A Note on the Dynamics of Firm Turnovers in the East Liverpool (Ohio) Pottery Industry, 1825-2010 Myong-Hun Chang and Amanda Janosko1 Department of Economics Cleveland State University Cleveland, OH 44115 216-687-4523, -9206 [email protected] May 26, 2012 Abstract We examine the time series data on firm entries and exits in the East Liverpool (Ohio) pottery industry between 1825 and 2010. The purpose is to identify patterns in the movement of the firms as well as their spans of life over the course of the industry’s development. Two patterns emerge: 1) the numbers of entries and exits are positively correlated; 2) the life spans of all firms that existed over the industry’s life-cycle show significant “infant mortality.” JEL: L6, N6 Keywords: Entry, Exit, Span of Life, Pottery Industry, Industry Dynamics 1 The authors are, respectively, Professor and graduate student in the Department of Economics. 1. Introduction Industrial migration from Britain to the United States has been a significant part of the formative history of many major industries – e.g., textiles, mining, iron and steel. Though much smaller in scale, the development of the American pottery industry followed the same migratory pattern. The massive migration started in early 1800s, mostly by the journeymen potters with skills but little capital.2 According to Thistlethwaite (1958), the migration of English potters had a single origin, the Five Towns of Staffordshire, but two destinations, East Liverpool, Ohio and Trenton, New Jersey. With the high rates of tariff imposed on English imports following the Civil War, the twin centers of domestic ceramic production grew rapidly in the late 19th century to dominate the domestic market: “Trenton and East Liverpool were the centers of production in the two leading ceramic manufacturing states. These two centers produced 49.7 percent of all pottery products manufactured in the United States at the turn of the century.” [Gates (1984)] This short note explores the entry and exit dynamics of the firms throughout the formation, growth, and the eventual decline of the pottery industry located in East Liverpool, Ohio. Its purpose is to identify patterns in the movement of the firms as well as in the distribution of their spans of life over the entire life-cycle of the industry. Two patterns emerge from this study: 1) the numbers of entries and exits are positively correlated so that the period with a high number of entries is also the period with a high number of exits and vice versa; 2) the life spans of all firms over the industry’s life-cycle show infant mortality. 2. Data The dataset used for our study is constructed from the list of companies that operated in East Liverpool over the period of 1826 to present, as compiled by William C. Gates, Jr., Curator of History for the Ohio Historical Society.3 According to this list, the earliest recorded date of pottery production in East Liverpool is by Joseph Wells in 1826. The list contains a total of 292 firms. The dates of entry and exit are provided for 275 firms. Out of these 275 firms, 267 of them went out of existence, while eight still remain in operation. The full list with the company names, their years of operation and the life spans is provided in the Appendix. For the population of 275 firms with entry and exit dates, some modifications had to be made. If a firm exited the industry but re-entered the market under the same name at a later date, the 2 Thistlewaite (1958): “In 1815, …, potting was still in its infancy in America: a matter of primitive kilns, scattered up and down the seaboard producing coarse wares for parochial markets. Men still had to learn to fire the native clays; to discover clay banks near coal seams; to build the canals and railways which would transport coal to clay and the bulky, fragile ware to distant markets; to find capital; to raise a tariff