howeenterprise.com
Monday, May 9, 2016
Page #9
Learn about antiques and collectibles with Dr. Georgia Caraway
I had an opportunity to visit with the Unique Business Women’s Club, a department of the Texas Federation of Women’s Clubs, in Sanger a couple of weeks ago. They asked me to talk about one of my favorite topics—pottery made in Denton County. So I took some examples from the Courthouse Museum’s collection of studentmade CIA Pottery and pottery from the Wilson Pottery Site in Corinth. For those of you who are not familiar with either of these types of pottery, here is a short history: Denton County (organized in 1846) has soil that is heavily concentrated in clay from the Eagle Ford Geological Formation that outcrops in Dallas and Denton Counties. Settlers migrating into the county by wagon were not able to transport the heavy stonewares and building materials needed for everyday life. The necessity for pottery to be made in their communities, coupled with readily available, suitable clay spurred family-owned and operated pottery businesses. These pottery kiln sites in Denton County contributed necessary household vessels and bricks to the surrounding communities. As many as twelve historic pottery sites have been identified in Denton County. Overall, they were in operation at various intervals between the mid 1800s to the early 1900s. The sites are identifiable on the basis of historical records, kiln structures, and ceramic shards. In order to reliably attribute an unmarked piece of pottery to a particular potter one must know its history of ownership. Those potteries were the John Cranston Pottery in the Alton Community, Joseph C. Lambert site and A.H. Serren in southern Denton County near Corinth, Roark/Griffith Pottery near the Little Elm Reservoir, the Wilson kiln within present-day Corinth, and seven others that operated in or near the city limits of Denton: Denton Pottery Works, later known as the Kingdon Pottery; J. Sublitz Pottery, J. B. Tipton Pottery,
Denton Pottery Works, D. B. Daugherty and Moss Potteries in the Alton area; and the D. B. and Guy Daugherty Pottery near Dallas Drive in Denton. The Wilson kiln was originally located in the southeast, central part of Denton County within the city limits of Corinth, Texas. This master potter operated at this site from the mid to late 1800s. At one time, Wilson appears to have worked with John Cranston. Built of handmade brick, the Wilson kiln was a combination of the ‘groundhog’ and ‘beehive’ kilns. Located near the Serren site, there was once an arched roof covered with earth to provide more efficient insulation. Between 1013 feet in diameter, the kiln formed a mound about 4 feet above the ground. The remaining part of the structure was about 4-6 feet underground. Excavation of the kiln took place in 1998 by the Archeology Committee and volunteers of the Denton County Historical Commission, before the development of a new housing sub-division. The history of pottery making by students at GIC (Girls Industrial College which later became CIA/TSCW/TWU) had its beginnings with the very first classes offered at the school. The Art Department was among the first created when the school admitted its first women students. A young woman, Amelia B. Sprague, who had already established a name for herself at the famous Rookwood Pottery in Cincinnati, Ohio, headed the fledgling department in 1903. During this time, china painting was a widely accepted avocation for men and women, so it was a natural step for colleges to establish departments of design where principles of art could be taught in order to provide some sort of useful training for young women. This led to the creation of art departments to provide students with first hand experience in the fields of art and ceramics. There
were few ways a young woman with artistic talent could earn a living or put her education to use in the South. Women were trying to better their condition, find dignified places in the working world, and to gain opportunities for better education. This was the philosophy of the President of Newcomb College and of the art instructors on the Newcomb faculty, including Mary Sheerer. This is one of the differences between Newcomb and CIA. Newcomb Pottery was founded as a commercial venture and studentmade pottery was meant to be sold, but the CIA Pottery was not sold (until many years later when collectors began to buy it on the secondary market). I would love to know if Grayson County had any pioneer pottery
kilns. I think the soil was not good for clay pots, but perhaps clay was imported from Denton County by some industrious Grayson County settler. If anyone has information on pottery made in the 1800s or early 1900s in Grayson County, please let me hear from you. Dr. Georgia Caraway, former director of the Denton County Museums for 14 years, and her friends opened the Howe Mercantile at 107 East Haning. Store hours are Thursday through Saturday noon until 8 p.m. She has written four Denton history books and has finished a 5th history about the North Texas State Fair and Rodeo that will be published in August. She hopes her next book will be the history of Howe. PLEASE SHOP LOCALLY. We can show you Howe!
