The Mid-Brazos Potters of Falls and Limestone Counties

Sherds from Lyon's Pottery Co, at Denny. Courtesy University of Texas at San Antonio

Perhaps the most ignored pottery region of Texas is what I call the Mid-Brazos region, that area along the Brazos Valley that spreads from Marlin down to Kosse, and which includes the Denny site. This would be encompassed by Falls, Freestone and Limestone Counties, a wedge shaped area between the Brazos and Navasota rivers...  There were lots of potters in this region and they began to produce fairly early. But the problem has always been identification and scarcity. And to be honest, downright homely pottery for the most part. And since it has not inspired Texas Stoneware collectors, there has always been that void of information... and thus a pile of unidentifiable stoneware in all of our collections. You need to have at least a vague picture of this region’s pottery if, for no other reason, to help in the process of elimination, when trying to figure out the origin of a strange pot…

J. L. Stone produced pottery in the Brazos Valley for at least ten years, working for three different Mid- Brazos region potteries. His figural vessels like this one bring astronomical prices.

My friend, potter Sonny Moss of Calvert helped clean up the Denny site and photographed the findings some seventeen years ago.  I have since met descendants of William Lyon, who built the kiln in the pictures around 1894. They were barely engaged about the present interest in Texas Stoneware, and the possible value of their great grandfather’s work to history and antique collectors. They knew where the old kiln was, but weren’t so sure about authentic samples of Lyon pottery. Sonny was gracious enough to share his photos of the kiln site, and so I thought I would blog about what I know so far about the Mid-Brazos Stoneware.

William Lyon's overgrown kiln at the Denny site in 1995. Photo provided by Sonny Moss.

First of all, the potters, in order of their appearance: (Major names in bold letters) An *asterisk means they signed their work.

Alberry Johnson            1859    Limestone Co.

William Knox                  1860   Austin (now Waller) Co.

 

A really fine Kimik pitcher. Kimik produced pottery in the Brazos Valley for around thiriy years. Photo courtesy Burley Auctions, New Braunfels, Tx.

*L. Kimik                                          1870    Freestone Co.

J. L. Stone  (at Knox)                      1870    Limestone Co.

William Knox (Knox Pottery Co.)  1870    Limestone Co.

 

J. Fowler churn, made in Thornton, Tx.

*John &  E. J. Fowler       1872   Limestone Co.

J. L. Stone  (at Fowler)              1872   Limestone Co.

*L. Kimik                                      1875   Limestone Co.

 

Churn made by the Fire Brick & Tile Co., Kosse, Tx. Although only salt-glazed, this is an elegant, classically formed churn, very fine craftsmanship for Mid-Brazos pottery... probably the work of  Stone or someome like him. 

*Fire Brick & Tile           1875   Limestone Co.

J. L. Stone (at Fire Brick & Tile) 1875   Limestone Co.

Jasper Gibbs                              1875   Limestone Co.

J. L. Stone (at Fowler)              1878   Limestone Co.

W. P. Bullard (at Kimik)            1880    Limestone Co.

D. B. France                                1880    Limestone Co.

M. B. Griffith                              1880   Limestone Co.

F. W. Gilbert                               1880   Limestone Co.

J. P. Reid                                      1880   Limestone Co.

Henry Welch                                1880   Limestone Co.

William Harker                            1880    Limestone Co.

William Lyon (at Fire Brick & Tile) 1881 Limestone Co.

*Kosse Pottery & Brick     1884    Limestone Co.

Baker Pottery Co.                         1893    Falls Co.

 

These two vessels and misc. lids photographed by Sonny Moss in 1995 are my only clues to the appearance of  William Lyon's pottery. Runny, streaky, tar brown, and your basic white. This Turn of the Century standard was often achieved with a clear salt-glaze, and only worked when the clay would fire to white. Inferior pink and orange clays were glazed with various browns.

William Lyon (Denny PC)              1894        Falls Co.

John Lyon (Denny PC)                    1900        Falls Co.

 

 Athens Pottery began production pretty late, with poor, iron-infested clay, around 1920.

Athens Pottery                        1920    Limestone Co.

 

A signed, "cavetto rimmed' Kimik crock, from the Georgeanna Greer Collection auction catalog, Harmer Rooke Galleries. Note the fancy rim, the wonderful impressed stamp, and the incised trim ring, which goes through the handles.

It appears that the northern influenced forms of L. Kimik and William Knox were the first to appear with any success in the Mid-Brazos Region around 1870, even though there were others who might have preceded Them. The Knox pottery is very rare, and since he started in Waller County before the Civil War, it is expected that his forms would be more ovoid to semi-ovoid.  Following the success of Knox and John and E. J. Fowler over in Limestone County, Kimik moved from Freestone to Limestone County five years later, and this seems to have set off a virtual stoneware rush.  By 1880, at least ten potters were active in Limestone County.

