In the summer of 1922, interest in a pottery similar to the old Morton Pottery Works was rekindled when the village of Morton's Commercial Club met to hear a proposal from Daniel W. Rapp. Rapp was the son of Andrew Rapp who had been one of the founders of Morton's first pottery. Supported by his brothers, with whom he had purchased the pottery in 1915, Daniel was well prepared for that meeting. He presented figures taken from the records of the old pottery, showing the cost of production in that plant, and the profits that were made there. He compared those costs and profits with those of Morton Earthenware Company when it ceased operation in 1917. He then projected his figures to the 1922 business climate to emphasize the feasibility of a new pottery.
After Rapp's presentation, the meeting was opened for discussion and questions from Commercial Club members. Out of that meeting a basic plan for a new, modern pottery was agreed upon. When finalized the plan provided for a building and equipment valued at $50,000. In addition to the building, the plan included state of the art machinery and equipment. Three kilns were proposed. New equipment would include clay disintegrators, mixers, pug mills, blungers for mixing slip clays and glazes, and jiggers for plate production. That type of modern facility would speed up production and reduce costs. It was enthusiastically supported by the Commercial CLub.
The products to be made at the new pottery were to be the same as those made earlier - kitchen ware, food storage containers, bakers and flower pots. Art pottery and ornamental pottery was not considered because the Cliftwood Art Pottery was making those wares. The proponents for the new pottery did not want to create an atmosphere of competition with their uncle and cousins.
From research done before the Commercial Club meeting, the Rapps were able to report a positive and receptive market for their products. Inquiries had been made to large crockery jobbers and distribution warehouses in major cities to verify demand for the type of production that they planned. Not only was the demand there, the central location, the availability of experienced workers, and low freight rates were noted as further strengths for re-establishing the pottery business.
Before the meeting adjourned, a major concern was addressed. How would the new pottery be capitalized? A committee was appointed to canvass the community to determine the amount of stock that might be purchased by the local citizenry. J.E. Gerber, president of the Morton Corporation, had been very supportive of this new business venture. He had worked very hard to bring it to fruition. By the time of the Commercial Club meeting in July 1922, he had already obtained the assurance of $25,000 worth of stock purchases. A thermometer was placed at the post office to show the weekly increases. By August 16th, $38,000 had been raised. A headline feature in the Morton News on September 28th stated, "New Pottery Is Assured: Gerber Raised The Funds." Actually, the project was $3,000 short at that time. Gerber was appointed to collect the subscriptions so the articles of incorporation could be applied for. By mid November 1922 the entire $50,000 had been raised.
At the first stockholder's meeting on November 29, Hiram Todd was chosen to preside. Todd was the attorney for the new pottery business. Daniel W. Rapp was made acting secretary for that all important meeting. J.E. Gerber, William Rapp, and Daniel W. Rapp were elected as the incorporators. They were also to serve as the directors for the corporation until the annual stockholders meeting that was set for the third Tuesday in January 1923. The incorporators immediately set to work to get the corporation papers in order and filed with the Secretary of State. The papers were signed and sealed on December 8, 1922, making Morton Pottery Company a legal entity.
At the first annual meeting of stockholders, the following officers were elected: President, J.E. Gerber; Vice-President, William Oelwin; Secretary, Daniel W. Rapp; and Treasurer, Charles Husted. Leonard Hillis was elected to serve with the officers as a director. William Rapp was named superintendent of the manufacturing department.
A large portion of Gerber's Morton Corporation became the location for the new pottery. Situated on Bloomington Street (present-day West Jefferson Street) where the Santa Fe Railroad and the Illinois Terminal System Railroad intersected. It was an ideal location. An addition built during World War I housed the pottery. An eighty by one hundred foot extension was added to accomodate the three kilns and the heating plant. Two natural gas wells were drilled to supplement the fuel needed to operate the pottery. Six months prior to its first kiln firing, Morton Pottery Company had fifteen men working to install equipment and appliances, do carpentry work and make molds and saggers.
