Last Friday, the Warren County Historical Society unveiled its new permanent collection of Shaker pottery at its museum on South Broadway.
The exhibit is the only one of its kind in the entire world because Union Village, the Shaker community in Turtlecreek Twp., is the only Shaker community thought to have produced pottery, according to historians.
The Shakers were a strict self-reliant religious sect that promoted equality among the sexes and lived a communal lifestyle, but also had strict demands of abstinence among its followers.
Union Village was a 4,500-acre Shaker community that operated between 1805 and 1916 on the site of present day Otterbein Retirement Center and the surrounding area. At the high point of the community’s existence in the 1840s, as many as 800 people lived on the grounds, said Mary Allen, Shaker curator for the museum.
For years, the museum — which has an extensive collection of other Shaker artifacts — owned exactly one piece of pottery they thought was of Shaker origin, but had no way to prove it, Allen said.
In 2005, prior to a realigning of Ohio 741, the Ohio Department of Transportation performed an archaeological dig, preserving whatever remained of the once large Shaker village that would soon be paved over.
Five years later, Thress took charge of the remains — stored in large boxes in the museum’s basement — and began to piece together the unique history of Union Village’s pottery business.
“The Shakers were good at looking at what people needed and capitalizing on it,” said Allen. “They were known to sell seeds in packets. They made brooms because that’s what people needed. Ohio clay made good pottery and was something they could sell.”
Searching through the museum’s archives of The Western Star, they also uncovered advertisements for Shaker made pottery from the 1820s and 1830s.
Today, Shaker artifacts are highly sought collectibles and praised for their high quality.
Even though the majority of the pottery artifacts came to the museum in shards, it still reveals a good made with extreme care and high standards, Allen said.
“I really think this will start a whole new collector frenzy,” said Allen. “There is a lot of Shaker interest throughout the country. I think people will want to come here to learn about this part of Shaker society that has never really been discussed.”
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