THE HISTORY of NILOAK POTTERY

            It’s been over 90 years since Eagle Pottery introduced its radically new and different art pottery. With extensive research, many questions have been answered, some questions have been left unanswered, and too many new, sometimes difficult, questions have surfaced. These new questions demand a complete review of the historical record. The two most important questions left unanswered are interrelated: First, what was the relationship between the employees of the Ouachita Pottery and the Eagle Pottery Companies? Second, who was responsible for the commercially viable swirl concept in Arkansas? Circumstantial evidence does exist that Charles Hyten was aware of Arkansas’s first art pottery company. Although no direct relationship has been established between the two companies, the proximity of the two cities (less than 30 miles apart with regular railroad transportation between them) and the fact that Ouachita Pottery exhibited at Arkansas’s first and second state fairs in 1906 and 1907, and advertised regularly, leads one to speculate that Charles Hyten had to have ventured over to Hot Springs to learn about a related business.

            Hyten did establish a relationship with two Ouachita employees, Arthur Dovey, former Rookwood potter, and Paul E. Cox. The important unanswered question is when these relationships started. In 1908 Dovey went to work in Missouri but returned to Arkansas the following year to help Hyten with the development of an art pottery operation at Benton. Cox, who left for Newcomb College at New Orleans and later headed the ceramic department at Iowa State College in Ames, had an association with Hyten which lasted into the 1930s. Dovey undoubtedly played the more important role, as he possessed general knowledge of pottery making and knew at least the specifics of throwing the swirl technique.

            During Dovey’s brief stay in Benton, several occurrences are noteworthy. In late July 1910, Arthur Dovey purchased a plot of land from Charles Hyten and this purchase may have been Dovey’s investment in their venture. During the latter half of 1910, it is evident (i.e. existence of the patent pend’g mark) that someone undertook an attempt to patent the Missionware line. By late December 1910, Dovey had sold his property and departed Arkansas in February 1911. These series of events (the quick land transactions, the failed patent attempt, and Dovey’s departure) seem to point to a conclusion that either someone maligned Dovey’s efforts and he left under bad terms, or that Dovey simply had a better offer. (He went to work for the Valentien Pottery in California after leaving Arkansas.) Yet confusing facts dealing with the company’s history are not uncommon in researching Niloak Pottery, as will be shown in the case of just who invented Niloak’s Missionware.

            Unbeknownst to everyone until Paul Evans, the eminent historian of American art pottery and author of Art Pottery of the United States, located photographic documentation in the Dovey family’s possession, Ouachita Pottery (in 1906) produced a swirl pottery! While no examples of Ouachita swirl have surfaced, the existence of photographic evidence is enough to make one certain point: Dovey was more than a potter; he was undoubtedly a skilled ceramist and his experiences helped launch Eagle Pottery’s Niloak Missionware line in February 1909. It is possible that Dovey, knowing about the clays in Saline County, sought work with Hyten in manufacturing swirl pottery that he knew how to produce. A new and developing twist to just who developed the swirl concept comes from the family of Fred Johnson, a long-time potter at Niloak Pottery.

            Although not substantiated with historical documentation, the Johnson family history contends that it was Fred Johnson who, having supposedly worked for Ouachita Pottery before moving over to Eagle Pottery, invented the commercially viable swirl product! Moreover, it was Johnson who toiled over the swirl technique for many years to get the process to the point of having a patent issued, not in Fred Johnson’s name, however, but in Hyten’s name alone. Unfortunately no substantial evidence has been uncovered yet to explain how and why things occurred as they did. Nonetheless, some facts speak for themselves. Inspired to create artistic wares, or just desiring to keep his business open in the face of slowly decreasing demands for his jugs, crocks, and the like, Charles Hyten, along with Arthur Dovey, Fred Johnson, and perhaps others planned and initiated the necessary steps to create a new type of art pottery which had no rival in the world.

            Setting the responsibility of the swirl concept aside, it was a marriage of necessity as both these men needed one another. While Dovey contributed technical and artistic abilities, Hyten had connections in the business circles of Benton and was able to raise needed capital. Prominent local businessmen headed the 1909 list of organizers, including Arthur Dovey, Charles Hyten, Elijah Y. Stinson, John J. Beavers, James F. Lee, George Brown, W H. Lawer, A. W. Warren, and Dr. Dewell Gann. The capital stock was $10,000 with $2,000 invested. Utilizing this capital, Dovey and Hyten spent February 1, 1909, in Little Rock, purchasing equipment to supplement what already existed in Benton “to establish a plant for the manufacture of art pottery.” Potters like the Johnsons, Carltons, Rowlands, and others no doubt provided, at the very least, their particular ceramic skills at the plant, located on Pearl Street at the end of South Market Street. The equipment for the plant included a new kiln “exclusively for the burning of the finest Bric-a-Brac ware.” “Bric-a-Brac ware” did not have the same connotation back then as it does today. It is a keyword for the better ceramics including art pottery. The new line “is certain to be a winner, as nowhere is this line made that will compare with [the Niloak] ware, except at the works of the art potteries at Zanesville, and the famous Rookwood Pottery of Cincinnati, Ohio....” It is possible that this new line was going to be marketed as Eagle Pottery, as one early piece has surfaced with an Eagle Pottery circle ink stamp commonly found on the utilitarian wares. This known example may indicate that production was achieved during late 1909, but the name changed by early 1910.

            The optimistic organizers hoped to begin production in early 1909. However, production did not begin until at least January 1910. Many difficulties and delays were obviously encountered in perfecting the swirl process, but the technique was refined to the extent that a salable product was achieved by March 1910—this product now called Niloak and manufactured by The Eagle Pottery Company. The pottery’s production during the early years was limited. Dovey threw many of the pieces before his departure. In addition to being at least partly responsible for bringing the swirl pottery concept to a commercial reality, Dovey is obviously responsible for producing some glazed, decorated wares of which none to date have surfaced.

            While Hyten did not own a part of the corporation at this time, he was the company’s manager. It is apparent that while Hyten managed the Niloak Pottery, he still owned and operated his Eagle Pottery. It’s probable that the Niloak incorporators and Hyten made an agreement to let Hyten keep his Eagle Pottery while operating Niloak Pottery. This seems reasonable as none of the financial backers had much experience running a pottery plant, much less making art pottery. By the end of 1911, however, Hyten became financially involved in the Niloak company. The “Financial Report of The Niloak Pottery” filed February 3, 1912, shows that most of the Niloak directors had increase share holdings with Hyten now owning 40 shares.

            The origin of the name Niloak (kaolin spelled backward) is unknown. It is likely that the idea of how the name was derived came from Arthur Dovey. It had been a common practice for pottery companies to create names for their companies and/or the individual lines they produced. For example, Weller Pottery had a line called Louwelsa that combined the first three letters of Sam A. Weller’s daughter’s name (Louise), the first three letter of his last name (Weller) and his initials (S. A.). Teco Pottery is derived from the first two letters of the first two words in the company’s name, Terra Cotta Tile Works. Finally, many years later, Hardy or his brother Sinclair Winburn used this old trick to spin off a comical spelling of porcelain. They combined “por” (from porcelain) with saline (Saline County is where Benton is located) to coin “Porsaline” as their name for the clay mixture Niloak Pottery developed for castware production during World War Il. Knowing or probably familiar with these plays on words, Dovey may have at least jump started the idea to create a unique name for the pottery.

            As local tradition has it, Niloak was first offered for sale at the Bush Drug and Jewelry Company of Benton. Niloak Pottery caught the attention of many in and around Benton and Little Rock. Moreover, tradition has it that Bush’s display resulted in immediate sales to tourists who, waiting for their trains to depart, wandered uptown and purchased pieces as souvenirs of their visit to Arkansas. Within a couple of years, Niloak Pottery was a well-known Benton business. A key factor in Niloak’s initial success was the family relationship between the Hytens and F. W. Sanders of Little Rock. Frederick W. Sanders operated Sanders & Company on Main Street and was a dealer in glassware, china, and pottery.