 

 A pristine J. Fowler pitcher.

And as new stoneware companies started up operations, J. L. Stone seemed to be the man to hire to build kilns and set up production, as he started production in 1870 with Knox, 1872 with Fowler, and in 1875 Fire Brick & Tile at Kosse. In 1878 Stone returned to his original employer, John Fowler. Perhaps it was here where he began to shape the famous sculpture jugs that have brought so much attention in recent years.

Orange, red, gray,.... all found in the wall of the Denny kiln. Courtesy Sonny Moss.

If you read my blog about Kirbee pottery, you know that most Texas pottery can be traced by clay body, and that pink and red clays were not as common, and were used at the Kirbee site near Montgomery, Texas.  Well here is where the confusion could start, except that Kirbee was out of business by the time Limestone County potters began to produce pottery with red clays as well; Red, pink, orange, gray, white, peach, khaki… Mid-Brazos potters had a kaleidoscope of earth colors to choose from. They seemed to use whatever was convenient, not hesitating to use any clay that would present itself. Some of the potters were more selective, and seemed to also throw better forms as well.

A rare view inside William Lyon's Denny Pottery kiln. Courtesy Sonny Moss, Calvert, Tx.

Knox and Kimik were good turners, with distinct styles and craftsmanship; Mostly salt glazed jugs and pitchers, white to khaki colored clay, and luckily, Kimik had a stamp which he impressed into some of his handsome vessels. They are a big deal. He is one of the few other Texas potters besides John Wilson who used the northern style “cavetto” rims, a decorative molding at the mouth of a vessel, which has the profile of a robust picture frame ogee.  

The sturdy Fowler two-handled jug is an essential for any Texas stoneware collection.

Texas stoneware collectors LOVE those big salt drops on the pots.

Not as typical of Fowler construction, I believe this to be a Fowler churn made by J. L. Stone. Note the fancy "cavetto rim" typical of their competitor, L. Kimik.

 

The Fowlers were probably the most prolific, cranking out what seems to be train car loads of sturdy, utilitarian, salt-glazed stoneware, some huge two handled jugs, large crocks and churns.  The handles are bold, sometimes like handle bars, and Fowler not only had a distinctive style, but a stamp which he impressed into his wares, and  later a familiar blue indigo stencil.  The marked Fowler pieces are also a pretty big deal, fetching impressive prices.

 

 

Typical wire-bound Fire Brick & Tile crock from Kosse.

The Kosse Fire Brick and Tile crocks and churns are not seen as much but are always coveted, as they sport a large, decorative label in indigo which is unusual for Texas Stoneware. Unfortunately, they are almost always in bad repair, held together with bailing wire. They must have been better at bricks than they were at stoneware. They manufactured miles and miles of clay sewer pipe, and a lot of brick... fire brick for chimneys and I fear that rotting, soft brick you can see in some of the abandoned, dilapidated  buildings in Calvert.

Some hot-colored red and orange clay vessels, perhaps by Wm. Lyons, and a pink brick from the Mid-Brazos region.

The entrance to the Denny kiln illustrates the diversity of Lyon stoneware from Falls County.

The problem: The stoneware made at the Denny Pottery by the Lyons is fairly common, but hard to identify. Having no signature stamp, clay body, color, glaze or distinct style, it must be studied closely to identify. William Lyon was originally a potter for the Durham -Chandler pottery (Third site Wilson) of Guadalupe County in 1878, before he turned for William Saenger in Bexar Co., in 1879, then he came up to Limestone County for a brief stint at Fire Brick & Tile, and then got involved in a partnership in Wilson County which took over the old Suttles pottery in 1882, placing his craftsmanship far south of the Mid-Brazos region for the better part of 16 years. Lyon & Parkhurst operated from 1882 until he came back to ther Mid-Brazos area to establish his own Denny Pottery Co. in Falls County in 1894. The overlap from pottery to pottery is significant. William Lyon's style would have been the aggregate of three San Antonio area potteries.

To make things even tougher to pin down, one potter, J. L. Stone, probably the best of them all, turned pottery for three different Mid-Brazos operations over a critical ten year period. It would be possible to find Stone’s various stoneware with very similar construction that could be either Knox, Fowler or Fire Brick & Tile, and the only way to tell the difference would be the glaze… if that. Stone's craftsmanship would have been the quintessential amalgamation of the major Mid-Brazos potteries, (minus Kimik). So great study needs to be made of these two master potters to identify the Mid-Brazos stoneware accurately.

