154 Years Ago This Week

A little while ago, Noel Carmack emailed me about our research on the Davenport Pottery. Mr. Carmack teaches painting and drawing at the College of Eastern Utah. He wrote to me because he and Charles M. Hatch are just finishing a manuscript for publication with USU Press. They have edited the journals of James Henry Martineau, an early resident of Parowan and a surveyor.

Mr. Carmack wrote to me that he'd discovered something in Martineau's diary and he wanted to exchange information. In particular, he said to me that on October 29, 1855, Martineau had written:

"Oct. 29/To day, Thomas Davenport opened his kiln of Pottery. This is the first ever made south of Provo. I got two jars, some bowls and two meat dishes."

I was very excited by this reference because this diary entry had captured the exact day when the Davenports opened their first kiln of ware produced at their shop in Parowan. Readers that have been following the blog will remember Thomas's words transcribed from his now missing diary:

"I arrived in Parowan on November 4, [1852]. . . . I farmed and worked at my pottery trade until November 1855. I burned my first kiln, but it was nearly all broken. . . . I had another son born, but he only lived until August and died of the flu. . . . I burned another kiln of pottery but it was mostly broken. In the fall of 1856 we [Thomas and Sarah Burrows Davenport] got our endowments at Salt Lake City and stayed there until the spring of 1857. I then burned another kiln and about one third of these pieces were good. In 1851 [sic; 1859?] I built a house with six rooms and we moved into it. I had now learned to burn my ware without breaking it" (Nielsen 1963: 103).

Martineau's diary shows us that this transcription of Thomas Davenport's diary is probably accurate and that the Davenports opened their first kiln on October 29th, 1855------ 154 years ago (next week)! We also know that it took almost exactly three years to the day for the Davenport family to set up their household, farm, and shop until the first kiln firing.

My deep thanks to Noel for emailing me with this information.