            Beginning in 1910, Sanders & Company was the sole distributor of Niloak pottery outside of Benton. A well-known jobber to many companies in the South and East, Sanders promoted Niloak pottery through his many contacts with merchants, retailers, and wholesalers. The earliest known Sanders advertisement, in a March 1910 issue of the Arkansas Gazette, announced: “Beautiful Art Pottery from Benton, Ark.,” with “[r]ich glazed effects [and] soft matt finishes.” Existing early pieces indicate that production centered on dull-finishing of the clay swirl. On the other hand, a few surviving examples of exterior clear glazed pieces suggest that efforts were made to produce a glazed ware (similar to the Rookwood “Standard glaze”) as potteries were doing in Ohio. This technique, used infrequently, was dropped by 1911 because either the line was not selling or the clear glaze often darkened to such an extent that the swirls were obscured.

            The first exhibition of Niloak pottery (and most likely its national debut) came in March 1910 at the Marion Hotel in Little Rock during a land congress convention boosting Arkansas economic advantages and development. Apparently a big hit among the public, a selection of the pottery, “beautifully striped with colored earths,” was incorporated into the Missouri Pacific Railway’s exhibit at the United States Land and Irrigation Exhibition in Chicago later that year. From all indications, 1910 was a successful first year for the Eagle Pottery Company’s manufacture of Niloak with increased attention and sales of this wholly natural” and unique Arkansas product. Niloak Pottery’s initial successes led to the inclusion of its own exhibit in the “Arkansas on Wheels” tour, a state-wide advertising campaign for economic development that toured the Northeast in 1911. The Arkansas Democrat reported that the “Niloak pottery of Benton has a choice display” on the train. Falsely advertised as “wholly natural” (its colors were actually produced with oxides; cobalt for blue, ferric for red, etc.), Niloak sold thousands of dollars worth of this unique Arkansas product to several large northern retail houses.

            In May 1911, after months of preparation, the United Confederate Veterans converged on Little Rock for its annual reunion. In response to the grand event, the Arkansas Democrat published an oversize commemorative issue that contained the first extensive history of Niloak Pottery with two unique photographs. One general characteristic of promotional literature by Niloak was unabashed hyperbole. One statement revealed that “experts...claimed the Niloak far superior to the famous Rookwood ware in every way....” The article commented further that the “freakish” designs caused a brisk national sale, that popular acceptance by the public resulted in enormous demands, and that “over the past two years” as many as 25 potters were employed. Moreover, this immense success led the company to make plans to “manufacture this magnificent ware on a more elaborate scale.” From all indications, Niloak enjoyed an initial popularity as it caught the eye of the public as the first successful art pottery devoid of the typical decorations and glaze manipulations associated with other United States potteries.

            The success of Niloak Pottery can also be contributed to the work force at Benton. In the 1910 United State Census, over 20 persons are identified with unnamed potteries as either laborers, throwers, or owners. Long ignored by local researchers (including myself), these potters undoubtedly contributed greatly to the development of the swirl concept early on, but more importantly, they set the foundation that Niloak built upon for the next 40 years. Persons included on this census, and are known to or likely to have worked at Eagle/Niloak Pottery, include George. E. Wilbur, Alfred E. Wilbur, J. E. Johnson, J. Rowland, Colonel McNeil and his sons Romine and Joshua, Charles Glass, Matt C. Carlton, Alvin Carlton, Fred Johnson, Paul Hyten, and Frank Ira Long. Some of these potters had been “potting” for over 30 years in the Benton area. Arthur Dovey is listed as well and it’s interesting to note that while these potters listed their occupations as “throwers,” Dovey stated his as a “turner.” They mean the same thing.

            Long-time Niloak potters, who show up in historical materials later on, include Fred Johnson, the McNeil family, the Rowland family, the Glass family, and Frank Ira Long. Fred Johnson worked with every facet of Niloak production up to the early 1930s at least. He left Niloak Pottery and eventually joined his uncle Matt Carlton at the Bauer Pottery in California. While much is not known about the McNeils and Glasses, they too spent years working for Niloak. Frank Long left Niloak briefly in the late teens. He returned by the mid-1920s, he was working in northern Alabama to make Hy-Long pottery as well as swirl pottery marketed as Muscle Shoals and Marie. Long returned to Arkansas in 1927 to work as Camark Pottery’s only thrower, a job he held until retirement. These potters were Niloak’s most skilled employees during their tenure and while their contributions may never be fully known, their impact nonetheless was extremely important and noteworthy.

            Optimism blossomed as Benton businessmen, including members of the prominent Bush and Caldwell families, incorporated the Niloak Pottery company in July 1911. Active in administrative duties of the new company were Ernest J. and Fred C. Bush, owners of the Bush Drug and Jewelry Company which first displayed Niloak pottery in their front window. Other financiers were E. R. Norton, as president of Niloak, A. G. Wheeler (owners of the Norton Wheeler Stave Company), and James M. Caldwell, the vice-president (and co-owner of the Caldwell and Kelly General Store) who was Charles’s in-law. (He married Cora Zella Caidwell in 1901.) Corporate records show that Norton, Wheeler, Caldwell, and the Bush brothers collectively subscribed to 240 of the 400 outstanding shares at $25 per share, totaling $6000 of the $10,000 company capital. Hyten’s duty was to see that the company manufactured, promoted, and sold a wide range of art pottery, earthenware, brick, and tile. Much of the early financial history of the pottery will never be known, and we will never know if the $6000 injected into the corporation allowed for further expansion and manufacture or just covered existing debt accumulated since 1909.

            Moreover, the lack of company records will allow only conclusions based either on indirect evidence and/or local tradition. It is impossible to know exactly what went on in the pottery between 1911 and 1913. References are often made to a fire at the plant and to the creation of a national sales force by a “connoisseur” from Chicago around 1912. Although reasonable and possible on both accounts, no evidence has surfaced to substantiate either claim. The differences between the May 19 photograph of the Eagle pottery showroom (single floor) and a 1915 layout of the Niloak Pottery plant in Sanborn Insurance Maps show an expanded plant with two floors. Therefore, there must have been sufficient business to necessitate either an expansion or rebuilding, if indeed there had been a fire. More importantly, there has been no confirmation as to who the “connoisseur” was and whether or not a “national sales force” was ever established.

            Another confusing point concerning Niloak Pottery was its labeling as “Mission Art Pottery,” implying a connection to the Arts and Crafts Movement of the early 1900s. Some people discounted this as advertising hype, yet a Niloak cover story that appeared in The Clay-Worker in May 1913 raises question about the validity of the “mission” designation. The extensive article, written by an unnamed Niloak employee or local promoter, uses the term “mission.” However, we do not know if Hyten (or anyone else at Niloak, for that matter) had any opinions o or inclinations toward the philosophy of the Art and Crafts Movement. Of the extensive research undertaken on the local level, only one reference from the Benton Courier (1913), used the word “mission” in describing Niloak pottery.

            The Hyten family, on the other hand, knows of no association and never remembered Charles Hyten referring to or advertising Niloak Pottery as Missionware. While some Little Rock retail businesses and their advertisements provided commercial exposure to the movement as early as 1900, the extent of Hyten’s commitment to any philosophical aspects of the Arts and Crafts Movement is difficult to ascertain. Perhaps Niloak pottery manufacture had “simplicity” in design, and maybe the “mission” designation seemed reasonable within the stylistic framework of the American Arts and Crafts Movement. Its recognition, however, was deserving whether Hyten consciously sought such an affiliation or not. Nonetheless, with the introduction of Missionware pottery back in 1910, Dovey and Hyten brought radically different art pottery to the market. Hand thrown, with classical shapes, the pieces usually consisted of two to three earthtone colors with a matte, satin finish. Niloak’s dull swirling patterns of colored clays, with an inherent notion of simplicity in design, further and firmly placed itself within the context of the American Arts and Crafts Movement. Therefore, the designation of Niloak swirl as Missionware is not only noteworthy, it is absolutely valid.

