History of Columbiana County, Ohio and representative citizens, Part 22

Author: McCord, William B., b. 1844
Publication date: 1905
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : Biographical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 912

USA > Ohio > Columbiana County > History of Columbiana County, Ohio and representative citizens > Part 22

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William Brunt II continued the operation

of the southern half of the old Woodward- Blakely plant, where Bloor had early made his white ware experiment, after the sale of the "upper" end to Thompson, Hardwick and others in 1865. The firm soon became William Brunt, Son & Company, on the admission to the firm of William Brunt III and B. M. Louthan, the concern being incorporated in the later 'go's as the William Brunt Pottery Com- pany. After partially rebuilding this plant, however, William Brunt in 1867 formed :1 partnership with 'Col. H. R. Hill, then a lead- ing local attorney, and together they built the Great Western Potterv Works, at the corner of Walnut and Kossuth (now East Fifth) streets. The new buildings were by far the most com- modious in the city at that day, the main build- ing being 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 was in the rear of Brunt's new residence, on Broad- way, the site later of the East Liverpool gov- ernment building. Brunt brought from the roof of the old Woodward-Blakely plant a big pitcher made of yellow ware, fully five feet high, which had been a marvel in size at the time it had been made, and placed it on the roof of the new works. Afterward the pitcher received a heavy coat of tar, and the sign re- mained there for years. Both Brunt and Hill were charter members of the initial organiza- tion of the Odd Fellows in the town, and the new plant was opened with a big Odd Fellows' reception.

The Great Western was operated by Brunt & Hill for several years; then Hill, who was not a practical potter, withdrew, and Bruut experimented in novelties, gradually dropping out of the yellow ware manufacture. In 1874, John Wyllie, an old English potter of wide experience, came to East Liverpool from Pitts- burg, where he had been running a small plant for the manufacture of yellow ware, and bought the Great Western, giving his son, Jolin R. , Wyllie, an interest in the business, which was conducted as John Wyllie & Son. The senior Wyllie had worked in the great potteries of England, Holland and France, and sought

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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 '90's W. C. Moreland, prominent in politics in Pittsburg, secured a controlling interest in the organiza- tion. A few years later, the concern was re- organized 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 1889 by some of the principal men of that place, headed by John Porter. It was an- nounced that the machinery of the old Great Western would be transferred to the New Cumberland property, and the interests con- solidated 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 before 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 dur- ing 30 years.

The period from 1865 to 1870 was to see the establishment of yet another firm, which took 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. Herbert, who was then selling ware for William Brunt, formed the firm of Thompson & Herbert, and started the construction of sub- stantial buildings east of the foot of College street. The firm thus established was marke 1 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-porce- lain products. Colonel Herbert died March 31, 1875, and on the admission of B. C. Simms and John C. Thompson into the concern the busi- ness continued under the name of C. C. Thompson & Company, the firm later incorpo- rating as the C. C. Thompson Pottery Com- pany, on the admission of the senior member's son, George C. Thompson. C. C. Thompson

died April 24, 1905, after over 35 years' active management of the pottery.

BIRTH OF THE WHITE WARE INDUSTRY.

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 en- tered the field, taking into it an element 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 machin- ery, 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, tu 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 dis- atsrous failures was the indomitable pluck and perseverance of the pioneers of the move- ment. 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 ill America. They had the wealth of the great pottery families of the Old World at their back; they had also their paternal gov- ernments, which gave them the benefits of labo- ratories and chemists, which paid the bills for experiments in improving the qualitiy of cera- mics, and thus placed a premium on skill and industry.

The American people knew no first-class table-ware but that which came across the seas. In the great domestic markets the idea of a first-class product in ceramics from domestic potters was laughed at. Tariffs-yes, there had been tariffs for the protection of the manu- facturer of American pottery ; as early as 1862 the government had levied duties to protect the new American industry. . But just when the pioneers in the white ware movement were put- ting forth their first efforts in this new direc-

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tion came the reduction in earthernware tariffs of 1872, and the financial panic of 1873 caught them in the midst of a life-and-death struggle.

