Columbiana County, Ohio - Chapter 12: Growth of Clay Manufactures, 1905 (part 1 of 2)

Chapter 12: Growth of Clay Manufactures

TVf/tv Miles of Pottery ami Fire - Clay Works Along the County's Southern T'ront - Sixty Years of the Earthcnxi.'arc Industry - Dismal Pays of the '50's. When I'ottery Manufacturers Peddled Their Own Product - Birth of the White Ware Industry - "Hard Times'' and Years of High Tariff - Two Great Labor Struggles - Clear Skies, and Expansion - Output Grows to $8,000,000 a Year - The Allied Clay Products.

Early in the history of manufacturing in the West, the clay-working ami earthenware industries of Ohio centered along the river in the vicinity of East Liverpool ami Wellsville. Before the close of the century, East Liverpool had been made the central point of manufacture by the general ware potteries of America; while throughout the district s|x>ken of as the "East Liverpool district"' the making of earthenware, porcelains and china, stoneware anil cements, sewer-pipe. tile, terra-cotta. brick and fire-clay products sprang up - and clay-working lx-came the chief industry of the county, notwithstanding the prominence acchieved at several points in the county by iron and steel and the allied metal trades. The pioneer [lottery manufacturers at East Liverpool were the first in the world to relegate to oblivion as a commercial factor the "potters' wheel." famed in story and in song as the implement of the worker in all ages, by the introduction of machinery and lalnr-saving devices. The machinery to Ik.- found in the "clay shops" of the modem earthenware factory was in use in East Liverpool a decade before the English I*>tter learned its worth and adopted it.

The tril>es of American Indian who inhabited the territory from which Ohio was formed showed a rude knowledge of pottery Ixrfore the white man first sot foot on the chores of America. The English settlers in Virginia and the Dutch in New York made a coarse type of pottery in the 17th century. And very early in the history of C olumbiana County settlers could he found building rude kilns or ovens, taking the clay that was to be found on every hand, and fashioning it into articles for domestic use. These were made from clays usually found near the surface, in which there was a sufficient admixture of iron to give the product a reddish appearance w hen burned. The w ares w ere usually porous, very absorbent when not glazed, and easily broken. John Kountz made some of this old ware on the old "Kounu place.'" east of Wellsville, in 1817. In i8_'<> Joseph Wells made red and stoneware in a little shop attached to his residence in Wellsville. and continued the business until 1856. Philip Hrown. Oliver Griffith. Samu-I Watson and others made the same primitive ware at Lisbon (then known as New Lisbon), at an early dale. Jt is also recorded that a kiln of brick was burned in 1806 for the building material for the Friends' Meeting House erected in that year in Salem; and that in 181 2 Thomas Hughes began operating a log-cabin pottery on Main street in Salem, which he later sold to Christian Harman. who conducted the business until 1840. Cement and brick were al>o made at primitive plant*, at Williamsport

The wealthier inhabitants of the West in those early days bought imported ware - the '-Liverpool" queensware brought over from England at that period being highly celebrated for durability and Iwauty. h was the only white ware seen in the Western country until the people became wealthy enough, halt a century later, to indulge in the luxury of imported English. French and German chinas and porcelains.

No attempt was made to utilize the clays found along this jwrtion of the Ohio Valley in a commercial way until 1840; so that in 1905 the pottery industry' of the county was but 65 years old. During the 65 years, however. Columbiana County had become the first county and East Liverpool the first city in the Union in the output of general ware and electrical porcelain fixtures; while in total value of all clay porducts and wages paid in their manufacture the county was easily first in the State.

Jn 1840 the total production of general ware in East Liverpool was less than $2,000. In 1 0,05 there were about 85 general ware potteries in the country, with a total capacity of 647 kilns. Of this total. East Liverpool had 239 kilns, while the potteries elsewhere in the county atid district - including those at Sebringl which were barely beyond the county line and were the result of East Liverpool enterprise - added 55 kilns more, or a total of 204 kilns for Columbiana County - over 45 per cent, of the entire cajKicity of the general ware potteries of the United States. The potteries at East Liverpool represented in 1905 an annual output of $7,1 70.000. and the investment in the plants was estimated at S 10.755. - 000. They employed over o,(xx> men. women and children, and the total actual wages paid averaged $143,400 every two weeks, or $3.-.'8.40o annually.

The first impetus to the industry was of course obtained through the finding of the clays suitable for the manufacture of the oldfashioned "yellow ware,*' which abounded in the hills of the county. Tint as the quality of die ware improved, and the manufacturer began producing the white granite and |>orcelains of the later days, the old Ohio River clays were wholly abandoned, and the materials had to be obtained from Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky, and many points in the South, and not a little of the finer "ball-clays" were imported front England. Strangely enough, even after all the material for the better grades of ware had to be shipped into Columbiana County from elsewhere, the pottery business thrived and grew where it had l>een planted by the pioneer yellow ware makers of half a century before, and that in spite of lack of transportation facilities and other disadvantages. With the fire-clay industries, however, the story of the progress of the half century is somewhat different, for the materials for tile, pipe and brick are still obtained at the point of manufacture.

James Bennett had been a picker in a yellow ware pottery at Woodenl>ox, Derbyshire. England. In 1838 or 1839 he emigrated to America, stopping first in Cincinnati. There be heard rumors of working clays to be found in the hills along the river below Pittsburg. William G. Smith, of East Liverpool, who was then trading in merchandise along the river, met Bennett at Cincinnati and advised the young Englishman to look at the clays aliout Hast Liveqjool. So Bennett traveling partly by river and the latter stages of the journey on foot, readied the strugling town in the latter part of 1839.

Bennett judged that the clay in the hills alxmt the town would produce an excellent quality of yellow ware. He had 110 money, but he interested in his project Anthony Kearns and Benjamin Harker. Kearns was at that time one of the town'* most influential citizens, owner of two or three houses and the only steam sawmill of which the town could boast, located on the river bank below the western end of Second street. Benjamin Harker also had means, and had come from the potting district of England. Bennett, Kearns and Harker built the pottery in the win- tcr of 1839-40. It was located near tlie sawmill, almost opposite the western end of Second street, on ground long since washed away by the Ohio River. The building was .tin nit 40 by 20 feet, and adjoining it was the one small kiln, in the erection of which the owners had the assistance of George Hollingsworth and George Thomas.

Early in the spring of 1840 the first kiln of yellow ware was burned. It consisted mainly of mugs. Two crates of the ware were purchased by Isaac VV. Knowles. then a young man barely 21, who had come to East Liverpool from Jefferson County eight years before. Knowles took his purchase down the river in a trading boat, peddling the ware through the principal settlements. Bennett himself took out the remainder of the kiln and peddled it through the country, the two men clearing all told about $250.

Benjamin Ilarker at that lime owned clay lands along the river above the old town. An old account book of his shows that in 1840 he sold Bennett considerable clay. George D. Mc- Kinnon, then living above the town, leased Bennett a piece of clay land in the same year, and has claimed that Bennett opened up a clay bank immediately. Whether Marker's or Mc- Kinnon's clay was burned in Bennett's tirst kiln is, therefore, a disputed <|uestion.

During the first two years the little industry seemed in a fair way to languish and tlie. The clay was crude, and the burning in the small kiln often resulted in spoiling much of the ware. The output of each kiln was peddled about through the country, and with the money realized Bennett returned from each trip to Ea>t Liverpool, paid his men and started his pottery anew. Hard times were coming on. and Bennett went to George Smith, who. with M. Thompson, was running a store at Second and Union streets. "I've experimented with thi< clay." he said, '"till I haven't money or credit to buy a five-cent loaf of bread or a pound of butter. I must quit." Smith offered him credit, and other citizens came forward with assistance. By the following year. 1841, the business had so prospered that Bennett sent out to England for his brothers, Daniel, Edwin and William, who, with Edward Tunuicliff, a dishmaker, joined him in that year. Other practical potters from England followed, and the Bennetts soon found coni|>eiition. But they continued to make yellow ware until 1845, w hen they removed to Birmingham, now a part of Allegheny. Pennsylvania, and built a pottery there. A few years later lite brothers moved on East to Baltimore, where thev and the generation that followed them became wealthy in the pottery business.

On the departure of the Bennetts in 1845. their plant was leased by the firm of Thomas Croxall &- Brothers, composed of Thomas, John. Samuel and Jesse Croxall, who operated it until it was destroyed by fire in 1 852.

A half dozen men followed the Bennetts as soon as the success of the new venture seemed assured. Benjamin Ilarker was the Gist. In the latter pail of 1840 he built a kiln into one coi ner of an old log house east of the town, at the foot of the hillside land in which he had found clay, and started a pottery which he afterward called by the high-sounding title of the "Etruria Pottery." He succeeded so well that w ithin a year or two he sent to England for his brother, George S. Harker, and together through the '40's they made yellow ware at the little plant, and pros|>ered. George S. Harker. at the time of his arrival in East Liverpool, was reputed to be a wealthy man, and the unloading of the Harker trunks from England was an event of some note. The wise old women of the town declared the trunks were tilled with gold. The Markers were, indeed, the first firm, during the years that followed, to abandon the primitive plan of peddling each kiln of ware as it was fired, and to ship their product on orders to points nearby. The firm was known even during the '40's in Pittsburg for the excellence of its goods.