            The uniqueness of the Missionware concept allowed Hyten to issue a challenge as well as allow the company to secure distributors. Hyten offered a $1000 reward to anyone who could find two pieces of Niloak with identical swirl patterns. Hyten never lost this bet as he knew this was an impossibility due to the random patterns created by the centrifugal force of the potter’s wheel. As for early distributors, local tradition has it that a Chicagoan became Niloak sales representative. In addition, it is known from the 1913 catalog that Brown-Robertson Company of New York represented Niloak. Moreover, it is apparent from this catalog that Niloak Pottery Company possibly took back control of its sales operation. Did this Fifth Avenue company quit business? What happened to the sales representative from Chicago? Or did Missionware sales fail to materialize causing the Niloak Pottery Company to be dropped as a client? In spite of these initial distributors and the national coverage provided by the cover and feature article in The Clay-Worker, it appears that Niloak’s business began failing during the general economic woes of the mid-1910s and did not recover until the early 1920s. Moreover, if a survey of the size of Sander’s Niloak advertisements in the Arkansas Gazette from 1910 to 1917 are any indication, the business peaked in 1913 and declined thereafter.

            Sander’s first advertisement for Niloak’s Missionware appeared in the March 13, 1910, issue of the Arkansas Gazette. At 1/16 page, the display advertisements were the same size until 1912 when the size for the December Christmas advertisements increased to almost 1/4 page. In 1914 there were no Christmas advertisements; afterwards the Christmas advertisements began to decrease in size. Moreover, after 1914, Niloak advertisements were incorporated into the regular Sanders Christmas advertisements for toys. By 1917, the advertisements decreased from 1/32 page to single sentences mentioning Niloak pottery. Between Christmas 1918 and 1920, there were no Christmas advertisements by Sanders. A final Christmas ad featuring Niloak pottery appeared shortly before Sanders sold out to the Gus Blass Company, a large department store in Little Rock. (Dillard’s Department Store is the modern successor to Blass.) Finally, between 1914 and 1921, no articles were written and few advertisements appeared in the local or state newspapers or other publications. The Sanborn maps of 1915 and 1921 show little difference in the Niloak plant. The major change was the removal of Hyten’s experimental kiln during this period. With Hyten focusing on a standardized ware, it is possible that this kiln was no longer needed as shapes and the process of using red, white, blue, gray, and brown colored clays became the norm.

            From 1915 to 1922, Niloak Pottery’s activity is, to a great extent, unknown but two occurrences deserve mentioning. Hyten apparently wanted to produce glazed, decorated ware. From the earliest known photograph of Niloak pottery, published in 1911, we see an example of art pottery other than Missionware. This attempt, by Dovey, to create a line of decorated artware undoubtedly failed. However, during a visit in 1918, the Little Rock artist Pansy McLaughlin, a student of the Cincinnati Academy of Art, the Cincinnati Institute, and the Chicago Art Institute, was approached by Niloak to “under take the management of their designing department Although she declined, this event, combined with Paul E. Cox’s first known visit back in 1917, suggests that preparations were underway to do more than Missionware. Therefore, it seems efforts were undertaken to compete with the Ohio art pottery establishment. Finally, it is possible that production and marketing sagged after 1915 due to Hyten’s desire to produce more than Missionware. When this failed, Hyten turned his attention back to Missionware production. Another circumstance which puts the company’s viability in question is the surrender of the Niloak Pottery Company’s charter in 1918.

            On January 21, 1918, President Norton and Secretary F. C. Bush signed documents resolving “that the assets of the Niloak Pottery, a corporation of Benton, Arkansas, be distributed among the stockholders thereof, and the charter of said corporation be surrendered.” If business had been good, why would stock holders surrender the charter? Whatever the cause, stockholders relinquished control to Hyten. Interestingly enough, the Benton Courier made no mention of the transaction. From all indications, Niloak pottery production and sales were minimal from the mid-1910s to the early 1920s. During the second half of 1917, advertising appeared in the Benton Courier pertaining to the sale of Eagle Pottery’s molasses jugs (due to wartime shortages of tin for containers). With the first regularly published Eagle Pottery advertisements appearing right before the corporation’s surrender, they must have been Hyten’s only hope of staying in the pottery business. In addition, by the first part of 1919, he turned to another business, with hopes of making a living. From January to May 1919, Hyten advertised weekly in the Benton Courier his “Truck Service and Moving Company.” Hyten’s delivery service promised: “Special attention given to hauling of household goods, and best care given to all kinds of hauling. Careful drivers and prompt service.”

            It is apparent that Eagle Pottery’s production of utilitarian ware was Hyten’s only pottery concern into the very early part of the 1920s. More importantly, the Benton Courier provided little news about the pottery from 1914 to 1922. With the surrender of the Niloak charter and non-Missionware ads, it is probable that Hyten’s art pottery business was declining. When his attempt to hire a decorator failed, Hyten turned his attention back to Missionware production. This time with standardized clay colors and shapes. At this point, Niloak’s Missionware in concept and design becomes less art pottery and more utilitarian, florist, and giftware in nature. Although most Missionware was hand thrown, Hyten was able to achieve a mass production level with his experienced potters including Frank Long, Reagan Rowland, Romine and Joshua McNeil, and Fred Johnson. By the 1920s, the Niloak Pottery facilities included a building measuring 40’ x 140’, three kilns, and 15-20 employees. Fortunately, the best years were just ahead.

            The 1920s became Niloak’s best years as Hyten, Fred Johnson, and Frank Long soon traveled extensively to sell and demonstrate the swirl technique for retailers’ customers. If a particular store purchased a certain amount of Missionware, a Niloak employee would travel to the store and give a personal demonstration. Throughout the twenties, Niloak concentrated on the retail markets in larger cities, in department stores and art shops, with sales distributors from coast to coast, in the Midwest and Southwest, and in Arkansas, especially in resorts such as Hot Springs and Eureka Springs. Clubs and organizations purchased and used this home product of Arkansas, such as the Masonic Lodge. The Albert Pike Lodge in Little Rock purchased about a dozen Missionware cuspidors for outdoor use by its members. Along with Niloak’s success during the 1920s, other accomplishments were achieved including the patenting of the unique swirl process.

            Demonstration trips and linkage with the state boosterism movement and other promotions were important to the success of Niloak Pottery in the 1920s. Hyten took to the road in response to business interests wanting to use demonstrations of making Missionware as a promotional technique. Over the course of five years, Hyten or his close, long-time associates like Long and Johnson, made numerous automobile trips to southern, midwestern, and eastern states to visit department stores. These included Wamamaker’s in Philadelphia, the May Company in both New York and Los Angeles, and Marshall Field’s in Chicago. The greatest promotion of Niloak Pottery came in the early 1920s when the American Federation of Women’s Clubs decided to launch a nationwide tour for American art pottery. The Arkansas Federation of Women’s Clubs secured the participation of Niloak Pottery in this traveling exhibition that lasted for several years. Seeking to “bring art to the people,” the Federation included in its exhibit a pottery section which featured Niloak Missionware among examples of Marblehead, Newcomb, Rookwood, and Van Briggle.

            The American Federation of Women’s Clubs had long promoted the value of art, regardless of the medium. The exhibition and Niloak’s inclusion were noted in an article in the September 1922 issue of International Studio magazine. Beyond just displaying the many different types of American art pottery for its artistic appreciation, the Federation also promoted the sale of the pottery. As a result, a new, more informed audience began purchasing Niloak’s Missionware. Finally, Niloak advertised itself in the annuals of the Arkansas Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. Published in connection with Arkansas’s UDC annual convention, display ads appear in consecutive issues between 1923 and 1926 and undoubtedly promoted Niloak as a home product worthy of loyal patronage by Arkansans.

