A H Hews receipt for flower pots 1893 click on photo for enlargment

An Older Flower Pot

A. H. Hews & Company, a maker of clay flowerpots founded in 1765 in Weston, Mass., was said in the 1970s to be the oldest continually operating manufacturer in the United States. In 1870 the company built a factory at the corner of Richdale Avenue and Raymond Street, were it remained until 1934, when it relocated to Sherman Street. In the mid-1880s the company was producing 7 million flowerpots every year in addition to other stoneware and terracotta products. The firm converted to plastic pots in the early 1960s and moved to Leominster, Mass., in 1980 Early Fictile Art in America 81 was started previous to the year 1765, by a man whose descendants of the same name still conduct the pottery works known as the factory of A. H. Hews & Co., in North Cambridge, Mass. The record of this family firm is so remarkable for America that it should be told at some length. Not only has the company continued in the same business in an uninterrupted line of the same firm name, but it possesses a record of a century and a third of unspotted integrity in business dealings. ‘ It has passed through times of foreign and civil wars, through business crises and depressions, in an even career of honor and fair-dealing, and now has earned a deserved and independent position, having the largest manufactory of flower pots in the world making many millions yearly as well as a large and varied line of art pottery. When Abraham Hews was pottering around in his little pottery in West on, in 1765  making milk pans and bean pots, and jugs and teapots, and exchanging them for general merchandise, in which New England rum and molasses took no inferior part, he little foresaw the vast business enterprise that would be carried out by his great-grandson in 1891. The clay used by him in Weston was brought from Watertown, and later from Cambridge, and the firm did not move their works to Cambridge until 1870. Abraham Hews, second, lived to be eighty eight years old (being post- master for fifty one years), and his son lived to be eighty one years old, dying in 1891 the good old Puritan stock showing in long life as well as in honest life.