Note: it is important to note that the beautiful, slope-shouldered,  Albany slip- glazed jugs with LYONS impressed in them have nothing to do with this potter, or as some have suggested, Lyons, Texas, and are in fact from New York. 

Lyon (singular) pottery can be almost any color of clay, but often orange, and with opaque brown, or white, or transparent, almost black-brown glazes. Note the notch out of the underside of each end of the pulls... (Compare to Moss's grouping) Methinks alot of formerly attributed Stoker pottery (Bastrop Co.) of similar description may actually be from Lyon's.

Distinctive notches under the pulls... The impressed italic 2 is VERY similar to Kimik's 2.

Another nicely formed Fire & Brick churn... and the obligatory CRACK.

 

Found this lovely 3 gallon, handled churn in Reisel, Texas. Interesting rust-brown glaze... excellent white clay like McDade's, handle finished much like the Fowlers I have seen... Anybody got any ideas? Could be William Lyon... check out caramel glaze in pile of sherds in very first photo from UT San Antnio.

Good luck, and please...

TELL ME WHAT YOU KNOW!

Pigeon Toe Pool- A story from Leon's life

One day, by some way, somehow, sumpthin’ or ‘nother, my mama’s car broke down and these two guys helped her get her car goin’. That's how we met. I was 'bout nine. An’ these two guys loved my mother. Anyway she would let them take me places. One was big n’ ‘bout 450 lbs, the other as big around as that table leg there; They were Mr. Green and Mr. Blue, but soon just “Fatty”and “Rifle” to me. They drove around in this raggedy old Cadillac.

Anyway they begged her to let them take me along and she knew they wouldn’ let nothin’ bad happen to me… So I started ridin’ with them, to all the clubs and pool halls. The first time I went with them, they came into this place wearing checkered pants, cuffs up high on their legs, looked like bumpkins. One big ol’ guy and a little bitty skinny one, standin’ together, looked to me like a number 10! When they walked in, the sharks started smilin’ to themselves, an' lickin’ their chops!

And they would hoorah one another, one be tryin’ to shoot, the other sayin’ “MAIN, what you doin’, you don’ know what you doin’! You cain’t shoot pool!” Instead of hoorahin’ the other guys, they would hoorah each other, and it had an effect on the guys playin’ against ‘em. Built up their confidence. They jus’ knew they had a couple of suckuhs. They would act like they were nervous an’ frustrated, jaw back an’ forth, all the while playing a bad game on purpose, an’ the others grinnin’ real big. They would make small bets at first, lose a little money- then build up to big money. When they had ‘em all believin’ they were a couple of country rubes, they would accidently win one… and Rifle say, “You lucky dog, you could never make that shot again!” Then Fatty would act the fool, challenge him, an' everybody to put their money up. All a sudden there would be a PILE of cash on the bar.

Fatty would set it up, and then suddenly Rifle would make a lucky shot too… they would play doubles and an’ rake it all in… Everybody shakin’ their heads… They would go all over an' do this over an’ over again. They would blow in like some comedy act, everybody smiling,’ an’ leave like bill collectors with everybody sad…

One time they came into a place with a whole suitcase full of money. By then I was sort of like their caddy… I carried the money. Must have been somethin’ like $20,000 in there. They would come into a place like that, lay the suitcase down and make the bet. All or nothin’. They seemed to know the crowd they were dealing with. I don’t know how they did it, but this time they got everybody to match them, an’ they found a couple of sharks ready to take them to the cleaners.  I was holdin’ that suitcase, and there was twenty more thousand dollars, piles of money on the table. By now I had learned to play along… act scared, like they were gonna lose my money. I think people trusted ‘em more cause they had a little kid along.

Then something unbelievable happened. The other team had the first shot, and the first guy hit those balls like they were a tree stump, and we all watched as the balls kind of spread in slow motion… just making room for the 8 ball to meander out of the bunch and then the white ball came rollin’ back for second lick an’ very gently tapped the 8 ball and they both plop-plopped into the side pocket. The whole crowd was speechless. Everybody just stared in disbelief.  The game was over, and Rifle started gathering the money. We had nothing to carry it in… he showed me how to stuff it into my socks, into my pants, anyplace you could stuff a wad of cash, an’ we got outta there in a hurry!