By July 7th, when the first kiln load of wares was fired, the pottery had 270 molds and 3,000 sagger boxes ready for use. Three regional sales managers had been named and Morton Pottery Company entered into a contract with the Cliftwood Pottery that allowed the sales managers to also sell Cliftwood's art ware. Daniel W. Rapp went to Kansas City. From there he sold in the southwestern states. D.E. Mathis went to Chicago and was responsible for the central states. Frank Tichnor based his operations in Morton but sold in the eastern section of the country. Daniel Rapp eventually left the pottery and settled in Michigan City, Indiana, where he gained a reputation for building fine, handmade furniture.
Realizing that the pottery would most certainly succeed, four of William Rapp's brothers - Andrew, Henry, Nathan and Solomon - went to work on Monday, July 9th. All had learned the pottery trade as youths when they worked for their father and uncles at the Morton Pottery Works. A fifth brother, Samuel, could not start at that time because he was operating a farm machinery production plant in Morton and had an interest in a Peoria bank. He eventually did join his brothers at the pottery and served as secretary of the corporation until its demise in 1969.
The summer of 1923 was a busy one for the Rapps. Attempting to get the pottery into full operation took concerted effort on all their parts. By fall the business was operating smoothly, but on October 18th disaster struck. Fire broke out in the portion of the building used by the Morton Corporation. The fire quickly engulfed the whole wing. The pottery was saved because of the fast action of J.E. Gerber who lived across the street from the building. After calling the fire department, Gerber entered the burning building through a window and closed a fire door that separated the pottery from the Morton Corporation. Though the pottery was not damaged, the office which was in the Morton Corporation wing was destroyed. The morton Corporation remained a mass of ruins for two years. In October 1925, the Morton Pottery Company purchased the ruins and the real estate for the purpose of expanding the pottery. That expansion was completed and in operation by the summer of 1926.
New items were added to the regular line of stock after the expansion was completed. Most notable was the Pilgrim line that was introduced in the fall of 1926. Though it was produced for only one year, that line of ware was very popular. For the very first time, kitchen ware was being produced in decorator colors of blue, apple green, and yellow. Included in the line were custard cups, mixing bowls, a nested set of baking nappies, a beverage set, pitchers, and ice box jug, and a beater bowl set. Other items were a covered butter box, a wall mounted match box, and a salt box. There were also shakers, a four piece waffle set, pie bakers, casseroles, and a twin tea set. A special foil label was created to be used with that line. Pilgrim ware was featured in the October 1, 1926, issue of The Crockery and Glass Journal. K.P. Lockitt Company handled the Pilgrim ware in its New York City Store. Select items from the line were exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum in New York because that was one of the earliest attempts to introduce color to kitchenware in America.
A second fire, on August 15, 1927, prematurely halted the production of Pilgrim pottery. That fire totally destroyed the manufacturing building and the warehouses. The remainder of the pottery was saved due to William Rapp's heroism. He went into the smoke-filled building to make sure the fire doors were closed. He then ran the elevator to the second floor in order to eliminate drafts that could feed the fire. The kilns were kept in operation during the fire, and ware in the kilns was not damaged. At the time of the fire, the pottery had unfilled orders for Pilgrim ware on hand. Most of those orders were filled after the fire, but the Pilgrim line never did go back into production.
Again, the pottery was in need of extensive repair and renovation. After the fire, the board of directors received offers to relocate the pottery from three Illinois cities, Joliet, Peoria and Pekin. Attractive incentives accompanied each of the offers, but the board of directors decided to remain in Morton after several Mortonites offered to assist in financing the rebuilding of the pottery. That generosity, coupled with a sizeable insurance payment, kept the pottery in Morton.
Work on plans for a new pottery building with modern, new labor saving machinery was begun immediately. The new plant was built in about the same space the burned out portion had occupied. New equipment came from the Patterson Company of East Liverpool, Ohio. It was the most advanced on the market. With a much greater manufacturing capacity, the pottery resumed full production of October 17, 1927. A new feature that greatly enhanced productivity was a monorail system that conveyed ware quickly and easily from one depatment to another.