Back about 1832 Edward Carroll, a member of the Society of Friends, and a prominent merchant of Lisbon, was induced to come to East Liverpool during the excitement incident to the project for the building of a new State road. W illiam G. Smith built for Carroll a brick warehouse and dwelling on the southeast corner of Second and Union streets, and there the Lisbon man opened a commission house. Then, buoyed up by the hope of (he building of a new railroad from Liverpool to Like Erie, Carroll lwught property at the comer of Second and Washington streets, and started to build what he promised to make the rincst hotel in the eastern half of the State, to be called the '-.Mansion House." In 1833 he opened his hotel and store in the new structure, which though frame and only two stories in height, was built of hewed timbers, and was considered a marvel in elegance in those days. But in 1836 or 1837 Carroll failed, and the big building was thrown idle. Here, then, in the relic of the old hotel, the third pottery in the town was established in 1843. which for nearly two-thirds of a century bore the old name of the "Mansion Pottery." The original firm was composed of James Salt, James Ogden, Frederick Mear and John Hancock - the last named l>eing the modeler who afterwards made famous the old "Kel>ecca" teapot, which gave to East Liverpool a reputation through a dozen Stales. They began operations in 1842, the firm a few years later becoming Salt & Mear, and during the latter '40*8 being known as the most prosperous firm in the town. This new plant received the larger portion of the first party of practical operative potters who came over from England to the "new pottery country." But in 1851 Salt moved away and the Mansion Pottery suspended operations. William G. Smith, who had in the meantime gone into the commission business in Pittsburg, returned the following year, and, with Benjamin Harker, began operting the old plant. Associated with them was James Foster, and later Smith's son, Daniel J. Smith. But with his varied interests in the new town, William G. Smith went down during the "hard times" of the early "50 s. and failed in 1857. Foster, with George Garner, took over the Mansion Pottery when the crash came, and continued to operate it.

After the destruction by fire in 1853, of the old Bennett works, then being run by the Croxalls, John Croxall. Thomas Croxall. Joseph Cart wright and Jonathan Kinsey organized the firm of Croxall 8c Cartwriqht. Thomas Ball had built a |>ottcry at the southwest corner of Second and Union streets a year or two previous to 1850, and the concern was then operating as Ball & Morris. This little pottery was lxiught by the new firm of Croxall & Cartwright in 1856, and became known as the "Union Pottery." In 1859 this firm also took over the Mansion Pottery property from Garner & Foster, giving them a capacity at the two works of two kilns. For over half a century these two old plants continued practically without change in management, though Kinsey and Carlwriglu dropped out of the company at later dates and the firm name in 1888 l>ecame J. Croxall & Sons, John Croxall's two sons, George W. and Joseph H., taking interests in the business and finally absorbing the whole as the Croxall Pottery Company. After seeing 60 years of the potting busiiness, John W. Croxall was in 1905 the dean of the manufacturing business in East Liverpool, still living, in good health, at the age of 81.

Famous 01-D Potters Introduced

The story of the later 40"* in the potting business in the rising young manufacturing center gives us our first introduction to some famous old names in the history of earthenware in America. It was about 1847 tnat John Goodwin, the Brunts. William Bloor, Jabez Vodrey and the ambitious firm of Woodward, Blakely & Company, all appeared as manufacturers of yellow ware. All came from the old potting stock in Staffordshire, England. The influence of these splendid spirits on the world of ceramics can be traced through more than a half century. John Goodwin had followed the Bennetts to East Liverpool, arriving in 1842 from St. Louis, and working for a time for the Bennetts and later for Benjamin Harker. In the latter part of the '40's probably alxuit 1846, he rented an old warehouse at the foot of Market street, built a kiln and ran a pottery, later buying the property and continuing to operate it until 1853. when he sold the works to S. 8c W. Baggott, who conducted it as a yellow ware plant for nearly 40 years, the concern at last being converted into a potters' supply works by Mount ford & Son in 1002.

William Brunt. Sr., who. on coming to (lie United States in 1840 had first settled in Illinois, hut had later followed his Staffordshire friends to East Liverpool, opened a tavern south of the Town Hall, on Market street, in the early '40's, and built his home on the river bank, on the western end of the site later occupied by the pottery of the Cartwright Brothers Company. Isaac W. Knowles built the structure In 1847 Brunt, with his son-in-law, William Bloor, began the manufacture of yellow ware just west of the foot of Market street. A few years later he began the manufacture of yellow door-knobs, being the pioneer in the industry in America. The door knob venture proved quite profitable, ami for years the firm which on the death of William Brunt, Sr., became Henry Brunt & Son, furnished nearly th° entire supply of earthenware door-knobs in the United States. Henry Brunt's son, William 11. entered the firm in 1884, and in 1894 Henry Brunt retired from the firm. William Brunt, the first, died in 1882. Henry Brunt died in June, 1905.

Contemporaneously with the establishment of the Goodwin and Brunt enterprises came the birth of the famous firm of Woodward. Blakely & ComjKiny. accounted the wealthiest pottery concern of that day- Jabez Y'odrcy, one of the members of the firm, was the father of potting west of the Alleghanies. He came to America from Staffordshire in 1827. In partnership with a man named Frost, he established a (lottery in Pittsburg in 1828. In 1830 he went t.r Louisville and built the first pottery in Kentucky, and in 1847 he came to Fast Liver]). >ol and formed a partnership with John S. Blakely and William Woodward. Both Blakely and Woodward were large property owners in the town, which was beginning to feel an impetus from the new industry. The people looked on Blakely as a wealthy man. He and bis brother had come from Pittsburg some years before and had interested themselves in developing real estate. The firm of John S. Blakely & Company had for some years done a large merchandising business, and the name gave an air of solidity to the new firm. The factory that was built in 1847-48 was an ambitious one, forming the nucleus for what was later the plants of Vodrey & Company, the William Brunt |>ottery and the Fast Liverpool pottery. The firm built three kilns, making the new works the most pretentious in the town. The people believed now that a new era had dawned for the industry ; and had it not l>ccn for the series of 10 years' disasters that followed, beginning with the panic of the early '50's and ending with the Civil War, it is safe to say there would have lieen a story of substantial progress to tell, for the period that followed the estal>- lishment of the Brunts. Goodwin, tbe Harkers and the Woodward- Blakely firm in the earthenware business showed a spirit of enterprise on the part of the pioneers that, seen through the eyes of another century, was deserving of better results.

The number of successful manufacturing potters turned out by the old plants of George S. Harker & Company, and Woodward. Blakely & Company, during the next few years, is remarkable In the biographies of at least twoscore men who afterward became prominent in the manufacturing history of the city is the story told of their employment during the later '40's or early '50's by one or the other of the two firms. The "Liverpool Rockingham" ware was becoming famous throughout the West, and attempts were being made to produce the "cream-colored" ware of later years. The methods of fashioning the clay were still primi-

I tive but, as the half-century mark passed, great improvements were being made in the character of the ware. It was during this period that the foundation was laid for the great plant of the Knowles, Taylor & Knowles Company, which was to give East Liverpool fame during the latter part of the century as the largest general ware pottery in the country. After the old Bennett works, on the river bank, burned in 1852. Isaac W. Knowles, who. it will be remembered, helped peddle the first kiln of ware humed by James Bennett 12 years In-fore. iKHight the ruins. He took the machinery and. with Isaac A. Harvey, located his pottery on upper Walnut street, at the point long known as the "Old End" of the Knowles Taylor & turns in November, 1853. Knowles and Harvey had scarcely any capital, and the original plant was as primitive as any that had preceded it. The motive power was furnished by an old blind horse, which traveled round and round in a circle. Knowles had originally intended locating his pottery at the comer of Third and Union streets. He and his brother, John Knowles, owned two lots there, aggregating 9x3 by 130 feet, and such a site was considered abundantly large in that day tor I he new enterprise; but the neighbors objected to Knowles marring the landscape with his day-heaps, and he considerately went "up the hill," and Iwmght a larger site. Fifty years later, the Knowles, Taylor & Knowles Company probably would have felt cramped with its 32-kiln plant on a site 90 by 130 feet, but it was not the idea of having "room to grow" that prompted the change in location.

There are few stories of hardship and privation in the early manufacturing history of the Middle West that equal the experience through which Kast Liverjxxil passed during the middle '50' s. I*ahor was not usually paid in currency, but oftencr in orders on the stores. The ware was ])eddlcd through the country and exchanged for corn-meal, cheese, flour, provisions, wool - anything that could be obtained : and these were brought back to East Liverpool and handed out by the manufacturers to the men in lieu of cash. The men who had invested their all in the little potteries looked to their workmen for support, and the workmen did not fail them, though wages - even when paid in stale provisions - were not always promptly paid. It is related that during the winter of 1*54-55. which followed the complete failure of the crops throughout this section, the firm of Woodward. Blakcly & Company, paid $1 in cash on their pay-roll in three months time - the rest 1x?ing store orders. That winter. Hour could not be had on a general wage order. The workman who would draw Hour must get a special order, specifying flour. Many men. who had considered themselves fairly prosperous a few years before, worked on the streets for a dollar a day, and took their wages in corn-meal. Men begged from their few wealthy

The revival of business came slowly. During these years Woodward, Blakcly & ComjKHiy had taken the contract to furnish the terra-cotta decorations for the new St. Paul's Cathedral, then in course of erection in Pittsburg, and were making a specialty of fine terra cotta. They filled the contract, making the new product at the western end of the works, but the venture resulted disastrously for the firm. They lost at least $10,000 in the experiments, and this, with the straitened conditions of general business, hastened their downfall. In 1857 Woodward. Blakely & Company, assigned. The failure, coming on the heels of that of William C Smith, gave the town another serious sct-lwck. John S. Blakely, who had only a few years before been credited with being the wealthiest man in the town, lost all he had. He was at that time serving as postmaster under President Buchanan, and shortly after his term

! saved the eastern end, on the east side of College street, containing one kiln, and here in 1857, with his sons, William H., James and John, he organized the firm of Vodrey & Brother - the concern after the death of Col. William H. Vodrey. which occurred on Octol>er 23, 1N96. Incoming the Vodrey Pottery Company. Jabez Vodrey retired after the Woodward-Blakely failure, dying in 1861.