against the cheap and professional wares dumped on the American market from the British potting metropolis; and to overcome native prejudice against domestic wares. But above all, to establish an industry which derives from an ancient craft, it was necessary to await the immigration of ‘practical potters’, men with generations of potting in their blood, journeyman-graduates of an exacting apprenticeship, with an instinct for the chemistry of clays, sensitive to texture and form, skilled in throwing, turning, in the making of moulds and in decorating. During the nineteenth century thousands of such men emigrated to the United States to provide the essential cadre of artisans for a native pottery. And although some of the early potters were French and German, the very great majority came from Staffordshire.” 3 The full list is available at http://www.themuseumofceramics.org/pottery.html (The Museum of Ceramics, East Liverpool, Ohio). See Calhoun (1922) and Gates and Ormerod (1982) for additional information. 1 company was treated as having entered and exited the market twice. The Appendix will have “episode I” or “episode II” by the firm name to represent this fact. In some cases, a firm appeared to have left the market but was continuously still operating under a different name. Typically, the name change reflected the addition or deletion of one or more co-owners or it reflected the incorporation of a firm. If this was the case, these separate firms were merged into one firm. For example, the Laughlin Brothers firm was opened in 1873 and technically exited the market in 1877 when one of the Laughlin brothers left the firm. However, the other Laughlin brother continued to operate the firm under the name Homer Laughlin. In 1896, the firm was incorporated and then called the Homer Laughlin China Company. The firm continues to operate today. In this case, the lineage of the firm was able to be traced and, instead of having three separate entries, the company was treated as one firm that began in 1873 and operates to this day. The list of all firms in the Appendix includes these “merged” firms that have the comment “see note” in the comment section. 3. Entry, Exit, and Industry Structure Starting with 1825, Figure 1 plots the time series over 186 years of the number of entries, , and the number of exits, . The persistence of these movements in and out of the industry throughout the horizon is noteworthy. More importantly, however, these time series appear to move in concert, though imperfectly. The table below shows the correlations between the two series with up to five periods of lag for the number of exits: , 0.360394 , 0.684669 , 0.439309 , 0.490466 , 0.346086 , 0.468828 and are positively correlated so that the year having a relatively large First, note that number of entries is also the one with a relatively large number of exits.4 More interestingly, the positive correlation is at its highest when the number of exits is lagged by one year. This suggests a shakeout process operating throughout the horizon, perhaps as the result of random external shocks (either in demand or supply) that were unanticipated by the producers. While both entry and exit persist over time, we do observe that, on average, there are net entries in early years (up to about 1900), while there are net exits in the later years. This leads to Figure 2, which shows the total number of operating firms over the same horizon. Both the rise and the 4 We also find that the gross entries are positively correlated with the net entries: 2 , 0.618553. decline of the industry along its life cycle are apparent in this figure. Some noticeable peaks and troughs are precisely indicated with the corresponding years. 