They taught me how to play Pigeon Toe. You have to have two things to play Pigeon Toe. A hard stick and a soft flo.  The floor has to have some give… or else you can put a wad of cardboard under one leg of the pool table.  Makes the corner spongey… It takes some practice, but after you shoot, you can tip that table just enough to make the balls come to you…. And down in the pocket. One time I tipped it too much and the white ball almost went in too… I was just prayin’ that it would stop, ‘cause I couldn’t tip it back up when they were all watching my corner.  So I learned how to win before I learned how to play.

Fatty and Rifle decided it was time to buy a new car. They went to the dealership, and told the salesman they wanted a good car, right then. When the salesman seemed a little doubtful, Rifle let him know right quick, there was no question whether they could buy a car, but how much would they pay for the trade-in? The salesman, never fearing that the deal would ever go through, agreed to their terms. Then they took a test drive in a black and white, almost new Cadillac, and then told the guy they were going to buy it right then.

The salesman tried to be diplomatic, thinking that they had no idea how complicated it might be for two poor Negroes to get financing for that car. Then they popped open their trunk and showed him the money. There was around forty thousand dollars in paper bags and the suitcase lyin’ in there. He seemed stunned. We were in their new car in less than thirty minutes. We took off with that salesman standing at the curb with a stupid look on his face, like it was a joke or Candid Camera or somethin’.  We drove around the block laughin’ and came back around waving, and Rifle got out and told him that the Lord had smiled on him today, as he stuffed a dollar in his shirt pocket. The guy just stood dumbfounded. “Oh here’s another one!” Rifle laughed, like he was cleaning out his pocket, as he found another dollar and stuffed it into his pocket with the other one. Then we drove away, leaving him standing at the curb. He just stood there, like he had seen a ghost.

But that car was the cause of all kinds of trouble. I’ll never forget that next Sunday, we drove over to a new club downtown. It actually wasn’t a new club, just an old club with a new paint job. The owner had painted the front blue and named it the Blue Front Lounge. Everything was the same on the inside, but she did put up a new sign on a tree in the front of the place… a 4 x 8 sheet of plywood, she painted white with a blue whale on it. Everybody came from around the neighborhood to gawk at this new sign. It was a big deal… There wadn' much art in the ghetto. They just sat around and looked at it, like it was the Statue of Liberty. They couldn't have been more excited if it was a drive-in theater.

Anyway, we went in and there was an ol’ woman runnin’ the joint, big juicy woman called Ellie Mae. And at the bar was the most beautiful light-skinned woman I had ever seen.   She was young and beautiful…  a nice shape, and legs like butter. When she spun around on that barstool it drove me crazy.  I was just ten, but I knew she was fine. The old woman axed me how old I was. “I’m 42, how old are you?” I said, real tough. She just walked off. I was trying to impress the girl. So she got tough with me… “You got the pot money, big man?”

“Sho do!” I barked and I strutted to the back to put it into the pot. She didn’ scare me. Everybody had to put up two hundred dollahs to play. Non-refundable. If you acted the fool, caused any trouble, they would throw you out, but you didn’ get your money back. This cut down on fights… at least during the games. I put it in. I never took my eyes off of the girl with those fine legs.

Then here comes her husband- young stallion, sharp-dressed player, a golden boy in a black suit, bow tie, thinks he’s a professional pool ace.  He’s got a preacher with him, I guess he’s come along to give him the edge… Divine support… and there’s this little short guy, kind of a little trouble-making leprechaun, bounces in and starts heckling the golden boy with the yella wife. He knows that the guy’s got a tempuh. And one false move and he’s outta there. If he won’t leave, they carry him out. Starts to tease at 'im. The fine lookin' woman swaggers over to the front door, which has been left open. She must have been through this before. All you can see is that stunning figure silhouetted in the doorway. She’s ready to go. He starts sweatin’ and pullin’ at his bow tie.

The midget says “C’mon main, you might as well pull that damn thing off, niggah, you know you nevah gonna make it through the afternoon- you already sweatin’!” Leprechaun laughed like a little demon. Everybody wanted to smack him.

The preacher slugged down his Schlitz tall boy, and I just started prayin’. Golden boy was visibly irritated. The leprechaun would not stop. “An’ I wish you would get outta the way, so I can still see that fine lookin’ woman with the buttery legs in the doah!”

Golden boy tugged at his bowtie, his jaw muscles flexed like steel bands, an’ he looked like he was gonna kill the midget, but later. The little guy had no idea the woman was his wife, but he began to realize that he had bow tie in a tight spot, so he put down his beer and came over to him, kinda like a bully, or a circus clown, lookin’ for a fight… “I tell you what, did you see that car? Did you see the car they are drivin’ in?  You know who she’s goin' home with don’cha? Look at her, she lookin’ at that big black and white Cadillac! An’ she wants to go for a ride!” Golden boy was about to explode. I ducked under the woman, an' I had the keys, I jingled ‘em an’ said, “You wanna see the car?”