Leading the new movement were Knowles, Taylor & Knowles, as the humble venture of - Isaac W. Knowles of 20 years before had be- come known; George S. Harker & 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 earn- est effort for the improvement of the quality of the first white product, the two enterprising concerns of Brunt, Bloor, Martin & Company, and Homer Laughlin, both established about 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 to 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 appli- cation 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 battle for markets, and the disappointment that would follow repeated failures to overcome the prejudice that made the American buying public prefer the int- ported article to the new domestic ware, even when qualitiy and price were equal.

In 1872 Isaac W. Knowles, who had ab- sorbed 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 N. 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 exper- imenting with labor-saving devices, and was preparing to produce the first American white ware since the day when William Bloor had 9

lost his little fortune in an effort to make a suc- cess 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 for decorating the new product, and the old yellow and Rockingham wares were entire- ly abandoned. During the ensuing few years the firm took enormous strides. New build- ings were built in 1876, and the capacity in- creased to five kilns-the factory thus becom- ing the largest in the town. "Thus," writes one historian of that day, "this single firm secured a capacity of 5,000 casks of white gran- ite and decorated goods per annum."

The elder, and younger Knowles became 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 labor- saving machinery. In 1880 the firm built what for years was known as the "new end"-a sep- arate pottery just north of the original plant; in 1884 it absorbed the Buckeye Pottery of Flentke, Harrison & Company, which had been built about 1878, on the site of an old brick- yard of Surles & Gamble to the east of Walnut street, by Holland Manley, William Harrison, John Gamble and Will H. Surles, for the man- ufacture 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 enter- prise, however, for in November, 1889, less than 18 months after the building of the new china works, it was totally destroyed by fire- the most disastrous conflagration up to that day in the history of the industry in East Liver- pool. Thought 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 Bel- leek ware. It was an ambitious attempt-but the venture was 20 years in advance of its day. The ware was equal to the finer grades of china

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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 for- eign 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 manufact- 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 in- corporation of the company in 1889, with a cap- ital of $1,000,000, Joseph G. Lee and Willis 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 pro- gressive 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 of American ceramics during the decade succeed- ing. Isaac W. Knowles lived to reap the fruits of his early labors, dying July 23, 1902, re- vered 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.

George S. Harker & Company followed the lead of Knowles, Taylor & Knowles almost immediately in turning their attention to white ware; indeed, experiments were carried on al- most 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 at- tempt the manufacture of art ware as well. was just then having a modest beginning. In 1867 a young man named Homer Laughlin, who had marched home with the Ohio troops at the close of the war, and had sought his for- tune in vain in the then new oil fields of Beaver County, Pennsylvania, came into East Liver-

pool 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's father, Matthew Laughlin, had been a pioneer storekeeper at Calcutta and a miller on the Little Beaver. Homer Laughlin'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 on West Market street, which later furnished the nucleus for the firm of Brunt, Bloor, Martin & Company, the two brothers began importing English wares to New York City. In 1873 the town of East Liverpool gave to these brothers the only public bonus ever given a pottery venture in the history of the commu- nity-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 the George S. Harker. works.

In after years, Homer Laughlin often de- clared he would willingly have contributed many times the original amount of the bonus to remove the record of that public contribution to his original enterprise. Proud of his achieve- ments, 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 pro- gressive men of the industry in the West. To him is due the credit of much of the early im- provement 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 Broth- ers; 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 dropped off as they came from the kill. Hundreds of the old "village croakers," think- ing of that public contribution of $5,000, marched up the railroad to the new pottery and gazed sadly at the heap of worthless cups dumped over the river bank after the firing, shook their heads gravely, and returned home

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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 Amer- ican white ware.

Laughlin went abroad, and studied Old- World potting. He brought home with him chemists from France and England, and began during the '80'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 earn- est endeavor, he gave up the expensive experi- ment. The new ware, with its superb "bodies," its under-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 '80's the East Liverpool manufacturers found it necessary to 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 15 years after the first white ware was produced by Knowles, Taylor & Knowles-until a few patriotic men in the industry raised a protest, and declared American earthenware must sail under American colors. Among the first man- ufacturers 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 manufact- urer. The design was, the American Eagle rampant and the British lion prostrate. This, adopted in 1875, was the first strictly Ameri- can pottery 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 ini- tials "H. L." in monogram.

