be known which claim is correct as to where the clay for the first kiln of ware came from.

M. K. Zimmerman, in his account of the early potteries, says McKinnon leased the land for the clay and that it was where the pottery was built. Mr. McKinnon in all probability did lease land for clay mining to Bennett but it must have been on his farm lands not far from the old McKinnon Home which is still standing. When the writer was a boy there was an old disused road from the clay slip mentioned above and evidence of clay having

28.

been dug there. To have gotten potters clay at or near the site of the Bennett pottery is a geological impossibility from the fact that the land at this point and for a half a mile in every direction is debris left by former action of the river, when it was at a higher level than it now occupies.

The initial success of his project fully convinced Mr. Bennett that he had entered into a venture of unlimited possibilities and he began to push the enterprise with vigor and determination. The demands of his new trade soon ran far beyond the limited facilities of his factory. He also soon began to feel the need of more skilled workmen to aid in supplying the rapidly growing demands of his trade. This situation pressed upon him to such an extent that, in the sunnier of 1841, he went to England to interest his brothers, who were potters in his project. Mr. Bennett returned in the month of September of that year with his brothers Daniel, Edwin and William. Edward Tunnicliff, a dish maker, also decided to come with the Bennetts which made a very welcome addition to the skilled force of the little factory.

Before this, however, Mr. Bennett faced some very critical points in getting the means to keep his factory going. There seems to be no record of either Mr. Kearns or Mr. Harker aiding the project beyond the initial help nor is it in evidence just how long they were interested in the plant. In the ease of Mr. Harker it is self evident that he soon realised the great prospects for

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the future in the pottery industry, by starting in for himself in 1841, thus leaving Bennett to his own resources. That Mr. Bennett was, more than once, at his wits end as to how to keep his plant going in the first year of its operation is evident. William B. McCord in his History of Columbiana County relates that Bennett would make ware up the limit of the endurance of his men and then peddle it around through the country. Returning he would pay his hands and start again to make a stock of ware. At one time mattes got so desperate with him that he could. seem no way to continue his operations. In talking with George Smith who, along with M. Thompson, kept a general store, at the corner of Second and Union Streets, he is quoted as saying,"I have experimented with clay till I haven't credit to buy a loaf of bread or a pound of butter, I think I will have to quit." Smith promptly offered Mr. Bennett extended credit and other merchants came forward with like offers. With renewed courage Mr. Bennett returned to his pot making. This episode seems to have been the turning point in his affairs, for the plant began to prosper, resulting, the next season, in the bringing over of the brothers as related above.

No sooner had the brothers been established in the town than they immediately set to work under the name of Bennett Brothers to operate the pottery to its limit and no further records are known of their being in any financial difficulties.

By the year 1844 their trade had become so ex-

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tended that they began to feel the need of a larger shipping point and, after looking around decided that Pittsburgh was the best point. The location selected was then called "Birmingham" now the South Side of Pittsburgh. Here the Bennetts erected a plant and prospered for many years, becoming quite wealthy as the years went by. Edwin Bennett went

to Baltimore Md. and built a' pottery and also became wealthy, living to nearly ninety years of age, passing away but a few years since leaving a large and prosperous pottery business to his heirs. James Bennett died in Birmingham in 1862.

The writer has in his possession a journal of the year 1853, written by his uncle, Samuel S. Calhoun, who was, for many years a steamboat engineer on the Ohio River and tributary streams. He seems to have been well acquainted with James Bennett and writes, under several dates in that year of visiting him. It would look as if Mr. Bennett was, even then, at times pinched for ready cash, for Mr. Calhoun writes of lending money to Mr. Bennett and in a later location in the book is a notation where the money was paid. In those days steamboat men were about the only men who could be sure of having ready money as they were always paid for their service in cash.

Another incident might be related showing how the writer missed his only chance to see Mr. Bennett. My mother had gone to Allegheny* (now North Side, Pittsburgh) to visit her sister. I was taken along and while there

31.

they went over to "Birmingham" to "see Mr. Bennett" who was ill. When they went to start the writer though very small, not being over six, set up a vigorous vocal demonstration to "see Mr. Bennett" also, but was overruled and left in charge of an older cousin, thus went his only chance to have seen this old time pottery pioneer.

It would appear that Edwin and William Bennett did not remain long with James. Edwin withdrew in 1846 to go into the Baltimore venture and William followed him to Baltimore in. 1848.

Although the credit must go to James Bennett for the establishment of the pottery business in this district it is only fair to add that there were earlier efforts in that line. John Kountz made red stoneware in 1817 some little distance west of the location of the Walker brick plant and Joseph Wells made a similar ware in a little place attached to his residence in Wellsville in 1826, which he continued, more or less intermittently till 1856. Phillip Brown, Olivar Griffith, Samuel Watson made crude wares at Lisbon before 1825.

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BENJAMIN HARKER, SENIOR

As the efforts of the Bennetts began to show the possibilities of the new clay working industry others were quick to realize that there would be a much larger demand than could be supplied by one small factory, The first of those to put his ideas into practical operation was Benjamin Harker, Sr. who had sold clay to the Bennetts and, therefore, knew by their experience that his clays were fully suitable for the making of pottery ware.

Mr. Harker had aided, in some manner, in the starting of the Bennett factory, but it would appear that he had not learned much regarding the details of the business. He, however, in 1841, built a small plant near where the present Harker factories now stand, the main part of the structure being a log house. Mr. Harker seems to have had, in the beginning rather more than the usual amount of trouble in producing satisfactory ware, due no doubt to his lack of knowledge of the business. In the following year, however, he secured the service of John Goodwin, a skilled potter, from the English pottery districts, to aid him at his works. Mr. Goodwin, it would seem, had upon his arrival, went to work for the Bennetts, but it is not own how long, he remained in their service. It could not have been very long, however, as Mr. Goodwin is known to have worked at the Harker factory in 1842, the same year in which he came from England.

The difficulties do not yet seem to have been all eliminated at the Harker pottery for we soon find that Mr. Harker leased the shop to John Goodwin and Edward

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Tunnicliff, who operated it for a time. Here, it would seem, is found the first entry of the Croxalls in to the pottery business, as Thomas Croxall is said to have been interested with Messers Goodwin & Tunnicliff at the Harker factory. Business depressions, however, soon brought this arrangement to a close. A little later Mr. Goodwin is, again found in the employ of Mr. Harker. It is related that Mr. Goodwin later got the idea that Mr. Harker was trying to learn too much of the inside secrets of the business and one day, in a moment of heat, put on his coat and left, never to return.

Mr. Harker persisted in his efforts and later had the business on a sound basis and in a paying condition. Feeling that the time had come to extend the business Mr. Harker sent to England and had his brother George S. Harker come over and take shares with him. George S. Harker seems to have been a man of considerable means for the new firm immediately began to extend the works to meet the demands of a steadily increasing trade. Following the custom of the times the Harkers adopted a special name for their factory and the "Etruria Pottery Works" was known to all points to which the Harkers extended their work and trade. This plant manufactured a high grade of Rockingham and Yellow Ware, being the first factory in this district to depart from the primitive method of peddling the ware and began placing it with regular dealers over the country to supply it to the retail trade. This led to a quicker disposal of the ware and steadier operation of the works. This led the company in to getting the benefit of the moot skilled

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workmen of the district on account of the more constant employment.

Upon the death of Benjamin Harker Sr. his son Benjamin Jr. became connected with the works. From about 1847 to 1850 or later a man named James Taylor came into the business and the firm was then known as Harker Taylor & Co. During the operation of the Harker factories under this head the firm frequently used an embossed stamp. This stamp consisted of a circle about a half-inch in diameter with the words, "Harker Taylor & Co., East Liverpool, Ohio," on the inside. About this time there worked at the Harker factory one Henry Speeler a thrower of marked ability, whom, it would seem was far above the average working potter of that day in ability, developing good sales ability and later on becoming a manufacturer himself.

After the retirement of Mr. Taylor the firm became George S. Harker & Co. and operated under this name for many years until the organization of The Harker Pottery Company. George S. Harker died about 1862 and the plants were run by his widow and sons, a relative, David Boyce, taking charge of the business end of the plant and conducting it for many years, or until the Harker Boys were old enough to run the business themselves.

The company are at present running two plants, the original George S. Harker plant, largely extended and the original Homer Laughlin plant, which they purchased some years since from The National China Company. Since 1879 The Harker Company have manufactured white and decorated semi-porcelain..

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The Harker Pottery Company at one time seem to have decorated ware from outside factories and such goods may still at times be found bearing the trade mark of other factories with the decorating mark of Harkers on it.

The Harker factories are built below the flood lines of the Ohio River and at times have to suspend operations during high water. The unusual height of the great flood of 1884 delt the Harker company a staggering blow from which it might have taken them many years to recover had it not been for a very pleasing incident whorl they began to clean up their factory after the flood, which goes to show that it is not always a cases of "dos eat dog" in the potteries here as has been the case too many times. The writer heard the following story of this event related to his father by Isaac Knowles. Mr. Knowles had come forward and voluntarily advanced funds to enable the Harker "boys" as he called them to restore their factory and put themselves back as before the flood. My father asked Mr. Knowles why he had voluntarily come forward and helped a competitor at a time when the contentions for trade were particularly strong. The writer will never forget the words of Mr. Knowles as he said, "Well George S. Harker helped me one time when without it I would have gone under." "Mr. Harker, fortunately, was never in a position to need my help and I would-have considered myself a very mean man had I not gone to the aid of his boys when a little relief of a temporay nature would

36.

put them back where they should have been." It is not likely that the Harker Boys then understood the reason for Mr. Knowles' action and indeed may not know it even to this day.

SALT, MEAR, OGDEN & HANCOCK

During one of the early spasms of progress in East Liverpool there had been built at the northeast corner of Second and Washington street a very large frame structure, by a man named Carroll who had intended for a hotel designed to be the equal of any in the western country at that time. With the panic of 1837 all these hopes were crushed and the building stood unfinished and untenanted.

In 1842, James Salt, Fredrick Mear, John Hancock and James Ogden, formed a company, took over this building, which was called, "The Mansion House" and began the manufacture of Rockingham and Yellow Ware. Mr. Hancock seems to have been the more skilled of this group of men, coming to America from England in 1828. He first went to South Amboy, N.J. and erected a pottery there. In 1840, Mr. Hancock, accompanied by his son, Frederick, went to Louisville, Kentucky, and started a stoneware pottery there, remaining there, however, but one season, when he came to East Liverpool, Mr. Hancock did not long survive in the new firm, passing away the same year of 1842.

For nearly two-thirds of a century this old hotel building bore the name of "The Mansion Pottery," being at

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last demolished to make a Pubic Play Ground of children.

James Ogden did not long remain on this firm and is soon became Salt * Mear, who conducted a prosperous business for a number of years. This firm soon after beginning operations secured the larger part of a considerable groups of skilled potters who were brought over from England to the "New Pottery Country."

The "hard times" of the early ‘50's caused a suspension of operations at the Mansion Pottery and Mr. Salt moved away. William G. Smith then a commission merchant induced Benjamin Harker, Sr. to go in with him and start this plant again. Associated with these two men were James Foster and Daniel J. Smith a son of William G. Smith. The plant then continued in operation till the failure of William G. Smith in the financial crashed of 1857 when it again shut down.

James Foster and George Garner took over the Mansion Pottery and put it once more into operation. George Garner was a thrower who had come over from England in 1843 and worked for the Bennetts, going with those people to Birmingham when they moved their factory in 1844. Foster & Garner, who operated the Mansion plant for about two years, selling out to the Croxalls in 1859, Foster to be associated later in the same business with Timothy Rigby, on the hill where The Hall China No. 2 now is and Mr. Garner to go into a general store business on the north side of Second street, west of Union street and

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immediately east of the famous old "Devers Hotel."

THOMAS CROXALL & BROTHERS

It is hard at this late day, from the meager records available to say accurately who should have the fourth position among the early pioneer potters. John Goodwin and Croxalls both started in 1844 and the writer has given this position to the Croxalls from the fact that they had the Bennett factory all ready to go into and begin work while Mr. Goodwin had to refit an old warehouse build his kiln and get a place all his machinery, which was no small undertaking in those days.

The Croxall Brothers consisted of Thomas, Jesse, Samuel and John. Just how long the four brothers operated together does not clearly appear but it must have been for a number of years. It will be recalled that Thomas Croxall had operated at the Benjamin Harker plant with John Goodwin and Edward Tunnicliff and these brothers were, therefore, in a position to turn out goods from the point where the Bennett Brothers left off.

The Croxalls operated the old Bennett plant with energy and profit until the great flood in the Ohio River of 1852, which wrecked the plant to such an extent that it was deemed useless to /attempt to repair it. Not to be discouraged the Croxalls procured a plant at the south west corner of Union and Second streets, which had been erected by Ball & Morris about 1850. In this venture, however, it would appear that only John Croxall took part.

Samuel Croxall opened a public house, Jesse became a

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butcher, and Thomas after some years became the Mayor of East Liverpool for a number of terms. All of the three brothers, however, seem to have made considerable money, which they invested in real estate at a time when things were at a very low ebb, resulting in later years in a very largo profit to them.

This new arrangement of the Croxall plant was made up of John Croxall, Thomas Croxall, Jonathan Kinsey and Joseph Cartwright. The writer has no recollection of Mr. Kinsey as he did not live long enough to enjoy the prosperity which came to this company, the firm then becoming Croxall & Cartwright, who operated under this name till about 1888. John Croxall was a sunny, jovial dispositioned man who was always ready for a joke and was always referred to by his hands in their broad Staffordshire dialect as "Aud (Old) Johnny" for whom they would go to any limit to accommodate. Joseph Cartwright was one of those pompous individuals to whom their dignity was the most essential using on earth. Being an Englishman certainly did not cause him to lose any of this dignity. The fun loving English potters soon found they could irritate Cartwright and offend his dignity in hundreds of ways and for years they made life miserable. Mr. Cartwright had very prominent front teeth and one day some would be wit dubbed him "Groundhog" and "Aud Groundhog" he remained to his dying day. Years later he built a row of brick houses on seventh street. Mr. Cartwright called these houses "Cartwright Flats" but in the parlance of pottery slang they promptly became "Groundhog Row" and as such are known.

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And as such are known to this day by the older inhabitants of East Liverpool.

A small incident in the daily life of "Aud' Johnny" Croxall might not be out of place here. The writer was fortunate in being present when this episode occurred, working at the finishing of a new office for the company. About 1875, Croxwell and Caerwricht had in their employ a curly, red-headed, rip roaring Irishman, named Johnny Reardon. This man was a sort of a Communist which would be equivalent to a native product of the Bolsheviek order of the present day Reardon had come into the office to get his money for it was "Pee Dee" (Pay Day). As he turned to go out with wages in his hand he remarked that all the values in the world should be divided around so that every one would have an equal amount. "Aud" Johnny," who was given to relapse into his broad native dialect when excited, retorted in a voice full of intense disgust and sarcasm, "Di-wide it around," "Diwide it around." "Yu'n di-wide it at two o'clock, Yu'n ‘ave to di-wide it again at four." This was too much for Reardon for he left with a word.

After the retirement of ir. Cartwright the firm became John W. Croxall & Sons, George W. and Joseph H. Croxall being admitted to the firm which, later became "The Croxall pottery Company. For nearly seventy-five years this firm pursued its uninterrupted course of prosperity, John W. Croxall living to be well on toward 90 years or ape. George W. Croxall is the last remaining member of this famous band of potters and he voluntarily retired a for [ ] letting the old factory go to be turned into

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a works for the manufacture of electric porcelain.

JOHN GOODWIN

John Goodwin, who had worked at the pottery of James Edwards, Dalehall, Burslem, England, came to America 1842. Many of the emigrants, from the pottery districts, in those days, came by the way of New Orleans and up the Mississippi River to St. Louis, near where there, were several settlements of pottery people, notably at Alton, Ill. and in Perry County Ill. at a place then called Six Mile Prairie. Even at that time there was a small pottery at Alton, and Mr. Goodwin had relatives there but is not known if he called at these places, but he seems to have proceeded., with small delay up the Ohio River. At Cincinnati he-did not find things to his liking and traveled on to East Liverpool where he immediately went to work for the Bennetts. This arrangement would seem to have endured but a short time for we soon find. him working for Benjamin Harker Sr. Soon after this he leased the Harker plant and. in company with Edward Tunnicliff and. Thomas Croxall operated it for a short period. In 1843 he is known to have again gone into the employ of Benjamin Harker, Sr. only to leave him, after a time, because he thought that Mr. Harker was trying to learn too much of his inside knowledge of the business, for which Mr. Harker could scarcely be blamed.

This seems to have been the last time that Mr. Goodwin ever worked for anyone other than himself. In 1844 he purchased lots 66 and 72 in the original plot of East Liverpool, as laid out by Fawsett, Moore and Pemberton situated at the southeast corner of Market Street and

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Pink Alley. On this ground was a large, three story frame building which had been used for a storage warehouse and shipping depot for river traffic, which, in those days was done mainly from the Market street wharf. Adjoining this building Mr. Goodwin constructed his kiln and the necessary sheds for the preparing of the native clays for the use of his potters and began the manufacture of Rockingham and. Yellow Ware. To this he added the production of brown and jet door knobs. George H. Goodwin, a son of John Goodwin says that old account books show the production of these knobs in 18451 but the writer is inclined to think that knobs were made at this factory very nearly from its beginning, from the fact that there is a reference to the price for the turning of knobs in an old english publication, in the form of a letter where a workman mentions the price for turning knobs in 1844, in East Liverpool. The writer had in his possession, at one time, an old fashioned cherry bureau, made by Isaac W. Knowles, for Mr. Goodwin who was his brother-in-law, which must have been made about this time. This bureau had on it dark brown pottery knobs such as Mr. Goodwin made and undoubtedly came from his factory. This bureau is now in the possession of Mrs. Allie Knowles-Downing of London, Ohio, who is a cousin of the writer.

From the starting of this small factory Mr. Goodwin seems to have progressed far beyond the other potter plants of the same period and to have accumulated more

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money from his sales of ware than his competitors, which may have been that he had the advantage of having more practical experience than the majority of the others.

Mr. Goodwin operated this plant until 1853 when he sold it to two brothers, Samuel and William Baggott who were English Potters.

For the decade following this transaction Mr. Goodwin devoted his time to the buying and. selling of real estate in East Liverpool, this being a period where the man with ready money could make many very advantageous and profitable deals.

Mr. Goodwin decided, in 1863, to again enter the pottery business and with this end in view built The. Novelty Pottery Works, on the site of the present D. E McNicol Pottery Works. This was a plant of two kilns and was designed and built by Adolph Fritz, who is still living at the age of 84. Of this plant only the main brick structure yet remains as a part of the present McNicol plant, which is located on lots 596-7-8-9 facing on the east side of Broadway at the corner of Sixth street and. - the lots immediately east of them facing on Walnut street numbered 568-9-70-71 in the addition of Smith Blakely & Mitchell, to East Liverpool.

The water to operate this plant was taken from a very large spring near the northeast corner of this plot of ground and the clay was prepared in the usual primitive manner in vogue in those pioneer days. Mr. Goodwin operated this plant till 1865 when he disposed of it to a

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company made up of A. J. Marks, Joseph Farmer, Jethro Manley and Enoch Riley.

Here, it would seem, that; Mr. Goodwin remained out of the pottery business until 1870, when he wont to Trenton, N.J., taking up with his old buddies cf former years at the Harker plant, James Taylor and Henry Speeler, operating The Trenton Pottery, the name of the firm being changed to that of Taylor Goodwin & Co. Mr. Goodwin had intended this venture for his older son James H. Goodwin, but for some reason this plan was not carried. out, for in 1872 he sold out his interests in Trenton and returned to East Liverpool. Mr. Goodwin then, again engaged in the pottery business by the purchase of a two kiln plant. at the corner of Broadway and Potters Alley. With this he secured the entire block of lots and several additional lots north of the alley and facing on Broadway. (The present site of The Hall China Co. No. 2a). This plant manufactured Rockingham and Yellow Ware but Mr. Goodwin knew that the day of yellow ware was passing and if he was to continue he must have room to extend and engage. in the making of white ware which was, even then making great strides in the Crockery City. This plant had been operated by James Foster and Timothy Rigby, under the name of Foster & Rigby and T. Rigby & Co. Mr. Foster was the same man who had in the fifties, with George Garner, operated the old Mansion Pottery and Mr. Rigby was the same man who, in company with James Godwin and William Flentke, had. operated. the old "Salamander Pottery," of John Henderson, ("Santa Anne") beginning in 1857 at what is now Broadway

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and St. Clair Ave.

Although contemplating the making of white ware, Mr. Goodwin, after making some enlargements and extentions, began the operation of the Foster & Rigby plant in the making of Rockingham and Yellow Ware. These operations were carried on until 1875, when Mr. Goodwin, who was supposed to be in excellent health, was found to have passed away in the night. This disaster put the Goodwin Boys out of the running for a time but early in the year following they took up the uncompleted work of their father under the name of

GOODWIN BROTHERS

John Goodwin left three sons, James H., George and Henry S. Goodwin, all skilled in the making of pottery ware. For nearly a year the plant lay idle the Goodwin Boys seemingly not having decided as how to best carry out the uncompleted plans of their father.

