SOMB BARLY EARTHENWARE POPTSRS. AND POTTERIES OP ONTARIO COUNTY, NEW YORK by George R. Hamell ",,,and be like clay in the hands of the pottery..." Heber Chase Kimball3 Some Barly Earthenware Potters and Potteries of Ontario County, New York by George R. Hamell Among the earliest arrivals to the Genesee Country during the ast decade of the 18th Century were craftsmen who were to supply many of the domestic needs of the growing agricultural communities of the region. Among these men were earthenware potters who mana- facturea vessels of local clay for the settler's table and cupboard. Most of the settlers from the New England and the Eastern New York State areas travelled westward into the newly-formed County of Onta- rio* along a forest path which was soon to become the western "State Road", and which the present-day United States and New York State Routes 20 and 5 closely follow. The sedimentary bedrock of the re- gion determined the route, and with the area's glacial geology, in- duced the immigrant to make nis home along it. fhe strike of the sedimentary bedrock of Central and Western New York State is east and west, and there is a slight dip of the peds to the south. The immigrant's route lay ontop a relatively nar- LOW, east-west zone of resistant Middle Devonian strata, composed mainly of limestones. Most prominent among these was the Onondaga Limestone Escarpment which formed the northern edge of this zone. On the whole this zone was better drained than the Ontario Lowlands to 1 J. H. French, Gazetteer of the State of New York (Syracuse, 1860), pp.32l-2» 4947 Was the Soveee OF the Tollowing informerion. Onterio was taken from Montgomery County on January 27th, 1789. When originally formed, it embraced all that part of the Stet® lying west OE gene drawn north from the Pennsylvania border through Senece Lake fo Sodus Bay on Lake Ontario, an area of six million acres Steuben Gounty was Gaxen from Ontario in 1796, Genesee in 1802, parte of Mon- County .W85 ingston in 1621, and Yates and a part of Wayne County In TBSae ohe present configuration of the counties in this region ie the hesult of subsequent areal divisions and adjustments of the pre~ ceding counties. sGvtioncnt commenced after treaties had been concluded to extin- gaish the Indians’ title to the lend, and was essentially completed Gio stagess That area east of the Genesee River north of its cone Puente with the Canaseraga Creek, and east of 2 line drawn south from that confluence to the Pennsylvania border was opened to settlement fotloming Mess. Phelps and Gorham's purchase of title from the Six Nation Iroquois at Buffalo Creek in 1788. That area of the State west bf the Paelps and Goraam Purchase was settled following the conclusion ot ERS Greaty of Big Tree with the Six Nations near Geneseo in 1797, Sra igciuded what was known as the Morris Reserve and the Holland Pur- chase.3 -2- the north, but of less relief than the Appalachian Uplends to the south. The north-trending rivers and streams of the region formed numerous shallows, repids and fells as they cut across 1%, providing ‘the immigrant with a series of natural fording places along the route, he legendary fertility of the Genesee Country, which attracted most of the settlers here, was largely due to the lest continental glaciation which mantled the bedrock with a carbonate-rich soil, de- rived from the scoured beds of shale and limestone beneath it. Dur- ing the glacier's final, northward recession ecross Central and Wes- tern New York State, a series of marginal lakes were formed between the front of the glacier and the foothills of the Appalachian Uplands to the south. While beds of sand and gravel were being deposited at ‘the lakes! bottom along the face of the glacier, beds of fine quality clay were accruing in the quieter and deeper waters to the south. The local availability of clay was of course of primary impor- tence to the earthenware potter, as well as was a source of silica, Silica was the major constituent of the glazes used on earthenware, ana was fused during the firing of the ware by the presence in the glaze mixture of powdered lead, which acted as a flux. Deposits of glacial sand, or derived loamy soils, were perhaps the most convenient sources for this silica. This raw material was also available in the form of nodular or bedéed chert (flint) occurring in the Onondage Limo~ stone, or which could also be found as float in the glacial deposits south of that Escarpment. This zone besides offerring the most convenient lend route into ‘nis region fron the east was also perheps the most ecologically at- tractive. Here was found the northern portion of the Finger Lakes Dis- trict of Central New York State, and furthensore, by straddling the boundary between the two physiographical provinces of the region (the Ontario Lowlands and the Appalachian Uplands) it could offer easy ac— ess to the natural resourees of both. Along it were some of the fi- nest lands for cultivation, and mill seats for development. Continuing through the first quarter of the 19th Century, settlement of this region proceeded the most rapidly along this zone, and diffused from it north