The Knowles, Harker and Laughlin inter- ests were successful in fighting the battle 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 Great 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 week's, 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 modern 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 Phila- delphia Centennial. At that early day thrce East Liverpool concerns were awarded med- als for their white ware-Homer Laughlin, Knowles, Taylor & Knowles, and Brunt, Bloor, Martin & Company.

Handicapped, however, by a lack of run- ning capital, Brunt, Bloor, Martin & Company finally gave up the unequal fight when, in 1882, during the "lock-out" that resulted in the shut- ting down of the chief plants in East Liver- pool, the Potters' Co-Operative Pottery Com- pany was organized, mainly of opera- tives, and took over the plant. Hugh

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A. McNicol was president and treasurer of the new company, and Herbert Bloor, secretary and manager, the pottery being given the name of the "Dresden Pottery Works." The new concern was successful from the start, despite two disastrous fires, the second, in May, 1892, causing the nearly com- ' plete destruction of the works, with a loss of almost $200,000.

UNIQUE ENTERPRISES OF THE '70'S.

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-bed of the East 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 East Liverpool during the '30's, with George Hallam and Edwin McDevitt 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, and Stephen Moore, under the firm name of McDevitt & Moore. The pottery continued to make yellow ware for 30 years, though coal and 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 re- mained almost a bog for months at a time, and during bad weather the company was com- pelled to shut down until the roads became pas- sable. About 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 through which he said he had lost one leg, lived in a ramshackle cabin on the Simms farm, at the junction of what later became Broadway and East Market streets, near the Godwin & Flentke pottery. The old man built a kiln at one end of his cabin, and for a number of years made a crude earthenware. He was the target

for pranks by the boys of that day, and peddled his own product. He was found dead in his little cabin on a Sunday morning in 1873, an:1 the little shop disappeared before the onward march of improvements in that section of the town. Another Lilliputian offshoot of the in- dustry during this period was a tiny factory for the manufacture of clay pipes, at the head of Forest (later East Sixth) street, of which William Colclough was for 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-mill on Eighth street, in the West End, into a stone- ware plant, devoted to the production of crocks and jugs. Later, Thomas Thompson, Pierce Curby and Richard Barlow were interested and about 1870 yellow ware was produced. The factory was bought 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 the '80's, however, and was not rebuilt for a num- ber 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 neighbor- hood 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 "bone china." The company, known as the American China Company, turned out its first ware in 1890, and during the next two years. of experimenting with the new process the res- idents 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 com- pete with the imported bone china, and during most of 1891 the pottery lay idle. The follow- ing year, 1892, with George W. Ashbaugh and others they organized the West End Pottery Company, and changed to the manufacture of

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semi-porcelain, the concern making rapid strides during the 10 years succeeding.

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 began making the white granite and queensware did not possess facilities for decorating the new product, or putting it through the additional firing necessary after the decorations had been 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 con- ducted by John F. Steele, James Dennis, Thomas Hayden and William Higginson. Steele's shop was on College street, north of the Vodrey pottery, and became a pretentious enterprise during the later '80's; Dennis con- ducted his shop on lower Market street, near the river, and at one time employed 25 or 30 decorators. Higginson's continued to operate, on upper 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 white ware decora- tion from the start was the liquid gold used by the decorators. The process of converting the pure gold into a liquid which would burn on the ware and become a durable decoration came from Germany and was held as a trade secret for many years by two large chemical firms in New York. Out of it they made a fortune, and every decorator in the trade be- came anxious to learn the secret. A score or more of expert decorators in the East Liverpool potteries lost their all during the early years of white ware decoration in experimenting on a successful liquid gold. Every few years the announcement came from some struggling dec- orator. 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 1905 the New York firms still held the secret.

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History of Columbiana County, Ohio and representative citizens, Part 22

Author: McCord, William B., b. 1844 Publication date: 1905 Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : Biographical Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 912

Author: McCord, William B., b. 1844
Publication date: 1905
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : Biographical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 912