            Another reason for Niloak’s renewed success involved the company’s strong connection to boosterism in Arkansas. Attempting to counter the negative attitudes directed towards Arkansas, Niloak Pottery helped respond, in their promotional literature, with statements like Arkansas was the “home of the Niloak Pottery” or Niloak was an “Arkansas Wonder.” Organizations such as the Arkansas Advancement Association, which was responsible for changing Arkansas’s motto from the “Bear State” to “The Wonder State,” frequently promoted Arkansas products as testaments of Arkansas’s economic advantages. The fast growing economy and the resulting increase in buying power by the middle class also benefited Niloak as more and more people were purchasing goods described as luxury items. As a result, these reasons undoubtedly brought increased sales to Niloak. Therefore Niloak had to increase its production to keep up with sales by standardizing its Missionware line.

            In January 1922, Hyten visited Colorado Springs, Colorado, and Salt Lake City, Utah. This western trip received notice, like many others to follow, in the Benton Courier and started an odyssey which took Hyten and others from one coast to the other to demonstrate the swirl technique. In a series of trips, Hyten alone visited Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Washington D. C., New Jersey, New York, Illinois, and then headed west to Colorado Springs and Salt Lake City. This time, with the family in tow, the group visited Los Angeles for two weeks, Long Beach for a month, and then skipped down to Tijuana, Mexico, for a brief respite before heading home. During this trip Hyten had secured at least one sales outlet—the Pussy Willow shop near Santa Barbara, California. The touring by Hyten and others probably helped Niloak attract new distributors. By 1923, Niloak Pottery secured Geo. Borgfeldt and Company of New York with its outlets from coast to coast. Borgfeldt soon advertised Missionware as “Mother Earth’s art… fashioned by the hand and eye of man.”

            One of the most unusual demonstration trips was made by Frank Long to Lancaster, Pennsylvania. On the night of April 22, 1924, the local Lancaster radio station announced the pending Missionware demonstration at a local store, describing it as one of “the wonders of the Wonder State.” This example of boosterism came during the time when Arkansans worked vigorously to promote their state as an industrialized, progressive place with opportunities for all. Although similar trips were made through 1927, the peak of activities occurred during 1923-1924. Connections to Arkansas’s boosterism resulted in Niloak Pottery becoming a highly visible and “valuable advertisement medium for Arkansas.” In November 1923, the Niloak Pottery Company was invited to include a display in the first annual Arkansas Traveling Exposition train which visited the East Coast presenting examples of the resources of Arkansas. Missionware examples were given to many dignitaries including President Coolidge and his wife.

            Former Arkansas Governor Charles Brough, in attendance, gave an account of the visit with President Coolidge: The President “expressed almost boyish delight” in receiving the Niloak Pottery smoking set and asked if the clay was “artificially colored or whether it [was] natural.” While Brough did not elaborate on what answer was given, he did comment on the sales displays he had seen: “Just here may I say that I was delighted to see so many first-class pottery establishments in the East carrying Niloak among their sales exhibits, and to know at first hand that the famous store of Sterling, Welch & Co., of Cleveland, installed Niloak as one of its holiday attractions.” Gifts of Missionware became customary for visiting officials and for other grand occasions. With its commissioning in 1923, the third Arkansas battleship was presented a Niloak Pottery smoking set by the Little Rock/Pine Bluff Shriners during a ceremony at Annapolis, Maryland.

            By the mid-1920s Niloak was one of the “wonders” of Arkansas. As attempts continued to boost Arkansas as the “Wonder State,” Niloak Pottery became one of Arkansas’s marvels due to its uniqueness as a product pointing to the unlimited possibilities of Arkansas’s natural resources. Missionware became an attraction at local, state, and regional fairs. Between 1925 and 1928, Niloak Pottery displayed Missionware and demonstrated the swirl technique at Morrilton, during its Centennial Exposition, at the Arkansas State Fair in Little Rock, and at the Tri-State Fair in Memphis, Tennessee. Fred Johnson is known to have participated in at least one demonstration trip, going to Savannah, Georgia, in 1926. Other trips involving Fred Johnson occurred as well. Virginia Heiss, the historian of Indiana’s Muncie Pottery, states that a Niloak potter came to Muncie about once a year and threw Missionware. Brenda Escoto, Fred Johnson’s granddaughter, revealed that it was her grandfather who took these trips (each lasting three months) to Muncie Pottery, and they spanned a time period of about five years (although when these trips were taken is not known). These varied activities gained Niloak Pottery much publicity which no doubt contributed to its rising popularity and success.

            The Niloak Pottery, like Camark Pottery just a few years later, was the site of numerous tour stops, family visits, and school children’s field trips. Mary D. Hudgins was a party to one such visit on July 13, 1925: “We stopped at the old pottery down on the railroad track. Mr. Hyten asked only that visitors pay $1.00 each for the privilege of being given a gob of clay (several colors). With a little instruction each ‘potter’ was left in front of the wheel and told to control the wheel’s turning by a foot pedal. The result of his ‘crafting’ was properly fired and sent on to him by mail. I accepted the clay, and began to pedal, curving my hands as I had been told, the thumbs in control. By a small miracle I achieved a symetrical [sic] urn in short order. If only I had had sense enough to take my foot off the [pedal] at once, all would have been well. My foot shook. My hand trembled. ‘Let it go down to a blob,’ said Mr. Hyten, standing by, ‘and start over.’ Never again could I do anything with that blob. My ‘ash tray’ is a cherished possession; but poor in workmanship.” (This item is in the collection of the University of Arkansas Museum.) Niloak continued to welcome guests and even promoted tours of its facility. According to some reports, at least 1,000 visitors annually toured the plant site by the late 1920s.

            Niloak Pottery was also busy trying to secure exclusive rights to the Missionware technique. In March 1925, the company secured Niloak as a trademark, and later the same year set in motion an application for a patent. It seems possible, and rightly so, that other established potteries recognized the swirl pattern’s appeal and were capitalizing on it with their versions. In order to protect his market, Hyten sought to prevent others in Arkansas and elsewhere from making a similar product. The need for protection rose from two possible competitors, one in Arkansas and the other in Colorado. From early 1923, Niloak Pottery sold well in and around Colorado Springs. Although there is no proof yet, it is probable that Denver’s White Pottery manufactured its swirl as a result of the popularity of Niloak. According to Tom Turnquist, author of Denver’s White Pottery, swirl production started in Denver during the early 1920s. Was it just a coincidence or did White capitalize on Niloak’s Missionware technique? There was concern in Arkansas since some advocated passing a law to force Colorado to accept marked pieces of Niloak.

            Although virtually all Missionware was marked, it was noted that “The name (Niloak) is stamped on the bottom of each piece—save that manufactured and sold in that state [Colorado] as a native product.” This mysterious statement is compounded by the fact that the Niloak mark is sometimes covered up by Colorado shop stickers. Finally, the mystery of the definitely Niloak but marked “mineralized” pieces has been uncovered. Company literature by the Van Briggle Pottery of Colorado has surfaced that connects Niloak’s “mineralized” pieces to Colorado and back to Niloak Pottery. This 1920s literature states: “Van Briggle truly reflects the spirit of Colorado, just as the striped pottery (sometimes called mineralized pottery), made at Benton, Ark., reflects the spirit of Arkansas.” What is not known at this time is when Niloak Pottery made these wares for retail in Colorado.

            The Arkansas challenger was Charlie Stehm’s Ozark Pottery of Eureka Springs. Although his swirl production did not begin until after Niloak Pottery had filed for a patent in 1925, Stehm’s work undoubtedly provided added impetus for the company to obtain his patent. Tradition has it that Hyten threatened to sue Stehm if he continued making swirl. From all indications, Ozark Pottery production ceased by the end of 1927—just before Niloak Pottery was granted a U.S. patent on its swirl process. Swirl pottery was made in the 1920s by other companies though it is not known whether former Niloak employees were involved. The most active production came from the Evans Pottery of Missouri. In addition, Frank Long, long-time potter at Niloak, worked for the Spruce Pines Pottery of Alabama and made swirl pottery, most in the shapes he threw for Niloak. Later Howard Lewis, after leaving Niloak in 1934, made the Badlands pottery for Dickota Pottery of North Dakota. Since other swirl pottery never achieved the “complicated or delicately adjusted character” of Niloak, it is possible that no significant swirl production resulted from the involvement of former Niloak employees. For whatever reasons, Niloak Pottery began final efforts to secure rights to the Niloak name and product.