Shortly after this time the town folk used to tell an odd story regarding the affairs of the elder Mr. Goodwin. The Goodwin Boys knew that their father contemplated extensive additions and repairs to the pottery plant, with a view to making white ware and he was supposed to have a reserve fund for this purpose, but after his death no trace of any such funds could be found. Mr. Goodwin, during his life, had in his home a certain rocking chair in which he took much comfort during his leisure hours. The cover of this chair had become much worn and one day, after the death of Mr. Goodwin, his son George decided to place a new cover on the chair. Upon the removal of the old cover

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George was astounded to find $20,000.00. in Government bonds, thus solving, at once the problem of the reserve funds. This story, be as it may, must have had some basis of fact for soon after Goodwin Brothers started the factory and pushed the operation of it with energy and profit. Later converted the plant and began the manufacture of Cream Colored Ware which they continued for many years. During the years of this profitable operation the plant was extended, from time to time until it covered entire plot of ground within the block and extended northward across Potters Alley for a considerable distance.

Later on this company changed to the making of Iron Stone China and, at a still later date, to the manufacture of Semi-porcelain. 1:iith this they also turned out a high grade of decorated goods, all of which compared in a favorable manner with the other wares produced in the district and resulted in a profitable line of business.

This company was incorporated in 1893, under the name of The Goodwin Pottery Company.

In 1896, James H. Goodwin died very suddenly, on the day of the election which made his life long friend William McKinley President-elect. Mr. Goodwin passed away even while the town was going wild over the cheering news which meant so much to the American potters, his last moments being cheered by the knowledge that the potting industry would continue better than ever.

The two, sons of James H. Goodwin took the place of their father in the business, these being John S. and

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Charles F. Goodwin, and the business was continued as before. John S. Goodwin died, as suddenly as his father had, before middle age. The Goodwin plant remained in operation until within the last decade when the members decided to retire and the plant was closed down and remaine4dle for several years, being later leased to The Davidson & Stevenson Electric Porcelain Company. Within the last two years the plant was sold by the Goodwins to The Hall China Company and put into operation as their plant No. 2 for the manufacture of fire resisting cooking wares and hard hotel porcelain.

George S. Goodwin and Henry S. Goodwin are living retired and Charles F. Goodwin is the secretary of The United States Potters Association, all three still residing here in East Liverpool.

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Regarding William Woodward all the early pottery authorities are very silent and what little the writer has been able to obtain from the very old people in East Liverpool, would indicate that he was a potter from the great Staffordshire districts, but when he cane to America or where he worked is apparently lost. He left two sons, James and Henry Woodward and a grandson, William Woodward, worked for many years in the decorating, shops of this district, becoming one of the most famous hand painters known in this section of the potting, districts, before lithographic work superceeded the older forms of copper plate printing.

James and Sarah (Nixon) Vodrey were natives of Staffordshire, England coming to America in 1827, locating in Pittsburgh, Pa. Mr. Vodrey, being a skilled and experienced potter formed a partnership with a man named Frost, operating under the name of Vodrey and Frost, making Rockingham and Yellow Ware. This pottery was the first attempt for the commercial production of pottery ware west of the Appalachian Ranges. This plant appears to have been operated by Messers Vodrey & Frost for a period of about three years, when Mr. Vodrey was induced to locate at Louisville, Ky. Mr. Frost into the venture with him. Here they built a small pottery taking in with them a man named Lewis. In a short time Frost withdrew from the firm and it then conducted as Vodrey & Lewis, who later withdrew also.

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Mr. Vodrey remained in Louisville, conducting this plant until 1830, when he went to Troy, Ind., being instigated in this new venture by James Clews, a noted English potter of his day. The Troy pottery was a well backed enterprise and the prospects seemed exceedingly good, but it was soon fully demonstrated that the Indiana clays would not make white ware, the best they could produce being a light cane color. Mr. Vodrey then took charge and for some years made Rockingham now and Yellow Ware. It is/known that this exceedingly white clay cannot be used in the making of white ware from the fact that it contains much iron in the form of an oxide which cannot be eliminated by any known process. Mr.. Vodrey remained with this company till 1847 when he removed to East Liverpool, Ohio, entering into a new venture as above noted, this effort being rather short .lived from the fact that the plant took fire and. burned. This plant was situated on the site of the present Vodrey Pottery Company and manufactured the usual Rockingham and Yellow Ware. After the fire at this plant the company was almost immediately reorganized by bringing in men of more capital than was possessed by Messers Woodward & Vodrey.

This company consisted of William Woodward, Jabez Vodrey, James Blakely, John S. Blakely, and. Richard Booth. Messers Woodward and Vodrey we already know under the head of Woodward & Vodrey. James Blakely was associated in this venture with his broth(/' John S. Blakely, both of

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them being land promoters, real estate dealers and general merchants. Of Richard Booth the records arm silent and the old time people of the district seem to remember nothing of him except the fact that he was not related. to four brothers of that name in the district who will be mentioned later in this article.

Woodward, Blakely & Co. started in with the manufacture of Rockingham and Yellow Ware and prospered to the extent that they, later, extended their works to include the making of terra cotta with a considerable degree of success. About 1854, however, when the "hard times" of that decade began to be felt by all classes, the shortage of money began to cramp these people in a very decided manner. It is related that during the winter of 1854-55 that Woodward, Blakely & Co. paid out in three months time but one dollar in cash, the balance in wages being in goods and. store orders. Men worked on the streets for a dollar per day and took payment in corn meal to feed their families. Owing to total crop failures corn was 80 cents per bushel yet it was selling in Indiana for 10 cents per bushel but means of getting it transported were entirely lacking. When a man had wok, he could only get flour by obtaining a special order specifying that flour was to be the goods to be delivered.

During those years Woodward, Blakely & Co. had taken a contract to make the terra cotta for the St. Paul's Cathedral at the corner of Grant Street and Fifth Avenue in Pittsburgh, Pa. They completed the work but the financial :stress of those years coupled that the work had cost them over $10,000.00 in operations proved too much for

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the company who were compelled to make an assignment in 1857. This proved the end of Mr. Woodward and Mr. Booth as well as the Blakelys in a manufacturing, way.

Jabez Vodrey managed to rescue from the wreck of the Woodward, Blakely & Co. the small plant at Fourth and College streets which had been the original Vodrey pottery. With this and the assistance of his three sons, William, James, and John, he resumed the manufacture of Rockingham and Yellow Ware in 1857, which was continued until 1875 when the firm began the manufacturing of white granite and semi-porcelain, plain and decorated. In 1896 this company was incorporated under the name of The Vodrey Pottery Company and has continued in the same line of goods to the present time.

This hardy pioneer left the oppression and starvation of the English pottery districts for America and freedom late in 1842. He came by the way of New Orleans and thence up the Mississippi River to the central part of southern Illinois. The writer has in his possession a bound volume of "The Potters Examiner," a labor paper published in the Staffordshire pottery districts, in which is published two letters from Mr. Brunt, thus fixing the time beyond dispute. Mr. Brunt left the river at a point some distance below Chester, Ill. and purchased a quarter section of land in

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Perry County, Ill., at a place then called Six Mile Prairie, paying $200.00 for the land which was by government entry. With him was Job Rigby, a cousin of Mr. Brunt who also settled nearby. Neither of these men, however, seem to have remained long in Illinois, both coming afterward to East Liverpool. Mr. Brunt's first letter is dated June the 1st at the above named place in 1843, the body of the letter indicating that he had been there six or eight months, giving every indication of him being fully satisfied and determined to remain.

Mr. Brunt's second letter is dated October 27th. of the same year, but, strangely enough from Middlebury (now East Akron) Ohio. In this letter he makes no mention of his movements nor of his intentions, but the letter is given up entirely in trying to persuade his cousin Rigby from returning to England which, it seems he intended to and did do, only to come back again to East Liverpool.

Just when the Senior Brunt arrived in East Liverpool is uncertain, but it is known that he came here and opened a public tavern, on the southwest corner of the public square, at Third and Market Streets, which he kept for a considerable period of time.

Mr. Brunt, Senior, having been a potter, seeing the business developing around him strongly and in a profitable manner, naturally returned to this form of industry. In company with his two sons, William Junior and Henry,

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along with his brother-in-law Bloor, Mr. Brunt built a small pottery at the northeast corner of First Street and Peach Alloy, just west of where then stood an old stove plate foundry, facing on Market street. Here these men began the manufacture of brown, jet and "Scroddled" door knobs. The term scroddled is, in the old Staffordshire dialect, marbled or streaked in the body of the ware. The business started off well and gave every promise of being profitable and permanent, when the excitement of the discovery of gold in California in 1849 proved too strong for the imagination of both William Bloor and William Brunt, Jr., both of whom went west with the thousands in search of fortunes in the new eldorado. Both Mr. Brunt and Mr. Bloor seem to have been far more lucky than the average sold seeker in this venture, each returning with a small fortune, Bloor returning in 1854 and Brunt about one year later.

After the departure of William Brunt, Jr. and William Bloor for the gold fields of California the knob pottery was operated by William Brunt Sr. and his son Henry Brunt. After the Brunts became well established in the knob making business John Goodwin seems to have relinquished that part of his business allowing the Brunt factory to have complete control.

After the return of William Brunt, Jr. and William Bloor from California the younger Brunt seems to have, for several years been connected with the knob factory but

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Mr. Bloor did not again enter into it.

The Ohio River floods seem to have been the direct cause of William Brunt, Jr. branching out for himself in the pottery business. During one of these freshets the younger Brunt suggested to his father that "they swim ashore and build a factory on dry land where the floods could not reach them." The elder Brunt was a man who was very easily "riled" and he retorted that "if that was the way-he felt that he had better go up on the hills and strike out for himself." William Jr., promptly called the old gentleman's bluff by attending, shortly thereafter, the sale of the old Woodward & Blakely plants and, in company with William Bloor, purchased all of the same except the part acquired by Jabez Vodrey.

William Brunt, Sr., in company with hid son Henry Brunt, operated the knob works for many years, under the name of "The Riverside Knob Works" in an energetic and profitable manner. The original plant soon became too small for the growing business and the Brunts acquired the old stove plate and forge works fronting on Market Street, immediately south of where the railroad now runs. The father of the writer, William L. Calhoun, who was a millwright as well as an engineer, was employed to completely refit and improve this plant shortly after the Civil War. A steam engine was installed in place of the time honored horsepower and many other improvements needed to meet the growing demands of their trade. At this time William Brunt, Sr. was still a very strong and vigorous man though white

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haired and a full beard of the same hue. The writer can remember of having seen him personally directing the improvements at this time. William Brunt continued in active business until well up in the '70's when he retired, having amassed a very comfortable fortune. William Brunt Sr. lived to be 73 years of age having passed away in July of 1882.

After the retirement of William Brunt Sr., Henry Brunt operated the factory for several years alone, later on his son William H. Brunt was taken into the business. In the year 1884 they added electrical porcelain to their production, continuing in a prosperous condition as long as Henry Brunt was connected with the plants. In 1894 George F. Brunt, a second son of henry Brunt, in company with .his brother-in-law Charles F. Thompson, took over the electrical part of the plant while Henry Brunt and his son Will H. Brunt, continued to operate the knob department of this plant. With the retirement of Henry Brunt, a few years later these plants began to decline owing to the fact that the third and fourth generations did not put the same energy into the business and lived beyond the profits of the plants, so that by 1910 both plants had been sold out and passed into other hands.

In 1859, William Brunt, Jr., In company with his brother-in-law, William Bloor, purchased, at auction sale the westerly parts of the Woodward, Blakely & Co. pottery,

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the easterly port going to Jabez Vodrey. Messrs. Brunt & Bloor divided their newly acquired property by Brunt taking the part on the south east corner of Robinson (E. Fourth) & Walnut, extending down to High Alley and eastwardly to College Street, while Mr. Bloor took the block south of High Alley, facing on Walnut Street, down to Cook (E. Third) Street.

Mr. Brunt immediately began the production of Rockingham and Yellow ware and named his plant "The Phoenix Pottery." A few years later he bought the Bloor part after Mr. Bloor had quit making white ware at his plant, this being in 1862. Shortly after this Mr. Brunt enlisted in the Union Army and left the combined plants in charge of one John Thompson, his head packer.

Returning from the war in 18d5, Mr.. Brunt found the plants idle the packer Thompson having left to avoid the draft. Feeling that the unsettled times did not justify the operation of both the plants he sold the upper part (now Hall China No. 1) to the packer, John Thompson (who had returned), William Joblin, James Taylor, (a brother of John N. Taylor) and John Hardwick.

At the Bloor plant Mr. Brunt made no attempt to produce the same ware as Bloor had made but devoted the works to the manufacture of Rockingham and Yellow Ware, which he did with great success for a number of years, adding to his factory from time to time as the needs of the trade demanded.

Later Mr. Brunt took his son William III, and his son-in-law, Brad M. Louthan in with him and the

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plant was converted into the manufacture of Iron Stone China and Decorated Ware, under the name of

Brunt, Son & Company. The plant was extended from time to time until it covered the entire block. The company was incorporated in 1894 under the name of The William Brunt Pottery Company. Soon after this William Brunt retired and Brad M. Louthan withdrew from the company going into business for himself. Shortly after this time the plant began to decline and after several years of spasmodic effort closed down to operate no more, due to careless methods of business and reckless expenditures of money and the plant passed into other hands. At present the old Bloor part of the plant is used by The Hall China Company as an annex to their No. 1 plant.

In the year 1853 Isaac W. Knowles, a cabinate maker and carpenter who, from time to time had engaged in the sale of the products of the potteries purchased the old Bennett pottery from the Croxall Brothers after it had been partially washed away by the great flood of 1852. Mr. Knowles aimed to establish a pottery at the southwest corner of Union and Third Streets, adjoining some property, owned by his brother John Knowles, a tailor. The arrangement-however, did not appeal to some of the neighbors, who objected to the possibility of the smoke from the proposed plant. The most vehement of these was one, James McCormick, living immediately east of the proposed site and across Union Street. McCormick was a Scotchman and was more than occasionally called "Big Potato," the same being a re-

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ference to his size, he being about 6 feet 4 inches and broad in proportion, weighing about 275 lbs. Mr. Knowles, not wishing to offend anyone, promptly chose another site; "up on the hill, where he would have room to expand" as the writer has heard him remark on more than one occasion. The wisdom of this change of location was amply demonstrated as the years passed by. The site chosen was that of the present location of "The Old End," though at the beginning but a small part of this block of lots was used.

The old Bennett building and fixtures were tom down and moved to the new site. Here Mr. Knowles had constructed a foundation of stone about 30 by 80 feet, making the foundation in the form of a basement. Upon this he built a one story frame building, using the material from the old Bennett plant as far as it would go. His clay making apparatus was located immediately north of this frame structure and about where the machinery of the present Old End is located. For ton or twelve years this was operated by horse power, "Old George" being one of the most famous horses in the town from the fact that he was almost cremated one day when the straw shed and stable caught fire. He recovered from his burns, however, and did good service for some years after. The writer aided in keeping Old George going many a day in the grinding of the clay and glaze. The water for the plant was taken from a dug well, located where the wad mills of the Old End now stand. Drinking water was obtained from

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a dug well which stood just outside the present curb line of the pavement on Forrest (b. 6th) Street,

midway between Walnut Street and Apple Alley. Mr. Knowles built his first kiln about half its diameter further south than the present location of the No. 1. Kiln at this plant. This kiln was possibly the largest constructed up to that date in the town, being fully 12 feet and possibly 14 feet in diameter. This kiln was kept in use up to the time when the plant was turned into white ware, when it was replaced by the famous "Buffalo Kiln," so called from the fact that it had the company's trade mark painted upon its southerly side.

In his early efforts in the pottery business Mr. Knowles had associated with him one Isaac Harvey, a brother-in-law by Mr. Knowles first marriage. Events of the first decade in the business proved that Mr. Knowles would have progressed much better without having Mr. Harvey in the business and with the first opportunity offered purchased. Mr.. Harvey's interest.

The product of this plant was Rockingham and Yellow hare. The introduction into the trade of the making of Rockingham fruit jars was one of the main things which gave Mr. Knowles his solid start in the pottery business. This boom in pottery flourished from the late fifties to about 1870 when the glass ware trade took the fruit jar business. During the boom, however, made a number of improvements in the jars, being one of the first to make a "Self Sealing" Jar, similar

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to the same form yet used. In his shop he had a potter named Samuel P. Jackson, an Englishman, who

had such an unusual speed in the making of these fruit jars that he was the wonder of the whole pottery district. With the decline of the fruit jar trade Mr. Jackson went to the terra cotta works of N. U. Walker, only to transfer his skill later to the plants of Homer Laughlin where he remained for many years.

By the year 1868 the Knowles plant had grown to one of four kilns and covered the entire frontage on Walnut Street to Potters Alley, the outlook of the business showing great possibilities, partly due to the fact that Congress had placed a tariff duty of 40% on crockery imports. In this year John N. Taylor married the oldest daughter of Mr. Knowles, Belle C. Knowles who, as Mrs. John N. Taylor is still living at an advanced age.

Soon thereafter Mr. Knowles, realizing that the 'business had advanced until it had gotten beyond the abilities of one man to manage it, took into the business his newly made son-in-law and his oldest son, Homer S. Knowles, thus laying the foundation for the great pottery organization whose product was to astonish the world. As was the fashion in those days, to have a name for each pottery Mr.. Knowles had operated his plant under the name of "The East Liverpool Pottery Works, " this being painted in large letters over the windows of the southside of the original building and remaining

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for many years after the organization of the new company.

With the formation of this new company Isaac W. Knowles continued his active management of the plant, John N. Taylor took charge of the office and Homer S. Knowles, though hardly more than a boy undertook the marketing of the product of the plant, in which, young as he was, had already shown quite a promise of ability in that line.

John N. Taylor brought into the company the close attention to details and application to duty that he had learned in the Army during the Civil War and to this he had added the routine and application to business which had been required of him while service as post master of East Liverpool. Mr.. Taylor's greatest asset to the manufacturing potters, however, came in after years, when his close friendship with President McKinley in politics aided in the shaping of protective methods in Congress which made great advances on the pottery business possible.

In the case of young Knowles the matter was entirely different. Never had a young man entered into business more cordially hated by the younger element of a town than did Homer S. Knowles and the great reversal of this opinion in after years only goes to show what a great man Homer S. Knowles became and what an awful loss his comparatively early death was to the manufacturing potters of America.

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With the growing of the pottery business, some of the children of the manufacturers began to "put on airs" and affected to consider themselves better than the "common" people of the town, which, of course brought forth enmity and hatred on all sides. One thing which added much to this state of affairs was the fact that for years the children of the merchants and of the workers could dress much better than those of the pottery owners, owing, no doubt to the fact that the manufacturers were putting every dollar they could rake and scrape together in the business. How much of all this was due to any direct action of young Knowles it is hard to say, probably little if any, but, being a leader among the new generation of his people he got the full benefit of all the slams and jibes which were hurled in their direction. To show how far this thing was carried, it is alleged, that on one occasion he went down to Josiah Thompson's general store and needing a small pair of scissors, he is said to have asked if they had any "gentlemen scissors," Some one of the opposite gang is said to have heard this and "Gentlemen Scissors" he became and was so called for years afterward. This was carried so far that the small boy who did not dare holler at him would raise his hand in the air and with his fingers go through the motion of cutting with scissors.

A few years began to show the people, however, how badly he had been misjudged and misunderstood as well as vastly under rated. His genial disposition,

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fair dealing, carefull attention to the needs of his workmen coupled with his extraordinary ability and keen insight in business, his quick attainment of knowledge and detail of his business soon made people first respect him and then become his friend.

About the time of the organization of the Knowles, Taylor & Knowles Co. came the "Age of Machinery" in the pottery business and this company took full advantage of the possibilities of the new developments in this line. Isaac Knowles was of an inventive turn of mind and he began to work on the idea of the "pull down" which is now used in making the ware on the jollies. In this he was assisted by the father of the writer, William L. Calhoun, who were brothers-in-law, the latter acting as master mechanic and chief engineer for the company for 37 years. The writer recalls of Mr. Knowles coming to the house in the evenings and the two working at the wooden patterns of the pull down and of also seeing his father sketch out on the side of the pattern the slot for the pinion of the machine which made the making of bellied ware possible. Mr. Calhoun also made the detachable pump chamber to the present press pumps in the clay making, and also aided very materially in the bringing of the slip sifter to its present standard form. Others for many years have tried to improve on the Knowles Pull Down but it remains practically the same as when Isaac Knowles and Lewis Calhoun made the first wooden patterns for the same. The writer "ran moulds" for the first steam jigger or jolly that the Knowles people set up for "Aud Jack Harvey" as the jigger man.