There were two purchasers for the western end of the Woodward-Blakely plant, young men who had made their "pile" in the California gold fields. William Brunt, Jr., and William Bloor, who had been engaged with

William Rrunt. Sr., at his yellow ware plant prior to 1849, in that year went to California. Bloor returned in 1854. ami Brunt a year later, each bringing with him from the far West a little fortune of about $5,000. Brunt joined his father in the yellow ware enterprise on his return, while Bloor went to Trenton and engaged in potting for a few years. But the prospect of a bargain in the Woodward- Blakely plant, when it was offered at sheriff's sale in 1859, attracted both the young men.

The annual Ohio River floods, which made havoc in the potteries along the river bank during the '5o's, were the direct cause of the younger Brunt branching out for himself in the yellow ware business, instead of remaining with his father at the old plant near the foot of Market street. The son, during one of the more severe freshets about this time, is said to have suggested to his father that they "swim ashore and build a pottery on dry land." The elder Brunt became incensed, and finally suggested that the ambitious young man find a high and dry site that suited him and go into business on his own responsibility. Young Brunt had mettle, and still had the nest-egg that he had brought home with him from the gold fields; and so the sale of the western end of the idle Woodward-Blakely plant by the sheriff found William Brunt. Jr., and William Bloor the only bidders.

Bloor S First White Ware

Brunt took the northern half of the bankrupt concern, containing the two remaining kilns, on the corner of Walnut and East Fourth (then Robinson) streets. Bloor took the southern half on Walnut, near East Third (then Cook ) street, where for years later the William Brunt, Son & Company, plant stood. Brunt began immediately the manufacture of yellow ware, but Bloor aspired to greater things. The story of his enterprise shows the spirit of the East Liverpool potter of that day, in the face of continued losses, panics, reverses and even the hard times of the Civil War. Bl(*>r's half o»" the old works contained only the building that had been used by Woodward, Blakely & Company for a store and warehouse. During the next two years he built one kiln and a building for clay shops, and then entered confidently into experiments for the manufacture of white ware, the first ever produced in East Liverpool. The venture was watched with interest by the jx>tters of the place. The Wcllsville Patriot of October 30. i860, condescended to mention the new enterprise - though in that day the feeling Inrtween the two towns was so great that few Liverpool industries received even passing mention. The Patriot of that date said :

"The white ware establishment of Mr. Bloor, of East Liverpool, is rapidly verging to completion. It has one 2-story kiln, almost 50 feet high. The Rockingham and yellow ware pottery of Mr. Brunt is now in operation. W ith these two establishments in full blast, together with those previously erected. East Liverpool may with propriety be denominated the manufacturing town of the county."

Bloor had really succeeded in making an excellent white ware "body." Had the attempt not been made just at the beginning of the war his enterprise would in all probability have been successful financially. Through 1861 he struggled on. The ware produced was very heavy, of almost double thickness, but some artistic sha|>es were attempted. Little by little he lost money, and, in 186.2, he failed, and was forced to give up the venture. The plant passed into the hands of Brunt, thus giving him a 3- kiln pottery; while William Bloor returned to Trenton, there to become wealthy in the white ware trade. For many years afterward the old families of East Liverpool and vicinity kept specimens of William Bloor s first white ware, and exhibited it with pride. Some of the small ornamental mugs and pictures, decorated with blue panels, made a creditable showing even when compared with the white ware pmduced more than a decade later.

gling industry just as the manufacturers were recovering from the hardships of the '5o"s. By the fall of 1862 many of the factories were crippled by the lack of workmen; during 1803 and 1864 the manufacturers and all who could carry anus had joined the armies of the North. The stores of the town were left to the old men, the women and the boys, and there was no pretense of running the manufactories. Grass and "jimsou-weed" flourished even in Second street and Broadway, the two busiest thoroughfares, and the women and babies suffered for the actual necessaries of life. But the victory of Appomattox brought a new order of things. The young life which went into the potting industry when the "Boys in Blue" returned to their home town budded East Liverpool's potteries anew. In the succeeding six years no less than 10 pushing, progressive firms were added to the little city's potting interests. The old makeshift plan of building had passed, and the factories that were erected were substantial, and for that generation, modem. Money came easier, the old days of peddling ware had gone; steam was made the motive power of the newfactories from the start, and the transportation facilities had advanced with huge strides.

John Goodwin, Sr., who had operated in real estate for several years after selling his original plant to the Baggotts in 1853. late in 1863 built the plant w hich later lxcamc know n as the D. E. McNicol Pottery Company's, at the southeast corner of Broadway and Sixth street. In 1865 he sold the place to a company composed of A. J. Marks, Jethro Manley, Joseph Farmer and Enoch Riley. During the succeeding four years the place, known as the "Novelty Potter)-," was idle much of the time, and in 1869, during a strike of the operatives, it passed into the hands of a new company, composed of John McNicol. Patrick McNicol, Adolph Fritz, William M. McClure, William Burton, Sr., William T. Burton and John Dover. This was the real beginning of the old firm of McNicol. Burton & Company. The McNicols had learned their trade in Glasgow. Scotland, and almost every member of the firm was a practical potter. John McNicol died in 1882 and his brother, Patrick McNicol, March 13,

1894. "The firm had merged into McNicol,. Burton & Company, in 1870, and in 1879 D. E. McNicol, son of John McNicol, was admitted to the partnership. Ten years later Will L. Smith, who had for years conducted a planing ! mill on Sixth street, was added to the firm, and,. | on the death of William Burton, Sr., and the j retirement of William T. Burton, the firm was j incorporated in 180.2 as the D. E. McNicol Pottery Company, with Daniel E. McNicol as president.

John Goodwin, Sr., had gone to Trenton in 1870, but returned in 1872. Before i860, James Foster, Timothy Rigby and James Riley had begun the operation of a plant on Broadway just north of the McNicol-Burton factory. The plant had two kilns and was run, as were many others in those days, by horse power. This plant, then running under the firm name of Foster & Riley, was bought by John Goodwin in 1872, and the foundation there lai 1 for the Goodwin Pottery Company. He died in 1875, his three sons, James H., who died in 1896; George S., and Henry S., succeeding him, and the firm became prominent in the cream-colored ware trade from the start. With the incorporation of the Goodwin Pottery Company, in the early '90' s, the sons of James H. Goodwin, John S. and Charles F., became active in the concern.

After The War

The buildings begun by the new firms of Cartwright Brothers, in 1865; Godwin & Flentke and Agner, Foutts & Company, in 1866; the Great Western Pottery of Brunt & Hill in 1867, and Thompson & Herbert in 1868, w ith the additions constructed by several of the older companies about the same time, marked the new epoch in potter)- architecture. All the structures were substantial, and were built with an eye to economy and facility in the arrangements of shops and kilns. The opening of a new potter)- plant during those years was something of a social event in the town, and was generally celebrated by levees to which the "select" were invited. The young soldiers were home, with their laurels of war, and there was a social life in the town that there had not been before, notwithstanding the mourning for fallen ones in many homes.

In 1857 two brothers, .Samuel Morley and George S. Morley. l»oth practical potters from -Staffordshire, with James Godwin, had huilt a small plant to the north where the Goodwill pottery later stood, on upper Broadway, and into this company, early in the '60 s. came W illiam Fleutke. in 1866 these men under the firm name of Morley, Godwin & Flenlke, bui -t the substantial buildings which in later years formed the nucleus for the plant of the Standard Pottery Company. Adolph Fritz, who superintended the erection of so many of the new factories during the '60 s. was the architect. Mannar Michaels, a W'cllsvillc railroader, for many years luggage master on the Cleveland & Pittsburg Railroad, took an interest in the firm, ami in 1X74 it was reorganized as Godwin & Flentke. In 1877, 30 or 40 operatives joined in the organization of the Standard Co-Operative Pottery Company, with A. C. Gould as president and Malachi Horan as secretary', and Ixmght the Godwin plant. There were many changes in the coni|>any in later years, and the cooperative plan was finally abandoned, but the Standard Tottery Company has continued to operate the plant for nearly 30 years. Following the sale in 1877, George Morley and Mannar Michaels entered the pottery business in W'ellsville. Samuel Morley died in 1866.

The firm of Agner. Foutts & Company had organized in i86.>. The original linn consisted of Henry Agner. Isaac Foutts and George Hallam. Isaac Foutts died in 1866. and his son. Maj. M. II. Foutts, who served several terms as mayor of East Liverpool during the '70's, came into the firm, Fphraim Gaston later taking an interest. In 1866 the firm, then considered one of the most enterprising in the town built a brick two-story building at the corner oi Market and Second streets, which was still a part of the Sevres China Conijony's plant 40 years later. Hut the firm declined, and went into liquidation in February. 1882. The property was forced to sale and lay idle until 1887.

when it was Ixmght for a song by the Sebring Brothers, becoming the foundation for the rise of the Sebrings to a position of power in the industry - to which a more extended reference will be made later. M. M. Foutts died Octol>er j6. 1886.