She looked back at bow tie, but he was way too distracted. “Can I get in it?”

“Sure you can. I’ll turn the air-conditioning on for you.” I said, smiling like I was about to take her on a date. “Get in the back seat and feel how that soft leather feels on your legs.” I was almost beside myself. She slid in.

Meanwhile the leprechaun finally tripped the trigger inside the Blue Front and Golden Boy jerked off his bowtie and began to strangle that little guy until he finally quit laughing. When he was through, the leprechaun was out cold and they was out of the game. Fatty and Rifle gathered up their winnings while the preacher held his friend at bay. They ran out of that place like it was about to explode and jumped in and fired up the Cadillac. We were two blocks away before they realized one thing. Butter legs was still in the car.

We hated to go back, but we circled around and pulled up to the Blue Front, and she hopped out, grinning and embarrassed... an' probably scared. We watched as she walked towards him. She was either stupid or downright fearless. Rifle tried to think of what to say… “It wasn’t her fault man, we don’t want any trouble, we don’t even know that little debul inside! An we didn’ know she was in da cah…” Bow tie was standin’ there, looked right through us all, and he had a shotgun held next to his leg, leanin’ on the blue whale. He was ready to kill somebody. An' everybody had come outside an' was laughin’ at him.  He had thought she left with us just like the midget said. When she came up to him, he grabbed her by the throat and began to push her down to the ground. He caught her so fast she never made a sound.  With his back to us, everything happened so fast, I kicked our sawed-off shotgun under the seat so Rifle could snatch it up, and quick as a cat, he ran over and took him out.

Just like that.

He whacked him on the back of the head, real neat- like with the barrel of the shotgun. Nice clean hit. Bow tie dropped like an anchor. The preacher said  ”Oh my God!” and even Rifle said “Lawd, lawd…”

An' bow tie never moved again.

Of course, you know what happened next, somebody had already called the police about the midget incident. They came shortly and Ellie Mae gave the whole run down, who did what, and when.

The cops were walking around, inspecting the living and the dead, listening, trying to see it in their minds… one of ‘em finally said, “You mean, this dead guy laying here, he assaulted that little unconscious fellow in there, and then this gal here ran off with these guys in the Cadillac, afraid, and then this dead guy went and got his shotgun, and threatened to do them harm, and then she came back... why I don't know... and then he was holding and whoopin’ this same woman and these guys in the Cadillac came back up to the deceased, who was armed with this shotgun, and took him out?”

“That’s what I’m sayin’,” Ellie Mae uttered unconvincingly.

 “And no shots were fired?” None of it made any sense at all.

 “That’s right. It’s a wonder mo folks wadn’ hurt… An’ dis preacher here will vouch for the same thing. He came wit da main.”

 The cops looked at me, all big-eyed and sad, and Fatty and Rifle, who looked more like a Vaudeville act than dangerous killers. “You men better get that kid outta here…” was all they said.

 No charges were ever filed.

Rifle and Fatty were good ol’ men… taught me how to hustle, an’ how to stay outta jail. My best friends until they died. One died one day and then the other died the next.  I sure missed ‘em.  Sometime I’ll tell you ‘bout when they drove me to Texas to stay with my grandmother for the summer.  They were supposed to take me to the bus station… but just passed it up and kept drivin’…  Big Mama put ‘em to work when they got to Brazoria… Said  that was the worst mistake they ever made…    

Kirbee Pottery of Montgomery County, Texas.

For the updated version of this article, and MUCH MORE, GO TO;

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Believe it or not, this sad, bottomless jar found at the Kirbee Pottery in Montgomery County is a Texas treasure, a symbol of pioneer spirit and American entrepreneurial determination... And also a relic of mislaid plans and broken dreams. And that's a lot for something this ugly.  

 

Forty years ago my family moved to Grimes County, a history-rich strip of land that had once been part of Montgomery County.  A friendly lady lent us an old out-of-print book published in 1930, now known well to me as “Blair’s History of Grimes County," which told all about the County history, of the original Austin Colony and the “Old Three Hundred” families who settled it.  She had carefully, wisely written her name at the front of it. That book began my personal adventure into this mythical region.  I would later wish I had asked the gracious lady who loaned the book a lot more questions, as she turned out to be a dedicated local historian. She had already forgotten more than I could ever learn about my newfound home and its wonderful local heritage.  

