These articles cover the history of the four earthenware pottery manufacturers that operated in Whitewater Wisconsin. These articles will open in a new window in your browser. Scroll down to see photos.
Whitewater - Fremont Street Pottery (1846 to 1858)
Whitewater - Cravath Street Pottery (1847 to 1852)
Whitewater - Depot Pottery (1854 to 1882)
Whitewater - Whiton Street Pottery (1859 to 1866)
Whitewater - George G. Williams (Owner of Fremont Street Pottery)
Articles will open in a new tab in your browser.
Whitewater Pottery Examples
In spite of the fact that Whitewater was the larger pottery producing center in the state, relatively few examples of their ware survived, especially undamaged pieces. Whitewater pottery is extremely porous and brittle, so it easily cracks, breaks, chips, and the glaze tends to peel when it gets wet and freezes. This gallery contains photos of some of the pieces that survived.
Only a couple of surviving pieces have stamps but Whitewater pottery is often identifiable based on the glaze, decoration and light weight. We have attributed some pieces to specific potteries based on similarities to shards recovered from Whitewater pottery sites, but most cannot yet be identified. Attribution of unstamped earthenware can never be 100% and there are many pieces of earthenware with similarities with Whitewater but uncertain at best. The photos below should help.
Sherds from the Fremont Street Pottery site
The photos of the few sherds from this site were found by Kori Oberle many years ago.
Sherds from the Depot Pottery site
These fragments were found during sidewalk replacement within the top foot or so of the surface. They are intended to help understand the forms, glazes and decorations used at this site.
Shards from the Whiton Street Pottery site
The waster dump for the Milz & Ohnhaus pottery was directly behind the house lived in by John Milz. Years after the pottery closed, another owner of the house built an addition over the dump with a crawl space below. Some shards were removed to create space to access to heating and plumbing lines but much of the dump still remains.
The authors were given access to study the contents of the dump. The photos below are some of the more interesting fragments found by the authors at the site.
Interesting findings from the Whiton Street shards.
The ear handles are distinctly different from other Whitewater handles so this could be a way to identify Whiton Street Pottery, at least pieces with ear handles. The underside of the handles has a deeper grove than ear handles from other Whitewater Potteries.
The predominant color of the clay used is red (perhaps 60%), with the remainder a more typical light color seen on most Whitewater pottery.
Glaze colors varied widely – more so than pottery from the Depot or Fremont potteries. There were some of the typical clear and glossy yellows but from the photos you will also see darker colors like deep brown, olive green, and even some with spots typical of Galena earthenware.