McDade Pottery was the largest, longest-lived and most prolific of a series of potteries that manufactured utilitarian stoneware in Bastrop County, Texas, beginning in the 19th century.
The pottery is the most successful business ever to exist in the town of McDade.[1]
Background
The first known pottery in Bastrop County was established by Matthew Duncan, also spelled Dunkin, in 1855 when he bought 10 acres on Alum Creek in the Bastrop Town Tract, now Bastrop State Park, to build a shop.[2] Following Duncan's death (1880), his business, Randolph Manufacturing aka Dunkin Jug Factory, was sold to Milton Stoker. Stoker moved the pottery to Marshy Branch on Yegua Creek, east of McDade, to be near a large source of high quality clay.[3]
Not long after, R.L. Williams left Greensboro, Pennsylvania, where he was born (1859), looking for employment. After a brief stay in Colorado, he found work at Elmendorf Pottery in San Antonio, Texas. On a visit to Austin for the capitol building dedication, he learned of Stoker Pottery. After visiting and demonstrating his skills, Stoker made him a better offer than he had at Elmendorf.[4] Williams started work there in 1888. By 1890, he owned 100% of the business and Stoker moved west.[1]
McDade Pottery
Collection of McDade Pottery crocks and jugs
Williams relocated and expanded the business, renamed McDade Pottery, to a new plant on three acres with two beehive kilns, mule-driven clay-grinding equipment and rail access. The pottery initially produced utilitarian food storage and preparation vessels typical of the era: jugs, churns, crocks, pitchers and bowls. Over the years, ant traps, chicken waterers, ashtrays, novelty items, doorstops and flower pots were added.[5]
At first, the ware was wheel-thrown by individual potters. Williams threw the first piece on January 26, 1893, to celebrate the plant's opening.[5] Initially, Williams also did most of the work: preparing the clay; throwing, glazing and firing pots; and then hawking the vessels at roadside stands, nearby gas stations and even door to door. As the business grew, he started shipping carloads of ware by train to Austin and Houston[1] from the rail spur at the plant, while trucks carried the products into adjoining states and possibly beyond. In 1894, the pottery employed at least 20 people, including family members.[4]
The ceramics were initially salt-glazed. In this method, salt is tossed into the kiln toward the end of the firing cycle, where it vaporizes and settles on the ware, creating a shiny surface with a distinctive "orange peel"[6] texture.[4] Later, Bristol glaze, a feldspathic off-white glaze incorporating zinc oxide,[7] or a combination of Bristol glaze (bottom of ware) and Albany slip, an iron-rich chocolate brown slip-glaze[8] (top of ware), were employed.
In 1909, hard times in McDade forced Williams to engage in bartering to distribute pottery. To facilitate this mode of commerce, he, M. Benson and H.R. Cain established a private firm, McDade Mercantile Co. (The building is now part of the McDade Historical Museum.) The business' goal was to sell merchandise for a span of 50 years. Williams' wife Annis and son Albert Paine managed the store, often trading stoneware for produce, eggs and bacon proffered by the penniless.[4]
Ceramic press
R.L. Williams, U.S. Patent 927,622, Press for forming hollow articles
On July 13, 1909, Williams was granted U.S. Patent 927,622 for a "press to form hollow articles."[9] A seeming predecessor to today's ram press, the apparatus could be fit with variously sized dies to rapidly manufacture flowerpots and other hollow ware.[5]
The invention consisted of a vertical frame with a horizontal table supporting a mold (die). Fed through the frame's crossbars was a rod with attached plunger. In operation, a hand-turned wheel was spun to lower the plunger, pressing a ball of clay into a mold. The plunger stopped short of the mold bottom to form the pot base. A flange at the top of the plunger contacted the mold top to form the upper edge of the ware. When the plunger was raised, the formed clay object could be removed.[9]
The resulting flowerpots, as well as birdbaths, lawn vases and hanging baskets,[10] were shipped by freight car to nurseries and florists throughout Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana.[5] During the pottery's heyday in the 1920s and 1930s, tens of thousands of molded flowerpots were sold every year.[1]
The Champion Charcoal Ironing Furnace
The Champion Clay Ironing Furnace, manufactured by McDade Pottery
The Champion Charcoal Ironing Furnace was an ingenious and popular product manufactured with the patented press. Williams' received a second patent, U.S. 981,731, on June 6, 1911, for a "Furnace-forming die."[11]
Marketed as "The Housewife's Friend," the portable coal- or coke-fired ceramic "stove" was used to heat flat irons, cook food, and to warm the feet of buggy riders and mail carriers on cold days.[12] Since the furnace was portable, it found widespread use during canning season, when it could be moved to the backyard to prepare preserved fruits and vegetables.[13]
The appliance was basically a ceramic bucket, often clad in tin with a looped wire handle, and featured a grate that allowed air flow through a ventilation hole below.[13] It came in seven sizes, with or without legs, and retailed for $0.55 to $1.40, depending on the model.[12]
Customers who bought Champion brand coal received the furnace free of charge. Thousands of furnaces were shipped across Texas and nationwide until the arrival of gas and electric stoves. In 1937 alone, 20,000 were distributed.[4]
R.L. Williams, community leader
McDade Pottery workers complete the building of kiln number two, R.L. Williams in front
