W. W. KIRKPATRICK, Anna Pottery, Anna, was born at Urbana, Ohio, September 23, 1828, and is a younger brother of C. Kirkpatrick, whose sketch appears in this volume. He was the twelfth in a family of thirteen children. When nine years of age, his parents removed to Illinois, in 1837, and settled at Vemillionville, in La Salle County. Here his father carried on a pottery, and subject received a limited education in the common schools. When he was twenty years of age, he went to Point Pleasant, Ohio, and learned the trade of potter with his brother, remaining with him about two years, and about the year 1850 went to California, where he engaged in mining for some two years, and then returned to Cincinnati, working in a pottery for a year. He then removed to La Salle County, Ill., where he carried on a pottery for himself. Two years later, he removed to Mound City, Ill., and was engaged as the General Supervisor of the Mound City Building Company on all out-door work. He remained there two years, and in 1859 came to Anna, Ill., where he has since remained, in partnership with his brother in the Anna Pottery. He was married, in 1854, to Miss Martha Vance, of Cincinnati. A family of seven children have been born to them, of whom one is living, Wallace, born in 1865. Politically, Mr. K. is a Republican. He is a member of the Masonic and Odd Fellows fraternities; is Warden of the I. O. O. F. Lodge and Encampment.
Extracted 02 Apr 2017 by Norma Hass from 1883 History of Alexander, Union, and Pulaski Counties, Illinois, Part V, pages 73-74.
ANNA POTTERY, Anna. One of the old and valuable industries of this city
is the Anna Pottery. It was established in 1859 by C. & W. W. Kirkpatrick,
men thoroughly experienced in this line of business, and who can make more
articles, both useful and ornamental, out of mud than any men in Illinois.
Visitors to their extensive works, as they watch the busy hands molding the
clay into hundreds of different shapes, find themselves unconsciously, as it
were, repeating Longfellow's lines:
"Turn, turn, my wheel! This earthen jar a touch can make, a touch can mar;
And shall it to the potter say. What makest thou? "
The establishment employs some twenty hands, and turns out annually a large
amount of sewer pipe, jars of various sizes, fruit cans or jars, milk crocks
and, in fact, almost every species of stoneware, together with bull-dogs,
owls, snakes, hogs and illustrated railroad maps, pipes by the thousand,
bull-frogs, and a variety of other animals and things too tedious to
mention. One of their greatest curiosities is the "Pioneer Farm," made
wholly out of clay, and fully noticed in a chapter in the historical portion
of this work.
Extracted 02 Apr 2017 by Norma Hass from 1883 History of Alexander, Union, and Pulaski Counties, Illinois, Part V, page 82.
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