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Weston Stoneware
810 Main Street Museum
Back to Past Exhibits
| Weston Stoneware is a small temporary
but interesting exhibit containing nineteen beautiful pieces from
this local business. The story of Weston stoneware begins with Horace
Weston. In about 1826, due to failing health, Rev. Horace Weston gave
up his physically demanding fifty-mile ministry in Ulster and Sullivan
County, New York. Ellenville, NY became his permanent home in which
he began manufacturing stoneware and shipping it along the entire
length of the Delaware & Hudson Canal. In the spring of 1848 he purchased
land on Sixth Street, Honesdale to establish a branch factory but
died in July of “fever”. His twenty-year-old son William W. Weston
carried on and built the factory, which was finished in the spring
of 1849. By 1854 William left the business to pursue other interests
and his brother Horace, Jr. was placed in charge of the Honesdale
plant. The marks on the stoneware were changed from “W. Weston, Honesdale,
PA” to “H. Weston, Honesdale, PA” In 1872 Horace Weston, Jr. died
and the pottery factory closed. |

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| In addition to this exhibit the newly published book
Big Ware Turners, The History and Manufacture of Pennsylvania
Stoneware, by Phil Schaltenbrand is available for purchase in
the Museum Shop. Stoneware from Weston and Burns & Cross of Ledgedale,
PA are included. |
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