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The march of improvements and the increased. demands of the trade soon convinced this company that they must get into the making of white ware., Small experiments from time to time in the yellow ware kilns had shown that they had reason to expect success in this line. With this end in view they built a two story brick extension in the rear of the warehouse along Potters Alley to the corner of Apple Alley, about 40 X 30 feet and near it built an additional kiln about 14 feet in diameter. This was fitted up as a complete white ware pottery, small though it was. This was in 1872 and the success of the venture was almost instant and the demands of the trade soon far beyond their capacity. "Aud Bill Massey" a Staffordshire potter ran the big jigger and Arthur Taylor (Brother of John N.) a smaller one, James Smith, a half brother of County Recorder Reark, was the presser and David Jessop the clay maker. George O. Calhoun (brother of the writer) and "Gorey" Carraher were the "mould runners" for Massey. As everyone had to have a nick name in those days George was more commonly called "Dump." One day there was a circus in town and the rush for ware was so strong that "Aud Massey" "waud'ner lee off woork." (Would not lay off work), but the boys were equal to the occasion, taking a large "white alley" marble they put it in a bat of clay and laying it on the plaster of paris block they brought the "batter" down upon it with full force as if making a bat of clay for the jigger driving the marble into the block and

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breaking the plaster of paris face off the batter. "E-0-0! Master Massey!! Look tha' wots I' the clay!!!" All Americans at that time had to talk in the broad Staffordshire dialect so that the English potters would understand them. Massey gave one glance at the badly damaged block and broke out, "Blast mee bloody heyes! "Marbles I' the cleey" Cast'ner thalsaal" (Cannot you see) "Shan'ner be eeble to woork anny more the dee"!! "Chan'ave to screepe (scrape) the block:: "Shan, tack (take) the 'ole bloody hafternoon!!!" By this time the two boys had disappeared down the stairway and it is not recorded whether Mr.. Massey ever got "next" to the little scheme of the boys or not.

The first kiln of white ware at this small plant was drawn on Sept. 5th, 1872, and the pleasing results at once convinced Knowles, Taylor & Knowles that the days of the yellow ware plant were numbered. They began at once to work off their stock of yellow ware materials and chemicals and to dispose of the stocks of goods, no hard matter in those days. A thorough reconstruction of the entire plant was begun and pushed with the utmost speed. As Lewis Calhoun, their Chief Engineer put it "They were tearing the whole plant down end throwing it out of the window." The care displayed in this reconstruction was due to the fact that every vestage of the yellow ware clay had to be gotten rid of, even to the dust. Thus it came to pass that early in the year of 1875, Knowles, Taylor & Knowles had a fully equipped and up to date white ware plant of five kilns before Homer Laughlin who had returned to East Liverpool had barely gotten

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his plant (now Harker No. 2) started.

Right here was a point which, as long as he lived, made Isaac Knowles very sore and justly so. The City Council, of that time, had offered. a bonus of 5,000.00 to the parties first having a four kiln white ware plant. Laughlin began building before the Knowles plant was fully reconstructed and upon his statement that his plant was to be four kilns he was given the bonus. Laughlin, however, built but two kilns and ran his plant that sway for several years. The plans for Mr. Laughlin's plant were, in fact, made for four kilns and exhibited to the City Council as what was to be built. These plans were made by an Architect named James A. W. Koonz, under whom, even at that time, the writer was studying architecture, and not by Edward Pearson as has been recorded by some pottery authorities.

Of Knowles, Taylor & Knowles little need be said of the details of the business except that it progressed by leaps and bounds, the demands of the trade always out running the capacity of the plant.

A couple of years operation convinced these people that they must have decorated goods. Thomas Haden (still living at the Hotel Euclid here) was the first man to establish a decorating shop, this being on Broadway at the corner of Potters Alley, where The Harrison Chemical Co. is now located. At first the decorators bought the white goods, decorated them, and sold them direct to the trade but later they worked. directly for the potters. This proved unsatisfactory, owing to

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to the extra cost of carting the ware and the extra breakage which often delayed n shipment many days.

To get away from this state of affairs Knowles, Taylor & Knowles built their own decorating shop, by adding a story to the brick warehouse and constructing a decorating kiln at a point which is now the north end of the clay stock house at the Old End Pottery. Isaac Knowles, as long as he was active in the business, would never allow this little kiln to be torn down and it stood for many years after its usefulness had passed away.

The company employed one William Higginson, an English decorator, who had worked. a short time for Thomas Haden, to take charge of the decorating shop, under a contract system. Mr. Higginson remained with the Knowles company for many years, in fact until he voluntarily retired. He is still living here, well advanced in years and was kind enough to furnish considerable of the data upon which this article is written.

In 1880 the Knowles Company built an additional plant immediately north of the old factory, of eight kilns. It was intended to call this plant the No. 2, but the hands immediately dubbed it "The New End" and so it remains to this day. This additional capacity made more decorating room an immediate necessity and a large three story shop was constructed. across the street, at the northeast corner of Walnut Street and. Potters Alley, which has been added to from time to time till it is a very large factory in itself.

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In 1881 the Knowles people purchased "The Buckeye Pottery" nearby their works, a yellow ware plant which had been built by Surles & Gamble, Holland Manley being also interested in this plant. Later it had been operated by Harrison & Flentke. This plant was built upon a part of the site of the old Jacob Fowler brick yard. This was a three kiln plant and was immediately converted into white ware and has since been enlarged till it now consists of eight kilns, never having been idle a day except for repairs.

In 1888 the Knowles, Taylor & Knowles Company erected another plant for the manufacture of china ware, this plant being one of six kilns, which, however, was destroyed by fire 18 months later. Nothing daunted, the company rebuilt the plant, extending it by two kilns. After some years of the china production the company turned their entire factory production into semi-vitrous porcelain which they continue to this day, second to none in the country and still maintaining their high grade of production.

Homer S. Knowles died in 1892, at the early age of 41, resulting in an inestimable loss to the entire pottery world. Isaac W Knowles lived to realize the fruits of his early efforts far beyond his wildest dreams passing away in 1902 at the advanced age of 83. Since that time the Knowles interests have largely withdrawn from The Knowles Taylor & Knowles Company and erected factories elsewhere, the predominating interest being that of the Taylors, represented in the person of Homer

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S. Taylor, President to the Company.

A few words may be added about the men whose loyalty at the works made the success of Isaac Knowles possible. Of these the first place should go to Timothy Rigby, formerly of Foster & Rigby, for more than twenty years the practical white ware potter of the of the company. Next should come William Lewis Calhoun, the Chief Engineer and Master Mechanic, who had been with Bloor in his early efforts at making white parian china and who handled the making of the glazes for 37 years. In the warehouses Samuel Ashbaugh and his sons Theodore and George served for many years. Theodore Ashbaugh died a few weeks since after having been with the company for 67 years.

These two men operated a small pottery on the Carpenters Run Road, now called Dresden Avenue, at a point about where the Riggs Wholesale Grocery is now located. The date of the building of this pottery or the length of its existence is very uncertain. This pottery seems to have been built at a time when the finances of the country were in a deplorable state and the Wyllie Brothers after a time gave up the venture and returned to England thoroughly disgusted with the prospects in America. The place afterward came into the hands of William Rigby and was used by him and James McPherson as a brick yard. The writer can remember when the land was yet in the name of William

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Rigby.

Much has been said and written about who made the first white ware in East Liverpool, but after all is said and done the palm must rest without reserve with William Bloor. Some have tried to place the credit with Isaac Knowles and still others to give it to Homer Laughlin. The writer can say from his own personal knowledge that he has heard both Isaac Knowles and Homer Laughlin disclaim any credit for this achievement and both have asserted, in the hearing of the writer, that to Bloor alone was due the credit for the first production of white ware in the Crockery City.

The best evidence at this late date is the ware itself. The writer has in his possession a number of pieces of Bloor's ware which was part of a considerable quantity of this ware which was consigned to his father, William L. Calhoun, at the time Bloor closed his plant during the second year of the Civil War. Mr. Calhoun was the engineer at Bloors plant and did all the mixing of the clays and glazes at the plant. When Bloor closed down he did not have ready money to pay his hands for the wages due and he liquidated the claims by giving ware for them. The writer saw this ware brought to the house on a dray in baskets and what he still has is part of that lot of ware. Right here may also be settled the decorated ware question. Mr. Bloor had a decorator who did some very fine work. This man was a German artist

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who had turned his attention to the decoration of china. I am not certain of this man's name but think it was Ludwig, however, he returned to East Liverpool in the eighties and worked for a time at the plant of The Knowles, Taylor & Knowles Company. Blood's decorating shop was across the street from his pottery on the southwest corner of Walnut street and High Alley. The writer can well remember being taken into this shop and seeing this Gorman artist at work, hand painting the ware and it was from seeing him at work in this shop that he remembered him when he came to the Knowles decorating shop to work.

These attempts to rob pioneers in the pottery business of the credit due them never comes from the men who, later, made a big success of the business, but from the hanger-on, cat's-paws and leeches, who always cling to leaders of men in attempts to aggrandize themselves by pulling down those who have blazed the pathway for others to follow.

When William Blood and William Brunt, Jr., bought the old Woodward, Blakely & Company plant in 1859, Mr. Blood acquired the southeast of the buildings, a large brick structure which had been used for a storage and general store by the Woodlands, situated on the southeast corner of Walnut Street and High Alley. To this he build his kiln, the engine room and clay making department. His product was an exceedingly white parian, translucent and thoroughly vitrified. Much of the

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product was left unglazed on the outside. The glaze on the interior of the goods was exceedingly thin and upon fracture seemed to be a part of the ware. Much of Mr. Blood's ware was colored on the body of the ware a light blue by painting the mould with the color and allowing the figured work to stand out in white. Mr. Blood operated his plant for nearly three years and placed his wares steadily on the market which is certainly a long enough time to say that he made white ware in commercial quantities. A large part of Mr. Blood's production went to the trading boats which used to ply upon the river in those days. The last shipment which went from the Blood warehouse was bought by the Burgess trading boat run by Benjamin and John H. Burgess, of this city. John H. Burgess is still living and verifies this statement.

Besides the making of staple goods and hotel ware Mr. Blood produced quite a line of novelties in vases, mugs, fancy dishes, curtain knobs, fancy butter dishes and parian busts of noted statesmen, all of which cannot be excelled to this day. His line of decorations were fully up to those of his day and many of them cannot be even equaled in this day owing to the fact that the lithographic age has left so few hand painters in the china painting business. Nearly every thing made by 'Mr. Blood was cast except the flat ware, thus forestalling by many years the present revival in the costing of pottery ware as practiced in the potteries here at present.

The lack of a stable circulating medium in the way

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of money and the loss of his factory employees by going to war were the main causes for Mr. Blood closing down his plant and eventually disposing of the buildings to William Brunt Junior, in 1862. Mr. Blood later went to Trenton N.J. where he made a very successful venture in the pottery business only to return to East Liverpool and again invest his money in the white ware business.

Many homes in East Liverpool and vicinity possess ware from the old Blood factory and if all could be gotten together it would make a collection which would be well worth looking upon.

Herman Feustel, a former workman of Mr. Blood, tells the writer a rather odd story about a lot of this Blood ware. Mr. Feustel is 87 years of age but still bright and clear in his memory. When Blood settled with his creditors by paying them in ware there was a man named Soloman Arb who had supplied the Blood factory with coal. It appears that Mr. Arb took his allotment of the ware, only to find later that the people were stealing it from his place of storage. Mr. Feustel says that he suggested to Mr. Arb that he take the ware up to his coal bank and hide it away back under the hills and that this was done. The strangest part of this story is, however, that a few months later the whole entrance to the mine caved in to such an extent that they never opened it up again and to this day that ware is up there under Pleasant Heights, possibly a wonder for future generations to discover. The writer knows the location of the mouth of the old mine and can well remember when

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it caved in and how the Abs started a new mine.

Wellsville in those days seldom had a good word for the Crockery City so the following from the Wellsville Patriot under the date of April 30th, 1861, may be said not be over stated, "Mr. Bloor's white ware establishment in East Liverpool 170,3 proved a decided success. His china and parian ware are perfection."

Here is a man whom the writers of his day treated very unjustly and. unkindly, more so from the fact that his pottery, more than once kept some of the families of the potters from starving who, in after days made a success of the business in which he had blazed the way.

Some writer says that Mr. Henderson was a soldier in the Mexican War, at any rate he had an injury to the right hip, which made him lame and to walk in a stooped over manner. It is said that in a quarrel with an old woman, who was a notorious scold in his day, that this woman, to express her contempt for his deformity, called him "Santa Ann," after the Mexican General of that day, who was the most hated man in America at that time. Be as it may the name stuck and Henderson was known as "Santa Ann" from that day on.

Mr. Henderson had erected a yellow ware pottery, the date of which is a little uncertain, but it must have been several years prior to 1850, just north of the present fire station in East Liverpool, of two good

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good sized kilns with ample shop room for the same, in fact the plant must have been the best of its kind in the town, being capable of producing a very considerable quantity of goods. At this time Broadway was not extended to St. Clair Ave. and fully half of this plant projected out upon what is now the west side of the street, while the clay making part of the plant was across the roadway about where the north end of the Standard pottery is now located. The plant made Rockingham and Yellow ware, making, besides the staple goods of that day, a number of novelties among which were, whistling birds, trick whistles of the same shape but made in such a manner that there was a compartment for soot which would blacken the face of tie one who attempted to blow it. A large variety of coat buttons were made at this factory. It is said that John N. Taylor and James Booth, when they were boys, worked at this plant at making these buttons. There is no doubt about the production of these things for the writer had experience with these trick "black birds" and saw the overcoat buttons worn in his earlier days. In his later years Henderson retired and lived in a small frame house across from the pottery where the Ryan Building now stands, on the west side of St. Clair Ave. For a time a man by the name of William Nicholson and George Hallam operated this "Salamander Pottery" as it was then called. In 1857 this plant passed into the hands of Godwin, Flentke & Rigby, who, still later, built a new plant across the street

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to the east.

In 1853, two brothers, Samuel and William Baggott, Englishmen, came from the Staffordshire Potting Districts and purchased the factory which John Goodwin had erected and was operating at the foot of Market Street in East Liverpool. Here the Baggotts started in to make Rockingham and Yellow Ware in a most successful manner which they continued for nearly fifty years.

These two brothers were probably two of the oddest men who ever came from the English potting districts. They proved themselves thoroughly capable potters and business men but they seemed so utterly clannish that they never mixed with other people, evidently preferring to go their own way without the social contact which is always pronounced in small towns. In their manners and customs they made no effort to break away from the habits of their earlier days and preserved their very broad Staffordshire dialect to the end of their days. Their speech and mannerisms were widely copied in the making of rough jokes by both the Americans and their fellow potters. Samuel soon became "Aud Sam. Baggott," but William was reserved for greater distinction, he being invariably referred to as "Aud Biddum Waddle" Baggott. "Biddum," in the Staffordshire vernacular means William and the "Waddle" came several causes. both of the brothers were extremely wide of beam and literally waddled when they :walked and in addition to this William

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had a constant habit of referring to walking as "waddling." Probably this standing joke of the town, in those days, can best be illustrated by repeating a sentence or two in way of expressing his meaning. In case the factory hands had gathered at the works and something had prevented the operation of the plant William would salute them in the following; manner. "Shanner woorrk'tha' dee. (Shall not work the day). Shan'ner woorrk thaidee." Tha'dst better bin waddle off wyuum. (home). There is no way, however, to convey the deep roll of the words nor the broad inflections of this dialect which is now nearly forgotten with the passing of the old time potter.

Samuel Baggott died in 1894, and William some years later. After a short time the works shut down and in 1902 it passed into the hands of Mountford & Son who converted it into a stilt and pin works.

Some time prior to 1850 Thomas Ball and William B. Morris, built a plant at the southeast corner of Second Street and Cherry Alley. (Now the site of The American Porcelain Company). Thomas Ball was a Staffordshire potter who came first to America by the way of New Orleans, in company with a brother named Timothy. They settled near where William Brunt Senior and the Rigby's had located in Perry County, Ill., but do not seem to have remained there more than a few years. A letter from Job Rigby in 1845, published in The Potter's Examiner of that year refers to both the Ball brothers

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allowing that they were in Illinois at that time. They must, however, have come to East Liverpool near the time that Mr. Brunt did.

William B. Morris was a man of considerable note in the early potting days of the Crockery City, being at one time a member of the Ohio Legislature. He was an uncle of Andrew Carnegie and at that time the future iron master spent a considerable part of his younger manhood here, at the home of Mr. Morris.

The Ball & Morris factory was of two kilns and well equipped for the manufacture of pottery ware. They made Rockingham and Yellow Ware and was in a fair way to become a fixture in the new line of business when the plant burned down. The peculiar circumstances of the fire led to an open investigation which determined the fact that a female employee had set fire to the plant "because she had to work in a pottery." The plant was rebuilt and operated for several years when the hard times of the fifties caused a suspension of the operations and the factory later, passed into the hands of the Croxalls to become one of the most noted factories of the district.

Sometime in the later fifties Curtis Larkins, and William Thompson erected a Yellow ware pottery on the Virginia side of the river below the approach to the present Newell-East Liverpool bridge, near the present railroad Station where a few fragments of the old foundations may yet be seen. These people began

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by catering to the southern trade by the advertising the fact that their pottery was in VIRGINIA, thus endeavoring to curry favor with the south in their hatred., even at that time, of the north. The plant operated but a few years and was a ruin in the writers boyhood days.

Authorities differ as to the location of the plant of Elijah Webster, McCord in his History of

Columbiana County says it was on the site of the present Cartwright Brothers Company, but Squire John H. Burgess, who knew all of the early potters and bought goods from them for trading down the river ought to be better authority than Mr. McCord who was not a resident till many years after this pottery was gone. Mr. Burgess says that the Webster Pottery was at the southeast corner of Jefferson and Third Streets. As the Webster plant was dismantled about the time that the Cartwright factory was built it is quite possible that the equipment of the Webster plant went into that of the Cartwrights, owing to the fact that they were only about a square distant from each other. The writer can well remember when this old Webster plant was yet standing. The place was bought after the Civil War by Volney Ball, a son of Thomas Ball, of Ball & Morris, who tore the old factory down and used the material in the construction of several dwellings on the site. The property yet remains in the hands of the heirs of Volney Ball.

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Elijah Webster made a very acceptable grade of stoneware at his plant and had every prospect of an uninterupted run of trade when the war times proved too much for his limited capital and he was forced to close the plant. The writer can recall Mr. Webster very distinctly in the late sixties when he worked as the mould maker and modeler for Agner, Foutts & Co.

It would seem that the Webster plant was operated, for a short time, by two brothers named Cecil and Theopolis Harrison, who resided a block further north on the west side of Jefferson Street.

There were four of the Booth brothers, Isreal, Abraham, Manuel and Adam. These people were, possibly, the most skilled group of potters who ever came into this new pottery center, coming from the famous English branch of the Booth family who had been skilled in pottery work for more than two hundred years in to Staffordshire district. From the first, it would seem that the Booths "got in bad," not that there was anything wrong with them, but they were exceedingly independent and very pronounced in

their views, holding very liberal ideas in church matters, which was almost a crime in those days. Be as it may these brothers were always "on the outside," which, however did not prevent the manufacturers of that day from taking every advantage they could possibly get from the skill of these men. Taking it all in all

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those men are entitled to a much higher place than they have been given in the history of American pottery.

The pottery of the Booth Brothers was situated on the southeast corner of Fourth Street and West Alley, in East Liverpool. This firm made many novelties in clay the most important of which were glazed clay wash boards put up in the usual wooden frame which would be a delight to the housewife of the present day. They also manufactured heating stoves of fire clay which had, at that time an extended trade down the river and in the surrounding country. Limited capital and hard times of the war period, however, proved too strong for the Booths and they were forced to close their works.

Emanuel Booth, some years later built a small plant, for experiments, on Mulberry Alley between Third and Fourth Streets. These men always took a keen delight in producing what the other potters could not. They made exhibits at the Centennial Expoisition in Philadelphia and in 1893 at the Worlds Fair in Chicago, which were the wonder of all and put to shame the best efforts of other American potters. They could have gone in with many of the big potters if they would have agreed to surrender control of their knowledge to others, but this they always refused to do. They all passed away as they had lived free and independent and much of their knowledge died with them.

There seems to be a conflict of the authorities re-

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garding the operations of the Morleys with Godwin & Flentke. It would seem, however, that the Morleys first built and operated a pottery by themselves and later going in with Godwin Flentke. None of these men built the "Salamander" Pottery of "Old Santa Ann" (John Henderson) for this plant was in operation before the Morleys came to America. As a solution of the conflicting tales it is suggested as quite probable that the Morleys built the plant that afterwards became the property of Timothy Rigby, James Foster and others where the Hall China No. 2 now stands, as this was an old plant when Rigby & Foster took hold of it which was after the Civil War and if the Morleys built a plant this is the only one unaccounted for.

George and Samuel Morley, Englishmen from the Staffordshire potteries came to this country in 1849, to Baltimore, working there a while for Edwin Bennett and later going to Alton, Ill., where they operated a small pottery until 1852, when they came to East Liverpool, working for several years for Harkers and Woodward Blakely & CO.

James Godwin was born in Wiltshire, England in 1826, coming to America in 1845, to Pittsburgh, Pa., near where he farmed for a few years, becoming later brick mason. He next went to New Cumberland and worked for the Porters in their brick yards, then in yards near Youngstown till 1851 when he came to East Liverpool and worked in the potteries till 1837.