            On November 6, 1924, the Niloak Pottery Company filed for a registered trademark for Niloak. It submitted “five specimens showing the trade-mark as actually used by applicant upon the goods, and requests that the same be registered in the United States Patent Office.” Trademark 195,889 was registered on March 3, 1925. As Niloak Pottery enjoyed increased sales and publicity, the company desired to keep its product from being copied elsewhere by other potteries. As a result Niloak Pottery filed “5 claims” for a patent on July 24, 1924. Nearly four years later, on January 31, 1928, Niloak Pottery was granted patent number 1,657,997. As noted in the Official Gazette of the United States Patent Office for 1928, the “present invention relates broadly to the art of ceramic, and particularly to a novel clay product and the process of manufacturing the same. The invention, more specifically, has to do with the production of clay pottery of a decorative character by virtue of the use of clay of different colors.... A cylindrical shaped ceramic product composed of a plurality of different colored clays, each different clay containing a shrink age controlling substance so proportioned relative to the color base as to impart to such clay approximately the same shrinkage characteristic as the other clays, said clays being displaced circumferentially as an incident to manipulation during rotation of the composite clays while in plastic condition so as to produce a blended and variegated striae of irregular form.” Though this must have been a high point for the Niloak Pottery Company, it is very odd that no mention was made in the Benton Courier. In addition, neither the 1925 issuance of the trademark nor the incorporation of Niloak Pottery and Tile Company on September 6, 1928, was acknowledged. Niloak Pottery did receive notice that it had “won preferred honors” during its exhibit at the 1928 national convention of the American Mining Congress in Washington, D. C.

            A year before, The Clay-Worker announced that Niloak planned an addition and that other improvements were “under consideration” by Hyten. By March 1928, plans were revealed for a new Benton showroom to be built (and housed with modern equipment) at a cost of $20,000 on the Hot Springs-Little Rock Highway (now known as Military Road). In early September, the ground was broken for a grand, one-story showroom with a Spanish facade. To further the debate on (if not help prove) whether Hyten was aware of the missionware connotation, the author of Art Pottery of the United States, upon publication of the first Niloak edition, made an interesting observation. Paul Evans wrote: “The 1929 Military Road [showroom, photograph of the building,] is as ‘mission’ as anything I have ever seen: the architecture California Mission and… the interior fireplace… is very Arts & Crafts Mission.” This new showroom became the exclusive manufacturing site for Missionware. Shipped to the original plant on Pearl Street, the wares were fired and then returned to Military Road for shipment and retail sales. Five months later, on February 16, 1929, the new showroom formally opened. The front room was adorned with red roses in Niloak pottery vases. Guests drank punch served from a Niloak Missionware punch bowl and danced to the music of the Corn Huskers, a Little Rock orchestra. The showroom must have been a grand sight as dancers stepped lively over the large swirl-tiled floor and set their glasses of punch on the fireplace mantle adorned with similar, smaller tiles. None of the revelers could know at this stage that Niloak Pottery had already reached its zenith and that a slow decline lay ahead.

            The years 1929 through 1931 are not well documented. Except for a time of regrouping and adjusting to the hard times brought on by the Depression, little else is known until the introduction of Hywood Art Pottery in December 1931. What is known is that the early 1930s included hard times for Benton, like everyone else. As with many other industries around the nation, Niloak suffered from a lack of sales. In addition to the expense of the showroom, the company printed a new catalog (Indian girl on the cover) and spent an extraordinary amount on new four-color letterhead and promotional memorabilia, including mechanical pencils. Combined, these expenses added to Niloak’s existing debt. This, coupled with heavy debt from financing the new showroom and pre-existing debt, bankrupted the company. The Depression has been blamed for the woes of Niloak Pottery; however, financial problems existed at the time that plans for the showroom were announced.

            Corporate records in 1928 reveal “recent indebtedness” to the Benton Bank and Trust Company (Hyten was once one of its directors) as well as an approved motion to seek more than $25,000 in funds to finance the new construction and pay off the current debt. The Depression had led to the acceptance of a loan from K. K. Bell of Chicago to cover the existing $20,000 indebtedness. To survive, the directors (Hyten, his wife Cora, and Wilbur J. “Red” Whitthorne) mortgaged all the company’s property. Wilbur Whitthorne, from a long-time Benton family, was hired back in February 1928 as Niloak bookkeeper and soon rose to the position of secretary-treasurer. With sales still not materializing by September 1930, employees were laid off, and the salaries of those who remained were slashed. Hyten, nevertheless, persevered and plotted the company’s future. Believing Missionware sales to be an expensive luxury item to most and that these sales would not recover immediately, Hyten decided to manufacture glazed ware.

            Although no evidence exists as to what Hyten desired to make, he hired a former Weller employee, Stoin M. Stoin, suggesting that he was familiar with the “Weller Art Pottery” sold at the Bush Brothers Store since the mid-twenties alongside Missionware. Stoin, who was born in Troyan, Bulgaria, on March 28, 1895, had also worked for the Houghton and Dalton Pottery of Dalton, Ohio. Stoin brought to Niloak both his knowledge of glazes and the shapes he used at Weller Pottery. No doubt Stoin is responsible conceptually for the Hywood Art Pottery line, as Hyten, after more than 20 years of Missionware production, had limited knowledge about the methods in making traditional art pottery, its clay bodies, and glaze preparation. Finally the physical results of new shapes and glazes (both shapes and glazes were similar to other potteries’ products) point to Stoin being the mastermind behind Hywood Art Pottery. The lasting result was a change in ceramic production away from Missionware and ultimately to industrial castware.

            Arriving in the summer of 1931, Stoin, a ceramics engineer, worked on Niloak’s newest creation—Hywood Art Pottery (a relatively unknown Niloak line until the late 1980s). This line was introduced to maintain the income needed to sustain the pottery’s production when Missionware sales dropped. It represented Hyten’s attempt to produce pottery with artistic merit and remain operational during the Depression. Based on traditional methods for making pottery, Hywood Art Pottery differed from Missionware in the way it was made and priced, as there were more costly and skilled steps involved with Missionware, from mixing the clay body, coloring the clays, mixing the color types for throwing, throwing the objects, removing them to the lathe for finishing, and finally firing them in the kiln.

            Unveiled during the Christmas season of 1931 at the Gus Blass Company with a “first time, exclusive” 400-plus exhibit, traditional glazed ware manufacturing began. The Arkansas Gazette reported that demonstrations would be performed by Hyten on an “old-fashioned cake wheel.” Although most items were thrown, some were molded. By early 1932, Hywood Art Pottery was being handled by George Rumrill’s Arkansas Products Company (which also handled Camark) along with other distributors in the Midwest and New England. Another known distributor was J. W. Bakster of Chicago. This progressive step, however, failed to bring Niloak back from the brink of bankruptcy as times became increasingly difficult. With a disastrous $3,000 fire in March of 1932, Hyten again faced a serious dilemma. Then Stoin left in the spring of 1932. This created another major setback for Hyten, since Stoin, who controlled the Hywood Art Pottery production, took his glaze formulas with him. This left Hyten not only without a skilled ceramist, but also with no way to continue on his own.

