Etching on the bottom of the 15-inch eared jug reads: “Dan Mercer ware, U.S. Quarry Tile Co., Parkersburg W.Va.” Though Mercer had his own shop at the A.B. Chance plant in South Parkersburg, he often used the kilns at the “Tile plant,” just east of Parkersburg on Rt. 47. Dan Mercer made many personalized pieces of pottery and smallish items such as ashtrays and novelty items that have become quite collectible. As the news item in last week’s Look Back attested, when he first came to Parkersburg he worked for Donaghho Pottery, a.k.a. Excelsior Pottery. Mr. Mercer’s death record lists him as a potter; born in 1865, he died in 1951. (File Photo)

The item in last week’s Look Back about early Parkersburg potter Dan Mercer, who came to Parkersburg in 1888 and worked for famed potter A.P. Donaghho continues:

[Mercer] Used Crude Gauges

Crude gauges are used to find proportions; a small flat square piece of cedar is used for smoothing and the finishing touches, and a wire severs the finished product from the wheel … that completes the line of tools. To make a 6 ½ pound bean pot takes Mr. Mercer about four minutes. Mr. Mercer said the temperatures didn’t noticeably affect the clay and its handling, but he must allow for shrinkage in the heat of the kiln.

The wet clay-ware must dry about four days in ordinary temperature, but near the heat it will dry sufficiently overnight to put onto the kiln. The kiln is the furnace where it is fired and “baked” to harden the ware. A glaze is added later and perhaps coloring, which is obtained from a substance called cobalt.

Every beginning potter experiences a terrible soreness of the wrists, according to Mr. Mercer. He said it came back with each new trial if the victim gave in to the soreness each time, but “just grit your teeth and keep right on and it will never come back; it’s like measles or mumps, once you have had it.”

Public Demonstrations

Mr. Mercer often makes public demonstrations with his pottery apparatus, and he says many people become so absorbed and fascinated that they watch for hours. He expects to demonstrate at the Fine Arts Center, October 1.

People able to make old time hand pottery are now rather rare. Mr. Mercer knows of three besides himself in this section, W. K. Haught of Vienna, W. B. Cox at Beechwood, and a man in Ravenswood.

Mr. Mercer’s workshop or laboratory at the porcelain plant is the only pottery of its kind in Parkersburg now, although several plants were located here in former years. The present Smith and Burrows roofing plant was once a pottery. A company called Stout and Keever pottery was located on East Street, then it later became a handle works. The Gambrel house opposite N. Logan and Sons used to be a pottery, and there was an Alleman pottery on the Valley Mills road, about five miles out of town, many years ago.

The Parkersburg News,

Sept. 15, 1940

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Bob Enoch is president of the Wood County Historical and Preservation Society. If you have comments or questions about Look Back items, please contact him at: roberteenoch@gmail.com, or by mail at WCHPS, PO Box 565, Parkersburg, WV 26102.