Orders continued to come in for Pilgrim ware but they could not be filled. Plagued with that dilemma the board of directors gave considerable time and study to the feasibility of bringing the line back. The final decision was negative but those items that were most frequently requested would form the nucleus of a line that was to be known as the Amish Pottery (pantry ware) line. The carryovers from Pilgrim ware were the beater bowl, the match box holder, the salt box, one size custard cup, the shakers, the casseroles, and pie baker, the mixing bowls, the ice box jug, and the waffle set. Eight inch breakfast plates were added to the waffle set. New items designed for the Amish Pottery line were cooking and serving bowls, an ice tea set consisting of the pitcher, beakers, and coasters. Restyled pitchers, a restyled teapot with covered sugar and creamer, and cups and saucers were in the new line. Other new items were a covered ice box jar, a covered pudding dish, a covered, handled bean pot, a four-piece canister set, and a porridge bowl with saucer. The new Amish Pottery (pantry ware) was announced on February 1, 1929, in Morton's local newspaper.
For a short period of time, the Amish Pottery (pantry ware) was available with hand painted decorations. The designs were applied with cold paints after the glazing process had been completed. Over the years that paint has deteriorated. Seldom is an example found in mint condition. Usually chips of paint are missing and there is noticeable scratching. Flowers, grape clusters, and snow berries were most frequently used for the decoration.
Shortly after introducing the new line of kitchenware, the pottery began to feel the effects of the Great Depression. As orders declined, efforts were made to create other lines that could be produced in great volume and that would be less costly to produce. Though most of the Rapps were dedicated Republicans, it was Franklin Roosevelt's Democratic campaign for the Presidency in 1932 that offered the pottery the opportunity to devise such a line. FDR's campaign promise to repeal the prohibition amendment was quickly endorsed by the Morton Pottery Company's board of directors. The pottery created two miniature beer steins that were used quite effectively in the campaign. The steins were designed with a flange opposite the handle so they could be worn in the lapel button hole of a man's suit coat. One stein had the traditional handle, the other had a handle in the shape of a donkey. Both had "We Want Beer" in raised letters on one side. On the opposite side was "Repeal The 18." The steins were glazed in Rockingham brown and were produced by the thousands to be used as giveaways during the Presidential campaign.
After Roosevelt's victory in 1933, one of the first things the new Congress did was to propose the 21st Amendment, which passed on March 22nd. It was ratified very quickly and went into effect December 5, 1933. During the ratification process, Congress passed the Beer-Wine Revenue Act as a means of quickly securing additional revenue for the federal treasury. The act legalized the sale of 3.2 beer and went into effect on April 7th.
Pottery officials immediately began contacting breweries with the prospect of using steins for promotional advertising. A standard barrel shape stein could be quickly altered to carry the brewer's name or logo by using a small blank inserted into the mold. The result of those contacts was contracts that had the pottery turning out 4,000 steins a day. Three shifts of employees worked twenty-four hours a day in order to satisfy the orders that flooded the plant. The April 20, 1933, issue of the Chicago Tribune carried a short news story with the headline, "Orders For Beer Steins Swamp Pottery Plant." In the article, it was noted that an order for 1,000,000 steins for Blatz Brewing Company of Milwaukee had been filled, and that contracts had been signed with other breweries.
Near the end of the 1930's, as beer stein production began to wane, the first of many novelties to be produced by the pottery was put on line. From the group of miniature animals that was being produced, the Rapps took the #606 elephant figure and put GOP on its side. By word of mouth, they were able to get contracts from local politicians whose names were placed on the opposite side. Those elephants made excellent campaign giveaways. They were very popular from the 1940's through the 1950's. Thousands were ordered by virtually every influential Republican candidate seeking office, even Richard M. Nixon.
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