Elijah Webster had built a little stoneware plant on the river front - later to Income the small beginning of the Cartwright interests - about i860. Returning from the war. W illiam Cartwright formed a partnership with Holland Maniey and bought the factory of Webster in 1864. The main building was a story and a half. 18 by 30 feel, of frame, with one kiln adjoining, the kiln-shed being jo by 30. Cartwright & Mauley Ixmght out the old dwelling bouse occupied for years by William Brunt. Sr.. which adjoined the Webster plant, and in 1805 began building substantial structures to take the place of the old frames. In 187J Samuel Cartwright, a brother of W illiam, entered the firm, which Inxame Maniey. Cartwright & ConijKinv; but on Mauley's retirement in 1880 the name w as changed to Cartwright Brothers, and in 1897. after the sons of the founders were given an interest, became the Cartwright Brothers CoiiqKiuv, the company continuing w ithout change up to the present day ( HJ05 ).

I the failure of W illiam III" tor's white ware enterprise in l86_\ had turned over the combined plants, consisting of a row of brick and frame buildings extending along Walnut street from

I Fast Third to East Fourth streets, to his head packer. John Thompson, at the time he enlisted in the Union Army. He returned in 1864 to find that Thompson had left the town to elude the draft, and the entire property was idle. Me began operations, however, and shortly afterword, in 1865. Thompson returned and. with William Joblin. James Taylor - a brother of John X. Taylor of the Knowles. Taylor & Knowles Company - and John Hardwick, Ixmght the "upper'' end from Brunt. From this firm, in turn was organized in 1866 the old firm of West, Hardwick & Company. George W est. Sr.. and Thompson were mcm-

Plant Ok The Salem Iron Company, Leetonia

Ikts of this firm, with Ilardwick and perhaps one or two others. Later Capt. \V. S. George liought an interest, and the firm continued, never enjoying great prosperity, and w'ith many changes, for nearly jo years. Farly during the life of the firm, John Thompson died, leaving his estate in the hands of Col. William H. Yodrey for payment to an old sweetheart in England. Colonel Yodrey held the money for years, hut finally discovered the whcrcalxuts in England, of the legatee, then an old woman, and transferred to her the money.

West, Ilanlwick & Company were successful in the manufacture of "C. C." (cream-colored) ware, into the making of which they went early during the partnership; but when, about 1 880, they went into the production of white granite, the new venture swamped the firm. George Morley, who after he left the old firm of Godwin & Flentke in 1X78, had built the Pioneer Pottery at Wellsville, sold his interest in the Wellsville pottery about th>s time, and in 1884, with his son, Lincoln Morley, bought the W est-Hardw ick plant, naming it the "Lincoln Pottery," and continuing the business under the tirm name of Morley & Son. But from the days of the old W'oodward-Blakely firm, this old works seemed to possess a "hoodoo" for every owner, for. Morley & Son in turn made an assignment in 1890, George Morley losing everything and retiring permanently from the pottery business, though he served with credit as mayor of East Liverpool lor two terms during the years immediately succeeding. He died in the fall of 1896. The old pottery, after four years of idleness, was finally taken over by Koliert Hall, John W. Hall (who, by a queer turn of the wheel of fate, had been defeated by Morley for reelection as mayor), and Monroe Patterson. They organized the East Liverjtool Pottery Coin pany. and operated the plant until it was absorlied with several others by the Hast Liverpool Potteries Company in 1003, In 1005 the concern became the Hall China Company. John W., Charles and Robert Hall. Jr.. k-ing the principal owners. Robert Hall died September 24, 1903.

of the southern half of the old Woodward- Hlakely plant, where Bloor had early made his white ware ex|>eriment. after the sale of the "upper1' end to Thompson, Hardwick and others in 1865. The firm soon became William Brunt. Son & Companv, on the admission to the firm of William Brunt ill and B. M. Louthan, the concern being incorporated in the later V>o"s as the William Brunt Pottery Company. After partially rebuilding this plant, however, William Brunt in 1867 formed 1 partnership with Col. H. R. Hill, then a leading local attorney, and together they built the Great Western Pottcrv Works, at the corner of Walnut and Kossuth (now East Fifth) streets. The new buildings were by far the most commodious in the city at that day, the main building l>cing 109 by 40 feet. There were two kilns, and great things were predicted for the new venture. Attempts were made in the way of ornamentation at the new plant, which wis in the rear of Brunt's new residence, on Broadway, the site later of the East Livcrjmol government building. Brum brought from the roof of the old W'oodward-Blakclv plant a big pitcher made of yellow ware, fully five fe^t high, which had been a marvel in size at the time it had been made, and placed it on the roof «if the new works. Afterward the pitcher received a heavy coat of tar, and the sign remained there for years. Both Brunt and Hill were charter members of the initial organization of the Odd bellows in the town, and the new plant was opened with a big Odd Fellows' reception.

The ( ircat Western was operated bv Brunt & Hill for several years: then Hill, who was not a practical i>otter, withdrew, and Brunt c\|*erimeuted in novelties, gradually dropping out of the yellow ware manufacture. In 1874, John Wyllie. an old English potter of wide experience, came to East Liver) 100I from Pittsburg, where he had been running a small plant for the manufacture of yellow ware, and bought the Great W estern, giving his son. John R. Wyllie. an interest in the business, which was conducted a> John Wyllie K Son. The senior W yllie had w orked in the great potteries of England. Holland and France, and sought to introduce great improvements at his new American factory. He died in 1882, however, and his son continued the plant until his death in 1893. Then, during the disastrous strike of 1894, a company of operatives was formed, under the name of the Union Co-Operative Pottery Company. In the later 'go's \V. C. Moreland, prominent in politics in Pittsburg, secured a controlling interest in the organization. A few years later, the concern was reorganized as the Union Potteries Company, and in 1904 the company bought the Chelsea China Company's plant, at New Cumberland, West Virginia, a well-built pottery erected in j 889 by some of the principal men of that place, headed by John Porter. It was announced that the machinery of the old Great Western would be transferred to the New Cumberland property, and the interests consolidated at that point, but while this was being done the Chelsea factory was destroyed by fire. And during the year 1905 the old Great Western, which 30 years liefore had been looked upon as the most promising enterprise in the young city, lay idle. Starting with great promise, it had made little for its owners during 30 years.

The period from 1865 to 1870 was to see the establishment of yet another firm, which tf)ok an important place from the start in the growing city. In 1868 Cassius C. Thompson, whose father. Josiah Thompson, was one of the veteran merchants of the place, with Col. J. T. llerliert, who was then selling ware for William Brunt, formed the firm of Thompson & Hcrlwrt, and started the construction of substantial buildings east of the foot of College street. The firm thus established was marke I for its continuance in the yellow ware field long after nearly all the other factories in the city had changed to the granite and semi-porcelain products. Colonel Herbert died March 31. 1875. and on the admission of R. (.'. Simins and John C. Thompson into the concern the business continued under the name of C. C. Thompson & Company, the firm later incorporating as the C. C. Thompson Pottery Company, on the admission of the senior menil»er's son, George C. Thompson. C. C. Thompson

The introduction of the Thompsons into the pottery business showed the trend of the days immediately following the war period, when men who were not practical potters entered the field, taking into it an clement of business shrewdness that was unknown in the earlier days of small capital and old-fashioned methods. The new element soon showed its hand in the introduction of improved machinery, and in the great revolution that had its beginning early in the '70 s, and brought about the change from the old yellow "bodies," made from the clays in the hills about the town, t-j the white granite, queensware and ironstone china that gave to East Liverpool a permanent place in the industrial history of the nation. The change meant a heart-breaking struggle. The chief capital with which to conduct the experiments and bear the brunt of repeated disatsrous failures was the indomitable pluck and perseverance of the pioneers of the movement. England, France and Germany had been supplying the American markets with white ware for all purposes ever since there had been a white ware market in America. They had the wealth of the great pottery families of the Old World at their kick; they had also their paternal governments, which gave them the benefits of laboratories and chemists, which paid the bills for experiments in improving the qualitiy of ceramics, and thus placed a premium on skill and industry.

The American jieople knew no first-class table-ware lnit that which came across the seas. In the great domestic markets the idea of a first-class product in ceramics from domestic letters was laughed at. Tariffs - yes, there had l)cen tariffs for the protection of the manufacturer of American pottery; as early as 1862 the government had levied duties to protect the new American industry. Hut just when the pioneers in the white ware movement were putting forth their first efforts in this new direc- tiuii came the reduction in cartliernware tariffs nf 1872, and the financial panic of 1873 caught them in the midst of a lifc-and-dcath struggle.

Leading the new movement were Knowles. Taylor & Knowles. as the humble venture of Isaac \Y. Knowles of 20 years before had become known; George S. Marker & Company, who had established a name for excellence of product even before the war; John Wyllie, he of many years' experience in three countries of the Old World ; and. second to none in earnest effort for the improvement of the quality of the first white product, the two enterprising concerns of Brunt, Hloor, Martin & Company, ami Homer Laughlin, both established alxnit that time. The Vodreys. who had come out of the wreck of Woodward. Blakely & Company. William Brunt, who had taken an active part already in the upbuilding of four of the pottery enterprises of the new town and was about to become an active factor in the fifth, and Godwin & Flentke, then a firm which seemed 10 have a bright future in the trade - all engaged early in the new white ware enterprise.