In addition to his success as a businessman and inventor, Williams was a well-respected, productive member of the McDade community. He was unflagging in his efforts to restore the then-lawless town's morality and respectability. In 1869, the soon-to-be community of McDade was chosen as a rail station site. Construction crews poured in and tent cities sprang up, along with makeshift saloons. The enclave, originally dubbed "Tie Town," became a wild and dangerous place. The prosperity brought by completion of the railroad made a boomtown of McDade, while the hilly region nearby served as a perfect hideout for outlaws. Thieves, highwaymen, gang members and cattle rustlers soon created a locality notable for its violence.[1]
In 1894, Williams assisted McDade Baptist Church in purchasing a lot and the building where worshippers gathered and children attended school. He also paid to have the old structure refurbished. A few years later, as leader of the "dries," he was successful in banning the sale of alcohol within McDade precinct. In 1905, he was part of a group of businessmen who convinced the Houston and Texas Central Railway to build an up-to-date depot in town. In 1913, he was name to the board of directors of the new Guaranty State Bank.[1]
Later operation and legacy
R.L. Williams died in 1923. Lacking his father's forceful management style, his son, Albert Paine Williams, continued the business on a reduced scale. In the 1930s, his attempt to add art deco lamp bases to the product lineup was a flop.[13] By then, lightweight cast plastic substitutes were displacing ceramics and reducing demand for the heavier pottery products. The business closed in 1942, when necessary materials and manpower became difficult to obtain with the onset of World War II. The site was dismantled in 1959.[5]
R.L. Williams is buried in the Elgin City Cemetery in Bastrop County.[14]
The McDade Historical Society and Museum was founded in 1963 to preserve the town's significant and colorful past. The museum building, the former Rock Front Saloon, is packed with historical artifacts, including numerous pieces of McDade pottery. Several sizes of butter churns are on display.[15]
Today, McDade pottery is highly collectible. Depending on the item, a piece can sell for hundreds, even thousands, of dollars.[4]
Related Research Articles
Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other raw materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. The place where such wares are made by a potter is also called a pottery. The definition of pottery, used by the ASTM International, is "all fired ceramic wares that contain clay when formed, except technical, structural, and refractory products". End applications include tableware, decorative ware, sanitary ware, and in technology and industry such as electrical insulators and laboratory ware. In art history and archaeology, especially of ancient and prehistoric periods, pottery often means vessels only, and sculpted figurines of the same material are called terracottas.
Earthenware is glazed or unglazed nonvitreous pottery that has normally been fired below 1,200 °C (2,190 °F). Basic earthenware, often called terracotta, absorbs liquids such as water. However, earthenware can be made impervious to liquids by coating it with a ceramic glaze, and such a process is used for the great majority of modern domestic earthenware. The main other important types of pottery are porcelain, bone china, and stoneware, all fired at high enough temperatures to vitrify. End applications include tableware and decorative ware such as figurines.
Stoneware is a broad term for pottery fired at a relatively high temperature. A modern definition is a vitreous or semi-vitreous ceramic made primarily from stoneware clay or non-refractory fire clay. End applications include tableware, decorative ware such as vases.
Pottery and porcelain is one of the oldest Japanese crafts and art forms, dating back to the Neolithic period. Kilns have produced earthenware, pottery, stoneware, glazed pottery, glazed stoneware, porcelain, and blue-and-white ware. Japan has an exceptionally long and successful history of ceramic production. Earthenwares were made as early as the Jōmon period, giving Japan one of the oldest ceramic traditions in the world. Japan is further distinguished by the unusual esteem that ceramics hold within its artistic tradition, owing to the enduring popularity of the tea ceremony.
Celadon is a term for pottery denoting both wares glazed in the jade green celadon color, also known as greenware or "green ware", and a type of transparent glaze, often with small cracks, that was first used on greenware, but later used on other porcelains. Celadon originated in China, though the term is purely European, and notable kilns such as the Longquan kiln in Zhejiang province are renowned for their celadon glazes. Celadon production later spread to other parts of East Asia, such as Japan and Korea, as well as Southeast Asian countries, such as Thailand. Eventually, European potteries produced some pieces, but it was never a major element there. Finer pieces are in porcelain, but both the color and the glaze can be produced in stoneware and earthenware. Most of the earlier Longquan celadon is on the border of stoneware and porcelain, meeting the Chinese but not the European definitions of porcelain.
Salt-glaze or salt glaze pottery is pottery, usually stoneware, with a ceramic glaze of glossy, translucent and slightly orange-peel-like texture which was formed by throwing common salt into the kiln during the higher temperature part of the firing process. Sodium from the salt reacts with silica in the clay body to form a glassy coating of sodium silicate. The glaze may be colourless or may be coloured various shades of brown, blue, or purple.