Small-mouthed jar at the Gibbs house museum in Huntsville, attributed to Kirbee pottery of Montgomery. For many years this was the only "Kirbee" I had ever seen!  Sorry, but I have come to doubt its supposed origins. It is very straight- sided for an ante-bellum vessel, and has an Albany slip glaze interior that became ubiquitous in the 1870's, after Kirbee Pottery was defunct. If I had to guess, I would attribute it to some of the "Wilson" salt glazed pottery, done by Durham & Co., at the "third site," where this would have been the expected form and glaze combination.

The nice lady was Mrs. Bessie Owen, and today there is a street named after her in Montgomery. She was an intrepid history detective before that was ever something to be, and was lucky enough to be around in 1971 - '72 when the Texas Historical Commission did a lot of investigation at the Kirbee pottery site near Montgomery. After my mother passed away, I found that old Blair's History amongst a pile of things “to be returned… one of these days” so to speak, and after reading it one more time, I sheepishly took it back to Mrs. Owen.  It had been resting on the living room bookshelf for around 10 years, and it sure looked at home there...  but it needed to be returned… even if Bessie had forgotten what had happened to it.  Meanwhile she had stayed distracted by a lifetime of study and learning about her beloved local history. And one of her obsessions was Kirbee pottery.  It would be another fifteen years before I would even have an inkling about what a resource Bessie Owen was, and how much I had missed out on, and how intriguing the mysteries surrounding the Kirbees would become to me.

A Kirbee sherd on display in Montgomery at the Davis Pioneer Museum. I found more evidence than I could have hoped for, for Kirbee earthenware; Red clay bodied, low fired vessels.

There was so little to actually learn about the Kirbees and their pottery that I never felt the need to dig around.  There were few identified pots and they were in university archaeological collections. I had seen the 1979 archaeological report, which read like the science project it was, where the investigators never really documented the answers to the kinds of things we are interested in, such as what color was the clay body/ What colors were the glazes? The report I had read was in black and white, and was kind of redundant and basic and was almost useless to collectors. But meanwhile, I had located a great old ovoid jar at Warrenton, and others agreed with me that it might have Kirbee characteristics.  I had been hearing for years that there were Kirbee SHERDS on display in Montgomery. It was time to see them for myself.  Recently I made a trip over to Montgomery to try to catch up, and what unfolded was nothing short of incredible. So anyway, this blog is dedicated to Mrs. Bessie Owen, to whom I once again find myself in debt!

This lime drooling, pregnant beast, attributed to Kirbee, can be visited at the Universtiy of Texas at San Antonio.  The khaki color is deceiving... note the peachy tones where the chips on the rim reveal some important clues. Also the lumpy, unfinished throw rings... and the pulls, perfunctorily applied.

 

The Kirbee Pottery started production sometime around 1848, making it one of the very earliest in Texas. James Kirbee (also spelled Kerbee) hailed from the Edgefield District of South Carolina, the most famous pottery producing area in the South. This made the most influential potters of that period his peers, and as evidence will show, he must have had more than casual contact with the guru of them all, Abner Landrum of the Pottersville pottery. But the “Kerbees” kept moving, ever so slowly in the direction of their final destination. After a stay in Georgia, and then by 1840 Jackson County, Alabama, James “Kirby” aged 58, and his sons Lewis, 39, James M., 30, M. Jefferson, 27, and their wives came to Texas, and were well established in the manufacture of stoneware near Montgomery by 1850. They chose to place their kiln very near large clay deposits on “Mound Creek,” an ancient Native American campground where Indian pottery sherds were very common. Here there were examples of several types of clay, and running water via nearby springs. And just as importantly, lots of timber available with which to fire the kilns. So far so good.

 From Crossroads of Clay, McKissick Museum, Univ. of South Carolina.

 

A vessel attributed to Pottersville Stoneware Manufactory, owned by Dr. Abner Landrum. A Renaissance man, and a student of European and Oriental techniques in pottery, Abner Landrum introduced ash glazes to the Edgefield potters of South Carolina, who in turn took these ancient techniques all over the South and on to Alabama and Texas. Note the decorative little circles at the throat, a Landrum trademark, probably made with the end of a jail key. Originally from North Carolina, Dr. Landrum and his son Linneaus and grandsons left a significant legacy of stoneware in South Carolina, and Abner's two brothers also worked in their own Stoneware businesses at Edgefield;  Reverend John and Amos Landrum.  Rev. John operated his stoneware pottery at Horse Creek as early as 1817, and is known to have had at least one son who also had a pottery, Benjamin Franklin Landrum. And it was Rev. John Landrum's son-in-law, Lewis Miles, who had his own pottery where he employed the turning services of  the legendary"Dave the Slave." Edgefield District was crawling with future Texas potters... Chandler, Durham, Nash, Cogburn, Kirkland and others. 
 