There was clay to be bought away from home - the old clays of the Ohio hills would no longer furnish the raw material. There must be machinery, and a more scientific application of the principles of the old art which had been brought across from England. There must be chemists, and laboratories - but above all. there must be the bitter fight with the great American people - the tattle for markets, and the disappointment that would follow repeated failures to overcome the prejudice that made the American buying public prefer the imported article to the new domestic ware, even when qualitiy and price were equal.

In 1872 Isaac W. Knowles. who had absorbed Isaac Harvey's interest in the pottery on upper Walnut street, took into the firm his son. Homer S. Knowles and his son-in-law. John X. Taylor, and the firm name became Knowles, Taylor & Knowles. The pottery was still a two-kiln affair, run by horse power, but the elder Knowles was even at that time experimenting with labor-saving devices, and was preparing to produce the first American white ware since the day when William Bloor had e lost his little fortune in an effort to make a success of white goods during a war-time panic. The first kiln of "white stone-china," as it was called, was turned out in September, 1872 ; and the following year a building and kiln were built lor decorating the new product, and the old yellow and Rockingham wares were entirely abandoned. During the ensuing few yeais the firm took enormous strides. New buildings were built in 1876, and the capacity increased to five kilns - the factory thus becoming the largest in the town. "Thus." writes one historian of that day. "this single firm secured a cajiacity of 5.000 casks of white granite and decorated goods per annum."

The elder and younger Knowles l>ecame a power in the new industry. Isaac W. Knowles, by the invention of the "pull-down," and other mechanical devices for the clay shops, in 10 years revolutionized methods of manufacture, and the American potter at a single leap passed his English brother in the matter of laborsaving machinery. In 1880 the firm built wh it for years was known as the "new end" - a separate pottery just north of the original plant; in 1884 it absorbed the Buckeye Pottery of Flentke, Harrison it Company, which had been built about 1878, on the site of an old brickyard of Surles & Gamble to the east of Walnut street, by Holland Mauley, William Harrison, John Gamble and Will II. Surles, for the manufacture of yellow ware. And in 1888 the firm astounded the little city by the erection of a second separate plant for the manufacture of the finer grades of china and porcelain, at a cost of $250,000.

Misfortune laid a heavy hand on the enterprise, however, for in November. 1889, less than 18 months after the building of the ne-« china works, it was totally destroyed by fire - the most disastrous conflagration up to that day in the history of the industry in East Livcrpool. Though insured but meagerly, the firm rebuilt the plant on almost the original plans in eight months' time, and there devoted their energy to turning out fine art china and Belleek ware. It was an ambitious attempt - but the venture was 20 years in advance of its day. I The ware was equal to the finer grades of china then being imported in such great quantities from England, Germany and France: but the American manufacturer was to learn to his sorrow that his own people would not accept his high-grade china and art goods when foreign wares, no better in quality, could be had at the same price. They would not take the American potter at his word. And so, after large losses, these pioneers in the manufac;- ure of staple American china goods on a large scale were compelled to change the output, of the new factory to the more marketable grades of porcelains and semi-porcelains. On the incorporation of the company in iRRg, w ith a capital of $1,000,000, Joseph G. Ix-e and Will's A. Knowles became interested .

Homer Knowles died in November, 1892. in New York City; by his death the potting . industry of the West lost one of its most progressive members in half a century. He was aged only 41 years; and the men of his day in the industry declare his continued life and health would have changed the history <J American ceramics during the decade succeeding. Isaac VV. Knowles lived to reap the fruits of his early lalxjrs, dying July 23, 19O-', revered as the father of modern methods in an industry which he had seen grow from the meanest beginning to a powerful place among American manufacturing interests.

Fighting For A Market

(ieorge S. Harker & Company followed the lead of Knowles, Taylor & Knowles almost immediately in turning their attention to white ware; indeed, experiments were carried on almost simultaneously in white ware by three or four of the more progressive potteries. Meantime, another concern, which was to have an important place in giving to American wares a lasting reputation for excellence, and to attempt the manufacture of art ware as well, was just then having a modest beginning. In 1867 a young man named Homer I.aughlin. who had marched home with the Ohio troops at the dose of the war. and had sought his fortune in vain in the then new oil fields of Beaver County, Pennsylvania, came into Fast Liverpool with a capital of about $25, and invested it in a stock of yellow ware, which he peddled about the immediate section. The young man'* father, Matthew I*aughlin, had been a pioneer storekeeper at Calcutta and a miller on the Little Beaver. Homer I^ughlin's brother. Shakespeare M. Laughlin, joined him in a year or so, and after an unsuccessful venture in the manufacture of stoneware in a little plant ou West Market street, which later furnished the nucleus for the firm of Brunt, Bloor, Martin & Company, the two brothers liegan importing English wares to New York City. In 1873 the town of Fast Liverpool gave to these brothers the only public bonus ever given a pottery venture in the history of the community - a nest-egg of $5,000 for the erection of a pottery for the exclusive manufacture of white ware. The Laughlins bought their site from the George S. Harker estate - paying $300 for a plot of ground just west of ths George S. Harker works.

In after years, Homer Laughlin often declared he would willingly have contributed many times the original amount of the bonus to remove the record of that public contributio-i to his original enterprise. Proud of his achievements, retiring, a remarkable student and early in his practical experience an expert in ceramic chemistry, he was often misunderstood at home; but he took rank at once with the progressive men of the industry in the West. To him is due the credit of much of the early improvement in the quality of the new white ware, and the production of the finer grades of china and art ware. The firm in 1873, At the beginning, was known as Laughlin Brothers; but in 1877 Homer purchased the interest of his brother Shakespeare, and continued the business in his own name. The first two kilns of ware in 1873 were failures. In them was a large proportion of teacups, and the handles of these dropj>ed off as they came from the kiln. Hundreds of the old "village croakers," thinking of that public contribution of $5,000. marched up the railroad to the new jiottery and gazed sadly at the heap of worthless cups dumped over the river Iwnk after the firing, shook their heads gravely, and returned home to predict early disaster for the new firm. But Laughlin had faith in himself; and in 10 years' time he had established perhaps the highest reputation of that day for the qualitiy of American white ware.

Laughlin went abroad, and studied Old- World potting. He brought home with him chemists from France and England, and began during the '8o's to manufacture high-class goods - china, richly decorated ; vases and art ware of the highest order. But he met the same humiliating experience - the American consumer preferred the goods with a foreign trademark, even at a higher price. It was a losing venture, and, after several years of earnest endeavor, he gave up the expensive experiment. The new ware, with its superb "bodies," riLs undcr-glaze decorations, its rare art shapes, was a success commercially if it could be sold on an equal basis with the foreign goods of like quality ; but the American public was not ready. Much of this early art ware of Laughlin's is treasured highly by connoisseurs to the present day.

The popular prejudice against the early white granite of the American potter was so strong that even during the '8o's the East Liverpool manufacturers found it necessary Ij put the English marks, the lion and the unicorn, on their products in order to get them a place in the market. This was commonly done for 1 5 years after the first white ware was produced by Knowles, Taylor & Knowlcs - until a few patriotic men in the industry raised a protest, and declared American earthenware must sail under American colors. Among the first manufacturers to raise this cry for the American trade-mark on American ware were John N. Taylor and Mr. Laughlin. Laughlin's first stamp in this connection was unique. It was designed as a "defi" to the English manufacturer. The design was. the American Eagle rampant and the British lion prostrate. This, adopted in 1875. was the first strictly American potter)- trade-mark, and was continued by the Laughlin company up to 1904. Then a new trade-mark was adopted, consisting simply of the name "Homer Laughlin," and the initials "H. L." in monogram.

The Knowles, Harker and Laughlin interests were successful in fighting the liattle for the introduction of white ware; but a third firm, not less enterprising, for which great things were hoped in its day, bore its share of that struggle, but failed. to reap its share of the benefits owing to insufficient capital - the firm of Brunt, Bloor, Martin & Company. Soon after the end of the Civil War, Nathaniel Sims and Thomas Starkey built a small stoneware pottery on West Market street - the site on which afterward stood the Dresden plant. Homer Laughlin was afterward interested in the venture, and it passed into various hands until 1875. when it was advertised at sheriff's sale. William Brunt, who had just sold the Crcat Western Pottery to John Wyllie, Sr., attended the sale and bid in the little factory. Brunt got the plant quite unawares, not having bid seriously; and after it was knocked down to him he hardly knew what to do with it. But the fever for the manufacture of white ware had taken possession of the ambitious spirits in the industry, and in the course of a few weeks. Brunt, Bloor, Martin & Company had organized, and plans were drawn to build a white ware plant. In the original firm were William and Henry Brunt, William Bloor, George H. Martin and, later, Samuel A. Emery. An excellent grade of white ware was maintained from the start, and the shops, new and modem for that day, attracted a good class of workmen.

A year after the organization of the new company, it went into competition with its white ware for medals of merit at the Philadelphia Centennial. At that early day three East Liverpool concerns were awarded medals for their white ware - Homer Laughlin, Knowles. Taylor & Knowles, and Brunt, Bloor, Martin & Company.