            Undaunted, in May 1932, Hyten visited his long-time friend, Paul E. Cox, now head of the ceramic engineering department at Iowa State College in Ames. Arriving during the annual spring festival (Veishea), Hyten hired the soon-to-be ceramic engineering graduate Howard S. Lewis. (Hyten also demonstrated his skills on the potter’s wheel during the festival.) Lewis arrived in Benton the next month and redeveloped the chemical process for glazes, worked out a new firing schedule for the kilns, and produced a new clay mixture for the Hywood by Niloak line (the successor to the Hywood Art Pottery line). Per Hyten’s instructions, Lewis tried to copy as near as possible the glazes made by Stoin. Experimenting through the summer of 1932, Lewis developed a number of glazes utilizing mottling, air brush, and drip techniques. This new glazed ware was now marketed as Hywood by Niloak in hopes that better sales would result from linking the Hywood name to the readily recognized Niloak name. For nearly two years, Lewis, along with sculptor and mold maker Rudy Ganz, worked with Hyten on both the hand-thrown and the earliest castware.

            The introduction of mold production and its technical aspects at Niloak mirrored the introduction of traditional glazes used on Hywood Art Pottery. The manufacture of molded pieces required personnel skilled in the area of modeling, block and case work, and mold production. While some crockery was produced at Eagle Pottery by means of a jigger, a revolving mold-like apparatus, its design and operation were nothing like the procedures needed for molding. For this experience Hyten hired Rudolph Ganz, a “well known designer.” Although little is known of Ganz’s life and career before his arrival in Benton in September 1931, Ganz was a skilled sculptor and mold maker from Baden, Germany. He came to America in 1929 and studied art at the National Art Academy in Chicago. For about a year and a half, Ganz worked for the Indiana Limestone Company in Bloomington. He reportedly received some education at the University of Indiana and may have worked for Frankhoma Pottery. Ganz told the Arkansas Gazette in 1932 that he decided to take a vacation and traveled through Arkansas. As a result, he spent two months at “Camp Rudy” near Fort Smith teaching Boys Scouts how to model in soap. The story goes on that Hyten visited the camp one day when Ganz was making a clay bust of a Boy Scout official. Hyten “decided his plant needed him.”

            Hyten hired Ganz, who produced molds for the few Hywood Art Pottery pieces which were not hand thrown. By September 1932, Ganz had produced 30 molds and completed designs for nearly 200 more molds for the new Hywood by Niloak line. One mold, a yet-to-be-seen crow, had five different pieces to its mold. In October, the Benton Courier announced Ganz’s acceptance of a part-time teaching position in modeling “at the Brewer School of Art in Little Rock.” With Stoin’s departure and Hyten’s apparent decision to limit hand-thrown wares, Ganz’s responsibilities were expanded as castware production increased. He designed, modeled, and produced molds for the Hywood by Niloak line, many of which were molded. Sometime in late 1933, Ganz moved to Fort Smith and worked for the Daly Monument Works. In 1936, Ganz became the foreman at Daly Monument Works and married. (His wife’s name was Willene.) He was no longer living in Ft. Smith by 1938, but by 1940 he was working as a designer and mold maker for the Shawnee Pottery of Zanesville, Ohio. At Shawnee, Ganz was the co-creator of Shawnee’s “first figural cookie jars” and would hold 17 design patents. He left in 1942, and his employment after Shawnee Pottery is not known.

            In 1934, after two years, Howard Lewis left and would work for a variety of pottery companies including Dickota Pottery (Dickinson, North Dakota); Broadmore Pottery (Denver, Colorado); Mason Brick and Tile (Mason City, Iowa); W. I. Tycer Pottery (Roseville, Ohio); and finally the Rosemeade Pottery of Wahpeton, North Dakota. In an interview, Lewis reminisced about his first days as a ceramist: “I just remember that times were hard while we were there and at times we hardly got enough to live on. It just depended on how much stoneware they sold each week. The conditions were bad when I came to Niloak Pottery. The men working in the stoneware plant were being paid 10 cents per hour. The main income was from the sale of stoneware. I started making pottery and in a few weeks Mr. Hyten raised the pay to 25 cents an hour. Stoneware production and pottery production increased, but there was a shortage of money for a long time. I was to get $25.00 a week, but many times I never got that much. Things were that way when I left, but there was some improvement.” Lewis related that the stoneware truck often came back half full and whatever proceeds were left, Hyten split among the employees. In 1956, Lewis went into teaching and never again worked with ceramics.

            If there was a highlight for the Niloak Pottery Company in the early 1930s, it came in 1933 when the pottery was included in the Chicago Century of Progress Exposition. Hyten spent a month demonstrating the pottery technique (presumably swirl) and Niloak (along with Camark) had an exhibit in the Arkansas Building of the Hall of States. Unfortunately, whatever positive publicity came with this was offset by what some called an “unfinished” exhibit which would “shame any native Arkansan.” In a letter to A. W. Parks, Secretary of the Arkansas Commission for the Century of Progress Exposition, George C. Merkel of the Pine Bluff Chamber of Commerce refused further cooperation as both the Camark and Niloak exhibits were in “haphazard form” and the attendant had “soiled clothing and about two days’ growth of beard.” Moreover, Merkel suggested that the exhibit be removed and that Arkansas withdraw from the Exposition altogether.

            The situation at Niloak continued to worsen, and Hyten turned to other means for survival. In 1934, a group of Little Rock businessmen, led by Hardy Lathan Winburn III and his grandfather C. L. Durrett, purchased the Niloak Pottery and Tile Company, reportedly in receivership. Although the particulars of the transaction are not known, they brought in another Little Rock businessman, Ben Searcy, and along with Hyten formed an alliance. The company, with each man possessing an equal share of stock, now had the capital to continue in business. Historically speaking, much about Winburn’s entry into the Niloak Pottery Company is obscure. Winburn, a chemistry graduate from Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, ran the Hope Brick Company out of Little Rock in the late 1920s. By the early 1930s, before coming to Niloak, Winburn sold roofing materials in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Little else, however, is known during this period since corporation records do not restart until September 1934. Hyten had quit keeping minutes in September 1930, resulting in a four-year gap. Nonetheless, Winburn, his grandfather Durrett, and Searcy brought both capital and business acumen to Niloak when it needed it the most.

            Although it would take several years to regain financial stability, the company’s concentration on industrial castware facilitated recovery. Winburn and his associates no doubt brought to Niloak pottery the necessary business skills that Hyten lacked. Winburn, in particular, implemented better business practices in both production and marketing as he sought to streamline business procedures and increase efficiency. With this introduction of organizational skills and the active pursual of their selected duties, these four men (all directors) revived the company’s ability to do business as production and sales were up by late 1935. Troubles were by no means over, unfortunately, as there still existed an over $15,000 debt from the 1920s.

            Hardy Winburn’s general manager’s report of February 1936 was not a cause for rejoicing at the stockholder’s meeting. Despite sales all over Arkansas, in every bordering state, to individuals (one purchase from Fairbanks, Alaska, totaled $3.68 worth of goods), and to drug stores and gift shops, bakeries and cafes, and hardware and furniture stores (also including a vinegar jar for the Gregory-Robinson-Speas Company), the company still operated at a loss. From September 1935 to February 1936, the company operated “normally” for only four weeks. Even though distinct business divisions (management, production, and sales) were created, “enforced idleness” resulted from ineffective operations among these three departments. Measures were promised to assure better business operations and a “harmony of action between sales and production departments.” Specifics included piecework and percentage pay, new equipment such as a kiln, and the transfer of the offices back to Benton. (They had been moved to Little Rock in August 1935.) If attainable, in Winburn’s view, Niloak would achieve “uninterrupted normal operation.”

            During 1936 and 1937, Niloak Pottery strove to continue in the ceramic business. Most importantly, the directors wanted to make Missionware a “salable line” again. Even though overall sales were a little better, the company adopted a retrenchment stance and curtailed production since debts needed retiring. Confusion abounded as internal reorganization continued and by June 1937, the sales office had been moved to Little Rock for the second time and then back to Benton. While sales and production departments had yet to attain “harmony,” the company decided to build a new kiln and hire an experienced general superintendent to increase production. This new employee, George M. Peterson, another Iowa State College graduate, became both the company’s mold designer and its ceramic engineer.