Of William Flentke the records are silent and all the

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writer can add is that he was a rather short stocky German of a rather jolly disposition.

This firm began the manufacture of Rockingham and Yellow Ware and continued without material interruption until 1874 when, with the trend of the times in the potteries they went in to the making of white ware. More than the first decade of their business life was taken up in the operation of the old "Salamander Pottery" which they had purchased from John Henderson. The march of city improvements about 1870 took a large part of the old plant for street purposes and the company built a substantial new plant on the east side of Broadway (now the site of the Standard Pottery Co. Mr. Adolph Fritz, who is still living at 85, being the Architect. McCord in his History of Columbiana County says George Morley withdrew from this firm in 1877, but it was in 1878, late in the year. The writer has an old work account book which shows that he installed a clay sifter for them in Jan. of that year and that Mr. Morley was there then directing the work. The firm continued as Godwin & Flentke, Samuel Morley either quitting at that time or before. The writer has a price quotation in November of 1878 which shows on the letter envelope that Timothy Rigby had been connected with this company at one time. Shortly after this the firm sold out to a co-operative company and Mr. Godwin retired, Mr. Flentke going to Evansville, Ind.

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This firm began business with the manufacture of Rockingham and Yellow Ware in 1864 upon the site where they are still located. In the beginning they took over the equipment of a small stoneware plant which had been erected a few years earlier by Elijah Webster. There were four brothers of this family, William, Samuel , Thomas and John.... The father William Cartwright Senior, came to this country in 1844, locating in East Liverpool. A year later the family was sent for. The Cartwrights were natives of Chropshire England. The four brothers all saw service in the Civil War. When the pottery was first started only William Cartwright, Jr., and Holland Manley were connected with it.

Holland Manley came from the Staffordshire potting district in 1852, and worked for a number of years in the potteries in East Liverpool. At one time he worked for George S. Harker. In those days it was a custom to "rush the can" at "lunch time" (9:30 AM) and on one occasion, it is said, that each one either had to sing a song or make a speech. It fell on Manley to sing and this he did by singing a song which involved the asking of a question. Harker, becoming curious asked the question and got the joke turned on him, which offended him to such an extent that he discharged Manley. Mr. Manley, who was always very independent, replied "Won't make a bit of difference," (with

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a decided lisp which he yet has) "Go to work for mys'ef." "Got to work for se'f." Go to work for myse'f." From that day it is said that Holland Manley never worked for any man, going into the selling of ware and from that to real estate and the potting business. For many years it was a standing joke among the old time potters that "Holland Manley sung himself into a fortune." Mr. Manley is still living at the age of 92.

Manley & Cartwright caught the potting business at its very best and made rapid progress. In 1872, Samuel Cartwright came into the firm and from that time the company was known as, "Manley, Cartwright & Company.

The trend of the potting business to white ware soon carried these people into that class of goods which they followed with success and profit. In 1880, Mr. Manley retired and returned to dealing in real estate, the company then becoming known as, Cartwright brothers Company, which it continues to this day but in the hands of the sons of the founders.

In the year 1867, John H. Burgess, his sister, Mrs. Ann Viney and Albert Webster, purchased the "Old Arbuckle Mill" (present site of the West End Pottery Company) and converted it into a Pottery for the manufacture of stoneware, which was made for about two years with considerable success. The conversion of a mill was considerable of a task and the father of the writer, William L. Calhoun, was hired to do this work. The writer remembers this work from the fact that he has

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occasion to keep it well fixed in his mind. While playing around there, as a boy will, I appropriated. several pieces of lead and upon the discovery the same by my father I was very thoroughly "warmed" and

instructed to leave things alone there after.

This firm converted the stoneware plant of Burgess, Webster & Viney into a pottery for the manufacture of Rockingham and Yellow Ware and were not long in the business till they sold the plant to Samuel Worcester & Son. At some time in the course of its life this pottery received the name of "The Star Pottery" under which name it was operated as long as it existed.,

Thomas Starkey was born at Stoke -on-Trent, England, April 21st, 1829. His parents were English, and his grandfather, whose name was Thomas also, was killed during a celebration, by the English people over the victory at the battle of Waterloo.

Of Samuel P. Ourby there is no written record except that he was a potter and the practical man of this firm.

With the passing of Starkey & Our by came Samuel Worcester and his son Thomas Worcester into the possession of "The Star Pottery," which they operated quite successfully for more than a decade. The advent of the white ware potteries soon began to infringe upon the trade of the yellow ware, more so from the fact that

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many of the manufacturers, to retain their old yellow ware trade made many of the staple articles of the yellow ware in the white goods, often using the old yellow ware shapes for the white goods.

After operating for a number of years the Worcesters took in with them a man named John Wesley Bulger, and the firm thereafter became BULGER & WORCESTERS, under which it operated during the remainder of the operation of the Star Pottery.

Mr. Bulger, who was a fine mechanic, came into the business imbued with the idea that all potters machinery was very crude and needed a finer hand to aid in its development. His first attempt, and about the only one, was an alleged improvement on the Knowles Pull Down. Mr. Bulger constructed a very finely made machine which proved, however, that fine points were, in some things a hindrance. The strong point of the Knowles Pull Down was the extreme simplicity of construction, in fact the machine made by Lewis Calhoun and Isaac Knowles was "fool proof" and it remains the standard to this day while the Bulger machine is nearly forgotten. The only improvement that has ever been added to the Pull Down is in the form of a slotted lever permitting a quicker adjustment of the tool forming the ware. A man named Harry K. Headley was the inventor of this lever which has become universal in its use throughout the potting districts.

The Star Pottery gradually declined with the

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passing of the yellow ware trade and, rather late in the eighties closed clown to run no more. The Worcester retired and Mr. Bulger went to Akron, Ohio, where he was identified in white ware potting for many years.

A few years later the idle plant was destroyed by fire.

The site of the old Star Pottery passed into the hands of William Burgess and Willis Cunning, who was the son-in-law of Mr. Burgess. About the year 1889 Messrs. Burgess and Cunning erected an up to date two kiln plant on this site and began the manufacture of bone china. In this as far as the making of the ware, the venture was an unqualified success, but the American market did not seem ready for goods of this class "Made in America." The ware was a true china, extremely hard; made very thin, was very translucent and the glaze seemed to unite perfectly with the body. After bucking the market for several years Messrs. Burgess and Cunning found that they could go no further with the means at their command and the place was closed down.

Shortly after the closing of Messrs. Burgess and Cunning's "American China Works," a company was formed to take over the works with a view to the manufacture of semi-vitrous porcelain and decorated ware. The original company was composed of Burgess, Willis Cunning, John Peake, George W. Ashbaugh, Eugene B. Bradshaw, Theodore B. Bradshaw and Ida O. Bradshaw.

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William Burgess was born at Cockermouth, England, in 1840. His father John Burgess, himself a potter came to America in 1849. The elder Burgess did not find work at his trade and took to running a trading boat down the river until his death at New Orleans in 1857. William Burgess is said to have often accompanied his father on these trips. William Burgess is said to have driven the old time horsemill at the original Bennett pottery while it was operated by the Croxall Brothers, and he is today, undoubtedly the only man living who worked at the "First Pottery." Mr. Burgess is still strong and active in the pottery business though in his eighty second year.

Willis Cunning, a practical potter, who had been at the plant of Homer Laughlin, was the second member of the new company, being American born and originally from the vicinity of Beaver Falls, Pa.

George W. Ashbaugh never knew anything but pottery from a very early age and he grew up thoroughly schooled in the business, being for many years with Knowles interests, as was his father before him. Mr. Ashbaugh was native born, his grandfather being, what was at that time called, "Pennsylvania German." As he grew to manhood Mr. Ashbaugh developed keen selling ability, his inside knowledge of the business aiding him greatly in this line. It is not saying too much to state that George W. Ashbaugh was second to none in selling ability when he chose to extend himself to his limit. He came to the West End Company from a most intensive selling campaign which had put the, then new,

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Sebring Pottery on its feet, having disposed of his interest in that plant a short time before.

The three Bradshaws were native products being the children of Enoch Bradshaw, a potter who came to East Liverpool in 1844, working first for John Goodwin and others till 1855 when he bought land in the easterly part of the village thus laying the foundation for a fortune for his children. The Bradshaws came into the plant fresh from the sale of the lands of "Brad-Shaw's Addition to the town and were in a position to help put the new company on its feet in a substantial manner.

John Peake came to America from the Staffordshire potteries about 1874 having learned the trade of printing in the decorating shops. Who in his line not being at hand at that early period of white ware making in East Liverpool, Mr. Peake turned his attention to other matters, and for a time, worked at the Riverside Knob Works of the Brunts. Later he started a grocery and made a little money, then branching out in real estate in which he showed a positive genius. Mr Peake is still living, retired, at an advanced age, enjoying the fruits of his foresight.

The West End Pottery Co., started off with fine prospects and soon proved that they were in the market to stay and make others sit up and take notice of the manner in which they pushed their lines of trade. During the big potters strick of 1894, this plant was one of two which paid the men the old price throughout the

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entire time of the strike of eight months and made money by the operation.

Eugene B. Bradshaw, Ida O. Bradshaw and John Peake did not remain long with this company, selling out their stock to the company as a whole, the stock going into the company treasury. In 1896, Theodore R. Bradshaw sold his interest in the company to William A. Calhoun. This operation reduced the company to four members, William Burgess, Willis Cunning, George Ashbaugh and William A. Calhoun, each owning one-fourth of the entire stock.

During the great Dos Passos attempt at a pottery trust 1898-9, the West End Pottery was the first to see that the combine would not be able to make their payments and on January the 9th of 1899 they refused to obey the self appointed officers of the trust to keep the plant shut down and they started promptly to fill their contracts for that year. When the trust blew up three months later this plant was well on its way in a prosperous years business.

During this year William A. Calhoun suddenly found himself confronted by a three-fourths combine against him, for reasons yet unknown to him, who suddenly shut him out of all participation or remuneration in the business. After a twelve year fight Calhoun sold his interest in the plant to bring the dispute to an end, feeling convinced that the others were fully determined to keep him from sharing any of the pronounced profits of the plant. This company has greatly enlarged their

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plant and continues to the present time to do an extensive and profitable business.

John Goodwin, in 1865, sold his Novelty Pottery to a company composed of A. J. Marks, Jethro Manley, Joseph K. Farmer, Enoch Riley and James Nevill.

A. J. Narks was the famous "Jack Marks" "of Beaver Town" as he was won't to announce himself when he had taken a little more than ordinary. Marks was famous, in his jockular moods, for saying everything in rhyme, but as his remarks had more force than elegance it is best not to repeat any of them. He was also noted for the fact that, no matter what condition he might be in he would always "alight on his feet" as the saying is. It is told of him that, being in Pittsburgh one day soon after the Civil War and being "about half seas over" he wandered out to the old Arsnel at Lawrenceville where a sale of old Government rifles were being disposed of. But one stand of the arms were exhibited and "Jack" bid on them supposing that he was buying four rifles. The Government agents, knowing that Marks was a man of considerable money, knocked the lot down to him. Later Marks was astounded and dismayed to learn that he had. bought many thousands of these rifles, but before he could devise ways and means as to how he could get out of the prediciment an agent of a foreign government appeared at his hotel and offered to pay him an advance price if he would give up his purchase. It is needless to say that Marks was not slow to avail

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himself of such a chance to get out of the deal at such a handsome profit.

Jethro Manley was a brother of Holland and a practical potter himself, having worked for a number of years in the various pottery plants in the town.

Joseph K. Farmer was a druggist and one of the first men to locate in the "Diamond" of the Crockery City when business began to come "up on the hill," his drug store being in a frame building where Guthridge & Rand are now located.

Enoch Riley was also a practical potter and a man of considerable money. He resided for many years on the hill opposite the lower end of where Chester W.Va. is now located.

James Nevill was a traveling salesman for yellow ware and disposed of the goods as they were manufactured.

The Novelty Pottery, however, did not seem to prosper and was idle fully half the time and the partners in the venture dropped out one at a time till only Mr. Marks remained. The crowning matter in closing the plant was the beginning of the "Nob Stick'` strike of 1869 among the potteries, no effort being made to operate the plant.

In the same year of 1869, a company was formed to buy the Novelty Pottery, consisting of, Adolph Fritz, Patrick McNichol, William M. McClure, John McNichol, William Burton, Sr., John Dover and William T. Burton.

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When this company began to negotiate for the "Novelty Pottery" they found that Marks was the sole owner. Here again "Jack Marks" of "Beaver Town" had scored, and by taking a long chance succeeded in keeping up his famous reputation.

It will be noted that the present day McNichols have lost an H from the old time name and we con well imagine the wrath that would fall upon the heads of the sons and grandsons of these two hardy pioneers in the pottery business if they could confront their more fashionable descendents.

Adolph Fritz is a native of Germany, coming to this country with his parents when but seven years of age. Early in life he learned the carpenter trade and later, that of an Architect, designing and building many of the potteries in this district. Mr. Fritz served as a soldier during the Civil War and later in the City Council. He also delt in real estate with rare judgment and skill. About twenty years since Mr. Fritz retired well fixed in this worlds goods. He is still living in good health and perfect memory in his 85th year. Much of the reliable data which the writer has been able to record here is due to the recollections of Mr. Fritz.

John and Patrick McNichol were Irishmen but had gone to Scotland and found work in a pottery in Glasgow, after having learned the trade the two Nichols came to East Liverpool in 1850. The brothers went to work in the potteries in their new home and soon began to make headway which showed in after years that they were far

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above the average potters of that day. John McNichol, who had gone to work for Isaac Knowles did not immediately leave the Knowles Plant where he had been for 17 years. Patrick McNichol was the active manager in this company and was always "on the job." John McNichol died in 1882, and Patrick March 17, 1894.

William M. McClure was a veteran of the Civil War, being Captain of Company A of the 115th, Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He was a thoroughly practiced potter being a kiln hand and fireman, and his skill added much to the needs of the new company.

John Dover, like McClure, was a very highly skilled potter and did his full share in the getting of the plant on a solid foundation.

William Burton, Sr. and William T. Burton, father and son, were also skilled in the potting business, being Englishmen from the Staffordshire potting district.

Of these men, Adolph Fritz, William McClure and John Dover did not remain long in the company, selling out to the other members. In 1879, D. M. McNicol, a son of John McNichol was admitted to partnership in the company and ten years later William L. Smith, who had been a lumber dealer, came into the company. Upon the death of William Burton, Sr., William T. Burton retired and the company was incorporated in 1892 as The D. M. McNicol Pottery Co. with Daniel McNicol as the first president.

The company for years made both Yellow ware and C. C. ware at the plant on Broadway but later bought a small

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Yellow ware plant on Starkey street in the Starkey Addition supplying their trade in that line from

the smaller plant and turning their larger plant into Semi-Granite. In the last few years the company has built a large plant at Clarksburg W. Va. and D. E. McNicol has taken over the management of that plant while his sons Hugh and Neal operate the Broadway plant.

In addition to the above the company have taken over in the last three years a plant abandoned by The General Porcelain Co. when they went to Parkersburg, W.Va., and converted it into a plant for the manufacture of Yellow and Rockingham ware to meet the increase in their trade. The McNicols are now the only people making Rockingham and Yellow Ware in East Liverpool.

Very early in their white ware experience this company went into the production of decorated goods and have kept pace with all the other plants in the production of that class of goods.

Several times in the history of the "Novelty Pottery" has it been visited by fire but owing to its thoroughly equipped sprinkler system and its nearness to the fire department the plant has always been saved with small damage.

The firm of Agner, Foutts & Company began the manufacture of Rockingham and Yellow Ware in 1862, and pursued a growing and profitable business as long as

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Isaac Foutts remained alive to direct the plant. At the beginning this firm consisted of Isaac Foutts, Henry Agner and George Hallum, who was the same man interested with William H. Nicholson in the operation of the "Salamander Pottery" of "Santa Ann" of a few years previous.

By 1866 this firm was one of the most progressive and prosperous in the town, when it suffered a great loss by the death of Isaac Foutts. Soon after this M. H. Foutts came into the firm representing his brothers part in the plant. Mr. Foutts had been a Major in the army during the Civil War and was later mayor of the town. He was a son-in-law of William Blood and his widow is still living, as is also a son, Robert L. Foutts as the manager of the decorating departments at The Taylor, Smith & Taylor plants in Chester, W.Va.

Shortly after the death of Isaac Foutts there came into the firm one Ephriam Gaston who had a standing Second to none in the town. It would seem, however, that his partners trusted too much to his alleged ability and did not pay enough attention to the business part of the plant themselves.

In 1881-2 this firm made extensive improvements but late in that year got into financial difficulties. It is alleged that Gaston had lost quite extensive amounts of the firms money in speculations. Be as it may the plant was forced into liqudation and the plant sold, remaining idle until 1887 when it was bought by the

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Sebrings, Geo. W. Ashbaugh and Samson Turnbull, to become the beginning of the great development of the Sebring companies.

Henry Agner, a thoroughly broken man, through no fault of his own, wont out into Dakota, where he lived many years before passing away.

This plant was called the "California Pottery," each and all of the early writers making the mistake of saying that this came from the name of the valley in which it was built, but this is an error. This valley in name is "Carpenter's Hollow" from one of the first pioneer settlers who lived near the head of it, his son "Bill" Carpenter having killed the last Indian over slain in this region. The plant was called "California" because it was so far out from the balance of the potteries, in exactly the same manner in which the Sebring plant in the East End. was promptly dubbed the "Klondyke" pottery because it was erected at the time of the gold excitement in Alaska.

Another error the writers of today have fallen into regarding this plant is the lamenting of the poor judgment of the promoters in locating the plant where they had such a long and all but impossible road to "haul their clay and coal to the factory." As a matter of fact the clay and coal for the biscuit fire came from the hill immediately behind the factory and the coal for the glost fire from the Hill mines a short distance further up the valley.

Still another error is recorded by some of the scribes

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in referring to this pottery as a very old "stone built" pottery. As a matter of fact part of the plant was of stone, that part being about all that remains of the plant, but this stone part was the very last extention built to the factory, being planned by the writer and who superintended the erection of the same in the year 1890. The first buildings were frame structures and have now nearly disappeared.

This company was composed of Edward McDevitt, Stephen Moore, Ferdinand Keffer and several others, organized as a stock company, but in the first few years of its operation it came totally into the possession of Messrs. McDevitt , & Moore and was operated as a partnership, until early in the present century.

Edward McDevitt was an Irishman, who had learned potting in Glasgow, Scotland coming to America in 1854. He resided in New York And Boston, till 1859, when he came to East Liverpool. He went to work for the Baggotts and remained five years in their employ.

Stephen Moore was a typical Englishman who had learned the potting trade in the Staffordshire potteries, coming to East Liverpool sometime in the middle sixties and locating in the Carpenter's Hollow some distance above where the pottery was afterward built.

Ferdinand Keffer was a tinsmith who, with his brother Theodore had a shop at the railroad and Cherry Alley. These men were noted for their being interested with a man called the "Flying Dutchman" in the con-

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struction of a flying machine in the early sixties. Upon the arrival of certain springs from Germany, it is said, that the model of the machine flew all about the shop and the following day was set for an outdoor demonstration of the machine. That night the "Dutchman" who, by the way was a Swede, was killed in a row with some of the men interested in the scheme and the Keffers were, for a time, very unjustly suspicious as the cause of his death but this was later proven to be without foundation when the man who did kill the Swede drownded himself as he said "to keep the Dutchman from following him."

As long as McDevitt & Moore were full of energy end in good health the "California Pottery" did well and prospered but as they aged the young generation seemed to have no interest in the business and the plant began to go backward. In the course of time both of the founders of the plant passed away and soon after the factory closed. Herman Feustel made an attempt to get this plant on its feet again but the location was against it and he gave the matter up. Another effort was made about 1901 under the name of "The Trentvale Pottery Co. in making jet ware but it was soon ended.

About the year 1868, two brothers Samuel P. Jackson and Elias Jackson built a small plant between :seventh street and Jefferson street on the property now owned by Health Officer Daniel J. McKeever, the house in

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which Mr. McKeever now lives being used for the shop. These two men built what; was, possibly, the first down draft kiln for pottery ware in the district. The kiln was about ten feet in diameter and about the same to the crown. This kiln was built by Phillip Goodwin a brother of John Goodwin, who was a brick mason.

The Jacksons made a very fine grade of translucent china and parian ware but being limited in capital the plant did not last long. Had these Men had the necessary backing the production of fine china would have been a fixed fact at that time.

Here is a man who should be given much more credit than has been accorded to him for his earnest efforts extending over a period of fully thirty years to produce better pottery than was being made at the plants where he spent a lifetime of toil. Mr. Colclough made many beautiful pieces of ware but he was so taken up with his efforts that when he produced a fine piece of ware he very rarely had a record of what it was made of. He built a small plant at the head of College Street in what is now the home of Chief cf Police J. McDermott, and for many years conducted his efforts and experiments at this little plant. For a number of years he also made clay pipes at this small plant. He had skill and a vast knowledge of pottery and had he met with a little encouragement instead of ridicule it would. have been much to the benefit of the potters here in

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the production of better goods.