Handicapped, however, by a lack of running capital. Brunt. Bloor, Martin & Company finally gave up the unequal fight when, in 1882, during the "lock-out" that resulted in the shutting down of the chief plants in East Liverpoo], the Potters' Co-Operative Pottery Company was organized, mainly of operatives, and took over the plant. Hugh

A. McXicol was president and treasurer of the new company, and Ilerl)ert Bloor, secretary and manager, the pottery being given tile name of the "Dresden Pottery Works." The new concern was successful from the start, despite two disastrous fires, the second, in May, ifrjj, causing the nearly complete'destruction of the works, with a loss of almost S20u.ckx>.

Among the unique enterprises of the period between 1870 and 1880 was the building of the California Pottery, far north of the city in what was known as "California Hollow." A spot of comparatively level ground was found in this deserted locality, along the old road that followed close on the grading that was done for the road-lx-d of the Kast Liverpool, Warren & Ashtabula Railroad enterprise, which fell a victim of the financial panic of 1837. In 1868 Ferdinand Keffer. who had run a foundry in Kast Liveqjool during the '30's, with George Hallam and F.dwin McDevi'.t built a small shop and a single kiln in the deserted ravine, and began making yellow ware, but in 1871 the works was taken over by McDevitt. ami Stephen Moore, under the firm name of McDevitt & M<x»re. The pottery continued to make yellow ware for 30 years, though coal ami clay had to be hauled to the plant nearly three miles from the railroad, and the product conveyed an equal distance for shipment. The old road along the ravine remained almost a l>og for months at a time, and during bad weather the company was compelled to shut down until the roads liecamc passable. Alxmt this same period, an old hermit, whose real name was William Henderson, but who went by the sobriquet "Santa Anna." owing to his claim to a war record thmugti which he said he had lost one lep. lived in a ramshackle cabin on the Simms farm, at the junction of what later l>ecame Broadway and East Market streets, near the Godwin & Flentke pottery. The old man built a kiln at one end of his cabin, ami for a number of years made a crude earthenware. He w as the target for pranks by the boys of that day. and peddled his own product. lie was found dead in his little cabin on a Sunday morning in 1K73. an I the little shop disappeared l*fore the onward march of improvements in that section of the town. Another Lilliputian offshoot of the industry during this period was a tiny factor/ for the manufacture of clay pipes, at the head of Forest (later Kast Sixth) street, of whicii W illiam Colclough was fur many years the owner.

The site later occupied by the West End Pottery Company was the scene of an early venture in yellow ware. Thomas Starkey. Sr.. and others in 1869 converted an old grist-mi'l on Eighth street, in the West End, into a stoneware plant, devoted to the production of crocks and jugs. letter. Thomas Thompson, Pierce Curby and Richard Barlow were interested and alxmt 1870 yellow ware was produced. The factory was lxmght in 1872 by Samuel Worcester &- Son. it being known as the "Star Pottery" - and the firm later became Bulger & Worcester. The plant burned early in tire '80s. however, and was not rebuilt for a milliter of years. The site passed to Col. H. R. Hill and J. M. Kelly, who were interested in the early '80 s in drilling for gas in that neighborhood and when, in 1889, William Burgess and Willis Cunning bought the property, the ruins of the old Star plant were still standing. These were cleared away, and on the site Burgess & Cunning erected a plant for the manufacture of "1x)iie china." The company, known as the American China Company, turned out its first ware in 1890. and during the next two yearsof exjxerimenting with the new pr«x:css the residents of that section of the town made a great outcry against the stench coming from the burning bone in the. kiln. The objection was carried into the Council, and that body tried to legislate the enterprise out of business. Some beautiful ware was produced by the process, but Burgess & Cunning were unable to compete w ith the imported lxme china, and during most of 1891 the jx)ttery lay idle. The following year. 1892. w ith George W. Ashbaugh and others they organized the West End Pottery Company, and changed to the manufacture of

The decorating field was also invaded by independent operators during the later '70's, following the production of the new white ware. Many of the manufacturers who l>egan making the white granite and (|ueensware did not possess facilities for decorating the new product, or putting it through the additional tiring necessary after the decorations had bee-i put on. These supplied the proprietors of the little decorating works with plain white ware for decorating. Among the earlier and more prominent of these little plants were those conducted by John E. Steele. James Denni*, Thomas Hayden and William Higginsoi!. Steele's shop was on College street, north o; the Vodrey pottery, and liecame a pretentious enterprise during the later "80s: Dennis conducted his shop on lower Market street, near the river, and at one time employed 25 or 30 decorators. Higginson's continued to operate, on upjwr Walnut street, just south of the Knowles, Taylor & Knowles works, until after 1890. while Hayden's shop, on Seventh street, was in successful operation at a still later date.

An important factor in while ware decoration from the start was the liquid gold used by the decorators. The process of converting the pure gold into a liquid which would bum on the ware and liecome a durable decoration came from Germany and was held as a trade secret tor many years by two large chemical firms in New York. Out of it they made a fortune, ami every decorator in the trade l>ecame anxious to learn the secret. A score or more of expert decorators in the Hast Liverpool potteries lost their all during the early years of white ware decoration in experimenting on a successful liquid gold. Every feu years the announcement came from some struggling decorator that he had discovered the secret, and the failure of his mixture was only ascertained after expensive tests had eaten up all his small savings. Twenty years failed to solve the problem, and in 1005 the New. York linns still held the secret.

firm had been James Taylor. George S. Harker died in 1864. but shortly, before that time Matthew Thompson had lxmght out Taylor's interest, and the latter had gone to Trenton, where, with Henry Speiter. he built the first pottery there and became prominent in the industry in the Hast. Benjamin Harker, Jr.. was then associated with the old firm, and at the death of George S. I larker. David Boyce, who was afterward for many years president of the Hirst National Bank ( his incumbency expiring with his death in November. 1904), was appointed administrator of the estate, and acted as manager of the pottery for some 12 years. George S. Harker's two sons, William XV. and Hal N.. having in the meantime become members of the firm. Benjamin Darker in 1877 left the concern and built a 2-kiln factory further east along the railroad, conducting the business as Benjamin Harker & Sons until 1881, when it was bought by Joseph Chetwynd and H. D. 1 Wallace, the firm name licing Wallace & Chetwynd. In 1899 George C. Meredith secured ! an interest in the concern and shortly after- [ ward Chetwynd retired. In 1903 it was j merged with the Hast Liverpool Potteries Company, and a year later withdrew , becoming the property of the Colonial Pottery Company.

By iHji). eight firms, with a total capacity of 28 kilns, were making white ware - William Brunt. Jr., & Company, with 5 kilns; Homer I^mghlin. 4: Knowles. Taylor & Knowles, 5: Brunt. Bloor. Martin & Company. 4: George S. Harker & Company. 4; Godwin & Hlentk?. 2: John Wyllie &- Son, 2, and Vodrey & Brother. 2. Thirteen other firms were making yellow or cream-colored ware, making the total capacity of the potteries of the town 63 kilns. Mack's history of the county, published in 1879, says of the industry: added to their capacities. In 1880 John Mountford and Ambrose Massey built a plant at the foot of Union street which was later occupied by Rowe & Mount ford, and still later as the George. C. Murphv Pottery Company. In 1881 X. A. Frederick, Jacob Sheukel. A. R. Allen and George C. Frederick organized the firm of Frederick. Shenkel, Allen & Company, later the Globe Pottery Company, and built a plant east of the Harkers". John Horwell l>ecame a meml>er of this firm in 1896. Roliert, George \Y. and Oliver Bur ford had established a tile works in 1879 on West Market street, adjoining the Brunt, Bloor, Martin & Company pottery, but the enterprise had lx;cn a failure, and in 18X1 the brothers rebuilt the factory and went into the then popular manufacture of cream-colored ware.

But the industry came to almost a complete standstill in 1882, being well-nigh prostrated by the first serious lalmr trouble in the history of the town. The historic "lock-out," the result of the refusal of the manufacturers to allow their operatives to organize under the auspices of the Knights of Labor, kept the factories either idle or at l>est running in an irregular way, for the best part of the year.

It is not the purpose of this work to recall old quarrels long since settled: but history demands that some of the incidents of those years, the contests over the relative rights of each side in the great controversy of capital and lalxir that involved almost the entire land -hiring the few years that followed. t>e set flown here in a calm, dispassionate manner. The status of manufacturer and operative in the '. pottery industry was first raised at that time, and the story of the dispute is told at this late day without intent to reflect on the motives of any one concerned.

The potters had l>een organized, in an imperfect and unsatisfactory way. as District Assembly N'o. 160, Knights of La1x>r. John O'Xeill was master workman. There was constant friction between employers and employes. Even the men seemed to In- not more than half-hearted it) their loyalty lo their organization. Then the majority of the manufacturers - including nearly all the larger concerns - signed and posted what was known as the "iron-clad" agreement, l>eing an ultimatum to the men that no meml>er of the Knights of Labor could be permitted to work at the plants. Most of the men quit work, and it was months l>eforc the potteries again secured anything like full crews. It was in the midst of the iS8_> congressional campaign, and McKinley was r candidate for reelection. Two operatives, William Beardmore and Joseph Barlow, were appointed a committee to see the congressional candidate and arrange to have a s|>ecch from him in East Liverpool in which he was to express his judgment as to the right of the men to form ami belong to labor organizations. McKinley came, but, having been detained brother engagements, it was only on the eve of the election that he. in Brunt's OjKTa House, expressed' himself in unequivocal terms i;i favor of labor organizations. Practical potters in the audience that night gave public expression to their satisfaction with Major McKinley's views, but feared it was too late to stem the tide of opinion against him among the locked-out men. And so it proved to be: for the champion of protection was defeated for that term of Congress by a small plurality, through the disaffection among the East Liverpool operative potters. Trades unionism languished in East Liverpool for several years - many of the men going back under the "ironclad" agreement to their benches before the close of the year, the business gradually reviving, until the organization, in 1890. of the National Brotherhood of Operative Potters (mention of which is made later). Through the administration of the latter organization, coupled with the liltcral spirit shown by the employers after the great strike of 1804--- which is also referred to later - and the workings of the uniform scale with its harmonizing features, a condition of peace and good feeling had existed, up to 1005. which was an example to l>e followed in other lines of industry the country over.

caused a momentary panic; and the following year the great Ohio River flood of February, 1884, caused large losses in the factories along the river. But these misfortunes failed to check materially the onward march of the trade, and the later '8o's and the first few years of the '90's saw proliably the largest profits realized in pottery manufacture 011 the capital invested that the history of the industry in America will ever show. Men rose from poverty to affluence in little more than a decade. Plants ran to their utmost capacity. It was the period of high protective tariff, without the hard competition which in later years reduced profits so materially.

