The police came for Julius Norton in New York City. It didn’t matter that Julius was wealthy. Intelligent. Well read. A gifted musician. It certainly wasn’t in his nature to commit acts of vice or violence. As owner of the famous Norton Pottery in Bennington, VT., Julius was in New York on business. So being clapped in irons must have infuriated him. Regardless of the charge against him, he surely knew by then the real reason he was stewing in that cell. He had violated a fundamental principle of good business practice –
Never team up with in-laws.
In those days, a person could be jailed for a business partner’s personal debts. Julius’ erstwhile partner, and brother in law, Christopher Webber Fenton owed money to lots of people.
Julius inherited a successful stoneware business from his father Luman Norton in 1840. Julius was slowly growing the business when Christopher married his sister and burst on the scene in 1845. Christopher was a scion of another talented pottery family. His father, Jonathan Fenton, had even written a poem to him as a child about their “pedigree,” prodding him to aim high.
Grow the business you say? Why not take over the world! Porcelain! Agate ware! Parian sculptures! Rockingham! Yellow ware! Anything Staffordshire does we can do better!
For a time, Christopher’s fertile imagination paid off. Bennington became “the Staffordshire of America.” The frantic pace during their brief three year collaboration (1845-47) must have been something to witness. But ideas – and bills – piled up. To keep it rolling, Julius put in overtime on marketing. Like his ill fated New York City trip.
In the end, Julius was still a Norton. Respectability and stability mattered. The arrest was the last straw. But others came before. For example, Julius’ employees were solid neighborhood fellows. Christopher brought in all sorts of characters to realize his dreams. Some, like the Englishman Daniel Greatbatch, were amazing. But many were rabble rousers, often prone to drunken reverie. One, Alexander Stephens, ended up as Vice President of the Confederate States of America.
After the partnership ended Julius kept some ideas and abandoned others. He died in 1861. Christopher continued hatching schemes across the country. He died in 1865.
But whatever their differences while alive, they’re both equal now.
Readings:
The Art of the Potter. Diana and J. Garrison Stradling,. Main Street-Universe Books/New York. 1977.
Early New England Potters and Their Wares. Lura Woodside Watkins. Harvard University Press/Cambridge MA. 1968.
American Stonewares. Georgeanna Greer. Schiffer Publishing Ltd./Exton, PA. 1981.
American Stoneware. William Ketchum. Holt & Co./New York. 1991.
The Potters and Potteries of Bennington. John Spargo. Cracker Barrel Press/Southampton NY. 1926.
This Day in Pottery History 