I pursue ghosts! That is, I investigate the forgotten spirits and legacies of slave and free potters in Texas during and after the civil war in the United States of America. This journey started with a conversation from 1991 with my graduated adviser John Brough Miller, professor of Ceramics at Texas Woman’s University in Denton, Texas, in which he shared the legend of John McKamie Wilson and slaved potters in Seguin, Texas. Almost a quarter of a century later, in 2014, a search on the internet led me to the Website of the Wilson Pottery FoundationMade by the descendants of Hiram, James and Wallace Wilson, the founders of H. Wilson and Co. Pottery. Three years later, in 2017, I attended the annual Wilson Pottery Show in the Sebastopol House in Seguin and I was surprised by the amount of Wilson Antique Pottery and the number of collectors. I left the show with an increased interest in the Wilson -Pot bakers.
In 2018, Tarrant County College District, where I was university professor of ceramics, brought me faculty leave east of Seguin. A search on ancestry.com led me to A database of professionals in the United States ranging from 1600 to 1995He lists Hiram Wilson as the founder of H. Wilson and Co. Pottery. Hiram was previously a Potter made a slave in the Guadalupe Pottery that was owned by John McKamie Wilson from Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. Scholars believe that H. Wilson and Co. Pottery The first company was owned by an Afro -Mamerikaan in Texas.
A deeper dive led to the other Wilson Potteries (referred to as locations of the Texas Historical Commission, which identifies them by number) in the Capote area, including the aforementioned Guadalupe Pottery (41GU6), the first Wilson Pottery site operated by John Mckamie Wilson and his slave -made potters. H. Wilson & Co. (41GU5) was the second site, started by a slave to slave potbakers from the Guadalupe site. The third Wilson Pottery site (41GU4) was the Durham-Chandler Pottery, owned by Marion “MJ” Durham, a white man, and John Chandler, a previously slaved Potter trained in the much-praised District Edgefield in South Carolina. (These sites are often referred to as “first site”, “second site” and “third site” by collectors to help distinguish the pottery that is produced with every pottery produced. Second locations are more valuable than first site pieces.) After Hiram died in 1884, it was assumed that H. Wilson & Co. has merged with Durham-Chandler to become Durham-Chandler-Wilson. According to the United States Craftsperson Files database, Durham-Chandler-Wilson was founded in 1870, which can indicate that Hiram worked on the third site with James, Wallace and other traveling potters.
I propose that the relationship between these three sites could extend further than folklore applies. What if Marion “MJ” Durham and the families of John McKamie Wilson knew each other in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina? What if Durham was one of the most important investors in the Guadalupe pottery with John McKamie Wilson? A collaboration with Durham would support Wilson’s decision to build an earthenware company in Capote. As a member of the Durham Potting Dynasty in South Carolina, the first certainly had the knowledge of knowledge and pottery to guarantee a solid investment.
During the leave of my faculty development I visited local historical societies that were warm and informative. Some locations were rich in artifacts, while others had a wealth of documentation to support the local community. In addition to attending the Pottery Show 2018 in the Wilson Pottery Museum in the Sebastopol House in Seguin, I interviewed Wilson’s descendants, collectors and others who shared different stories that led them to the show. One gentleman shared his salt-glazed one-Gallon H. Wilson & Co. Stamped pot he bought in a second -hand store in Austin, Texas. A remarkable pick -up meals from this interview session was how often collectors referred to San Antonio, established Texas Pottery Scholar and pediatrician Dr. Georgeanna Greer. She helped the Wilson Potteries rediscovering after the sites had been in sleep for more than 50 years; I discovered the depth of her research when I visited historical societies in East -Texas. I was overwhelmed and excited to find letters written by her to local archivists who asked or share information about local pottery places.
In 2020 I put together a solo exhibition in the Carillon Gallery on Tarrant County College South Campus in Fort Worth, Texas, who suggested a story and timeline for these potteries by tracing the development of certain techniques. The center of the show, however, was not the ceramic pieces inspired by the Wilson -Pot bakers and made for the exhibition, but rather the research that those who worked at one or more pottery places that were seen through posters, including James and Wallace (and possibly Hiram) Wilson. Potten attributed to the first site, Guadalupe Pottery, suggests that Isaac and George Suttles, Potters from Ohio, may have introduced the salt glazing technique on pieces attributed to the earthenware of the first site, because the practice comes from those trained in the North . The Suttles brothers later opened an earthenware near Lavernia, Texas.
The discovery of this extensive earthenware community in Capote led my focus on East -Texas to, known as the access point for the expansion of Texas Westward. A visit to the Artisans and Artists archive of William J. Hill Texas was crucial to help me collect information about potters in East -Texas. A visit to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston’s Bayou Bend Collections and Garden was also useful to enable me to investigate Wilson Pottery of all three locations. Via the first I found a “Checklist of Texas Potters ca 1840-1940”, compiled by Bob Helberg. This list offered names from previously slave to slave potters in the East -Texas region, such as Milligan Frazier, A. SPROHRO, Elix Brown and Joseph Cogburn. This in turn opened a different world of research opportunities. What if the pottery of the stores praised for their beautiful work, such as Guadalupe Pottery, were actually produced by trained workers made to slave instead of the namesake of the store? In other words, the early Texas -Pot bakers continued with the industrial slavery system that made the Edgefield District community in South Carolina famous?
This research is just a start. While I returned from Central Texas to Edgefield, South Carolina, looking for earthenware families who migrated to the west before 1860 with their work, pieces and pieces of shards come together to recreate the life stories of these potters. A beautiful mosaic starts to create.