The tariff of 1861, though a protectee measure, levied no high duties on foreign earthenwares, the American industry at thit time being of small importance. In 1868, however, an amended act secured for the new interests substantial protective duties. Reductions in duties by the acts of May 1 and June 6, 1872, had proved a hard blow to the trade, and these were not remedied until two years later, when earthenware became a strongly protected industry. In 1882-83, under the commission appointed by President Arthur to revise the entire tariff system, the earthenware schedule was again threatened, but the manufacturers rallied strongly to the support of the then existing rates. William McKinley, then representing this district in Congress, fought the battle for the pottery manufacturers, assisted in the Senate by John. Sherman of Ohio. The high duties established some years lwfore - 55 and 60 per cent, ad valorem - remained on imported earthenware and china, and the industry flourished.

In 1888 a substantial cut was made in the earthenware tariff ; but the McKinley tariff which followed in i8ox> restored the rate to 55 and 60 per cent. Under its influence profits of the American jwtters sailed to extravagant figures in 1892, and then the landslide which swept the Democratic party into [>o\ver in that year and the year following placed the entire industry again at the mercy of the threat of a tariff reduction.

As a consequence of this constant tariff agitation, East Liverpool was during the lat*.T '8o's one of the most solid protectionist towns in the country. An extract from a speech delivered by Senator John Sherman to an openair meeting in the town in June, 1887, gives an insight into the feeling of that day on the tariff :

"Several years ago I came among you, btu I was not then as familiar with the great industry that has given you wealth and a name throughout the land as well as abroad as I am now. I believe that the manufacture of pottery or chinaware first assumed large proportions here in 1861 and 1862, but at that time it met with discouragements and did not prosper. At that time all, or nearly all, the white china used in this country was imported from England. The English manufacturers, hearing of your efforts and your success, through their representatives, made strenuous efforts t.i keep off a duty on their goods. You came to Congress, and asked that a reasonable duty be placed upon imported white ware and decorated china. It was there that I first learned of the great industry you were pursuing.

"At that time this Imsiness was scarcely known in the United States. With the English competition and the cheap labor in that country you could not succeed. All the people of the West used common brown pottery because they could not afford to pay the high price asked for imported ware. I have eaten my meals many a time from the brown plates or from the tinware in the homes of good and honest men who could not afford to buy the English china. Owing to the encouragement given to the tariff' after the war. this industry grew and you prospered. And in 1883, when an attempt was made to break down the tariff on these goods, with your true friend, Major McKinley and others, we stood by you and t lie tariff was continued. A gentleman said to me. 'East Liverpool cannot' compete with England, and the attempts of the potteries in that place will be futile' - and argued that it was letter to break down the tariff and dq>end u|>on England. * * * The result of the protection given you has driven much of the English goods from our market, and it has brought

At that time William McKinlcy, who 10 years later was to attain the presidency of the nation, represented the district in Congress, and East Liverpool manufacturers considered him their special champion in the battles for protective measures. In a speech delivered years later during his first presidential campaign, Major McKinlcy declared that he owed to East Liverpool his tariff record - the early plight in which he found the pottery industry in Columbiana County having induced him to take up the study of the protective tariff system as a specialty.

With the growth of the potteries in the upper part of the city came the demand for better transportation. The city had grown despite, not because of, the shipping facilities offered by the Pennsylvania Company; for the railroad, having the manufacturers of the place absolutely in its grasp with scarce a hope of r competing line, had not made favors to shippers the rule. In 1887 the manufacturers on the north side of the city and the Cleveland & Pittsburg Railroad officials agreed on a survey for the "horn switch,'" a branch from the main tracks, starting at the western end of the city and taking advantage of the depression through which flowed Car]icnter"s Run to connect with the leading firms "on the hill." The survey pave direct connections with what were later the West End Pottery, the Dresden and the Burforrl, Standard Pottery Company. Godwin, McNicol, Wyllic & Son and Knowles, Taylor & Knowles plants. The pro|>ositiou. despite the need of additional shipping facilities, raised great opposition in the City Council, on account of the fear that the new switc'i would shut out a cross countrv railroad survey which was then being made into East Liverpool; and it was only alter H. S Know li s, w ho was one of the strongest advocates of the new branch, had threatened not i only (o drop plans for the building of the new Knowles. Taylor \- Knowles china works ! then in contemplation, but remove the plant j the con pany was then operating away front the | city, that the railroad finally was given permission to proceed with the laying of the tracks. Even after the main switch had lieen laid, the building of a spur, in 1888, to connect the Godwin, McNicol and Wyllie plants was bitterly fought, the Fire Department being called out to prevent the work of the track gangs in Apple alley. The building of this spur was only accomplished by an emergency construction crew, which laid the tracks over the route in dispute during the dead hours of night, treating the members of the city government to a surprise when they awoke the following morning.

The Strike Of 1894

The defeat of the advocates of the protective tariff and the election of President Cleveland in 1892 brought to a close the 10 years of prosperity with a suddenness that threatened disaster to the entire industry. The Wilson tariff bill, which passed the Senate and became a law August 13, 1894, reduced duties >n earthenware from 55 and 60 per cent, to 30 and 35. Though the new law did not go into effect until the summer of 1894, the trade had been in a pitiable condition of stagnation for months before the close of 1893, in anticipation of the tariff cut; and in January, 1894, the manufacturers announced a reduction in wages ranging from 12 to 25 jier cent. The new scale was first presented to the employees of the Laughlin pottery on January 22nd. and the following day the strike in East Liverpool and the other pottery cities of the West became general. Within a few days the employees of the general and sanitary ware potteries of Trenton and the blast also struck against a like reduction.

Four years l>el'ore. in 1890. the National Brotherhood of Operative Potters had been formed in the Western factories, with headquarters in Fist Liverp.-cil; and when the strike was declared the men's organization proved itself strong enough to tie up practically every factory in the West. The National Brotherhood was affiliated with the American Federation of Lal«r, and Allwrt S

Hughes, of Kast Liverpool, was president. Nearly all the manufacturers, Kast and West, stood firm for the reduction, the only exceptions in Columbiana County at the opening of the strike being the Standard Pottery Company and the West End Pottery, at East Liverpool, both of which concerns were controlled largely by the operatives. These operated throughout the strike at the old wage rate, and early during the struggle a numlier of operatives also organized the Union Pottery Company on a cooperative plan, and. purchasing j the idle Wyllie plant (the old Great Western , Pottery) began its operation. The struggle lasted exactly six months, during which time the 6.000 operatives in the city were almost entirely idle. There was little disorder, notwithstanding the bitter feeling, and not a death by violence during the six months' battle. The men's campaign throughout the West was managed from the East Liverpool headquarters of the organization by President Hughes and the national advisory council, which held daily sessions. In July the manufacturers, after many attempts at a settlement, offered a compromise on a \2]A per cent, wage reduction, with the absolute promise of the restoration to the men of the old wage rate whenever I the tariff should l>e restored to its former fig- J ure. Despite the strenuous protests of the i more beligerent of the operatives, this off-r 1 was accepted on July ioth. and on July 22nd. six months to a day after the strike had l)cen declared, the men went back to their work throughout the West. The Trenton operatives accepted the same terms a week or two later.

Among the manufacturers who were given the largest degree of credit for the settlement at the time were Col. John N. Taylor, of the Knowles. Taylor & Knowles Company: H. A. McNicol. of the Potters' Co-Operative Company, and W. E. Wells, nf the L-uighlin China Company. It is a fact worthy of note tint the manufacturers lived up to their promise when the new tariff went into effect, in 18*)-. the old wage rate being restored on December 2V 1807. after many c< inferences bv scale committees on l>otli sirles. Thus closer) the most notable wage incident in the history of over Co years iti the industry in America.

Following the victory of the protective tariff forces of the nation in the election of President McKinley in 1896, came another era of development, during which the investments in the pottery industry in the East Liverpool district increased by millions of dollars in a few years' time. Great firms grew up in months, instead of years, and modern equipment and buildings with the consequent economy in methods fostered a keen competition that led to one attempt after another at consolidation on a far-reaching scale. It was the age of "combines" and "trusts" in many industries, and in the last days of 1898 the details were perfected for the organization of the American Potteries Company, which was to include almost every general ware pottery in the country.

