Thursday, October 9, 2025 | 7PM
The pre-1825 settlers of western New York were very much in need of pottery vessels to help them handle daily life. These included cups, saucers, mugs, plates, jugs, crocks, pots, milk pans, and candle holders. Such items were made from the local clay which was found in abundance in the area.
Local clay resulted in redware, also called earthenware, not stoneware. Stoneware clay at that time was mainly found in the Long Island area or in New Jersey. It fires at a much higher temperature and is much stronger than redware. It had to be transported into the area, which didn’t occur for the most part until the Erie Canal was finished to Buffalo in 1825; and it was costly.
In Chautauqua County, there were only three redware potteries which had significant production in the 1800s. The earliest was the Fenton and Whittemore Pottery in Mayville, Jamestown, and Fluvanna, which produced ware from 1812 to about 1860. The Haven and Kenyon Pottery was along Route 20 in the Town of Sheridan from 1818 to 1828, while the Caleb Mathews Pottery was in the Town of Gerry from 1821 to about 1860.
Vince Martonis, a pottery historian and a resident of Chautauqua County for 73 years, published books on the Haven and Kenyon pottery and the Caleb Mathews pottery in March and April of 2024. His book on the Fenton Pottery was published in April of 2025. He has studied all three since the early 1980s and collected thousands of sherds from the potteries. The sherds enable him to understand production glazes and forms the potters used, and thus he is able to identify unmarked pieces of pottery.
His research into the Haven and Kenyon Pottery is a particularly interesting story. He discovered evidence of the Pottery in an 1819 Fredonia newspaper and spent four years of research to locate its site. Since then, with the current property owners’ permission, he has been able to collect more than 3,200 sherds from the site.
Martonis will discuss his research into these particular potteries, including the form and glaze elements the potters used, which enabled him to draw conclusions about what they produced. He also will discuss how the potters mixed local and stoneware clays to make vessels, and how to identify unmarked pieces.
His books are currently available at the Fenton History Center in Jamestown and the Barker Museum in Fredonia. They also will be available at this lecture.
Photo credit: OBSERVER newspaper
Part of Here & There – Chautauqua County History, Travelers, & Memories
Presented in Partnership with the Darwin R. Barker Historical Museum
Admission is FREE, although donations are gratefully accepted