North Dakota in the United States has been the scene of modern era pottery production using North Dakota clays since the early 1900s. In 1892 a study was published by Earle Babcock, a chemistry instructor at the University of North Dakota (UND) that reported on the superior qualities of some of the North Dakota clays for pottery production. The UND School of Mines began operations in 1898 with Earle Babcock as director. With the assistance of several eastern potteries, pottery made from North Dakota clay was first displayed at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair.
Langley Mill Pottery was located in Langley Mill, Derbyshire on the Derbyshire – Nottinghamshire border. From its establishment in 1865 to its final closure in 1982, the pottery went through five distinct periods of ownership, producing a wide range of stoneware ranging from salt glazed ink bottles, utilitarian items and tableware to high quality and original art pottery.
Shino ware is Japanese pottery, usually stoneware, originally from Mino Province, in present-day Gifu Prefecture, Japan. It emerged in the 16th century, but the use of shino glaze is now widespread, both in Japan and abroad. It is identified by thick white glazes, red scorch marks, and a texture of small holes. Some experts believe it should not be treated as distinct from Oribe ware but described as "white Oribe", with the pottery usually called just Oribe described as "green Oribe" instead.
This is a list of pottery and ceramic terms.
Catawba Valley Pottery describes alkaline glazed stoneware made in the Catawba River Valley of Western North Carolina from the early 19th century, as well as certain contemporary pottery made in the region utilizing traditional methods and forms.
American Stoneware is a type of stoneware pottery popular in 19th century North America. The predominant houseware of the era, it was usually covered in a salt glaze and often decorated using cobalt oxide to produce bright blue decoration.
Ceramics in Mexico date back thousands of years before the Pre-Columbian period, when ceramic arts and pottery crafts developed with the first advanced civilizations and cultures of Mesoamerica. With one exception, pre-Hispanic wares were not glazed, but rather burnished and painted with colored fine clay slips. The potter's wheel was unknown as well; pieces were shaped by molding, coiling and other methods,
John Philip Elers and his brother David Elers were Dutch silversmiths who came to England in the 1680s and turned into potters. The Elers brothers were important innovators in English pottery, bringing redware or unglazed stoneware to Staffordshire pottery. Arguably they were the first producers of "fine pottery" in North Staffordshire, and although their own operations were not financially successful, they seem to have had a considerable influence on the following generation, who led the explosive growth of the industry in the 18th century.
Eric Norstad (1924-2013) was an American potter and architect who worked primarily on the west coast of the United States.
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George William Newman Fulton (1834–1894) was a noted potter who worked in Alleghany County, Virginia and in Fincastle, Virginia.
Butler is an unincorporated community in Bastrop County, Texas, United States. It is located within the Greater Austin metropolitan area.
Glidden Pottery produced unique stoneware, dinnerware and artware in Alfred, New York from 1940 to 1957. The company was established by Glidden Parker, who had studied ceramics at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. Glidden Pottery's mid-century designs combined molded stoneware forms with hand-painted decoration. The New Yorker magazine described Glidden Pottery as "distinguished by a mat surface, soft color combinations, and, in general, well-thought-out forms that one won't see duplicated in other wares". Gliddenware was sold in leading department stores across the country. Examples of Glidden Pottery can occasionally be seen in television programs from the era, such as I Love Lucy.
The Wilson Potteries were three related potteries that operated in Capote, Texas, near Seguin, in the latter half of the 19th century, supplying a wide swath of the state with locally-made stoneware vessels for food storage and preparation. One of these, H. Wilson & Co., is thought to be the first African-American-owned business in the state.
References
1 2 3 4 5 6 Wharton, David (May 15, 2000). The Soul of a Small Texas Town: Photographs, Memories, and History from McDade. University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN978-0806131788.
↑ Wilson Horne, Catherine (January 1, 1990). Crossroads of Clay: The Southern Alkaline-Glazed Stoneware Tradition (1sted.). McKissick Museum, The University of South Carolina. ISBN978-0938983088.
↑ "McDade Pottery [advertisement]". Southern Florist and Nurseryman. XXI (21). April 16, 1926.
↑ Williams, Robert L. "Furnace-forming die"(PDF). Google Patents. Retrieved 24 February 2024.
1 2 Hamilton, Nancy; Lee County Historical Commission (Nov 15, 1999). Lee County Texas (Images of America: Texas) (1s1ed.). Arcadia Publishing. ISBN978-0738502960.
↑ Rother, Audrey Morgan (1991). Bastrop County, Texas, Cemeteries, Vol. II. McDade, Texas: Bastrop County Historical Commission. ISBN0963078607.
↑ Lindell, Carolyn (September 25, 2016). "Colorful history lives on in McDade in Bastrop County". Austin American-Statesman.
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