4. Life Spans of Firms Inspecting the list of firms, one can see that there are substantial variations in their life spans; the short-lived ones with only one year of operation and the long-lived ones with over 125 years. To see the distribution of the firms’ life spans, let us create bins, each with up to five years of life span: that is, the first bin with firms having a life span of 1 to 5 years; the second bin with those having a life span of 6 to 10 years; the third bin with firms having a life span of 11 to 15 years, and so forth. Excluding the eight firms that are still in business, we count the number of firms in each bin. In Figure 3, we plot these numbers in a bar graph. It clearly shows a phenomenon of infant mortality, in which a disproportionately large number of firms lived for less than 5 years. The number of firms belonging to each bin of longer life spans drops down rapidly, as shown in the figure. While Figure 3 shows the phenomenon of infant mortality, one may further inquire about what happens with even shorter life spans. In Figure 4, we have divided the 5-year bins into singleyear bins for up to 20 years of life span. The resulting histogram shows that a significant proportion of firms exit the market within the first year. 5. Discussion Several comments are in order. First, both the infant mortality and the positive correlation between entries and exits have been observed in the empirical literature in industrial organization. For instance, our findings are in line with three of the stylized facts presented by Geroski (1995): 1) “Entry is common. Large numbers of firms enter most markets in most years, but entry rates are far higher than market penetration rates”; 2) “Entry and exit rates are highly positively correlated, and net entry rates and penetration are modest fractions of gross entry rates and penetration”; 3) “The survival rate of most entrants is low, and even successful entrants may take more than a decade to achieve a size comparable to the average incumbent.” Similarly, Caves (2007) states: Turnover in particular affects entrants, who face high hazard rates in their infancy that drop over time. It is largely because of high infant mortality that rates of entry to and exit from industries are positively correlated (compare the obvious theoretical model that implies either entry or exit should occur but not both). The positive entry-exit correlation appears in cross-sections of industries, and even in time series for individual industries, if their life-cycle stages are controlled. [Caves (2007: 9-10)] Further evidence is provided by Geroski and Mazucato (2001) who examined the 93 years of data on the population of domestic U.S. auto producers. They found that the number of entrants and the number of exiting car producers between 1895 and 1967 are positively correlated (0.6086). 3 Second, the simultaneous occurrences of entry and exit suggest a pervasive heterogeneity among firms, either in terms of the product characteristics or in terms of production technologies held by them. Unanticipated shocks to consumer preferences over product attributes or to production technologies (possibly through changes in relative input prices) can then affect the firms unequally, thereby simultaneously inducing entries of those who are favorably affected and exits of those who are adversely affected. Of course, such inter-firm heterogeneity can be a persistent source of the phenomenon in question, only if there are inherent frictions in the market which prevent the firms from instantaneously copying the most preferred product or the most efficient technology. Third, the striking degree to which our findings show the presence of infant mortality suggests a limitation in the textbook models of market competition, in which firms are characterized as rational optimizers having perfect foresight. The entry and exit behaviors of the firms in our study simply do not conform to this standard. This leads to our final point that the study of industry dynamics may benefit from theoretical work involving firms with bounded rationality.5 Efforts in this direction, using computational methods, are made in Chang (2009, 2011b, 2012).6 References Calhoun, W. A. (1922), ‘Early Clay Industries of the Upper Ohio Valley’, an article retrieved from http://www.eastliverpoolhistoricalsociety.org/calhoun.htm. Caves, R. E. (2007), ‘In Praise of the Old I.O.’, International Journal of Industrial Organization, 25, 1-12. Chang, M.