Aug 27, 2017 1 min read

I enjoyed reading Clay Kilgore’s fine article, “Walk to Remember,” in the Aug. 21 edition. Kilgore described the rise and fall of pottery manufacturing in Greensboro, which took place from 1850 until the 1890s. Today, Western Pennsylvania residents may not know that potters in Greensboro and New Geneva once produced tens of millions of practical stoneware pieces that were shipped by water and rail throughout much of the eastern half of the United States.

Kilgore credits Waynesburg College and former college president, Paul Stewart, with forming one of the first significant collections of regional, salt-glazed stoneware. The Gus Brill cooler is one of the nation’s five most valuable stoneware pieces made in the 1800s.

One correction needs mentioning – James Hamilton, one of the Greensboro’s iconic stoneware makers, died in 1880, and his company, James Hamilton and Company, was sold to Thomas F. Reppert, who carried on the making of ware until about 1895.

Phil Schaltenbrand

Scenery Hill

Schaltenbrand is the owner of Westerwald Pottery and the author of three books on Pennsylvania pottery.