The Loveless Pottery & Brickmakers

Shortly after the closing of the Harrington Pottery, a new family came to town to mine the rich deposits of the area. The Loveless family were potters near Warren, OH. Their son, George, left the family pottery business when he heard about the clay deposits to be found here in Grand Ledge. George Loveless and his family settled on 12 acres at the corner of West Jefferson and Gulf Streets.

The Loveless Pottery was founded in the late 1850s .Although his farm was located near the clay deposits of Fitzgerald Park, the pottery was located on the east side of town in a hollow at about 205 Franklin Street. The clay was excavated from the large gully behind the shop in the 600 block of East Jefferson and fired in kilns on the property. The Loveless Pottery made household wares such as jugs, crocks and butter churns. They also were the first here to make clay tile which was used to line water wells. His son, George B. Loveless, was a peddler who sold his wares door to door.

 

In 1887 the railroad was building the trestle and laying the line to Grand Rapids. George Loveless had allowed the railroad graders to work on his property along Gulf Street but no agreement had yet been reached for the right of way. When the workmen were nearing the new trestle, they reached the Loveless property. They found the way blocked by a pile of railroad ties and George Loveless sitting on top with a shotgun. He threatened any that crossed onto his property. The Railroad soon settled payment to him. He was at the time 80 years old.

The first industrial clay products made in Grand Ledge were bricks. Although they were each made by hand, the quantities produced were on a larger scale then the wares produced by the family pottery shops. Due to fires, Grand Ledge underwent a boom of brick construction in the 1870s and local brick certainly helped the effort. Many of stores in the 200 Block of South Bridge date from this time.

The Tinkham Brickyard opened in the late 1860s. This was located on the J.C. Tinkham farm, where Burt Avenue is today. J.C.’s cousin Justice Campbell was a brick maker at the time and likely ran the business.

The Derbyshire Brickyard was opened in the early 1870s. Charles Derbyshire was a retired farmer from Eagle. His brickyard was located on the Harrington Pottery property. It is likely we still see his handmade bricks today. Derbyshire built his own very prominent brick house at 207 East Jefferson (the former Smith Bros Law Office, today the Davis Building.)

 

Herrinton Pottery

Grand Ledge has a long and illustrious history in the clay industry. Over my next several columns I will give a history of this important historic industry that lasted well over a century and shaped so much of our town.

Grand Ledge is blessed with rich natural deposits of high quality clay and shale. Scientific examinations have determined that deposits found here are of the best quality for making brick, tile and other baked clay items. Natural outcroppings along the river have made the minerals available for thousands of years. Yet most of the shale can be found sixty feet or more below the surface. Once quarried, the shale is crushed, blended into clay, shaped and then fired in kilns. Firing the local clays produces fine quality products infused with attractive natural iron spotting.

Settlers were not the first to be attracted to the clay deposits. Native Americans recognized the value of the clay that is so abundant in the area. The first settlers reported finding the remains of “ash kilns” left behind by the Native American potters. Such kilns were reported in the gully where the Log Jam parking lot is today, near the corner of West Main and Tallman Road, and near Fitzgerald Park.

With ash kilns, native pottery was stacked on the ground and covered with leaves, husks, twigs, straw, etc. After all these layers, a final thick blanket of ash covers the mound to insulate the kiln and keep the heat in. Once the fire is started, the straw burns away, letting the ash fall between the pottery wares, keeping the heat in and letting them bake. After several days, the firing process is complete. The ash remaining is then saved for the next batch of pottery to be fired.

 

Information about the first potteries in Grand Ledge is scant. However, from pioneer recollections, maps, and census records I have been able to put their story together.

Lewis Herrinton was a potter from Scipio, New York. In the 1840s he came with his family west and along with this partner Timothy Wellman, opened one of the first known potteries in Michigan in Springfield Township, Oakland County.

In the 1850s, hearing of the clay deposits to found in Grand Ledge, Lewis Herrinton moved here and purchased 10 acres off Lawson Road that ran down to where the dam is today. The Herrinton Pottery was born. In the kilns on the site he made practical household items like jugs, crocks, bowls and churns. It is distinguished as being the first pottery in Grand Ledge, and one of the very earliest in Michigan, however it was short lived. Lewis Herrinton died in the late 1850s. His widow, Sophia, would become a teacher and his son Edward a well known local painter.