-H. (2009), ‘Industry Dynamics with Knowledge-Based Competition: A Computational Study of Entry and Exit Patterns’, Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination, 4, 73-114. Chang, M.-H. (2011a), ‘Agent-Based Modeling and Computational Experiments in Industrial Organization: Growing Firms and Industries in silico’, Eastern Economic Journal, 37, 28-34. Chang, M.-H. (2011b), ‘Entry, Exit, and the Endogenous Market Structure in Technologically Turbulent Industries’, Eastern Economic Journal, 37, 51-84. Chang, M.-H. (2012), ‘Muddling through the Gales of Creative Destruction: A Non-Equilibrium Computational Model of Schumpeterian Competition’, Working Paper #20, Department of Economics, Cleveland State University. 5 While there have been attempts to incorporate bounded rationality into industrial organization, much of this work has focused on modeling the consumers as being boundedly rational, while keeping the firms as profit-maximizers with perfect foresight. [See Spiegler (2011).] 6 See Chang (2011a) for a general discussion on the need for this approach in industrial organization. 4 Gates, W. C. (1984), The City of Hills & Kilns: Life and Work in East Liverpool, Ohio. The East Liverpool Historical Society: East Liverpool, Ohio. Gates, W. C. and D. E. Ormerod (1982), The East Liverpool, Ohio, pottery district: Identification of manufacturers and marks. Braun-Brumfield: Ann Arbor. Geroski, P. A. (1995), ‘What Do We Know about Entry?’, International Journal of Industrial Organization, 13, 421-440. Geroski, P. A. and M. Mazzucato (2001), ‘Modelling the Dynamics of Industry Populations’, International Journal of Industrial Organization, 19, 1003-1022. Spiegler, R. (2011), Bounded Rationality and Industrial Organization. Oxford University Press: New York. Thistlethwaite, F. (1958), ‘The Atlantic Migration of the Pottery Industry’, The Economic History Review, 11, 264-278. 5 1825 1830 1835 1840 1845 1850 1855 1860 1865 1870 1875 1880 1885 1890 1895 1900 1905 1910 1915 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 1825 1830 1835 1840 1845 1850 1855 1860 1865 1870 1875 1880 1885 1890 1895 1900 1905 1910 1915 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 Figure 1: Entries and Exits 40 25 20 10 1869 1854 Entries 45 35 1895 6 Exits 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 Years Figure 2: Total Number of Firms 50 1901 1882 1937 1949 1952 30 1930 1943 1857 15 1862 5 0 Figure 3: Lifespan of Firms* 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 1-5 6-10 11-15 16-20 17-25 26-30 31-35 36-40 41-45 46-50 51-55 56-60 61-65 66-70 71-75 76-80 81-85 86-90 91-95 96-100 101-105 106-110 111-115 116-120 121-125 126-130 0 Lifespan in Years *Excludes firms that are currently in business Figure 4: Lifespan in Years ( ≤20 )* 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Lifespan in Years *Excludes firms that are currently in business 7 CLEVELAND STATE UNIVERSITY A Note on the Dynamics of Firm Turnovers in the East Liverpool (Ohio) Pottery Industry, 1825‐2010 Appendix Myong‐Hun Chang and Amanda Janosko 5/26/2012 This Appendix contains the company information on their years of operation. Additional notes on the restructuring of some of the firms are available at the end. Table 1 Company Acme Artware Corp. Acme Craftware, Inc. Adamant Porcelain Co. Agner Foutts and Co. Agner and Gaston Alcock and Shields American Ceramic Art Co. American Chinaware Corp. American