AN EARLY WEST VIRGINIA POTTERY. 



By Walter Houun, 

 Assistant Cunttur, Divi-von of Ethnology. 



The first potter at Morgautown, after the Indians, whose shards are 

 scattered in the rich alluvium of the valley of the Upper Mononga- 

 hela, was called by his apprentices "Master" Foulk. Of him nothing 

 more can be learned, nor caji the date of his enterprise bo fixed beyond 

 that it was before 1785, neither do any of his wares exist at the present 

 day. 



In the period of settlement between 1758, when Thomas Decker 

 arrived at the mouth of the creek that bears his name, and 1786, when 

 Morgantown was incorporated, there is little to chronicle beyond the 

 events incident to the early frontier, such as the establishing of forts 

 and the fights with the Indians, in which David Morgan stands out 

 prominently as a remarkable figure in border warfare. 



About the year 1785, James Thompson, with his son, John W. Thomp- 

 son, then 4 years old, came from Bel Air, Maryland, to Morgantown. 

 They settled near the Dorsey fort, several miles south of the town, 

 because in those days of Indians, panthers, wildcats, and bears, every- 

 one wanted to be near the fort. Later they moved to Morgantown, 

 and, as family tradition has it, built the fifth house in the place. John 

 was apprenticed to "Master" Foulk, the potter, learning the trade 

 and succeeding to Foulk's business. 



This pottery was probably the first established west of the mountains, 

 and arose from the increasing needs of the settlements growing around 

 the frontier forts, so remote from the seacoast markets and almost 

 without roads and transportation. Early in the nineteenth century, 

 domestic; pottery, which had been hauled all the way from Baltimore, 

 sold on the frontier at 3 levys a gallon, equivalent at this day to 72 

 cents. This was another inducement to supply the demand on the 

 spot. Moreover, the extensive deposits of Quaternary clays on the 

 NAT MUS 9y 33 513 