            George Peterson was hired back in mid-1936 and was responsible for many production aspects at Niloak. Peterson created many wonderful shapes, some identified by Joe Alley, for Niloak and spent considerable time “trying to perfect glazes against crazing.” Niloak Pottery finally decided to invest in a new kiln, and Winburn visited Camark Pottery to inspect its kilns. For what orders Niloak did receive, there were problems meeting those demands, and the company decided look into the possibility of a tunnel kiln to reduce manufacturing time from 6 weeks to several days. While Niloak did install a new kiln, it decided instead to build a round periodic kiln. The kiln was built by the end of 1937 and placed under the supervision of Peterson and Tom Glass. (Glass and his family were long-time Benton potters.) According to corporation minutes, Peterson resigned from Niloak in June 1940 (eventually he went to work for the Haeger Pottery of Illinois) and was replaced by Lee Joe Alley.

            Alley, employed in the castware production department since June 1937, stated it was Niloak’s secretary Austelle Lloyd who got him appointed Niloak’s new designer and master mold maker. It is apparent that Alley worked as a part-time designer along with Peterson before he quit. Alley remembered that all his skills were learned as a result of on-the-job-training. Alley, working next to Peterson, constantly observed Peterson and all that he did to created molds. Alley wrote: “My friend, George Peterson, unknowingly taught me a lot about master mold making as he worked within ten feet of my work station.” As for designing, Alley said that came naturally. Alley in addition worked with Hyten on throwing Missionware and did free-lance work for the Camark Pottery making about a dozen pieces.

            During his full-time employment, Alley created over 150 original castware designs, worked with Hyten on the limited Missionware production, as well as designed the stoneware kitchenware line (consisting of mixing bowls, canisters, crocks, and flower pots with “vertically indented decorations”). Alley also created the two lines of planters called “Bright Whimsies” and “Stars of the Big Top.” Alley remained with Niloak until September 1943. Alley’s departure from Niloak was purely patriotic. Sinclair Winburn, vice president of Niloak Pottery, wrote: “Separation from this company was brought about by Mr. Alley’s desire to be employed in an industry where his peculiar abilities would be more beneficial to this nation’s war effort. For his past work and his present patriotic motives, we are happy to recommend him.” Alley also worked for the Frankoma Pottery and the Texas Pottery Company.

            In 1938, however, with the new kiln built and the castware department enlarged, nothing was accomplished toward attaining a “vigorous sales program.” There appeared to be a split in opinion between Hyten and Hardy Winburn as to how the company should operate. Winburn continued to obtain more and more shares and by March 1939, he owned nearly 459 shares to Hyten’s 140 shares. By July, more business management practices were introduced, a warehouse and retail store opened on Asher Avenue in Little Rock, and advertising was expanded. As old debts were paid and with production (stoneware, castware, and limited Missionware) at capacity, better times for the Niloak Pottery Company were ahead.

            The 1930s closed with Winburn controlling the entire company (now with 575 ¼ shares) and Hyten selling his stock to Austelle Lloyd, the secretary treasurer. Hyten did not leave Niloak Pottery but became the traveling castware salesman in August 1939. Suddenly, after 31 years with Niloak Pottery, Hyten resigned. Although local tradition holds that there was ill-will between Hyten, a potter and co-founder of Niloak Pottery, and Winburn, a business man and savior of Niloak Pottery, historical records reveal nothing as to why C.D. Hyten tendered his resignation as the castware salesman on January 31, 1940. Hyten might have felt that he had no real control over production. Missionware production was limited; its sales had been $1,174.55 to the castware sales of $31,154.17 during the past year. While economics dictated the manufacture of non-descriptive industrial castware, the lack of artistic individual ism and loss of control over a family business he had nurtured since the turn-of-the-century must have bothered him.

            Charles Dean “Bullet” Hyten, it must be said, became an artisan who, along with Arthur Dovey, Fred Johnson, and others, created a unique American art pottery. However, Hyten’s lack of professional business skills was probably one cause of Niloak Pottery’s financial instability throughout the years. Yet, Hyten did not give up an interest in pottery. He opened and operated (with his daughter Arlene) the Hyten’s Pottery and Gift Shop on the Little Rock Highway near Benton. He even became a traveling salesmen for the Camark Pottery Company and handled its pottery line as well as Fenton Glass in his shop. Unfortunately, fate did not allow Hyten to build upon his new business. While at a church function on September 6, 1944, Hyten, at the age of 67, drowned while wading in the Saline River.

            The 1940s were times of diversity at Niloak Pottery. Businesses across America were benefiting from Roosevelt’s New Deal, and World War II soon would bring prosperity to Niloak. While its primary production centered on castware, Niloak produced stoneware, flower pots, novelties, and a limited amount of “natural” Niloak (i.e. Missionware). By mid-1940, optimism ran high among officers as the Asher Avenue store was remodeled with shelving built into each of the plate glass windows. James Larrison, who previously worked as a traveling salesman, became the store’s manager. A West Memphis store opened in July and Larrison was transferred there as its manager. The store’s sales, however, were poor and it was closed by September.

            As previously noted, Niloak Pottery’s castware business boomed. By late 1940, the stoneware kiln was converted for castware use, the glaze room enlarged, and more importantly, a decision was made to “conservatively build up” jobbing lines (selling other companies’ pottery). The company hoped to handle lines of hotel china, glassware, and dinnerware so that those profits could pay the expenses of Niloak production. Initially, Niloak Pottery brokered the wares of the Shawnee Pottery Company and Robinson-Ransbottom Pottery of Zanesville and Roseville, Ohio, respectively. By summer, results were impressive enough to permanently continue jobbing. Also good sales led to the building of another kiln. Although business was vastly better than during the depths of the Depression, the coming years would seesaw between good and bad for Niloak.

            A new chapter began when war erupted in Europe. During 1941, Winburn and other officers initiated actions to participate in the national defense program. Since the war’s effects on the company’s operations included sales by correspondence (lack of tires, etc. for the salesmen’s automobiles) and other changes, Niloak Pottery sought to supplant the increasingly limited retail trade with war work under the supervision of Sinclair Winburn. Sinclair was Hardy’s brother and a chemistry graduate from Louisiana State University. The year 1941 was the best year under Winburn’s management. Sales were at a record high as the war started. When the general trade slackened, Niloak competed and won government contracts for the manufacture of metal substitutes (mostly containers of various sorts) and war supplies. Mid-1941 saw the first production of porcelain electrical insulators. Soon Niloak was producing ceramic jars for the Lone Star Ordnance Plant of Texas and the Maumelle and Arkansas Ordnance Plants in central Little Rock.

            By the summer of 1942, Niloak Pottery was largely converted to war work, and its officers actively sought more war work. New contracts included sand jars for Fort Sill in Oklahoma, both chemical jars and porcelain flasks for industrial use, and electric insulators for the Arkansas Power and Light Company. In addition, Niloak on a daily basis made containers and other equipment for the military, as well as the manufacturing, agricultural, and dairy industries. Sinclair Winburn, working as Niloak’s ceramist and superintendent, announced the company’s involvement in ceramic made equipment for research and development of manmade rubber since, in the Pacific Theater, Japan’s success fully blocked the United States’ supply of rubber from plantations in southern Asia. A critical element for war production, equipment made of ceramic to facilitate work to supplant the rubber shortage became a priority at Niloak Pottery. The first major contract came in October 1942 when Niloak won its bid to produce coffee mugs for the Navy. The most significant and longest running contract concerned the production of clay pigeons for anti-aircraft practice. With this clay pigeon contract came the necessity for a larger plant. During the autumn and winter of 1942-1943, the Asher Avenue location became the warehouse and shipping center. The offices and retail sales departments were moved to 1213 Broadway, formerly the offices of the RumRill Pottery Company, which had recently closed after Rumrill’s death. The Benton salesroom on Military Road was closed due to diminishing sales, but the original plant on Pearl Street remained in operation. After a renewed U. S. Army contract in late 1943, the new Broadway offices and the Asher warehouse were closed and a large tract of east Little Rock property was purchased for a complete, one-site location for the Niloak Pottery and Tile Company.