Decorating Co. American Porcelain Co. American Vitrified Products Co. Anchor-Hocking, Inc. Anderson, Curry and Co. Anderson Porcelain Co. Ardyth Arts Artistic China Co. Babcock and Wilcox Baggott Brothers Ball and Morris Barnhart Pottery Co. James H. Baum Episode 1 James H. Baum Episode 2 A. B. Beck Belman Pottery Co. Belmonte China Bel-Mar BelMar China Co. Bel-Mar Pottery Co. Bennett Brothers Benty Brothers Bisc Novelty Manufacturing Co. A. C. Blair China Studios William Bloor John Boch Emanuel Booth Booth Brothers Boulton and Co. Brunt and Bloor Years Lifespan 1941-ca. 1945 5 ca. 1945-1970 26 ca. 1909-ca. 1924 16 1863-1883 21 1883-1884 2 1882 1 1902 1 1929-1931 3 1923 1 1914-1932 19 ca. 1910-ca. 1968 59 1972-1982 11 1878 1 1903-1915 13 ca. 1945-ca. 1961 17 undetermined N/A ca. 1921-ca. 1930 10 1853-ca. 1897 45 1846-1856 11 ca. 1955 1 1883-1884 2 1888-1896 9 1879 1 undetermined N/A ca. 1952 1 1950 1 1912 1 ca.1932-1935 4 1839-1844 6 1900-1906 7 1917-1919 3 1945-1960 16 1860-1862 3 1907-ca. 1919 13 1873-1876 4 1854-ca. 1865 12 1882-1883 2 1848-1853 6 1 Comments No dates available Decorator No dates available See Note Table 1 Company Brunt, Bloor, Martin and Co. G. F. Brunt Porcelain Co. Henry Brunt and Son Wm. Brunt and Bros. Wm. Brunt and Co. Wm. Brunt Jr. and Co. Wm. Brunt Pottery Co. Wm. Brunt Sr. 1859 Wm. Brunt Sr. and Son Wm. Brunt Son and Co. Bulger, Starkey and Co. Bulger, Worcester and Co. Bullock and Anderson Bullock and Garner W. C. Bunting Co. Burford Bros. Pottery Co. Burgess and Co. Burgess, Webster and Viney William Burton Burton and Williams George Buxton California Pottery Co. Cameo China Co. Cardinal Stoneware Co., Inc. Cartwright Bros. Company Cartwright Bros. Pottery Co. Ceramic Specialties Co. Chester China Co. Chic Pottery Co. China and Vitreous Products Corp. William Colclough The Colonial Co. Columbia China Co. Continental Kilns Albert Corns Corns China Co. Craven Art Pottery Co. F. R. Cross and Co. Years Lifespan 1875-1882 8 ca. 1900-1914 15 undetermined N/A 1856-1859 4 ca. 1885 1 1860-1877 18 1892-1911 20 undetermined N/A ca. 1868-1874 7 1878-1892 15 1877 1 1877-1880 4 1850 1 1847 1 1947-present 66 1879-1904 26 1890-1893 4 1867-1869 3 undetermined N/A ca. 1901 1 1884-1891 8 1898 1 ca. 1949-ca. 1952 4 ca. 1975 1 1896-1927 32 1880-1896 17 ca. 1933-ca. 1944 12 1920 1 1937-1945 9 No dates available No dates available No dates available undetermined N/A No dates available ca. 1850/1879-1881 1903-1929 1910 1944-ca. 1953 ca.1898 1889-1932 1905-ca. 1910 1884 N/A 27 1 10 1 44 6 1 Lack of credible dates 2 Comments See Note Table 1 Company Years Lifespan Croxall Brothers 1844-1852 9 Croxall Pottery Co. Curby, Starkey and Co. Davidson - Stevenson Porcelain Co. Joseph Dennis Dennis and Outrim Douds and Barnes Douds and Foutts Douds and Moore Douds and Sebring Douds and Welch Dovey, Webster and Co. Dresden Pottery Co. East Liverpool Art China East Liverpool China Co. East Liverpool China and Enamel Co. East Liverpool Crockery Co. East Liverpool Electric Porcelain Co. East Liverpool Encaustic Tile Co. East Liverpool Pottery Co. East Liverpool Potteries Co. East Liverpool Railway Co. East Liverpool Sanitary Manufacturing Co. N. J. Eisenhuth Novelty Works The Empire Company Enterprise Art China Company Etruria works Hermann Feustal Flentke, Harrison and Co. William Flentke Flentke, Worchester and Co. Foster and Garner Foster and Rigby Foster and Rowley Fowler and O'Connor 1856-1914 1875 59 1 1914-1932 19 1875-1886 1879-1880 ca. 1851 ca. 1872 1866 1857-1860 1869 1848 1925-1927 1898-ca. 1908 1947-present 30 2 1 1 1 4 1 1 3 11 66 ca. 1910 1 ca. 1911 1 1903-ca. 1918 16 1878 1894-1901 1901-1907[1933] undetermined 1 8 N/A N/A Lack of credible dates No dates available 1913-undetermined N/A No dates available 1903 ca. 1850 1896-undetermined undetermined ca. 1900 1877-1884 1882-1886 1874-1877 ca. 1856-1859 ca. 1866-1868 1860-ca. 