Joseph Morton was an Englishman from the Staffordshire potteries, a skilled thrower by trade, who worked in the East Liverpool Yellow Ware potteries in the sixties and untill the decline of the work of the "thrower." He built a small pot shop on the northwest corner of Sixth Street and Jackson street about 1867 and made stone clay pipes, at one time having quite a trade in that line, but with a decline in the health of Mr. Morton the plant suspended operations and was soon torn down.

McCord, in his History of Columbiana County makes the beginning of the operations of this firm as "prior to 1860". This is clearly an error as James Foster untill late in 1859 was operating the old "Mansion Pottery" in company with George Garner. It is not clear just who built the Foster & Rigby plant. It was, possibly, the Morley Brothers before they went in with Godwin & Flentke. The original layout of this factory was on the southeast corner of Broadway and Potters Alley, and consisted of two kilns with a large frame two story building, facing on Broadway for the shops. The kiln shed extended along Potters Alley to Apple Alley. The clay was made in an open shed by horse power and the balance of the block was taken up as the clay yard for space

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to allow the clay to weather down by the elements, it being quite hard when it comes out of the mine.

Mr. McCord makes an other error when he writes that Rigby and Foster sold out to John Goodwin in 1872. This was manifestly impossible from the fact that James Foster died four years before that date. The writer knew this from personal remembrance but was not sure of the year or date, but proceeded to solve the problem in an odd though decisive manner. Near the home of the writer is the site of an old cemetery, the only one for many years that the town had. When this cemetery was abandoned by the City Council there was a nice scheme to name it after a Councilman of that day in fact it was to have been Edmonston Park," but the "small boy" of the town got in his deadly work and dubbed it "Skeleton Park" and such it remains to this day.

When all the remains were removed from the old cemetery a number of the grave stones and monuments had become so worn and defaced that they were abandoned and new ones erected in "Riverview" among which was the Foster monument, a part of which lies at a corner of the park. To this the writer went and read "James Foster, Died April, 25th, 1868. Aged 41 Years, 6 months and Four Days," thus putting beyond cavil this fact.

This plant made the usual run of Rockingham and Yellow Ware and was classed in its day as one of the best and most progressive in the town.

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The Foster Rigby plant seems to have been continued by Mr. Rigby and others for several years. One James Riley was connected with the plant and John H. Burgess says that a man named Newell was also interested in it. This man could have been none other than Hugh Newel1 who at that time owned the farm upon which a large part of the town of Newell, W.Va., now stands across from the west end of East Liverpool and a noted pottery suburb of the City. Rigby & Co. made considerable improvements on the plant and did a good business for several years.

The writer is of the opinion that two of the kilns of this old plant are still in use and such makes them among the oldest kilns in the City.

John Goodwin bought this factory in 1872 and it became the nucleus around which The Goodwin Brothers built their great white ware business.

The site of this old pottery is now owned and occupied by the large plant of The Hall China Company with their No. 2 plant, they having bought it about two years since and converted into shops for the manufacture of their class of vitrous china goods.

This plant was the beginning of what is now The Potters Co-Operative Company and designated as "The Dresden Pottery."

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It would seen that Thomas Starkey was connected with potting before he operated the "Star Pottery" where The West End Pottery now stands.

In about the year 1866 Starkey formed a partnership with one Nathaniel Simms, (brother of B. C. Simms of The C. C. Thompson Pottery Co) land they built a two kiln stoneware plant where the Dresden pottery now stands. The clay for the ware was taken from the lower Kittanning horizon, on which the present pottery now stands. Mr. Starkey did not remain long in this firm and a little later Homer Laughlin was engaged with Simms in this stoneware plant. Laughlin, likewise did not stay long in this venture and it would seem that the plant was later operated under the name of Ferguson & Simms.

These various changes coupled up with shutdowns of more or less duration brought the time of this factory up to 1875, when it passed into the hands of the Courts and was sold at a sheriff's sale. William Brunt, Jr., had bid on the plant without any intention of buying it but was surprised to find. that he had "bought something." However, everything in that day was looking exceedingly bright and Mr. Brunt determined to operate the plant.

In those days the success of the Knowles and the Laughlin Potteries in the making of white ware had all the potters looking in that direction.

Mr. Brunt, with his usual promptness proceeded

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to organize a company for the manufacture of 'Iron Stone China," designating his pottery no "The Dresden Pottery."

This company consisted of William Brunt, Jr., Henry Brunt, his brother, of The Riverside Knob Works. William Bloor had returned again from Trenton, having sold out his interests there to a considerable profit, joined in with this venture, being a brother-in-low of the Brunts. George Martin, a son-in-law of Bloor's also agreed to join in the deal and later Samuel A. Emery joined with the new company. The company began business under the name of Brunt, Bloor, Martin & Company. Two decades of white ware making had placed Bloor in a position which was undoubtedly for in advance of any other potter in the city in his knowledge of the making of white ware. This was amply demonstrated in the class of the goods which this company began to turn out as soon as the factory had been refitted, extended and placed in operation.

The following year this company went into competition with the other white ware manufacturers at the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia, Pa., making an equal showing in all respects with all other exhibitors. All the East Liverpool white ware plants getting medals for the excellence of their goods.

This company advanced by loans and bounds until the disasterous "Lock Out" of 1882 came about. During

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the summer and fall of 1331 a lodge of the Knights of Labor had been formed and in the spring of 1882, "The Boss Potters" as the workman by this tine almost universally termed them passed and posted a resolution that "on after the 17th day of June, 1882, they would no longer employ any member of the Knights of Labor in their factories." It is not now known who was the originator of this foolish edict but it is certain that the Brunts were among the prime moovers in the matter. Outside leaders, who had nothing to lose were sent for by the Knights and the result was a foregone conclusion. Three weeks after the beginning of the trouble a compromise was agreed upon when Morley Godwin & Flentke, refused to take one man back into their employ. A stubborn contest of thirty-nine weeks then resulted, and the man who caused all this trouble was the very first man to go in and sign the manufacturers" Iron Clad Agreement" to not to belong to the Knights of Labor or any other kindred organization. The men lost the contest for the time being but the manufacturers lost for more in the long run.

McCord makes Brunt, Blood, Martin & Company in straights for ready cash at this time but the writer who was here on the ground is of a different opinion. The Brunts had shortly before this cold their Great Western plant to the Wyllies and Mr. B1oor had returned from Trenten with the profits of ten

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years operations in the white ware trade and was known to have considerable more capital than he had invested in the Dresden Pottery. Mr. McCord alleges that this was the reason that they sold out their plant but it was undoubtedly due to the fact that all of them, except, possibly Brunt, Jr., wished to avoid the fierce struggle which all could see was then upon them. Be as it may, shortly after the beginning of the Lockout they sold the Dresden Pottery Works to a company of workmen headed by H.A. McNicol, a saloonkeeper located, at that time on the west side of Market Street, just below fourth street, about where the Red Cross is now located.

The Dresden Pottery Works started off with the best and most skilled force of workmen that has ever been gotten together in the country, with a paid up capital stock and a trade which would consume all the goods they could possibly produce. Much was expected of this plant and all went to work with intense enthusiasm feeling that as far as the "Dresden Workers" were concerned that their troubles were over.

By the end of the first year's operations there began to be a decided unrest among this magnificent body of workers, they began to see things which they never expected and it dawned upon them that there were the beginnings of a steady pressure to eliminate the weakkneed and unsatisfied by those in official control of the company. This movement grew to such an

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extent that it reached the Courts in an answer to get some relief for the interested workers. Although these workman-owners went into court with one share over two-thirds of the entire stock of the company, after a long and exhausting fight in the Courts, the self constituted leaders were sustained in their position and from this time to the present day the "Co-Operative" feature of this plant has been the veriest farce.

Shortly after this a number of the strongest stockholders among the workman disposed of their stock and purchased another plant with the same co-operative feature attached to its organization. Among these workers were Edward J. Smith, present Service Director. Patrick McNicol now one of the Columbiana County commissioners and William Smith, late of the Salem China company. The Potters Cooperative Company has enjoyed an uninterupted run of prosperity throughout its history and bids fair to continue in the same way for years to come. The plant is now under the control and ownership of Henry McNicol, a son of H. A McNicol of the original company.

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Immediately after the Civil War William Brunt, Jr., sold the "Upper End" of his plant to John Thompson, William Joblin, James Taylor and John Hardwick, who did not show much energy in the operation of the plant. In the following year of 1866, this company was reorganized. George West (father of George E. West our present Insurance man) took an interest in the company along with Hardwick, Thompson and possibly one or two others. Later, Captain W. S. George whose cask factory had been destroyed by fire in 1874, became a member of the company. West, Hardwick & Company made C. C. Ware for a number of years in a moderately successful manner. About the year 1880 they went into the production of White Granite Ware and this, coupled up with the difficulties of the "Lockout" of 1882, proved too much for the company and they ware forced to suspend operations. The W. S. George in this company was the father of William S. George the leader of the George Pottery combinations at East Palestine, Ohio, Cannonsburg, Ford City and Kittanning, Pennsylvania.

1684 -- GEORGE MORLEY & SONS -- 1890.

George Morley, who, in 1878 had sold out his interests in the firm of Morley, Godwin & Flentke and organized the "Pioneer Pottery" in Wellsville, disposed of his interests there and returned to East Liverpool, buying the West Hardwick & Company plant in 1884. In company with his son Lincoln Morley he started this plant calling it, "The Lincoln Pottery." For some years they operated this plant with considerable success making White Granite Ware and a fine grade of Majolica Ware. Mr. Morley's son, however, did not

seem to take the proper kind of interest in the plant and with trade conditions getting more difficult to plant the into decline, making an assignment in 1890, Mr. Morley losing everything. George Morley died in 1896, having been in the meantime mayor of East Liverpool for one term. The Morley plant laid idle for four years before another venture was made to operate it.

In 1894, a company formed of John W. Hall, Robert Hall and Monroe Patterson bought the old Morley plant in began to operate it under the name of The East Liverpool Pottery Company, making Iron stone China and decorated ware, specializing in what they call "Waco" China.

The Hall Brothers , Robert and John, were successful lumber dealers for many years in East Liverpool and Monroe Patterson was equally successful as an iron founder, making a specialty of potters machinery. This plant ran very successfully for about nine years when it went into a combination of seven potteries, under the head of The East Liverpool Potteries Company which only held together for about two years, being composed of too many contending elements.

1905 -- THE HALL CHINA COMPANY – 1922

Out of the disentregation of the East Liverpool Potteries Company came The Hall China Company, in 1905.

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taking over the old, Woodward-Hardwick-Morley Brunt &c plant who seem to have thoroughly broken the hoodoo which had clung to this factory for so many years.

The Hall China Company at that tine was composed of John W. Hall, Charles Hall, and Robert Hall, Jr., Robert Hall having died in 1903. The new company had for a time considerable trouble and did not keep pace with the other factories in the making and marketing their goods. In their employ was a General Manager named R. J. Meekin who was constantly striving to improve upon the class of goods made in the potteries and during the early years of this company he made some hard, vitrified, fireproof, china, which appealed to the new company and they determined to go into the manufacture of this class of goods. A few months production in the new venture convinced the Hall Company that they had hit upon a product for which there seemed to be an unlimited demand and they proceeded to put the full force of their capacity to work upon the new class of goods. In a few years the demands of their trade out ran the capacity of the Hall plant and they purchased the old Goodwin Brothers Company plant at the corner of East Sixth and Broadway and reconstructed it to suit their purposes and are now operating it to its capacity, designating it as plant No. 2.

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The prospects of this company are exceedingly bright as they have an unlimited demand for their product and have the capacity for a very large production.

John was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1813, and started to learn potting at the age of 10 years, serving seven years as an apprentice. The father of Mr. Wyllie was a glass pot maker which may have been the reason for the son taking to the

clay. After he was 21 Wyllie went to the English potting districts and worked at various plants, a large part of the time as a foreman. He married Anna Russell in England in 1833. In 1848 he went to Holland and engaged in the pottery business until 1853, from which he returned to the Staffordshire potting districts.

In 1856 he was called to take charge of a large pottery in France. Mr. Wyllie remained in France for 12 years and then returned to England but remained only a short time, coming to the United States and locating in Trenton, N.J. Later Mr. Wyllie removed to Pittsburgh Pa. where he worked in a pottery run by a man named

S. M. Kier. In 1870 Mr. Wyllie leased the Kier factory for a term of four years and manufactured Rockingham and Yellow Ware, but near the end of this lease the site of the factory was needed for the extention of a street and the plant was sold to the city of Pittsburgh.

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Coming to the East Liverpool in the same year, of 1874, Mr. Wyllie bought the "Great Western Plant" of William Brunt, Jr. This factory was also often called "The Pitcher Pottery" from the fact that Mr. Brunt had set on the roof of this plant when it was erected a very large clay pitcher which had been at the old Blood plant when he purchased it. This pitcher was over five feet high and had been made at the Woodward and Blakely Plant.

The writer can well remember having seen this mamoth piece of ware at the Blood plant when he was not over five years of age, having been put inside of it by his father and could not reach the top of it with uplifted hands. He also crawled, easily, through the handle with this pitcher.

The new firm started business under the name of John Wyllie & Son, Mr. Wyllie taking in with him his son John R. Wyllie, in the manufacture of white granite and decorated ware. The Wyllie's introduced many improvements in their factory and showed that they were thorough masters of the business. John Wyllie Sr., died during the great "Lockout" of 1882 and his son, John R. Wyllie, ably assisted by his mother continued to run the business, for a number of years in the same able manner as it had been operated by the Senior Wyllie. The health of John R. Wyllie, however, began to fail and the plant ran in an intermittent sort of way until 1893, when Mr. Wyllie died and the plant was closed.

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During the great pottery __________ of 1894, a company of operative potters bought the old "Great Western" pottery from the Wyllie heirs and placed it in operation, but the usual fate of co-operative plants seemed to .follow it, for it seemed to suffer from "too many bosses" and each boss seemed to think that he was entitled to "take things easy" and as a natural result the plant made but poor headway.

This plant was also afflicted with a business manager of the Wallingford style of handling things and as a result large improvements were made on borrowed money and deals made to attach other out of town plants to this company. With this kind of management it did not take long to eliminate the co-operative feature of the plant and it was reorganized under the name of The Union Potteries Company. It was operated for a time with The American China Company of Toronto, Ohio, and later a deal was closed to include the Chelsea China Company of New Cumberland W.Va., which had been erected in 1859 by John Porter and others, but before this deal was fully consumated the Chelsea plant was destroyed by fire. The company came at last entirely into the hands of M. A. Morland of Pittsburgh, Pa., and was closed down. Later the machinery and equipment of the plant was transferred to a plant at Huntington, W.Va., and the buildings razed.

The C. C. Thompson Company originated

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under the name of Thompson & Herbert in 1868. The venture was backed by Josiah Thompson one of the pioneer merchants of the town. Cassius C. Thompson was a son of Josiah Thompson and Col. J. T. Herbert had been a crockery salesman for William Brunt, Jr. The new firm began with the manufacture of Rockingham and Yellow Ware and continued in that line long after all the other potteries had turned to white ware. The buildings were of the most substantial kind and up to date for that day in the way of equipment, in fact they are still an essential part of the present Thompson plant. This plant is situated on the river front just east of the present Chester - East Liverpool bridge.

Col. Herbert did not live many years to enjoy the success of this plant, having died March 31st 1875. Col. Herbert was the father of Sherman T. Herbert of The Union Building and Loan Company and his widow Mrs. Rebecca Herbert is still living.

About this time B. C. Simms and John C. Thompson came into the firm and it was then known as C. C. Thompson & Company. Cassius Thompson died very

suddenly of heart failure, April 24th, 1905, and his son George C. Thompson came into the firm to represent his father's interests. The firm was turned into a stock company and incorporated as The C. C. Thompson Pottery Co.

This company continued the manufacture of C. C. and Yellow Ware till but few years since but had added the making of a fine grade of ware which

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they made for years but later producing Semi-Porcelain and Decorated goods. The Thompson plant is one of the few which have continued under the same management since the beginning of the plant. They enjoy an extensive trade and are producing goods which are fully as good as any of the kind upon the American market.

In 1878 John Gamble, Holland Manley, William H. Surles and William Harrison built a three kiln pottery on the site of the old Jacob Fowler brick yard and began the manufacture of Rockingham and Yellow Ware. This plant coming into existence so near the end of the "Yellow Ware" area did not make very much of a success. After a time Messrs. Gamble and Surles withdrew from the company and it was operated for a time under the name of Flentke, Harrison & Company, Charles

Flentke being a son of William Flentke of Godwin & Flentke, and a brother -in-law of William Harrison. White ware was the call of the day and after a struggle the plant was shut down and passed later into the hands of Knowles, Taylor & Knowles to become one of our most active factories for the manufacture of semi-porcelain.

The original builders of this plant called it "The Buckeye Pottery and it is yet known by that name to this day.

In the year 1879 three brothers, Robert, George

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and Oliver Burford erected a factory at what is now East Seventh, (Hailes) Street and began the manufacture of floor and wall tile, but his plant met with rather indifferent success, the main fault being inability to adjust the shrinkage of the, then unknown, American clays. In 1881 the Burfords reconstructed the factory and began the manufacture of C. C. Ware which they continued with considerable success for nearly twenty-five years, however, for some years of their later operation they made a fine grade of Iron Stone China and Decorated ware.

In 1905 the Burfords sold their plant to The Standard Pottery Company who owned and operated it for about fifteen years, disposing of the same to The Potters Co-Operative Company, whose plant it adjoins, within the last two years.

This factory was originally organized by a company of about forty workmen under the name of The Standard Co-Operative Pottery Company, who bought the old Godwin & Flentke plant after George Morley had retired from it. At the head of this organization was one A. C. Gould as President with Malachi Horan as secretary and treasurer. This plant made Iron Stone China and Decorated ware. McCord in his History of Columbiana County makes the date of this organization as 1877 but he is manifestly in error for the writer of this article has in his possession an old work

account book where he worked at this plant in 1877

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for Morley, Godwin & Flentke and has a letter dated a year later quoting prices of ware from Godwin & Flentke. With this positive evidence before him the writer places the organization of The Standard Co-Operative Pottery Company in 1879. The majority of the stockholders of this plant wore practical potters and the factory immediately began to make a good showing in the pottery trade, but after operating for a number of years the plant was totally destroyed by fire.

After a short interval the company was reorganized but many of the old Stockholders dropped out. In the place of these there Came a number of the "squeezed out" potters from The Potters Co-Operative Company, and others making the company stronger than before. Among these new stockholders were Patrick McNicol, Thomas (Big Tom) McNicol, a brother of Patrick and both sons of the elder Patrick McNichol of McNichol Burton & Company, Daniel and Cornelius Cronin, brothers Edward J. and William Smith, also brothers, John F. Darrah and a number of others. The co-operative feature, was at this time abandoned and the company organized as a regular stock concern under the name of The Standard Pottery

Company.

In the rebuilding of the factory it was made much larger and up to date in every way. As the years passed it became plain that this company had gotten

together a winning combination and they made rapid progress in a highly profitable manner. One of their noted achievements was during the strike of 1894, while

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acting in unison with The West End Pottery Company, they ignored the proposed radical reduction of the other manufacturers, and paid the old scale of wages during the entire strike. From this point the history of the Standard Pottery has been one of uninterrupted prosperity.

In 1898, this company built a six kiln factory for the manufacture of semi-porcelain at Salem, Ohio. The incorporators of this company were Thomas A. (Big Tom) McNicol, so called to distinguish him from Thomas A. (Timmie) McNicol of the McNicol China Co., Edward J. Smith, Cornelius Cronin, William Smith and Daniel P. Cronin. This plant operated under the name of The Salem China Company and simply repeated the history of the Standard Pottery Company.

In 1905 the Standard Pottery Company purchased the plant of the Burford Brothers and operated the same as their No. 2 Plant until two years since when they disposed of this plant to The Potters Co-Operative Company. The Standard people have, within the last two years, disposed of The Salem China Company to the Sebring Interest. The reason for this being that the Standard interests have in the last ten years become largely interested in the cold drawn steel business.

Homer Laughlin was a veteran of the Civil War and entered the potting business soon after his return from the Federal Army. Mr. Laughlin and Nathanial

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Simms built a small stone ware plant on the site of the present Dresden Pottery in the last half of the sixties but the factory did not prosper and Mr. Laughlin soon withdrew and with his brother Shakespeare, went east and for a number of years engaged in the business of importing crockery. After having learned the business end of the Pottery business the Laughlin brothers returned to East Liverpool and prepared to erect a factory for the manufacture of Iron Stone China.

Shortly before this time the City Council of the Crockery City had appropriated a bonus of $5,000.00 to be given the first pottery of "four kilns" making white ware in the town. This bonus was given to the Laughlins and it is said that Homer Laughlin many times expressed his chagrin over the fact that he had accepted this bonus. The real reason for the enmity shown by the people of the town in this matter was the fact that, while the Laughlin plans called for a four kiln plant but two kilns were built and long before Homer Laughlin had four kilns The Knowles Taylor & Knowles Co. had five kilns and should been the people to have gotten the bonus. Perhaps it is just as well that this matter went as it did for, had the Laughlins not had this bonus they might not have built and, at that time, the Knowles Company were in a position to extend their works from their own resources without asking the aid of anyone.