The Kirbee family enterprise in Texas was only to last a decade. The pottery appears to have ceased production sometime right after the Civil War. By the 1870 census, the “Kerbys” were either moved away or farming.  One look at the pottery itself explains some of the reasons for their kilns to grow cold. To put it bluntly, Kirbee pottery was just like their name, somewhat unschooled and unpredictable. The Kirbees seemed to have changed their name again, as if they wished to put the whole thing in the past.

From Kirbee Kiln, 1979, Texas Historical Commission

In no way pervasive with Kirbee stoneware, yet the little circles seen embellishing the sherd on the ^lower right^ indicate a direct but mysterious kinship to the legendary Landrum brothers of the Edgefield tradition. One possiblity is that this was a bowl brought by the Kirbees from South carolina... made by Abner Landrum, and used until it was broken. And there is an even more intriguing possiblity...

Some of the diversity in the Kirbee forms can be attributed to the differences between the pottery styles of the Landrum brothers of Edgefield.  This John Landrum jar rim is identical to the sherd samples of the Kirbee's above.

The local clays of Montgomery County that served the Indians so well for earthenware were not suitable for stoneware. Because of this one fact, very little Kirbee pottery survived. The vessels that did are often poorly formed, even misshapen, cracked, and downright ugly, and not in a charming sort of way. The potters Kirbee were evidently marginally prepared to start such a business on the Texas frontier, with too little experience with mining, sifting, throwing, and firing native clay. And even less with building and operating a kiln. The vessels we know of show an almost alarming diversity in form, glazes and functionality. There seems to have been no particular style or master to follow. They were experimenting artistically, technically, desperately, with salt glazes, lime glazes, ash glazes, gray clay, red clay, pink clay, trying to find the winning combination; The melding of form and function.  It seems to have never come.

The archaeologists found records where the Kirbys began to sell off their town lots and other properties and ironically, of when they finally obtained the patent on their farmland, but never had they ever owned the site where the kiln stood. They found few surviving complete vessels, anywhere, and not even graves where the Kirbys buried their dead.  They and their products simply vanished. After all has been researched, a few rugged vessels are all of the legacy we have of these early Texas potters.

 

A crude but important vessel from the Bessie Owen collection. My big discovery during the visit to Montgomery: RED! Note the lack of proper finishing of the throw rings and pulls. The black glaze may not be Albany slip, but the result of a glaze made from crushed Empire period glass..

Red clay body

In 1971, the archaeologists were beginning to dust the long forgotten handmade bricks that made up the Kirbee's monster, 35 foot long, low-arched “groundhog” kiln at the pottery site.  Later Mitchell Energy and Development helped clear almost an acre, situated on the edge of Juggery Creek. The archaeology team collected specimens from the waster pile.  They dug around for kiln “furniture” but found little. The old kiln was tight-lipped, unwilling to give up her secrets.  And the sherds from Montgomery were supposedly too easily confused with others from other Texas kiln sites, making identification by clay body or glaze next to impossible.  They tried X-Ray Defraction, and a Proton Magnetometer Survey; they made charts and graphs, then the team published their findings, and went on to more fruitful endeavors. And not being potters, or collectors, they seemed to have missed all the obvious questions, and conclusions.  They documented artifacts, but shed little light on the story, or the pottery. But then, in their defense, too much time had lapsed. There was no visual record, as the Kirbees had blossomed and wilted before the age of photography reached Texas. The story would only reveal itself in snippets, over the next few decades.

Not only was the Juggery Creek clay unsatisfactory, the somewhat overly ambitious kiln presented insurmountable problems. The huge length of the kiln was ill-conceived, requiring two fire-boxes and the sustained production of incredible heat to ever get everything inside fired to stoneware hardness. It got so hot that the base of the brick chimney was nearly burned up, but since the kiln was divided in half, the second chamber could never get hot enough, as evidenced by inferior glazes on sherds found there.  Of the over 32,000 sherds collected, three-fourths of them were under-fired, indicating a chronic struggle to produce satisfactory results. The scientists decided the kiln was unique among American groundhog kilns. But not exactly in a good way.  It was nearly three times the size of other kilns of the same period. The only solution to the inefficiency of the kiln was for the Kirbees to have rebuilt the kiln smaller and hopefully render it more manageable, but this was never done. Never-the-less, that number of sherds suggests that a train car load of pottery was made at the site during the ten years of Kirbee production. There has to be more out there...