1866 1871-1872 1 1 N/A N/A 1 8 5 4 4 3 7 2 3 Comments Destroyed by flood in 1852 See Note Lack of credible dates No dates available Table 1 Company E. Fox and Co. Frederick, Shenkle, Allen and Co. French China Co. French - Saxon China Co. Fritz, McClure and Co. Gamble and Surles General Porcelain Co. George Garner Ephraim Gaston Globe Pottery Co. Episode 1 Glober Pottery Co. Episode 2 Godwin and Flentke John Goodwin Episode 1 John Goodwin Episode 2 Goodwin Pottery Co. Goodwin Pottery Co. Gotham and Locke and Co. Thomas Haden Hayden and Lycett Hall China Co. Benjamin Harker Harker Pottery Co. Harker and Smith Benjamin Harker and Sons Richard Harrison and Co. Harvey, Green and Co. Henderson Pottery William Higginson Hill, Brunt and Co. Hilton China Co. Horton Specialty Co. Hoyt China Co. Hoyt Brothers China Co. George F. Humrickhouse Humrickhouse and Gallagher Jackson Bros. Johnson China Co. Jones Pottery Years Lifespan 1880 1 1881-1888 8 1898-1929 32 1935-1964 30 1869 1 ca. 1878 1 ca. 1912-ca. 1916 5 ca. 1846 1 1881 1 1888-1901 14 1907-1912 6 1878-1882 5 1843-1853 11 1863-1865 3 1872-1913 42 1936-1940 1903 1874-1888 1879 1903-present 1840-1846 1846-1972 1853-1855 1877-1881 ca. 1853 1851-1853 ca. 1849-ca. 1854 ca. 1897 1867-ca. 1869 ca. 1915 ca. 1932-1938 1919-undetermined 1919 1877-ca. 1883 1881 1868-1870 1931-1937 1867-1880 4 5 5 15 1 110 7 127 3 5 1 3 6 1 3 1 7 N/A 1 7 1 3 7 14 Comments See Note Different from other Goodwin Pottery Co. See Note Lack of credible dates Table 1 Company Kass China Co. Kenilworth Tile Co. Keramos Pottery Co. Keystone China Co. Edwin M. Knowles China Co. Knowles, Taylor and Knowles Lamond and Jones Larkin Bros. Larkins, Newell and Co. Homer Laughlin China Co. Less Work Manufacturing Co. The Limoges China Co. The American Limoges China Co. Louthan Manufacturing Co. Manley and Cartwright Manley, Surles and Gamble Manton and Albright A. J. Marks and Co. Mayer and Geon Mayer, Ross and McDevitt William McCullough McDevitt, Cochran and Co. McDevitt, Moore and Curby McDevitt and Moore McDonald Decorating Shop McGillvray and Moore McGillvray and Orr D. E. McNicol Pottery Co. T. A. McNicol Pottery Co. McQuillkan and Curry Porcelain Co. Meric Art Studios Metsch Refractories Co. Miles and McClain Miles Porcelain Co. T. V. Milligan Porcelain Co. Monarch Dinnerware Co. George Monroe and Co. Morley and Company Years Lifespan ca. 1935-1972 38 1921 1 ca. 1921 1 ca. 1946-1954 9 1900-1963 64 1854-1929 76 1870 1 ca. 1848-1861 14 1853 1 1873-present 140 1914 1 1900-1949 50 1949-1955 7 1901-present 112 1864-1880 17 1881 1 ca. 1892 1 1866-1871 6 1865 1 1864 1 undetermined N/A 1868-1870 3 1872-1874 3 1874-ca. 1900 27 ca. 1945 1 1855-1857 3 1855 1 1869-1954 86 ca. 1913-1929 17 ca. 1905 1 ca. 1931-1939 1919-present 1888 1923 1915-1929 1937-1972 1880 1878-1884 9 94 1 1 15 36 1 7 5 Comments See Note No dates available See Note See Note Table 1 Company George Morley and Son Morley, Godwin and Co. Morley, Godwin and Flentke Mountford and Co. George C. Murphy Pottery Co. Episode 1 George C. Murphy Pottery Co. Episode 2 National China Co. Nentwick and Larkin Newell, Larkins and Co. Novelty Clay Forming Co. Oakwood China Co. Oakwood Pottery Co. Edward O'Connor Ohio Brass Co. Ohio Porcelain Co. Oliver China Co. Olnhausen China Co. Owen-Wilson Porcelain Co. Pan-American Electric Porcelain Co. Patterson Bros. Co. Patterson Refractories Co. Patterson, Russell and Co. Peach Porcelain Co. The Pearl China and Pottery Co. J. R. Phillip R. G. Phillips Pines Pottery Co. Pioneer Pottery Co. Pioneer Pottery Co. Pittsburgh Tile Manufacturing Co. Porcelain Manufacturing Co. Potter's Co-operative Co. Purinton Pottery Co. Reston Art Ware Co. T. Rigby and Co. 0. Ritter Years Lifespan 1884-1891 8 1874-1878 5 1855-1874 20 1891-1897 7 1897-1901 5 1904-1904 2 1899-1911 ca. 1886 1848-ca.1852 ca. 1907-ca. 1918 1912-ca. 1921 1900 ca. 1885-ca. 1894 ca. 