Home Laughlin had imported an English Manager

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one Edward Pearson, who was supposed to be the last word in ceramic skill at that time. Jarvis in his Cyclopedia of Ceramics, makes Pearson the one skilled man of that day and gives him credit with planning nearly all of the early white ware plants, when, as a matter of fact he did not even plan the Laughlin plant. The Architect for the original Laughlin plant was one James A. W. Koonz, who was the father-in-law of George W. Ashbaugh, and under whom the writer, W. A. Calhoun, was even then studying architecture. A few years later, while Mr. Pearson was still manager at Laughlins, Homer Laughlin was the first potter to recognize the growing skill of the writer by giving him the work for an extention to the plant when he enlarged the pottery to four kilns. The plan for this work was a little difficult as it involved the raising of the old kiln shed roof and building walls and floor under the roof. As for the other plants Pearson planned none of them, Adolph Fritz being called in nearly every instance where an architect was required. As for the Knowles plants William L. Calhoun the father of the writer sketched the plans for these plants and the writer worked out the details and machinery plans.

The first efforts at the Laughlin plant was not all encouraging much of the ware being spoiled and many of the handles dropping off the ware in the firing, in spite of the skilled management. Homer

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Laughlin was not a quitter, however, and before the Centennial Exposition of 1876 came on he was in a position to compete with the best of them and carry off honors where others only got a passing notice.

Much has been written and said about who should have the honor in first using a distinctive American Trade Mark. The writer is satisfied, from personal knowledge, that this honor should go to Homer Laughlin. The writer has in his possession a letter from Homer Laughlin, under date of November, 1878, quoting prices on white ware, which shows the famous "Lion and Eagle" trade mark where the American Eagle has the British Lion on his back and this trade mark had been in use quite a time before this date.

After a few years of operation Shakespeare Laughlin retired from the potting business and the entire factory came into the possession of Homer Laughlin. Mr. Laughlin kept to the front in his chosen calling, always taking great pride in the quality of his goods, and exibited a determination to allow no one to produce any better goods than he did. He never sacrificed quality for quantity, a determination that it would be well for many potters to follow in this day and age. Mr. Laughlin never extended his factory beyond six kilns but the fame of the class of goods he did produce had become world wide.

Homer Laughlin retired in August 1893, and removed to Los Angeles, Cal., getting into that city

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just at the beginning of its great boom and invested his capital in real estate which in later years is said to have made him a millionaire.

The new interests in The Homer Laughlin Pottery Company were the Aarons of Pittsburgh, Pa., who brought unlimited capital to back their new investment this being the first outside capital that had ever come into the East Liverpool potting district. The company was reorganized with L. I. Aarons as president and W. E. Wells, who had been many years with Mr. Laughlin as Secy. These new potters were fully convinced that expansion was the order of the day and purchasing large acreage in the east end of the city they erected a 15 kiln pottery with modern equipment in every respect. This was followed almost immediately by another factory of a like size on an adjoining site. A little later they traded their old No. 1 plant to The National China Co. for a new six-kiln plant that this company had built adjoining both of the New Laughlin plants, thus giving them a compact group of factories of a capacity of 36 kilns.

In 1905 the Laughlin Company purchased large holdings of lands in Newell W. Va., immediately across the Ohio River from the westerly end of East Liverpool. A connecting bridge was determined upon and quickly built. With those improvements came the construction of a mammoth pottery plant of 32 kilns and the removal of their main office to this new factory. Hardly had this immense plant gotten fully into operation till there was talk of still another

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factory and a few years later one of 15 kilns was built all of which have been kept continuously in operation. This company now has by a considerable margin the largest factories for the manufacture of Semi-Porcelain and Decorated Ware in America, and can, indeed, compare favorably with any series of pottery plants in the world.

In the year 1877 Benjamin Harker, Jr., Branched out from the older Harker company and built a factory of two kilns further east along the river front (present site of the Colonial Pottery) and began the manufacture of C. C. ware. This plant Mr. Harker designated as the "Wedgwood Pottery" and the factory being entirely new and up to date it attracted such attention.

In this venture Mr. Harker included his sons, George Jr., Benjamin, III, and Lincoln Harker. Mr. Harker made as fine a grade of good of this class as was produced in the country but the younger Harkers did not seem to be imbued with the energy of the older generation and the plant ran in a rather indifferent manner for several years.

By the year 1881 the elder Mr. Harker was in failing health and the plant was for a short time closed down and then was sold to a new company composed of Joseph Chetwynd and H. D. Wallace, who were brothers-in-law.

Joseph Chetwynd and H. D. Wallace came to East

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Liverpool from Wheeling W.Va., where they had been interested in pottery business ani purchased the "Wedgewood Pottery" from the Harkers, this plant now being known as the "Colonial Pottery."

Joseph Chetwynd was born in the Staffordshire pottery district in 1852. In early life Mr. Chetwynd learned the trade of modeling and worked at that part of the potting business with his father who was a pottery manufacturer. In 1872, Mr. Chetwynd came to the United States and located in Jersey City where he delt in imported wares until 1879, when he was called to East Liverpool on account of the death of a brother who had been in the employ of the George S. Harker Company. The Harkers made such flattering inducements to Mr. Chetwynd that he sold out his Jersey City business and came to take employment with the Harker company. Later be went to Wheeling, W.Va., and engaged in the pottery business but did not remain long in that city, returning to East Liverpool as above noted, in company with his brother-in-law G. D. Wallace, to take over the Benjamin Harker plant.

Wa11ace & Chetwynd were among the, first manufacturers in the western potting district to make Semi-Porcelain ware and were always noted for the excellence of their products and the fine finish of their goods. In this respect they were much like Homer Laughlin, going in for quality instead of quantity, this with

the high class of their decorated wares soon gave them

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a trade among the better class or merchants that was second to none.

In 1899 George C. Meredith secured an interest in this company and Chetwynd retired. In 1903 this company went in with the merger of six pottery companies, under the name of The East Liverpool Potteries Company, which, however, was a short lived affair and out of the Wallace & Chetwynd part of this company was developed the present Colonial Pottery Company.

1903 -- THE COLONIAL POTTERY COMPANY -- 1922

This company was organized out of the collapse of the "Little Trust" as formed by the East Liverpool Potteries Company, by the taking over of the Wallace

& Chetwynd plant. In the reorganization the company consisted of George C. Meredith, Thomas Robinson, Joseph Barlow, Christopher Horton and possibly one or two others. Later than this Mr. Horton traded his stock in this pottery for the stationary store of Joseph S. Wilson, but after a year or two, as neither were satisfied, the deal was annulled and stocks re-transfered. H.P. Knoblock, formerly Manager for The Potters Co-Operative Company bought some of the stock of this company and was made the manager of the Colonial Company, which, however, did not last over a very extended period, Mr. Knoblock returning (after the death of H. A. McNicol) to The Potters Co-Operative Company.

After the retirement of Mr. Knoblock the plant seemed to get into a much better form of management and their business improved steadily until the

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present standing of this company compares favorably with any plant of its size in the district.

In this article it is not the purpose to follow the success of the Sebring Brothers beyond the time when they left East Liverpool, as the history of the town of Sebring is so recent and well known that the data can easily be obtained at any time.

This company was formed in 1887, by George W. Ashbaugh, Sampson Turnbull, Olivar, George E., Ellsworth H., Frank A., and Joseph Sebring. The Sebring Boys were all, the sons of George A. Sebring who had worked for many years about the potteries of the town. The elder Sebring, who was a thoroughly respected citizen, never showed any inclination to venture beyond providing for the needs of his family but who lived many years to enjoy the success of the greater energy of his sons.

In the majority of cases more credit is given the successful man than he is often entitled to be given and only too often the man who helped push a venture to the point of success is left unmentioned. Without seeking to detract anything from the success of the Sebrings it is only fair to say that much of the brunt of the hard pushing of the early years of this company is due to George W. Ashbaugh and Sampson Turnbull.

Ashbaugh had been schooled in the pottery business, from a boy, under his father at the Knowles plants,

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and had later developed into one of the best salesmen who went out of the East Liverpool district. During the first three years of the operation of this plant it would have gone to the wall many times if it had not been for the superior knowledge, push and energy of Mr. Ashbaugh in the disposing of the products of the plant and thus getting the money to keep it going.

Sampson Turnbull was an old time Staffordshire potter skilled in all the branches of shop practice and to his close attention to this end of the business may be accredited not a little of the success of the company.

McCord, in his History of Columbiana County calls Oliver and George Sebring "expert potters," which was, at that time, giving them rather an extended credit. While it is true that they had worked in the potteries the class of work they had done could hardly place them in the line of being pottery experts.

Oliver was familiarly known as "Stamps" Sebring from the fact that he continually referred to money as "Stamps;" which was not uncommon in those days

on account of using postage stamps, as change during war times. Oliver has worked about the slip house, the kiln sheds and in the shops of a number of the yellow ware potteries end later in the white ware.

George Sebring was universally know as "Sunday" Sebring. The reason for this is alleged to have been that Mr. Mear, (Formerly of Salt & had caught

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George in his stable appropriating "hen fruit" and making his earnest plea to Mr. Mear for his release he promised faithfully to "never steal any more eggs on SUNDAY." Be as it may the story stuck and "Sunday" Sebring, George was for many years. In 1882 and for several years thereafter George acted as clay shop foreman in what is now the "Old End" at The Knowles Taylor and Knowles Company.

Early in the events of the Sebring company it developed that Frank A. Sebring, as a business head, lead all the other brothers and to this day the situation remains the same.

The Sebring combination took over the old Agner & Foutts yellow ware pottery of three kilns. When the Agner & Foutts Company had failed the plant had come into the possession of a Mrs. Campbell who agreed to let the new company have it for $12,500.00, to be paid in three years without any interest during the entire period. The entire seven men were without any ready money whatever but by the mortgaging of their homes and endorsement of a few relatives they managed to raise $7,000.00 and with this small amount of cash the plant was refitted and operations began.

For the first year it was a toss up any day when the plant would go to the wall but they weathered the storms somehow. It was an oft repeated saying that many times "Ashbaugh had ware drawn from the

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kilns, shipped, and the money in the office before the ware was cold." The writer himself has seen more than once the ware dressers brought down from the ware house and placed between the kilns and the packers and the ware literally went directly from the kilns while it was yet hot into the casks. Often these men were on the plant twenty hours out of the twenty-four. This class of pushing the business soon had its effect and the company began to see their way more clearly. At the end of the three year period Mrs. Campbell got her money, a well satisfied woman, to be relieved of a white elephant which had looked like a total loss before the agreement to sell was made.

Ashbaugh and Turnbull, soon after this point had been reached, began to feel that things were being run too much in the interests of the Sebrings and friction resulted. This state of affairs soon reached such a state that it threatened the stopping of the plant while an investigation could be made and in order to avoid this the Sebrings proposed to buy out Ashbaurgh and Turnbull, which they did, paying them $11,000.00 for the $2000.00. They had put in, rather than have the investigation made.

Shortly after this Sylvester J. Cripps, a cousin of the Sebrings, went into the company, but, after several years experience, followed in the foot stems of Messrs. Ashbaugh and Turnbull, leaving the entire ho1ding's in the hands of the five Sebring brothers.

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In 1093, the Sebrings leased the old plant of the East Palestine Pottery Company and operated it on a percentage basis. In 1896, upon the offer of a bonus by the people of East Palestine, the brothers built the Ohio China Company factory of five kilns and operated the three plants. In 1898, they were offered a substantial bonus to erect a plant in the East End of East Liverpool, and as a result the "Klondyke" pottery was built, consisting of six kilns which were operated to the limit as were all the plants under the control of the Sebrings.

In 1899, the Sebring brothers purchased a large tract of farm land in Mahoning County, Ohio, just north of the Columbiana County line, between Salem and Alliance and soon began to transfer their business to that site. The town laid out was called Sebring. The East Liverpool plants were soon disposed of, the original going to the Sevres China Company and the Klondyke plant to The Smith-Phillips China Company. The Ohio China works was sold to The Ohio China Company in 1902. As the company disposed of their outside holdings they concentrated their business at Sebring building at various times the Sebring Pottery works, the Olivar China works, the French China works and the Limoges China works all of which have been extended from time to time. About two years since the Sebring, again branched away from their own town by purchasing the plant of the Salem China Company and adding that to their string of factories, all of which has come in 33 years from

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$7,000 every cent of which was borrowed money.

1900 --THE NATIONAL CHINA COMPANY 1922

The National China Company was formed in 1900, by John Stamm, J. H. Warner, Thomas Williams and Samuel Larkins, who built an up-to-date plant (Now Laughlin No. 1) and began the manufacture of Semi-Porcelain and Decorated Ware. Later this company traded this factory for the old Laughlin No. 1 and a substantial bonus. This plant was later sold to the Harker Pottery Company and is now called their Factory No. 2. The National China Company then purchased a plant at Saline-ville, Ohio, which they still operate. Mr. Stamm and Mr. Warner had in the meantime dropped out of this company.

Frederick, Shenkle, Allen & Company was organized in 1881 by, Noah H. Frederick, George C. Frederick, Jacob Shenkle and A. B. Allen. This company

began the manufacture of Rockingham and Yellow Ware. In 1888 the company was reorganized under the name of The Globe Pottery Company and began the manufacture of Semi-Porcelain and Decorated Wares. In 1896 John Horwell came into the company, George C. Frederick having died in the meantime.

In 1903 This company went into the combination of the East Liverpool Potteries Company, but two years saw the end of this combination and the plants went back to their original standing, with some

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chances, however, in the actual members. At this time John Horwell withdrew from the pottery business. From this time on the Globe Pottery seemed to be under poor management and gradually declined. After one of the Ohio River floods about 1912 the plant closed down and did not resume work.

1913 -- THE T. A. McNICOL POTTERY COMPANY--1922

Shortly after the closing of the Globe pottery the plant was bought by a company composed of Thomas A. McNicol (called "Timmie" to distinguish him from "Big Tom" of the Salem China and "Trenton Tom," of the Dresden Pottery,) Thomas Cannon and Miles Bennett. This company began business in the making of Semi-Porcelain and Decorated Ware and have maintained a high standard in the quality of their goods. McNicol was one of the "squeezed out" members of the Dresden," Co-Operative" farce but who refused to stay down and has succeeded in establishing a business which will compare favorably with any of its size in the pottery district.

During the time since the organization of this company Thomas Cannon has died and his place has been taken by his son, Frances Cannon. Garfield Moffatt has also been admitted to the company, he being a skilled potter in the decorating departments.

Here is another factory which started off with great eclat to become a "workingman's " pottery, but the first few years developed a decided "squeeze" as had always been the case in plants of this kind

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In the town. It was another case of "dog eat dog" with the little fellows on the small end.

This company was composed of Sampson Turnbull (late of Sebrings) Joseph Deckin, Edward J. Owen (now of Erwin, Tenn.) and Gus. Trenle, all practical potters. This company built an up-to-date plant of two kilns and were soon well established the trade and doing a good business, making Semi-Porcelain end Decorated Ware. With the forming of the East Liverpool Potteries Company the East End factory went into the combination, but before this time Sampson Turnbull and Joseph Deckin had been frozen out. After the collapse of the "Little Trust" the East End plant became The Trenle China Co. controlled by Gus Trenle. Later Mr. Trenle changed to the making of Electric Porcelain and has established a good business. A little over two years since the plant was destroyed by fire but has been rebuilt with an increased capacity. The plant is now being operated under the name of The Trenle Porcelain Company, and is keeping pace with the general run of that trade.

1901 -- THE SMITH-PHILLIPS CHINA COMPANY -- 1922

In 1901 Josiah T. Smith and William Phillips, cousins, both being grandsons of Josiah Thompson, bought the "Klondyke" plant of The Sebring Pottery Company and began the manufacture of Semi-Porcelain and Decorated Ware. This plant has gone through several changes of management but the controlling

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interests have remained the same and it is still operated under the original name of The Smith-Phillips China Company. The plant has been very considerably extended and they have a large trade which keeps the plant operating steadily and in a profitable manner.

In 1880 Rowe & Mountford took over the old "Diamond Stilt Works" of Robinson & Company and converted it into a pottery for the manufacture

of White Granite and Decorated Ware. This company was made up of John Rowe, Thomas Robinson, John Mountford, Ambrose Massey and Edward J. Owens was later connected with the company.

John Rowe was born in Germany in 1856 and came to the United States with his parents in 1862, locating in Syracuse, N.Y. Here Rowe grew to manhood, going to Boston, Mass. in 1876. Later he went to England and spent several years in working in the Staffordshire potteries. Later Mr. Rowe went to Canada and worked in the pottery at St. Johns. In 1882 he came to Last Liverpool. Later Mr. Rowe sold his interests in this plant and went to Tiltonvillo, Ohio, where he conducted a plant for several years, then going to Zanesville, Ohio to take over the management of The American Encaustic Tile Company at that place where he remained for many years. In the last year Mr. Rowe has been interested in the construction of a pottery at Burbank, Calif. of which he is to take over the management when it is

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completed.

Messrs. Robinson, Mountford and Massey were old line Staffordshire potters all practical in every sense of the word. This company manufactured a superior line of White Granite and Decorated Ware, and conducted a very successful business for many years. After the strike of 1894, Messrs. Mountford and Rowe sold out and George C. Murphy came into the company and the name was changed to The George C. Murphy Pottery Company. In 1901 this company went into the East Liverpool Potteries combination and shortly after the collapse of that ill advised project the factory was destroyed by fire. This resulted in a long drawn out suit against the Pennsylvania Railroad Company from the fact that a freight train pulled in and stopped just as the fire department came to the scene of the fire and prevented the firemen from getting to work while the fire was of very small dimensions. This suit was at last compromised by the payment by the Railroad Company of a very considerable sum of money. As the trade of the company, in the meantime had been thoroughly interrupted and much of it lost the company decided to go out of business.

1901 -- THE EAST LIVERPOOL POTTERIES COMPANY – 1903

A combination was effected in 1901 of six white ware potteries under the name of The East Liverpool Potteries Company, which included The East End Pottery Co., The Globe Pottery Co., The East Liverpool Pottery Co., The Wallace & Chetwynd Pottery Co.,

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The George C. Murphy Pottery Co., all of East Liverpool, and The United States Pottery Co., of Wellsville. This was a beginning of what was fondly hoped, would be a general combination of all the western potteries by the originators of the scheme who were not any of them practical potters. About two years of this combine showed that while men may be very smart business men in one business they may not be able to capably handle another business at ail.

Each of the six plants in this combine had internal friction and it was hoped that the combine with entirely new officers would bring harmony but the results showed that it only intensified the old differences. Two years of the combination seemed more than enough and the plants went back to their own individual standing..

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In the early nineties a man named Corns, who was the father of Albert Corns of the McNichol-Corns pottery in Wellsville, operated a small pottery On Ravine Street in East Liverpool, making brown and jet door knobs. This plant was about opposite the westerly end of Fawsett street on Ravine street and continued in operation for quite a number of years. One incident of its existence is worthy of note. During its period of operation one of the kiln of knobs came out in a condition which looked as if the lot was ruined the knobs being of a peculiar shade of green with a matt surface. When these were offered for sale they were taken eagerly and more asked for, but the demand could not be met as no one knew how the freak had occurred. Later the plant shut down and was abandoned.

1900?-- THE BENTY BROTHERS -- 1910?

Early in the present century two brothers, named Harry and Louis Benty took over the Corn Knob works and began the manufacture of a ware which for a time attracted much attention. The Benty Brothers called this product "Oakwood Ware" from its close resemblance to the famous Rockwood product. After operating the Corns plant for a time the brothers built a small plant on Laura Avenue near the Waterworks upper pumping station and made this ware for several years. The plant was later destroyed by fire and the Benty Brothers being cramped for capital did not rebuild. This passed the chance for a unique product in ceramics which might

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added much to the fame of the Crockery City.

1900 -- THE SEVRES CHINA Company -- 1910

In the year 1900 a company composed of Harry L. Keffer, William T. Tebbutt, William H. Deidr1ck, Frank Crook and Walter B. Hill, purchased the Number 1 Sebring plant and under the name of The Sevres China Company been the manufacture of Semi-Porcelain and Decorated Ware. Of this company both Keffer and Deidrick were experienced pottery men and the plant had ample financial backing but in spite of this the place did not flourish. In a few years Tebbutt, Hill and Crook dropped out and J. R. Warner formerly of The National China Company came into the company and the name was then changed to THE WARNER-KEFFER COMPANY. A little later W. H. Deidrick retired from the company and a man named Higley from Canton, Ohio, took an interest with Messrs. Warner and Keffer. These changes did not improve the business prospects of the company and a gradual decline set in which ended in the shutting down of the plant about 1910 to run no more. The pottery was later, disposed of to Peter Milliron who dismantled it and turned the buildings into a storage warehouse, which in later years was totally destroyed by fire. Thus came to an end a famous factory where fortunes had ben made and lost.