To the greed of the New York promoters, who over-capitalized the project and prepared to take $5,000,000 or more of stock as their share, was laid the blame for the ultimate collapse of the "trust" idea. John R. Dos Passos, a New Yorker in the employ of J. P. Morgan & Company, did the earlier work and secured the options oti the plants, both East and West. Twenty-three out of 26 general ware lotteries in East Liverpool had liecn optioned up to the last week of December, and the manufacturers turned in their stock certificates at New York, and actually started options January 1st under the name of the American Potteries Company, which had been incorjmrated under the laws of New Jersey.

Originally the "combine" had been capitalized at $i'2.ooo.ooo; but the New Yorkers afterward decided to place the capital at $20.- 000,000 - one-half of it to be preferred stock, guaranteed to pay j'/j per cent., the other half, common. Each plant was optioned independently, and purchase prices on all of them remained a secret with the projectors. With the prospect of a vastly "watered" corporation the manufacturers liegan drawing <>nt. anil within two months after (he first of the year the ni^e structure reared by the promoters had crumbled. The death of the project was hastened by injunction suits begun during January by the Bell Pottery Company, of Fintllav, in the United States Court at Cincinnati, and by representatives of the labor organizations, in Columbus.

A second attempt at consolidation on a smaller scale bade fair for a time to be more successful. In July, 1901, the Fast Liverpool Potteries Company organized, with George C. Murphy as president, with six factories. In the organization were Murphy & Company, then operating the plant formerly owned by Mounttord & Company; the Globe Pottery Company, which had organized in 1881 ; the Wallace & Chetwynd Company; the East Liverpool Pottery Company, operating the old West, Hardwick & Company plant ; the Fast End Pottery Company, controlled by F. J. Owen and Gus. Trenle, which had built a smad plant in the East End in 1894; and the United States Pottery Company, of Wellsville. which had been organized by John J. Purington, Robert Hall and S. M. Ferguson in 1898, and had built a handsome plant at the West Fnd of Wellsville. The combination lived but a short time, however. The Murphy &- Company plant burned in 1904 and was not relmilt, George C. Murphy going into the [lottery bu;iness at Barbcrton, Ohio; the old Hardwick plant became the property of the Hall China Company ; the Fast End Pottery Coni|>aiiy reorganized as a separate concern, while the Wallace & Chetwynd plant became the property of the Colonial Company, with G. W. Meredith as president and Will A. Rhodes, formerly with the Knowles. Taylor it Knowles Company, and Henry P. Knoblock, for several years secretary of the Potters' Co-Opentive Company, largely interested.

Years Of Expansion

Homer Laughlin retired in August, 1898. removing to Lis Angeles, California. He had not been active in the management of his pn >|>- erty for several years prior to that date. On the organization of the Homer Laughlin China Company, L. 1. Aaron, of Pittsburg, became president, and W. F. Wells, who had become Laughlin's manager several years before, secretary. The Aarons immediately gave the company unlimited hacking, and became l.'.rge

' tional China Company, had built a modern pottery in the Fast End, adjoining the new Laughlin plant ; and by a trade, the Laughlin Company on January 1, 1903, secured this new works of the National in exchange for the original Homer Laughlin plant further west. The Homer Laughlin China Company continued to enlarge until in 1905 it possessed a total ca-

In the years following the opening of the new Ohio River bridge connecting the city w ith the West Virginia side of the river, two large plants were also established at the new suburb of Chester - the Taylor, Smith & Taylor Company, 8 kilns. built by W. L. Taylor, Homer J. Taylor, J. G. Lee. and C A. Smith ; and the Fdwin M. Knowles China Company, 6 kilns. And following the opening of the second bridge in 1905. connecting the city w ith Newell on the west, ground was broken in that suburb, for a plant of 30 kilns, by the North American Manufacturing Company, which had been organized with a capital of $1,000,000.

Rise Of The Sebrings

It was just as the wave of prosperity in the later '80 s was at its height that, in 1887. five brothers, - Oliver H.. George F., Ellsworth II., Joseph and Frank Sebring, sons of George A. Sebring, an early potter - entered the trade. The brothers, with S. J. Cripps and George W. Ashbaugh, bought the old Agner. Foutts & Company plant at the corner of Second and Market streets, which had stood idle ever since , the failure of the original firm in 1882. Two of the Sebring brothers. George and Oliver, were practical potters, employed at the Knowles, Taylor & Knowles works, while two others were interested in the grocery business on a small scale. They had little financial backing, even for running capital. The price paid for the original plant was $i2,5<x,>, and the new firm was complied to virtually rebuild the old pottery, which had a capacity of four kilns. Three of the four kilns were torn down and rebuilt, and all the old machinery had to be torn out. The firm started to make ware with modest debt on its shoulders, but soon began spreading out. Cripps and Ashbaugh withdrew from the firm after a few years. In 1X03 the brothers leased the old East Palestine Pottery Company's plant, at East Palestine, running it on a percentage basis. In 1896 the brothers obtained a small bonus at East Palestine, built the Ohio China Works, a 5-kiln pottery, and continued to run the three plants. In 1898 the brothers pave up their commission deal at the old East Palestine plant, and, taking advantage of a land company deal at the extreme East End of East Liverpool, built there still another pottery of six kilns, which for years was popularly known as the "Klondike Pottery."

In 1899, however, the company negotiated for and bought a large tract of land in Mahoning County, west of Salem, just across the Columbiana County line, for a new town site, and in the same year the Oliver China Works were built on the tract. The new town was named Sebring, and in the succeeding four years three more big plants were built there by the members of the family - the Sebring Pottery Company's works in 1900. and the French China Complin's and Limoges China Company's in the succeeding years. As the new works were built the brothers disposed of their other factories one by one - the original "Number 1" plant in East Liverpool being sold in 1900 to the Sevres China Companv. composed of II. A. Keffer. W. T. Tebbutt. W. II. Dctdrick and Frank Crook: the Fast Fnd plant Ijcing disposed of in 1901 to the Smith-Phillips Company, headed by J. T. Smith and William Phillips. The Ohio China W orks at Fast Palestine were sold in 1902 to the Ohio China Company, a company composed mostly of Fist Palestine capital, headed by O. C. Walker. In 1905 the total capacity of the four plants at Sebring was 25 kilns, employing 1.200 men. the capitalization of the plants being over $1.500,000 - all

Other towns in the county followed Hast Liverpool's example in plunging into the pottery industry as early as the '60 s and '70 s. and as a result mainly of the enterprise of Fast Liverpool men who desired to "spread out" in the industry, a number of substantial plants were put in operation through the county. Wellsville. Fast Palestine, Salineville, Leetonia Lisbon and Salem all securing white ware factories during the closing years of the century. The manufacture of Rockingham and yellow ware had been attempted in Wellsville before 1850, but never with success. In 1878. however, George Morlcy, who had been a member of the firm of Morley, Godwin & Flentke at Fast Liverpool since 1857. came to Wellsville, and. with Harmar Michaels and I. H. Clark organized a company and built the Pioneer Pottery. The plant had originally a capacity of two kilns, but was before many years increased to six kilns and white granite was manufactured from the start. The buildings were completed early in 1879, the factory employing, when it opened in July of that year, 60 persons. Morley retired from the management of the factory in 1884, and Michaels, with I. B. Clark, continued its operation, the company later becoming the Pioneer Pottery' Company. The com- |>any went to the wall about 1890. and for the 10 years ensuing figured largely in litigation in the county courts, being run spasmodically, part of the time by Clark as receiver. In 1902 the Wellsville China Company, headed by Monroe Patterson, of Fast Livcrpiol, purchased the plant, and began its operation.

The second firm in Wellsville was that of J. Patterson & Sons, who started in the yellow ware trade in 1883. with a capacity of two kilns. This was later increased to four kilns, and the company ran without change of management for nearly 20 years, Incoming the Patterson 1'rothers Company in 1900.

site of the old Union schoolhouse at the foot of Fifth street in Wellsville, was first operated by Samuel J. Fisher and others in 1888. It had a capacity at the start of tour kilns. It operated only a year, and was then idle for some time. Finally it was taken over by James H. P>aum. of East Liverpool, who for a time manufactured white ware. During the early "go's, when the potteries of Trenton. .New Jersey, were making their first great success in the manufacture of sanitary porcelain goods, 'Baum changed his pottery to sanitary manufacture, but owing to insufficient financial backing the venture proved a failure. In 1896 the plant was bought in by- Will L. Smith and D. E. McNicol. of East Liverpool, and passed under the control of the D. E. McN'icol Pottery Company, which company operated it thereafter.

John J. Purinton, Rol>ert Hall and S. M. Ferguson, of East Liverpool, in 1898 organized the United States Pottery Company, of Wellsville, and built a handsome plant of six kilns at the western end of the town, below the railroad shops. The company successfully operated the factory in the white ware trade until 1903. when it was absorbed by the East Liverpool Potteries Company. Wellsville therefore boasted in 1905 of four prosperous earthenware plants, with a total ca|»acity of 2 1 ware kilns.

L. Keister & Son ran a stoneware pottery in the town of Columbiana during the ~o's, but the first general ware factory on the north side of the county was built at Leetonia. The Leetonia Pottery Manufacturing Company organized in March. 1H75, with a capital of $15,000. and erected a 2-kiln pottery at that place, for the manufacture of yellow ware. William Schweitzer was president of the company, and J. S. Greenamyer. manager. The concern operated for 20 vears with varying success, Cartwright iv. Green, of East Liverpool, being owners for a number of years during the '<K>'s. It had l>eeii idle for seven years prior to 1905.