1966-present ca. 1908 1899-ca. 1908 1902 1927 13 1 5 12 10 1 10 47 1 10 1 1 1901 1 1882-1907 ca. 1930-1934 1882 1931 1931-2009 1853 1852 ca. 1939-1953 1896-ca. 1900 1935-present 1912-ca. 1922 1928 1882-1925 1937-1942 1928-ca. 1933 1868-1872 1853 26 5 1 1 79 1 1 15 5 78 11 1 44 6 6 4 1 6 Comments See Note Table 1 Company Royal China Co. Salt and Mear Episode 1 Salt and Mear Episode 2 Sants and Barlow Saxon China Co. Henry Schmidt Ralph Scragg Scores China Co. Years Lifespan 1933-1986 54 1842-ca. 1852 11 1856-1860 5 1878 1 1911-1929 19 1901 1 ca. 1879-ca. 1887 9 ca. 1907 1 Sebring Pottery Co. 1887-ca. 1940 54 E. H. Sebring China Co. Sevres China Co. Shields and Wilson Simms and Ferguson Simms and Starkey N. M. Simms and Co. Sinclair Art Pottery Smith, Foster and Co. Smith-Phillips China Co. Smith, Plunkett and McClure Specialty Porcelain Co. Sprucevale Pottery Standard Porcelain Co. The Standard Pottery Co. Starkey and Ourby John F. Steele Sterling China Co. Sterling China Co. Taylor, Lee and Smith Taylor, Smith and Taylor R. Thomas and Sons Thomas China Co. C. C. Thompson Pottery Co. Trenle Blake China Co. Trenle Porcelain Co. Trentvale Pottery 1908-1929 1900-1908 1882 1872 1866-1868 1868-1874 1903-ca. 1905 1857 1901-1929 1881 ca. 1910-1949 ca. 1852-1859 1923 1886-1927 ca. 1870-1872 1878-1891 1900-ca. 1902 1917- 2004 1899-1901 1901-1972 1873-1957 1900-1905 1868-1938 1894 - 1966 1923 ca. 1901 22 9 1 1 3 7 3 1 29 1 40 8 1 42 3 14 3 88 3 72 85 6 71 73 1 1 7 Comments In 1940 Sebring Pottery Co. was absorbed by the Limoges China Co. Limoges used the Sebring line until 1948. See Note See Note Table 1 Company Union Potteries Co. United China Co. United States Decorating Co. United States Pottery Co. Usona Art Pottery A. Viney and Co. Viney, Thompson and Co. Viney, Webster and Co. Vitreous Novelty Works Vodrey Brothers Vodrey and Brother Pottery Co. Vodrey Pottery Co. Wallace Brothers Wallace and Chetwynd Wally Brothers [and Co.] Warner-Keffer China Co. A. Webster and Co. Elijah Webster Webster, Campbell and Co. Webster and Phillips Joseph Wells Wellsville China Co. Wellsville Novelty Pottery Co. West End Pottery Co. West, Hardwick and Co. White Brothers China Henry Willot and Co. Woodward and Vodrey Woodward, Vodrey and Booth Woodward, Blakely and Co. Worchester, Bulger and Son Worcester and Co. World Pottery and China Co. John Wyllie and Son Years Lifespan 1894-1905 12 ca. 1921 1 1922 1 1898-1901 [1932] N/A ca. 1932-ca.1952 21 1870 1 ca. 1868-1869 2 1869-1872 4 1901 1 1857-ca. 1864 8 ca. 1864-1896 33 1896-1928 33 1856-ca. 1861 6 1882-1901 20 1853 1 1908-1912 5 1857-ca. 1864 8 1858-ca. 1861 4 1881-1888 8 ca. 1848-1850 3 ca. 1826-ca.1856 31 1902-1959 58 undetermined N/A 1893-1938 46 1867-1883 17 20th Century N/A 1870-1872 3 1847-1848 2 1848 1 1848-1857 10 1872-1884 13 1880-1882 3 ca. 1921-ca. 1934 14 1874-1893 20 8 Comments See Note Lack of credible dates No dates available No dates available Notes on Condensed Firms Bennett Brothers (1839 – 1844) James Bennett began his business in 1839. His brothers Edwin, Daniel, and William came to East Liverpool in 1841 and the company name changed to reflect the addition of the brothers. Bennett Brothers stayed in East Liverpool through 1844 when the company decided to move to Pittsburgh (Gates & Ormerod, 15). C. C. Thompson Pottery Company (1868 – 1938) The company had its start as Thompson and Herbert in 1868 when J. T. Herbert and Cassius C. Thompson began producing pottery. The company changed its name to C. C. Thompson and Company in 1870 when J. T. Herbert sold his shares in the company to Josiah Thompson and Basil Simms. When Josiah Thompson passed away in 1889, the company was again renamed when it incorporated as the C. C. Thompson Pottery Company (Gates & Ormerod, 288) Corns China Company (1889 – 1932) In 1889 William Smith and D. E. McNicol created McNicol and Smith. In 1907 Smith left