1900 -- THE TAYLOR, SMITH & TAYLOR COMPANY -- 1922

With the opening of the Chester-East Liverpool bridge came a chance for the expansion of the potting business which was badly needed. John N. Taylor and

C. A. Smith organized a company for the manufacture of semi-

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Porcelain and Decorated Ware, under the name of The Taylor, Smith & Taylor Company. With these two were included Joseph G. Lee and the two sons of John H. Taylor, William L. Taylor and Homer J. Taylor.

An up-to-date 8 kiln plant was built in Chester and ample capital was provided to make this venture a complete success. Col. Taylor had designed this business for the purpose of establishing his sons in the pottery trade but the young generation did not seem to have the push and energy which had been the mainstay of their grandfather Isaac W Knowles. After several years of unsatisfactory operations, C. A. Smith forced the closing of the plant and it was idle for more than a year, when William L. Smith and his son William L. Smith Jr., took over the Taylor and Lee interests and put the, plant into operation again, retaining, however, the same name though all the Taylors had retired. From this time on the history of this plant has been one of uninterrupted success, the plant being enlarged from time to time to meet the increased demands of their trade.

In the last year the plant has twice been visited by fire but the damage has been quickly replaced in a better manner than before. The active Management of plant has fallen to W. L. Smith, Jr., though the elder Smith spends much of his time at the works giving aid and council through his more extended knowledge and experience.

1900 -- THE EDWIN M. KNOWLES CHINA COMPANY ** 1922

Edwin M Knowles is the youngest son of Isaac W. Knowles, by his second wife Rebecca J (Merchunt)

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Knowles who is still living at the advanced age of 85 years. The younger Knowles has showed more of the foresight and business acumen than all the balance of his family combined in the pottery business. He seems to have the same faculties of his father magnified and being reinforced by having, plenty of capital to back anything

he choses to push he has made a mark that is second to none in the pottery manufacture.

During the late nineties the Knowles Taylor & Knowles Company saw several years which were not at all satisfactory in the way of business success. A change in the voting power of the stockholders put Edwin M. Knowles in charge of the affairs of the company which soon showed the ability of the young man and a few years restored the company to its former standing, among the pottery manufacturers.

Edwin Knowles soon displayed an independent spirit in the pottery business and this, coupled up with internal friction in the older company, caused him to branch out for himself. In 1900 he has Adolph Fritz prepare plans for a new factory which he had erected in the easterly end of Chester, across the river from East Liverpool. This plant was an up-to-date one of six kilns, which has since been extended. He began operations under the name of The Edwin M. Knowles China Company and soon won a position in the trade, for the quality of his goods, which is second to none.

In 1913, Mr Knowles secured a large plot of land in the factory allotment of Newell, W.Va., across from the

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westerly end of East Liverpool, and erected a 15 kiln plant for the manufacture of Semi-Porcelain and Decorated ware, from plans made by Cassius M. Metsch, who had been a student under Mr. Fritz. This last plant of Mr. Knowles has become the "show plant" for the entire East Liverpool district from the excellence of its arrangement and equipments. The common saying to visitors, who express a wish to see the making of pottery, is "Go to the Edwin M. Knowles plant if you want to see an up-to-date pottery." To those who wish to see pottery made in its best form, there can certainly be no better factory to visit than the Edwin M. Knowles No. 2.

Mr. Knowles has won a position in the good will of his factory people which makes him an outstanding and distinctive figure among all the other manufacturers and managers. This seems to have come about by his unusually fair and open manner in the treatment of his factory help and the assurance that every worker on the plants has that all will share alike in getting only the best and fairest treatment. This is one qualification which Edwin M. Knowles has which was in common with his half brother Homer S. Knowles, to whom no worker ever went, with a justifiable complaint, but what, after a thorough investigation, it was corrected. The result of this policy of fair dealing is that the Edwin M. Knowles plants always have the best of the skilled pottery workers and all strive to do the very best they can when at work on those plants.

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The entire history of these two plants has been one of uninterrupted activity and prosperity and the product of these plants enjoys a reputation far above the average production of many of the American pottery plants.

1907 -- JOHN BOCH -- 1922

The name of Boch goes back so far in the early history of pottery making in America that little is now known about the first potter of that name to come to the United States.

John Boch, Sr., was the one man who made the success of electric porcelain a possibility in this district of the clay working industry.. The elder Mr. Boch was the expert who brought the Thomas porcelain industry up to a point where great developments in that line were possible and lived to see the electric porcelain business thoroughly established.

John W. Boch may justly be called the dean of the electric porcelain industry. He learned the business thoroughly under his father and after the death of the elder Boch conducted the management of The R, Thomas & Sons Company in electric porcelain for many years, being with that company until they were fully established in the high tension electric porcelain work.

About twenty years since Mr. Boch began to feel that he should have more chance for development than his position then offered him and he severed his connection with the R. Thomas & Sons Company for more

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independent fields of operation. he soon made an advantageous connection with the vast Westinghouse interests as a consulting expert on porcelain in its relation to the electrical industries.

About 1907 Mr. Boch began to find the need of a factory which would make special pieces for the electrical industry which could not be had in any other manner. He established a small one kiln plant in Newell, W.Va., near the great Laughlin potteries, and began the manufacture of specials which no other plant would undertake to make and carried this on in addition to his other expert work. In this line Mr. Boch has established himself in a unique position in the electrical porcelain trade and it has been said that never yet has he failed to make any piece for this line of trade no matter how difficult.

Mr. Boch was for some time associated with The Bach & Metsch Porcelain Company but with the beginning of 1922 disposed of his interests in that company to Mr.

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1907 - THE KENILWORTH TILE COMPANY - 1922

The Kenilworth Tile Company is located on Third street and the River front in Newell, W.Va., with a capacity of six kilns. The leading spirit and manager of this concern is Claude Nease who by unending push and energy has come up from the ranks to a position which may seek but fall to attain.

This plant manufactures floor and wall tile and many of the standard shapes of electrical porcelain being noted for the entensity of their fire in the production of their goods and the highly vitrous quality of their electrical porcelain shapes.

This plant has been unusually unfortunate in having been visited by destructive fires several times but each time the owners have rebuilt the plant and begun over again.

1910 -- The BOCH & METSCH PORCELAIN COMPANY - 1922

This company was formed immediately after the close of the war by John W. Boch and Cassius Metsch an Architect, specializing on pottery work. Mr. Metsch has just returned from service in the Navy as on expert draftsman in the torpedo department.

The Boch & Metsch Porcelain Company began the manufacture for special pieces of electrical porcelain to take care of the excess trade that Mr. Boch could not handle at his own plant. They took over the idle plant of the Novelty Clay Forming Company which had moved to East Palestine, Ohio, several years before

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And immediately entered into a satisfactory business which has continued until the present time.

With the beginning of 1922, Mr. Boch withdrew from the company and Mr. George S. Howard, who was the originator of The Novelty Clay Forming Company, came in with Mr. Metsch, the name of the company being changed to The Metsch Refractories Company. In addition to the making of electric specialties this company have added fire resisting products of several kinds and will continue the making of both of this classes of goods.

1910 - THE NOVELTY CLAY FORMING COMPANY - 1915

In 1910 George S. Howard built a small factory at the northwest corner of Third Street and the River front in Newell, W.Va., and began the production of electric specialties. For several years prior to this Mr. Howard had made some of this class of goods at various times. At one time he was located in the old sagger plant of Edward O'Connor, at the northwest corner of Fifth and Monroe Streets in East Liverpool. In this new plant the success of Mr. Howard was immediate and after a short period he changed the business into a stock company. This company made excellent but soon found its self cramped for room with no chance to extend owing to the fact that all adjoining land was held by The Edwin M. Knowles Company for future factory purposes. This led to the company taking over an idle pottery in East Palestine for an outlet to the demands of their increasing trade where they now continue to operate with a largely extended trade.

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John Thomas the father of the Thomas Clan was born in Staffordshire England, in 1807. His wife, Mary, was likewise a native of England. John Thomas came to the United States in 1834, locating in Patterson, N.J. Mr. Thomas had learned the trade of crate making but, like the majority of the pottery workers of his day found it necessary to become an "all round man" in the potteries of that time, in order to he assured of continuous work. The writers earliest recollections of' the elder Thomas is of him working as a sagger maker in the early sixties. John Thomas, even at times was what they called "forehanded," or a man who had accumulated enough that he did not have to work a11 of his time. He had purchased several acres of land on the north side of Seventh street, the present site of the Thomas factories, and built himself a one story brick house which yet stands on the Thomas lands much the same as it did in the day of the elder Thomas. He was a man of a stern yet jovial disposition and could appreciate a joke even when it was upon himself. He had the broad Staffordshire dialect in its widest form and it is a pity that there are no sounds attached, to the letters of the English alphabet which will fully reproduce this dialect. Where ever he was known Mr. Thomas was referred to as "And Jawn Tummus," in the vernacular of himself and all his friends. An incident in the life of this pioneer will serve to illustrate his appreciation of a "good one" even when it was on himself,

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and it may be deemed best to reproduce the very words of "Aud Jawn" as he related the story to the father of the writer.

Said Mr. Thomas, "I'erd a tell of a noise out in my chacken cuup tha other night," "Hup I gits ant hout I goes." "I saad (seen) summit (something) black 'n' w'te in the cu-up 'n' Hi picks hup a clapboard 'n' Hi 'its hit a hell of a lick." Hand of all the stines hi hevver smelt." Hi tell thaa hit war a foin thing Hi ' but little clothes on for tha and woman wud'ner let ma coom hin tha louse." "Hand thay taud (told) ma hit tar a pawl cat."

McCord indicates in his accounts of the early potteries that John Thomas went with his son Richard to Beaverfalls in the late sixties, but this is an error for the writer lived for many wears within a hundred yards of him and he never moved from Seventh Street after he had located there. He died in December of 1869, living to see the potting industry firmly established in this district and to enjoy the fruits of his early labors.

Richard Thomas, the founder of the present Thomas industries, was born in Staffordshire, England, February 29th, 1830, and came to East Liverpool with his father in 1849. Richard Thomas went to work at the yellow ware pottery of Benjamin Harker and remained there for eight years when he went to the Riverside Knob Works of the Brunts where he learned

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every detail of the knob making industry, remaining there until he branched out for himself.

In 1869, Richard Thomas went to Beaverfalls, Pa., entering into a partnership with Elijah Webster, who had formerly been in East Liverpool, and began the manufacture of knobs in a plant which Mr. Webster had at that place.

Early in 1873, Mr. Thomas sold his interest to Mr. Webster and returned to East Liverpool, where he immediately began the erection of a small one kiln knob works on a corner of the lands owned by his father's estate. Here was developed the beginning of what was to become one of the greatest clay working industries in the world.

This plant began with the manufacture of only the brown and "Scroddled" door knobs of that day but soon branched out into jet knobs of all kinds, the plant being added to from time to time to meet the additional requirements of their trade. In the early eighties, to meet the demands of their trade, the Thomas company erected several kilns and a separate department and began the manufacture of white porcelain door knobs. As these knobs were thoroughly vitrous it was soon seen that the body would need every requirement of the growing demand for electric porcelain. To effectively meet the new demands upon their business the Thomas company brought an eastern potter of great skill, John Boch, father of the present John W. Boch, to take the general management of their

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porcelain products and the growth of the electrical industry has been the history of this great plant for the production of all kinds and classes of porcelain insulation.

The four sons of Richard Thomas were soon

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included in the business, these being George W., Lawrence L., Atwood W. and Charles R. Thomas, the company being incorporated under the name of The R. Thomas & Sons Company in 1892. By this time the making of the brown knobs had been long since given up and the entire plant turned over to the making of electric goods.

The need of room for expansion caused the erection of a six kiln plant at Lisbon, Ohio, by these people under the title of the Thomas China Company, with Al. G. Mason, a son-in-law of Richard Thomas as the manager. This plant started in to make Semi-Porcelain in 1902 but the demands of the electric trade caused the Thomas Company to convert this plant into one for the production of electric porcelain which it still continues to produce.

With the beginning of the year 1922, the Thomas companies have 15 kilns in active operation all engaged in the making of electrical insulation which is shipped to all parts of the world. This company makes a specialty of high voltage electric porcelain and can engage to supply any amount of this class of goods no matter how large the order may be.

1903 -- THE EAST LIVERPOOL ELECTRICAL PORCELAIN CO. - 1912?

In 1903, The East Liverpool Electrical Porcelain Company was organized by William Erlanger, George Peach, Harry Peach, Samuel Dyke and R. J.

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Marshall. William Erlanger was the President, Harry Peach the Secretary and Samuel Dyke the General Manager of this company. A two kiln factory was erected on Boyce street in the East End of East Liverpool near the plant of the American Sewer Pipe Company and the production of electrical porcelain began. This factory entered into an extensive trade in this line of goods and in a few years had extended the plant to six kilns. About 1912 several factories entered into a combine under the name of The General Porcelain Company this company being one of them and the plants were moved to Parkersburg, W.Va. The buildings were abandoned and later taken over by the D. E. McNicol Pottery Company and the plant turned into the manufacture of Rockingham and Yellow Ware.

1904 - - THE ANDERSON PORCELAIN COMPANY - - 1912?

This company was formed by T. F. Anderson who had been connected with the Knowles Taylor & Anderson Company in the manufacture of sewer pipe. Mr. Anderson erected a two kiln plant of Harvey Avenue, near Myrtle Avenue in the East End of East Liverpool, and began the manufacture of electrical porcelain insulation. The plan was conducted with varying degrees of success until it was taken over by The General Porcelain Company when the machinery was taken from the plant and the buildings abandoned. Later this factory was taken over by The Louthan Supply Company and largely extended for the production of

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refractory clay products.

Later Mr. Anderson took over the abandoned plant of the George F. Brunt Company and is now operating it under the General Porcelain Co.. as manager.

1907 -- THE ADAMANT PORCELAIN COMPANY -- 1922

The Adamant Porcelain Company was originally organized in the fall of 1907 by W. J. Curry, J. C. McQuilkin, W. A. Andrews and T. J. Andrews. This plant is located at the west end of Seventh Street and Horn Switch. The original company made standard shapes of electrical porcelain for several years after which the plant was closed for a time, and then changed and refitted to make sanitary ware in 1912. An excellent grade of sanitary goods were produced for a short Period but the company was cramped for capital to operate the plant and early in 1913 the plant shut down.

Shortly after this the plant was taken over by Harry Peach who had been with The General Porcelain Company, and the factory was again fitted up for the manufacture of electrical porcelain.

Luring the war period this plant was entirely destroyed by fire which proved upon investigation to have been of incindery origin. The watchman was missing and later his body was found and also that of another man. The watchmen had been killed with a hatchet. As the plant of The Kenilworth Tile Company had been burned but a few days before this fire

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Extra caution was taken at the other porcelain plants and a few nights later the watchman at The R. Thomas & Sons plant caught a gigantic negro preparing to set fire to that plant. This man was tried and sent to the asylum for the criminal insane but it was always believed that he was an emessary of the German Government from the fact that he made no attempt to destroy any of the plants except electric porcelain which was so badly needed at that time. The negro admitted having burned the other plants and to have killed the watchman of the Adamant plant but claimed that, "He just like to see the fires burn."

Mr. Peach had the plant rebuilt, immediately upon a larger scale than before and the plant put in operation with the least possible delay.

The Adamant Porcelain is one of the most energetic plants in the porcelain business and is always in operation, enjoying a large trade which is justified by the excellence of the goods produced at this plant.

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1914 -- THE AMERICAN PORCELAIN COMPANY -- 1922

In 1914, W. J. Curry, who had formerly been connected with the Adamant Porcelain Company, took over the old plant of John W. Croxall Sons and refitted the plant for the manufacture of standard shapes of electrical porcelain. In spite of some adverse conditions and a fire which destroyed a part of the plant this company has worked into a very good business and give promise of being able to hold their own with other concerns of the same line of manufacture.

1913 -- THE DAVIDSON-STEVENSON PORCELAIN CO. -- 1922

In the year 1913, Willis and Clyde Davidson, brothers, and George Stevenson a brother-in-law, leased the old Goodwin plant at the corner of East Sixth Street and Broadway in East Liverpool and began the production of electrical insulation. During the war period this company made quite an enviable record in the production of many special pieces in electrical insulation which had never been produced outside of Germany and in more than one instance saved war supply contractors from embarrassment by the excellence of their products in this line.

With the ending of 1919, this company was forced to move from the Goodwin plant owing to the fact that it had been sold to The Hall China Co. Nothing daunted, this company secured a site across the Ohio River in the west end of Chester and erected a

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plant of three kilns, tip-to-date in every respect at a cost of nearly $90,000.00. Mr. Stevenson, however, did not enter into this arrangement and the company is now operated under the name of The Davidson & Davidson Porcelain Company.

POTTERIES IN WELLSVILLE, 0HI0.

George Morley left The Morley, Godwin & F1entke Company in 1878 and in company with Harmar Michaels and I. B. Clark built a white ware pottery of two kilns under the name of The Pioneer Pottery Company. This plant never seemed to get into the stride of business like the other potteries of the district and in 1884 Mr. Morley withdrew from the company and returned to East Liverpool, to re-enter the business at the old Woodward & Blakely plant. The Pioneer plant had, by this time been enlarged to six kilns which, however, does not seem to have been justified by the amount of business the company hod at that time. Messrs. Clark and Michaels operated the plant in an irregular way until 1890 when the concern went into the hands of a receiver. This resulted in much litigation in the courts and the plant ran in a spasmodic way for ten years under I. B. Clark as the receiver until 1900, when it closed to operate no more under that management.

1902 -- THE WELLSVILLE CHINA COMPANY -- 1922

In 1902 Monroe Patterson, who had formerly been with The East Liverpool Pottery Company, purchased

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the old Pioneer plant and put it again into operation for the production of Semi-Porcelain and Decorated Ware. The well known energy of Mr. Patterson soon began to show in the operation of this plant and from that time until the present the plant has been one of the prominent industries of Wellsville, noted for its steady operation.

In 1882 John Patterson who had been a turner in the East Liverpool potteries, in company with two of his sons, John and Jefferson, went to Wellsville and erected a two kiln pottery for the manufacture of Rockingham and Yellow Ware. Later this plant was increased to four kilns and ran under the same management until about 1900 when it was changed to The Patterson Brothers Company. In this later company were the four sons of John Patterson, Jefferson, John, Jr., James and George Patterson. The elder Patterson had a son Thomas but he seems never to have taken an interest in the pottery company. Under this head the pottery operated until about 1914 when the Pattersons agreed to close the plant owing to their having other outside interests to look after.

1915 -- THE STERLING CHINA COMPANY -- 1922

This company composed of Friend DeBolt, Char1es C. Pomeroy, A.B. Allen and William Wells took over the old Patterson factory and refitted the plant for the manufacture of vitreous fire resisting porcelain of the same class as made by the Hall China

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Company. In this line the company has been very successful and commanded a steady trade in these goods which show every indication of increasing business with the recovery of trade.

The "School. House Pottery" had been so called from the fact that it was formerly one of the school buildings of Wellsville. In 1883 Webster, Campbe1l and Company began to convert this old school building into a pottery for the manufacture of white ware. With this company was a man named Samuel Fisher who had some quaint ideas as to the operation of potters machinery. One of these was that this class of machinery could be operated without cog gears simply by friction wheels and this factory was fitted up in this manner. It is needless to say that this idea was soon found to be utterly useless and much time and money was spent in refitting the plant. A scant year of this kind of effort brought Webster, Campbell and Company to a close.

Early in 1888, James H. Baum purchased the "School House Pottery" and began the manufacture of Cream Colored Ware. Mr. Baum was an old time crockery salesman and had also been, for a number of years, in the business of ware decorating for the potteries in East Liverpool. Mr. Baum was a1so a veteran of the Civil War having been cited for coolness and bravery under fire at Cedar Mountain and for continuing, in action after having been badly

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wounded at the battle of Atlanta, Georgia. After getting established in the general

ware business Mr. Baum began to experiment in Sanitary Ware and soon developed a body which was second to none in the country. From this time on the factory was gradually changed almost entirely to sanitary ware. The Baum plant was, at all times, run without any reserve capital and struggled along for a decade until the late nineties when the depressions of that date forced Mr. Baum to close down.

James H. Baum showed at all times unusual energy and. ability and it has been conceded by all that if the moneyed men of Wellsville had come to his aid at critical times that they would. today have one of the greatest sanitary plants in the country. Many times this mistake has been made in the history of the pottery business in this district and no doubt it will be made again.

About 1899, William L. Smith, Sr., and D. E. McNichol bought the old Baum pottery and refitted to make Semi—Porcelain and Decorated Ware. McCord in his History makes this date 1896 but he certainly is in error for this plant was in 1itigation late in 1898 and the writer was instrumental in having John R. DosPassos include it in his deal for the proposed big pottery trust in order that the Baums might get something out of what seemed to be a hopeless loss.

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The trust idea wont to pieces in the spring of 1899 and it was after that the McNicols and Smith took the plant over.