There were over 700 immigrant potters working at simple pottery yards and barns throughout New England from the early 1600s till today.  They produced simple forms for cooking and storing foods, grains and liquids.  Many also made bricks, pipes, tiles, roofing, drain pipes, chimney toppers, flower pots and buttons as well as decorative items . Neighboring children were given clay marbles and miniature pots.  (In the 1800s, brick yards were a class by themselves, turning out thousands of bricks each year for housing, factories and chimneys. Click on the link below for more information on early brick yards). Learn more about Brick making by clicking here: Here is a list of most of the early New England Potters before the industrial age. Many potteries that were passed from generation to generation in the same family.  The Osborn family in Danvers, MA had 40 family members participating in the pottery from 1780 through the mid 1800s!  Dates of a pottery operation overlap, some potters only lasted a short time, some moved around, some spanned generations. For a more detailed list, contact the town records and histories.   Connecticut 1700’s… East Hartford: Pitkin Goshen: Norton, Wadhams Greenwich: Mead, Staats  Hartford: Souter, Wells Litchfield: Pierce Pomfret: Adams New Haven: Fenton New London: Taber Pomfret: Adams Norwich: Armstrong, Christie, Huntington, Leftingwell, Tracy, Young  South Norwalk: Day, Hoyt South Woodstock: Bugbee Stonington: States family    1800’s… Danbury: Andrews East Haven: Floyd Goshen: Brooks, Dutcher, Holton Elmwood: Goodwin family Hartford: Benton, Bosworth, Caldwell, Cross, Fisher, Frayd, Goodale, Hanford, Harrington, Perkins, Risley, Seymour, Stedman, Stewart, Webster family Manchester: Woodbridge Naugatuck: Benham New Haven: Harrison New London: Brewer, Knowles, Omensetter Norwalk: Bowers, Bresnans, Gregory, Lee, Matthias, Quinterd, Smith, Taylor, Tuttle, Venables, Wheeler, Wood  Norwich: Chace, Chamberlain, Cleveland, Hosmer, Irons, Lathrop, McPherson, Merrill, Potts, Risley family, Root, Suderberg, Wentworth, Winship Stamford: Gibson, Wardwell Stonington: Swan   Maine 1700’s… Wayne: Budge family Gorham: Prentiss, Smith Hallowell: Dane  Showhegan: Neil  North Yarmouth: Thomas family, Brooks family Turner Centre: Cleve family, Thorp   1800’s… Alfred: Holmes, Webber Davis  Baldwin: Davis Buxton: Bickford family  Brunswick: Baker Family  Ellsworth: York family Gardiner: Swift, Thompson Hebron: Webber Hollis Centre: Allds, Kendricks  Ellsworth: Jones Lisbon: Barker family  Baldwin: Monmouth: Coburn, Safford family  North Bridgton: Hill  North Yarmouth: Foster family, Thomas family Orrington: Brooks family Oxford: Webber family Topsham: Barker family, Cox, Flas Waldoboro: Mayo   Winslow: Bruce family  Portland: Calhoun, Clough, Crafts, Dodge, Jones, Hill, Swazi, Winslow, Young  Wells: Taber  West Windham:  Goodell Winthrop:  Fuller  Winslow: Hussey  Waldoboro: Stanwood Woolrich: Corliss family     Massachusetts 1600’s… Boston: Chamlet  Gloucester: Davis, Vincent Charleston: Drinker, Kettell family  Salem: Pride Beverly: Hayward   1700’s… Ablington: Benner   Amsbury: Bodge family Brimfield: Bugbee  Berkely: Shoves family Beverly: Tarbell family   Braintree: Clark Brookfield: Bailey   Boston:  Allman, Fenton, Leigh    Richardson, Atkins, Cutler, Mear, Pierce Cambridge: Hews, McVey   Cambridgeport: Bullard Charleston: Badger, Duche, Edes, Bodge family, Penny, Powers, Runey, Webber, Wyer Danvers: Ballard, Cool family, Gardner family, Porter, Webb, Goldthwaite, Marble, Osborn family, Rawlings, Shaw, Stone family, Swinneton Whittemore, Wilson family  Dedham: Felton family    Dorcester: Hall family Gloucester: Gardner family, Proctor Haverhill: Anni family Frothingham, Harris, Inglalls family, Wade, Lord, Potter, Parker family, Stanley, Symmes  Newburyport: Bayley family, Kent, Morrison  Merrimacport: Pecker    Petersham:  Hart Salem: Archer, Boyce family, Goodale Scituate: Neil Somerset: Chase, Comell, Purington family, Shove, Symond family Swansea: Cornell, Shove  Taunton: Seaver family Weston: Hew family  Worcester: Nash   1800s… Andover: Sullivan Ashfield: Hasting, Belding  Beverly: Herrick, Van Loon   Boston:  Plympton, Robertson family  Lawrence: Letts  Cambridge: Bruitan, Guinette  Cambridgeport: Pearson Charleston: Lundy  Wright  Chelsea: Kendall, Low, Simmons family Danvers: Aborn, Jacobs, Proctor family, Southwick family, Standish, Tarbell, Tewksbury, Twiss,Walton  Kingston: Bradford  Medford: Clapp, Sable family  North Brookfield: Stevens Merrimacport: Chase family, Kendrick, Mann,Sargent  Milton: Fenno North Orange: Goddard family  Peabody: Deibel, Donovan, Rich, Steinbrecher, Stevens, Worthen   Paige, Reed  Saugus: Jackson Somerville: Runey family  Taunton: Applegate, Dalton Somerset: Brown, Hathaway, Kenney, Synan family, Wyman family    West Sterling: Coolidge, Smith, Snow, Tolman  Wiscasset: Porter,  Whately: Craft family, Graves, Orcutt family, Swift, Wells West Barnstable: Parker family    New Hampshire   1700’s… Jaffrey: Dakin Exeter: Edes Hampton/Sunddown: Moulton Lyndeboro: Clark family Pottersville: Felton, Furber Portsmouth: Marshall Troy: Farrar family, Goddard   1800’s… Bristol: Bean Botscawen: Burpee Concord: Bodwell, Clark family, Flanders family, Furber, Wittlemore Dover/Loudon/Gonic: Osborn family Exeter: Dodge family,Philbrick Gilford: Goodhue, Stark Keene: Taft Marlbourough: Metcalf, Sargent Mason: Richardson Moultonborough: Bennetts Nashua: Crafts family Orange: Lowell Portsmouth: Dodge family Plymouth: Webster, Flanders family, Gill family Pottersville: Fitch, Southwick, Greenwood, Hart, Russell, Smith Troy: French, Silsby  Warner: Dimond Wolfeboro: Taber   Rhode Island 1700’s… East Greenwich: Upton Providence: States family, Wilson Westerly: States family   Vermont 1800’s.. Bennington: Bates, Fenton, Gleason, Greatbach, Judd, Lyman, Norton family, Sibley, Thayer, Wadsorth, Wickwire Berlin: Grafts family Browington: Ward Burlington: Alford, Ballard, Boynton family, Nichols, Smith, Woodworth Chimney Point: Bradley East Dorset: Curtis Fairfax: Bostwick, Farrar family, Lewis, Sterns  Hardwick: Bailey St Middlebury: Farrar New Haven: Wright St. Albans: Boynton Poultney: Woodman family St. Johnsbury: Crafts, Fenton, Hancock, Hutchinson, Orcutt, Wight Woodstock: Bradley