the company and A. W. Corns replaced him. With A. W. Corns entrance into the company, the company was renamed McNicol-Corns China Company. When McNicol retired in 1928, Corns continued to operate the firm until a fire destroyed it in 1932. At this point it had been renamed Corns China Company (Gates & Ormerod, 196). Croxall Pottery Company (1856 – 1914) In 1856, Croxall and Cartwright began producing pottery. The firm was renamed J. W. Croxall and Sons in 1888 when John Croxall bought Cartwright’s shares in the firm. The company was again renamed in 1898 when the firm was incorporated as Croxall Pottery Company. The company was purchased in 1914 by the American Porcelain Company (Gates & Ormerod, 38). D. E. McNicol Pottery Company (1869 – 1954) In 1869, McNicol, Burton and Company began producing pottery. The company was incorporated in 1892 and was renamed D. E. McNicol Pottery Company (Gates & Ormerod, 185). Goodwin Pottery Company (1872 – 1913) John Goodwin and his sons established John Goodwin and Sons in 1872. When John Goodwin passed away, his sons reorganized the company and renamed it Goodwin Brothers Pottery Company. In 1893 the firm was incorporated and named the Goodwin Pottery Company (Gates & Ormerod, 52). Harker Pottery Company (1846-1972) In 1846, George S. Harker began Harker, Taylor and Company with the help of James Taylor. Taylor eventually left the firm in 1851 to pursue other interests. In 1851 Ezekial Creighton and Mathew Thompson joined George S. Harker and created the firm Harker and Thompson. When Ezekial died in 1854, the firm stayed under the control of Thompson and Harker and renamed itself the George S. Harker and Company. The firm continued to operate under this name until it was incorporated in 1890 as the Harker Pottery Company (Gates & Ormerod, 79). Homer Laughlin China Company (1873 - present) In 1873 Homer and Shakespeare Laughlin began Laughlin Brothers, but when Shakespeare left, Homer continued to operate the firm. In 1877 the company was incorporated as the Homer Laughlin China Company (Gates & Ormerod, 128). 9 Knowles, Taylor and Knowles (1854 – 1929) Isaac Knowles and Isaac Harvey began producing pottery in 1854 under the firm name Knowles and Harvey. When Harvey left the firm in the mid-1860s, Knowles continued to operate the pottery under the name Isaac Knowles. In 1870, Isaac Knowles renamed the firm Knowles, Taylor and Knowles after Isaac Knowles brought Homer Knowles and Jon Taylor into the firm (Gates & Ormerod, 115). Metsch Refractories Co. (1919-present) In 1919 the Boch and Metsch Porcelain Company began producing ceramic pieces for the electrical business. In 1922 the company was renamed the Metsch Refractories Co. and continues to remain open to this day. (http://www.eastliverpoolhistoricalsociety.org/calhoun.htm) Patterson Brothers Company (1882 – 1907) John Patterson and Sons Pottery Company began producing in 1882. In 1900, the “sons” in John Patterson and Sons took control of the firm and renamed themselves the Patterson Brothers Company. In 1907 the company was sold to the Sterling China Company (Gates & Ormerod, 210). Trenle Blake China Company (1894 – 1966) The East End Pottery Company started in 1894 and its name was changed in 1908 to the East End China Company. The East End China Company was then renamed in 1909 to the Trenle China Company. In 1937, the company moved to Ravenswood, West Virginia and the name changed to Trenle-Blake China Company (Gates & Ormerod, 295). Union Potteries Company (1894 – 1905) The Union Cooperative Pottery Company began in 1894. The company was placed in receivership in 1900 but continued to operate until 1905 as the Union Potteries Company (Gates & Ormerod, 297). Firms with multiple episodes James H. Baum Globe Pottery Co. John Goodwin George C. Murphy Pottery Company Salt and Mear 10
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