Several years labor Albert W. Corns came into this company and W. L. Smith retired. to take care of his interests in The Taylor, Smith & Taylor plant. From that time on the plant was known as The McNicol-Corns China Co. and has an uninterrupted history of operation and prosperity.

In 1898, John J. Purinton, Robert Hall and Silas M. Ferguson organized The United States Pottery Company for the manufacture of Semi-Porcelain and Decorated Ware. Mr. Ferguson was the skilled potter of this company having spent many years in the management of different plants in the district.

This company erected an entirely new and up-to-date plant of six kilns in the west end of Wellsville, Adolph Fritz being the Architect. The new plant entered the business with energy and push and soon had established a fine trade, In 1903, they went into the combination of The East Liverpool Potteries Company but this effort of' combination was short lived and the United States plant, after about two years came back into the hands of its former owners.

The personnel of this company had changed somewhat in the intervening years but the same interests dominate it as in the beginning although both

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Messrs. Hall and Ferguson have passed away.

This plant has had an uninterrupted history of operation and stands high in the trade for the quality of their product and. the durability of the goods they manufacture.

In Electric Porcelain

When the Knowles Taylor & Know1es Company built their China Works Plant in 1887, they set aside nearly all of the fifth floor of that immense plant for the manufacture of electric porcelain. This plant they equipped with the best machinery obtainable for the making of this class of goods and also for the making of white porcelain door knobs. The general ware, the door knobs and the electric insulation were all made from the same body it being exceedingly dense and vitreous, Several new machines wore devised and installed. in this shop. The writer, who was Master Mechanic at the plant made a new machine for the grooving of insulators which at that revolutionized that part of the business in the rapidity of the production of that class of insulation. Later this was superceded by making them in a ring die which finished the insulator as one operation.

This work was in charge of Mr. Herbert Jones from Bridgeport, Conn., who was said to have learned his skill in this line as a fellow worker with the elder John Boch. For about eighteen months the Knowles company made a production in this line far

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beyond that of the Thomas company who had begun electric insulation a short time before, but the great fire in that plant destroyed all the equipment for this work and when the plant was rebuilt they did not resume this work. That the Knowles interests made an error in judgment in quitting this part of the industry is plain, looking at it from the present standpoint.

THOMAS F. ANDERSON

At this writing Thomas F. Anderson is operating the old "Riverside Knob Works" formerly belonging to the Brunts and is making brown and jet door knobs in the same manner that they were produced in the early times.

C.F. Skidmore -

Is making special insulation for electric work in a part of the George P. Brunt Porcelain Plant.

The American Porcelain Products Company is making electric specialties in a part of the old. General Porcelain Co. plant in the East End on Elmtree Street.

The first man to decorate white ware in East Liverpool was a German artist, brought here by William Bloor, who operated a decorating shop on the south west corner of Walnut Street and High Alley, then across Walnut Street from the Bloor China plant and now used as a part of the Hall China plant No. 1. The writer can remember this man quite well, having

seen him at work in his shop. I am not sure but inclined to think that this man's name was Ludwick. In the late ‘eighties I saw this man working at the decorating department of The Knowles Taylor and Knowles Company. This man was highly ski11od in his business as is shown by samples of his work in the possession of the writer done on Bloor's ware, the colors of which are as bright as the day they were fired sixty years since. The operations of this man must have been from some time in 1859, to near the last of 1862.

(1) THOMAS HADEN is a native of Fenton, England, and learned the trade of decorating in the Staffordshire potteries. He came to East Liverpool in 1874, and shortly after established a decorating shop on upper Broadway across from the north end of The Goodwin Brothers Pottery, in a brick building now used by The Harrison Chemical Company. Mr. Haden, who is still living at an advanced age, retired can be found at the Hotel Euclid in this city on the corner of East Fourth Street and Walnut Street any time. To him is due much of the accurate data contained in this article. Mr. Haden says that Joseph Dennis came to East Liverpool also in 1874, a few months in advance of Mr. Haden but had not established himself when the Haden shop was opened. Thomas Haden operated in this Broadway shop until the latter part of 1877, when he built a shop of his own on Rural Lane a short distance west of Jackson

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street. The buildings of this shop are still standing now being used as a dwelling house.

An old work account—book of the writers where he had worked for the contractors building this shop, says "Oct. 17th, 1877." "Went to work today at the Haden shop," thus putting the date beyond dispute. The writer is well aware that he is compelled to go contrary to many of the dates given by others but as an excuse he offers the fact that he was here and they were not, that he was personally acquainted with all these men and Mack, Zimmerman, McCord and others, possibly never saw them.

Mr. Haden conducted this shop for many years only abandoning it when the needs of the potteries had grown to such an extent that they all were compelled to have their own shops when he still operated at various plants until within the last few years when he retired. Mr. Haden's work was always of the very highest quality and much of it could not be even equalled today. His work in bright and dull gold has never been surpassed by any of the decorators of this day. He was never satisfied unless he could be improving his output and always maintained the quality of his work. Many of the treasured pieces of hand painted work in this pottery district are the work of Mr. Haden and in these days of "Decal." work it is a shame to say that there are no artists coming up to replace the men of Mr. Haden's class.

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(2) JOSEPH DENNIS can justly be given the second place among the early independent shops of the seventies. Mr. Dennis was here a few months prior to Mr. Haden in 1874, but had not yet established himself in a shop when Mr. Haden began to operate. Later Mr. Dennis built a substantial shop at the northeast corner of Washington Street and Pink Alley where he operated for many years being the last independent shop to succumb to the march of the improved conditions which demanded that the decorating shops be with the factories where the ware was made. The work of Mr. Dennis was of a very high order and his designs seemed to find special favor with the trade which, no doubt accounts for the fact of his shop lasting for several years after all the other independent decorating shops had suspended operations.

(3) WILLIAM HIGGINSON came to East Liverpool in 1876, and worked for a time in the shops of Thomas Haden, leaving there to take charge of new decorating shops for The Knowles Taylor & Knowles Company. Mr. Higginson's work was done in a special department provided by the Knowles company but the work was done independently under a contract. While Mr. Higginson did decorating, at times, for other factories he paid far the greater attention to the work of the Knowles interests with whom he remained for over twenty years. Later, after retiring for a time he took charge of the shops of The D. E. McNicol

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Pottery Company, where he operated until he chose to retire a few years since comfortably fixed in this world's goods. Mr. Higginson was fully the equal of either Mr. Haden or Mr. Dennis as shown by the high grade of his decorations and the pride he took in a1ways keeping his product up to the highest standard. Much of the data that the writer has obtained was through the kindness of Mr. Higginson, who only recently, about Feb. 18th, 1922, passed to the Great Beyond.

(4) GEORGE F. HUMRICKHOUSE began the decoration of white ware which the potters in the shop on Broadway left vacant when Thomas Haden moved to his new plant on Rural Lane, late in 1877, and carried on a successful and energetic business for a number of years, disposing of his interests later to James H. Baum.

(5) JOHN F. STEEL built an independent decorating shop on College Street between East Fourth and Fifth Streets in 1879, where he carried on a vary large business for about a decade. Mr. Stee1 was a Staffordshire product and a man of excellent skill in his chosen profession. He came to America in 1867, but was located in Brooklyn, N.Y., for 12 years before coming to East Liverpool. For a number of years Mr. Steel conducted a highly successful business but later made the mistake of trying to run business and politics at the same tine which never has resulted in an astonishing success. Mr.

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Steel was elected to the City Council and later tried to be elected Mayor but unfortunately tried at a time when a wave of Americanism had struck the town owing to the fact that so many "Cheeseheads" as they were called having gotten into office. The result was that Mr. Steel and many others of his nationality were simply swamped when the ballots were counted.

The writer well recalls a ballot in his precinct at that time, no doubt voted by a disgusted American. The voter had taken a soft black pencil and literally obliterated nineteen of the twenty-eight names on the ballot, not satisfied with this he had written along the margin "Cheesies, Cheesies, Cheesies!! ‘wot the ‘ell Cheesies.. "Nothing BUT CHEESIES."

The time which Mr. Steel had given to politics had told heavily on his business and shortly thereafter he closed the shop and suddenly left the town to return no more.

(6) JAMES H. BAUM, in the early eighties took over the decorating shop of George Humrickhouse and began the production of high class decorations for the various Potteries of that age.

Mr. Baum was, at that time, possibly, the best posted man in this part of the United States on the needs and demands of the trade engaged in the selling of pottery ware. Mr. Baum was a graduate of Harvard University in 1868, and from that time until he

l62.

engaged in the decorating business he had been engaged in the selling of white ware both foreign and domestic. The prejudice against American goods was very strong at this time which was better understood by Mr. Baum than many of the manufacturers themselves. This feeling he set to work to thoroughly break down and to his efforts in making high class decorations for the manufacturers is due much of the favor with which the American goods began to acquire about that period.

For a number of years Mr. Baum conducted this decorating shop in a very successful manner and it is evident that he made some little money in the conducting of this business.

The ambition of Mr. Baum, however, was to get into the potting business himself which he did in 1888, by the purchase of the old Webster, Campbell & Company pottery in Wellsville. As this was near the end of the period of independent decorating shops the Baum shop was never again operated as a plant for the decoration of ware.

For a number of years after the white ware potteries were started in East Liverpool, the factories made their own stilts, pins, batts, decorating kiln tile &c. but these took up much room in the ware kilns where the space could be used more profitably for the ware and this led to the estab1ishment of factories to make these essential accessories for properly placing the were in. the glost kilns.

[2008 Editor's Note: Handwritten line may read: "Later shops were built to make the _____ Product" there may also be a line completely missing.]

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the ware is placed in the kilns and although considerable business is done in this line the Potteries have never given up making saggers at their plants, owing, possibly, that the majority of them have special shapes which they prefer to make themselves and besides this some of the plants have a special mix of sagger clays to meet the demands of the heavy fire to which the ware is subject in their kilns.

Robinson & Company began the manufacture of stilts and, pins about 1880 on the site of what was the location of the Rowe & Mountford pottery. This company took over an old coal hoist plant which had been erected by Sharp & Turnbu11, and converted into a plant suitable for their production.

Mr. Robinson was the father of Thomas Robinson of the present Colonial Pottery Company and with him in the venture was John Mountford the father of the Mountfords still in the stilt and pin business. It would appear that these two men as "forerunners" in this business were a little too soon in this class of potting supplies, at any rate after running for a couple of years they converted the plant into a pottery under the name of Rowe & Mountford..

In the early eighties Wi11iam Burgess and Harry Moore built a small factory for the making of stilts and pins at the northwest corner of Cherry and Church Alleys. Mr. Burgess is the same man who made

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bone china on the location of the present West End Pottery Company and is now a member of that company. Harry Moore was a Staffordshire Englishman, a modeler by trade and is said. to have been the originator of the famous "cable shapes" which have been the standard for plain shapes in white ware for nearly fifty years. Mr. Moore told the writer, in 1885, while they were fitting out a small pottery in Bellville, Ill., that he made this shape before he came to the United States while working in a pottery in Glassgo, Scotland. Mr. Moore later left the stilt and pin venture and the son-in-law of Mr. Burgess, Willis Cunning came into it. This plant was operated at this point till about 1894, when the objections of the residence people in the vicinity of this plant to the smoke caused Messrs. Burgess & Cunning to move the plant to the corner of Third and Coal Streets in Wellsville, where they had acquired. an old soap factory building on the site of the former Jones & Lomand terra cotta works. In this factory these men have conducted a most satisfactory and profitable business to the present day.

1900 -- MOUNTFORD AND COMPANY -- 1922.

About the year 1900, John Mountford, who had been of the firm of Rowe & Mountford purchased the plant of the Baggott Brothers and converted it into a factory for the manufacture of stilts and pins. In starting this plant they on1y used the

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part of the factory which was north of Pink Alley, the older part of the factory, which had been the Goodwin plant of 1844, was torn down and a row of dwelling houses erected on the same site with the material. These houses were about 1904, torn down to make way for the double track of the Cleveland & Pittsburgh, Railroad. This plant has had many years of successful operation and is still run by the sons of the founder.

Edward O'Connor was born in County Tipperary, Ireland, 1847, and came to the United States in 1879. Mr. O'Connor was the son of John Doherty but was adopted by his uncle Edward O'Connor and was known by that name during his entire life. Mr. O'Connor was thoroughly skilled in the use and nature of fire clays while yet in his native land and 1ater in England. His first efforts in East Liverpool was at the stoneware plant of Ferguson and Simms where the Dresden Pottery now stands. Later he tried to make terra cotta from the clays at the old brick plant of Jacob Fowler where the "Buckeye Pottery" of the Knowles company now stands, but throat trouble which almost deprived him of his voice made it imperative that he get into the open air. With this end in view, Mr. O'Connor began to prospect for clays and later had mines opened at a number of points from which he disposed of his clays for fire resisting purposes for nearly twenty years. One of

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those mines was near Mineral City, Ohio, from which he mined clay for many years and another near Bolivar, Ohio. Later he built a sagger works on the site of the present Jewish Synagogue at the northwest corner of Monroe and West Fifth Streets and operated it till about a decade since. Early in the present century Mr. O'Connor built a two kiln Yellow Ware plant on Starkey Street which he designed to be for the business efforts of his son Edward F. O'Connor but the young man showed no ambition to follow in the footsteps of his father and Mr. O'Connor later disposed of the plant to The D. E. McNicol Pottery Co.

1902 -- THE LOUTHAN SUPPLY COMPANY -- 1922

Brad. M. Louthan, a son—in-law of William Brunt, Jr. and formerly with William Brunt, Jr. & Company, built a small plant at the Horn Switch and Franklin Street about 1902, and began the manufacture of clay novelties, mantle rings, small porcelain pieces, stilts, pins &c. Mr. Louthan had foreseen the end of the Brunt plant and had withdrawn before the plant was forced to close. Mr. Louthan started in a very moderate way and has built up a large and profitable business. The original plant has been entirely rebuilt and extended in a most substantial class of buildings. His son William Louthan has been admitted into the business and shows fine adaptability for the business built up by his father.

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This company in the last few years found the first plant entirely too small for their needs and they purchased the old Anderson Porcelain Works which had been dismantled when it was sold. to the General Porcelain Company when they moved to Parkersburg, W. Va. This plant the Louthans have doubled in capacity, thoroughly refitted and are operating it to capacity in the making of refractory clay products of various kinds, much of the product being the refractory clay backs and parts for the lately patented gas stoves which are in favor in the market. The prospects of this company are of the brightest and their continued operation is assured.

The Potters Supply Company was founded by Isaac W. Knowles in 1889, as a needed source of supply for the growing demands of his pottery interests, but in a short tine Mr. Knowles turned this business over to his youngest son, Edwin M. Knowles, who has conducted it with credit and profit for more than thirty years. In this he has been ably assisted by Dewitt Irwin who is General Manager and Secretary of this company. This plant was first of three kilns but has since Loon extended to five kilns with up-to-date equipment and machinery in every department this plant is not equaled by any plant of its kind in the country.

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The Potters Supply Company manufactures everything of a refractory nature which is required in the kiln departments of the white ware potteries. This includes a general line of stilts and pins, saggers, batts, decorating kiln tiles and all classes of clay products which are required in the operation of a pottery.

In addition to manufacturing the above supplies this company is the largest distributor of American Ball and Sagger Clays in the United States, handling the entire output of mines in the south as well as the later found deposits in Kentucky and Tennessee. This company is also a jobber in the best grades of imported and domestic whiting, brimstone, fire brick ground clays of a refractory nature, and wall plaster as well as plaster of paris.

These supplies and clays are shipped to all parts of the United States and Canada. Both local shipments and carload lots are featured by this company in the finished products but all the raw materials are only shipped in car lots.

The Potter's Supply Company is operated by both steam and electric power so that they may never be without the means to keep the plant constantly in operation. This plant has a record of never having had to shut down in any time within its history for the lack of orders.

This plant is situated at The foot; of Washington Street on the River Front with Pennsylvania side

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tracks abutting the receiving and shipping departments and the Ohio River steamboat wharf only two blocks away, thus having unusual advantages in their shipping facilities.

The development of the flint and spar mills of the Golding & Sons Company is the history of that industry in the Western Pottery District. In 1875, William Golding and his son Moses L. Golding, came to East Liverpool and began the erection of a mill for the grinding of flint and spar for the use of the white ware potteries in the making of their wares. The Site chosen was at the westerly end of Fourth Street where this mill has from early in 1873, to the present date continued in uninterrupted operation.

The mill was first equipped with the old "wet process" grinding pans which took six days of twenty-four hours each to grind one charge of the flint or spar, this being the old English method. The plant had six of these grinding pans of twelve feet in diameter, and each pan would produce about a ton of the finished product in a week. This soon proved entire1y too slow for American ideas of progress and they began to look about for a more rapid way of reducing this refractory material. Any change in the method was met with determined opposition on the part of the old English potters, their only excuse being

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"Aa thaa cast'ner (cannot) do hit in hanny other wa." This, however, had no effect on the Goldings who tore down the old wet pans and literally throw them out of the windows. Revolving cylinders lined with hard wood wore substituted, these being about two-thirds filled with flint pebbles and the flint sand. Those were made to revolve at a speed which would keep each charge rolling down the raising side of the cylinder in the same manner as if it were sliding down a long steep slope. It was soon found that about six hours of this kind of motion was sufficient to thoroughly grind a charge of a ton and a half of material.

Now another difficu1ty arose which was, however, endured for a number of years. The hickory linings of the cylinders wore away with surprising rapidity leaving in the material microscopic splinters which stuck in the lawns of the sifting mills in the potteries causing much of the good parts of the clays to go over with the "knockings" as waste. Besides this the "life" of one of these cylinders was from three weeks to a month--a condition of affairs which had to be gotten rid of.

Bhur stone blocks were later tried for the interior of those cylinders set in portland cement. The initial cost of this process seemed prohibitive but it was found that a cylinder lasted from two to three years and the wood splinters were entirely eliminated. The only backset to this mode of grind-

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ing was the fact that a small charge of material had to be put in. the cylinder and thrown away after being ground to get rid of the small particles of cement, which, in the long run proved of no moment at all.

The Golding plant can now produce about 75 tons of material each 24 hours against about six tons in one week when they first built this mill, This company now has several other mills for the same class of materials in various parts of the eastern pottery districts, all operated in a very efficient manner under the management of John M. Manor who has had charge of the Golding interests for over twenty years.

The progress of the potting industry soon over ran the capacity of the existing flint and spar mills and in 1887, a number of the East Liverpool potters organized The Potters Mining and Milling Company and erected a large mill in the East End of East Liverpool. This plant was one of 12 cylinders with a capacity of about 75 tons of material per day but the plant has since been extended so that it can produce more than a 100 tons of finished material each twenty-four hours.

1903 -- THE OHIO SILICA COMPANY -- 1922

Early in the present century it was found that the needs of' the potters in flint and spar had again over reached the supply and several of' the pottery manufacturers headed William Burgess of The West

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End Pottery Company erected a mill at Junietta, Pennsylvania, for the reduction of this material. It was soon found that the danger of contamination of the finished product in shipment over ran the advantage of being located at the source of the supply of flint sand and the plant was torn down and moved to the East End of East Liverpool, where the plant has since operated in a very successful and profitable manner. This plant confines their operation almost entirely to the production of flint. John Stamm is manager of the plant.

The history of "Jack" Boyce is the history of pottery-making machinery. Mr. Boyce came to East Liverpool from Wellsville in 1839, shortly after he had finished his apprenticeship as a machinist under Phillip F. Geisse. He opened up a small shop just off Sixth Street in what is now called Crook Alley, in the rear of the Union Planing Mill of the McIntosh Brothers from whom he got the power to operate his plant. This was a one-story frame building about 24 x 40 feet. Here Mr. Boyce operated for several years, buying his castings from Mr. Geisse in Wellsville. As the white ware potteries began to develop Mr. Boyce erected a machine shop on the site of the present Patterson shops, and began the inventing and manufacturing of new machines suited to the pressing needs of these pioneer potters. The development of the present grog pan in the

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potteries is entirely due to "Jack" Boyce, the present form of press pumps is the joint efforts of Mr. Boyce and the father of the writer, William L. Calhoun. The present giant clay presses can be credited almost entirely to the ideas of Mr. Boyce. These have become so well perfected that there has been no change in then for more than 20 years. The writer in 1877 - 98 worked in the pattern shop of Mr. Boyce all most entirely on patterns for pottery machinery. During this time Mr. Boyce devised a "pull down" which would have been much better than the Knowles machine which is still the standard in the potteries, but as Mr. Knowles had. a patent on his pull down he bluffed Boyce out of any attempt to make the new machine. "Jack" Boyce died in 1898, at the zenith of his powers and the pottery interests sustained a loss which it took them years to over come when he passed away.

In 1878, Monroe Patterson, Phillip Morley and Harry Dixon built a small machine shop at the corner of East Fourth and Walnut Streets, however, in a few years the shop passed into the hands of Mr. Patterson who later moved it down on lower Walnut Street just north of the freight station where the present company still operates a shop.

When A. J. Boyce died in 1898, his plant came into the hands of Mr. Patterson, who organized the present Patterson Foundry & Machine Company.