From Kirbee Kiln, 1979, a report by the Texas Historical Commission

Jekyl and Hyde. Kirbee vessels from collections in Montgomery. One quite ovoid, white (lime glaze?), and sloppily done, and then one nicely thrown bowl with a successful alkaline ash glaze.

Mrs. Anna Weisinger and Mrs. Bessie Owen  allowed the team to photograph their known [attributed] Kirbees, [^ above ^] which helped create some kind of picture of the elusive pots, as they pieced broken sherds together to reconstruct several Kirbee vessels from the site.  And here some of them are...

From Kirbee Kiln, 1979, Texas Historical Commission

A reconstructed bowl and artist's conception of its intended form.

There are some facts coming to the surface.  Kirbee had a mark...an "O"... called in South Carolina the "keyhole" mark by stoneware collectors of Landrum pottery.  It may have been just decorative, but some speculate that each little circle represented 1 gallon of capacity... The red and pink clay of these vessels, was actually borderline earthenware (and contrary to the assumptions of the archaeologists, is not typical of Texas stoneware). Red clay, AKA earthenware may have been what the potters at Kirbee finally found would fire successfully with their poor performing, low firing kiln. 

Furthermore, it makes sense to me that the broken sherds found in the kiln floor were remnants of what was wrong with their process, so more khaki colored clay sherds tells us what failed.. . as the red clay worked and flew out the door to customers.  Some of the vessels seem to made of a mixture of clays; More evidence of the scavenging and possible haste necessary to make stoneware.

From Kirbee Kiln, 1979, Texas Historical Commission

It was a long way from Edgefield, yet on a good day the Kirbees still betrayed their influences. Compare to the Abner Landrum jar way above and the John Landrum right below; Same general form and lip. Note the emergance of another tell-tale Kirbee trait... the little rib right under the rim. It is also present on the red Owen jar.

A jar attributed to Rev. John Landrum, of Edgefield District,  South Carolina.

 

Another large-mouthed jar, the artist got a little speculative here.

 

All of the excavated forms were ovoid, except for the bowls. Perhaps half of the sherds now on display at Montgomery are pink or red clay. Most of them have dark to medium olive-green ash glazes.

 

 

The typical successful Kirbee vessel was made from red or pink clay, coated with an alkaline glaze, perhaps white lime or muddy olive green ash glaze, with the throw rings un-smoothed, handles applied almost carelessly, and fired to various stages of maturity. Immature, foggy, muddy, opaque, unsuccessful glazes were the hallmark of this pottery.

 

More Kirbee sherds at the Davis Pioneer Museum, Montgomery. They range from the milky-khaki-greenish gray- to the glassy olive on the right.

Another tid-bit that came to me, something I learned from Blair's History of Grimes County; When my family came to Grimes County, we purchased land in the JOHN LANDRUM SURVEY. There was a John Landrum already in Montgomery County when the Kirbees arrived and his wife was related to Mary Davis!  And quite possibly he was a cousin of the brothers Landrum in South Carolina... as all of them came originally from North Carolina, where the Landrum patriarchs were known as potters.  This John Landrum had blazed the path for the Kirbees, passing through the South after a short stay in Alabama to purchase a league of land in the original Austin Colony, in south-central Montgomery County (later to become part of Grimes County).  But Landrum did not stay in the area, and moved to the pottery center of Texas, at Rusk County. His very name and presence in two early Texas pottery producing areas seems an incredible coincidence, if he had nothing to do with the Landrum stoneware dynasty. Might he have been the carrier of that keyhole mark?  Might there have been some kind of relationship early on at Montgomery, Texas, much like the one in South Carolina? Might this explain why the Kirbees came, and after some kind of break up, their struggles with the technical aspects of stoneware production? Perhaps.

The last we heard of the Texas John Landrum was his wife had passed away in 1850, and her Davis kin in Montgomery County were sent word.

 

So to wrap it up where I started, And most incredible, the half dozen or so early Texas stoneware vessels I was able to see from the Bessie Owen collection, were in the custody of her niece... an old neighbor/ friend and ocassional art assistant of mine, all along!  I was able to borrow essential materials, once the veritable stoneware library of Bessie Owen, for the creation of this blog. I'm sure glad I finally went to Montgomery!

 

Oh... and my jar. It could be... perhaps some day there will be a way to scientifically analyze the clay...

 

My 4 gallon jar, purchased at Warrenton from a dealer from... ODESSA! This great old jar has many characteristics of the Landrum - Edgefield pottery tradition... especially those made of  Georgia clay.  But potters in Georgia would have ridiculed this vessel with its chalky, immature glaze. Given all their trials, the Kirbees might have been pleased.

160 years of wear.

Dang these pots get around! And sometimes they come home.