Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 40.djvu/165

Rh, the latter a great-grandson of John Norton, one of the founders.

A "china" manufactory existed in Philadelphia ninety-one years ago, but very little is known regarding it. A friend has recently shown me a letter, dated August 14, 1800, written by a merchant of that city to his wife, who was then visiting in New Jersey, in which occurs the following interesting bit of news: "On account of a man being murdered at the China Factory on Monday evening last, a block maker by trade, a number of the same profession, with Rope makers and Carpenters, assembled and on Tuesday evening began to pull down the buildings; they continued at their work till yesterday mid-day,—it was pulled down by Ropes in spite all the Squires and Constables that could be collected—say every house, only leaving the Chimneys standing." The writer, an ancestor of the present owner of the letter, was in business at that time near Fourth and Chestnut Streets, and we are led to infer that the factory was somewhere in that neighborhood. All white ware at that time was known as china, and the term was evidently applied to queen's-ware—certainly not porcelain. Paul Cushman had a stoneware factory at Albany, N. Y., in the first decade of this century, and some examples of his ware are now in the possession of Mr. S. L. Frey, of Palatine Bridge, N. Y., one of which bears the inscription, impressed on the surface of the jar, and twice repeated around the body, "Paul Cushman Stone Ware Factory 1809 Half a Mile West of Albany Gaol."

In 1813 Thomas Haig, from Scotland, established a pottery in the Northern Liberties, Philadelphia, where he made red and black ware. At the Franklin Institute exhibition in 1825, articles made at this pottery were considered, "in the opinion of the judges, better than goods of the same kind brought from England." The pottery is still operated by Thomas Haig, a son of the founder, who is now in his eightieth year.

Queen's-ware was probably first made in the United States about 1800. Eight years later the Columbian pottery, on South Street, between Twelfth and Thirteenth, in Philadelphia, was