            The new site was 1709 East Ninth Street in Little Rock. If there were uncertainties as to Niloak’s future, they centered on problems with internal operations. While pay was at its highest, production faltered as the company faced difficulties in holding “an experienced crew.” The new aluminum processing plant in Saline County took many of Niloak’s most valuable male employees. Moreover, manufacturing costs climbed steadily as the cost for employee training increased with the high turnover. The manpower shortage was relieved when women were hired to replace the departing male employees. Combined with the unavailability of new parts and equipment, the company’s net profit totaled only a little over $300.00 for 1943. Nonetheless, Niloak persevered with jobbing orders and limited castware production, concentrating on fulfilling war contracts.

            The majority of jobbing orders during the war were received from Robinson-Raisbottom Company, Shawnee Pottery, Louisville Pottery Company, Hall China Company, Western Stoneware Company, the George Brogfeldt Corporation, and other northern potteries. In addition, what little castware Niloak produced went to retailers like the McLellan Stores of New York, William R. Moore Dry Goods Company of Memphis, Sears and Roebuck, Walgreens, and the Sterling Stores of Little Rock. The wartime shortage of gas and tires placed many restrictions on salesmen’s travels. While traveling on trains and buses, Niloak salesmen concentrated on orders for defense work, agriculture, and dairy needs. Production levels varied while Niloak Pottery had trouble getting needed parts, keeping skilled laborers, and securing raw materials. Wartime difficulty did not hinder expectations for hopeful post-war production. Beginning in mid-1943, Hardy Winburn planned for the future with the intention of catering to better class department stores.

            The Niloak Pottery Company, reportedly in business in one form or fashion since 1868, celebrated its Diamond Jubilee in 1943. Although the war tempered festive occasions, Winburn dreamed of bigger, better plans for his company. Winburn saw production centering on decorated porcelain and enamel ware with hopes of producing the “finest line of painted china.” During 1943, Hardy and Sinclair Winburn attended the American Ceramic Society meeting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Afterward they toured the Homer Laughlin, Newell, Robinson-Ransbottom, Roseville, and Shawnee Pottery companies, studying the competition in hopes of improving their manufacturing process.

            A new direction came in 1944. After months of study and preparation, Niloak opened its chemical division under the guidance of William E. Crockett, a clay technologist from the University of Missouri. He was assisted by E. S. Amos, a ceramic engineer from Ohio State University. Promoting the economic development of Arkansas clays, Niloak announced the opening of a laboratory for “research and development of clay and other non-metallic raw materials.” Working with the Arkansas State Geological Survey, plans included testing and classifying clays and locating markets for them. Lawrence N. Rapp, a designer and mold maker, made his first known trip to Niloak in August and worked through September on, as yet, unidentified work. By late 1944, future plans centered on vitreous cooking ware, serving ware, fancy ware, and specialties. These postwar plans, however, never materialized. By year’s end, Niloak Pottery employed about 30 persons. However a disastrous fire at the Benton plant in early 1945 led the company to focus on filling voluminous backorders of castware with production from the Little Rock plant. Rapp made another visit and made molds in July while plans were implemented for building a tunnel kiln at the Little Rock plant. Under the supervision of Crockett, the kiln was finished in October 1945.

            With the end of the war, Niloak started its re conversion back to normal production. The Niloak Pottery, under Hardy and Sinclair Winburn’s direction, acted within 24 hours after its war contracts were canceled. It received attention for its efforts with the Arkansas Democrat stating Niloak had set a record for re-conversion. Niloak Pottery had made 1,000,000 clay pigeons a month for the past two and a half years. With around 50 employees, the company ran a 24 hour production schedule to produce targets for the Army Air Force (forerunner to the U. S. Air Force) as well as America’s allies (through the lend-lease program). The completion of Niloak’s re-conversion took about 90 days as the Little Rock plant was enlarged and new equipment purchased and installed. While the number of post-war employees is unknown, Niloak Pottery had in its employ six war veterans.

            Meanwhile, new sales were minimal. Hoping to jump start its sales, the company introduced a “Buyers Guide” to Niloak Pottery. Advertising itself as “Arkansas’s oldest and most dependable source of pottery and house wares,” Niloak Pottery asked retailers to participate in a month-to-month purchasing program whereby they would receive monthly, updated catalog sheets informing them on the up-to-date trends. Jobbing with the previous northern wholesalers (now including the Homer Laughlin Company) continued, with their sales outperforming those of Niloak’s own “disappointing” sales. When the backlog of orders was finally filled in 1946, production was curtailed on many of Niloak’s items and the plants’ personnel reduced accordingly. Niloak Pottery then attempted to get into the dinnerware business itself. Niloak Pottery turned to its former designer Joe Alley for this new dinnerware line call “Bouquet.” Under contract, Alley designed this dinnerware pattern with “French modern decorations” with some block and case work and molds made by Lawrence Rapp. The line was introduced in January 1947.

            In June 1947, Rapp made another trip to Niloak Pottery, and the Benton Courier announced that a new metal pre-fab building and the Military Road showroom were opened. More importantly, the newspaper article stated that the “original, natural Niloak will be made.” By September, the Benton Courier reported that the Niloak Pottery had announced the erection of a new Benton warehouse since the shipping department was being moved back from Little Rock. Employees numbered 24 with four full-time and six part-time salesmen. These salesmen included C. E. Hootman, J. S. Slovall, C. R. Lappin, W. H. Winburn, J. W. Adams, and E. Thomas. Immediate plans were to handle a dinnerware line (presumably its own Bouquet) as well as garden pottery. Unfortunately sales sagged, and the officials of Niloak knew that time was running out for the Niloak Pottery. But from the Niloak Pottery ruins rose the Winburn Tile Company. Avoiding business myopia, the Winburn brothers sought a new direction by bringing to an end the production of castware.

            Opting not to continue this ceramic line, Hardy Winburn and his brother Sinclair began searching for new avenues for the Little Rock based business. The Winburns realized the need to either sell the business or form a different type of clay company. Back in early February, the Niloak Pottery and Tile Company was changed to H. L. Winburn and Company. In March, moreover, a Niloak Pottery Company was incorporated (only to be dissolved in late 1952). Although details are sketchy, they purchased tile making machinery in September 1947. About this time, the “assets [of the new Niloak Pottery Company] were traded for the equity in a new company that manufactured tile.” Shortly thereafter, the Winburn Tile Company was formed as a branch of the Mosaic Tile Company of Zanesville, Ohio. Winburn management seemed resistant to give up castware production. Up to July 1950, management still sought to produce castware, but stated it was having “big kiln problems.” Into the early 1950s, the Winburn Tile Company continued jobbing and extremely limited castware production while concentrating on beginning tile manufacture. Jobbed items centered on many dinnerware lines including Dixie Rose, Haviland Spray, Needlepoint, Poppy Spray, and Yellow Rose. For all practical purposes, however, the late 1940s were the death years for castware production. Sporadic sales and production continued, but steadily dwindled until production ended sometime in the early to mid-1950s.

            The Winburn Tile Company would remain a part of the Mosaic Tile Company until 1970. For over 50 years, Winburn Tile Manufacturing Company has produced ceramic mosaic tile at the East 9th Street location. It manufactures tiles suitable for all surfaces. In addition, the company has executed many murals and produced specialty tile for the restoration of historical landmarks. They include San Francisco’s old Court of Appeals building (one of the few structures to survive the 1906 earthquake) and Mississippi’s State Capitol. Today the Winburn Tile Company, with a history of over 110 years in ceramic manufacturing, continues as a viable business in Little Rock and Maumelle, Arkansas. 

             For information on swirl pottery related to or similar to Niloak's Missionware, see NNN (Not Necessarily Niloak).