Stoneware Jars
Fruit jars and most modern storage jars today are made of clear glass or plastic. During the early Brown County days, up until the 1920s, all homes and farms used stoneware containers for the storage of food stuffs and many other uses around the farm.
Stoneware fruit jars came in many sizes and colors. In the early 1800s to mid 1870s stoneware fruit jars were salt glazed jars. No two jars were ever the same as they were all hand turned and manmade jars.
The later made stoneware jars and containers had white, brown, yellow, blue, and many other color glazes. They were more machine molded jars than hand made.
The tops or openings of the stoneware fruit jars were made to be sealed up with a metal tin lid. Hot wax was poured in the groove to make them air tight and preserve the contents. This made for many of the surviving examples to be chipped and damaged from people prying on them with a knife to open them up.
Finding old stoneware containers that are not chipped and damaged from the bygone days of 100 years ago and older are real prizes for the collectors of them.
What does all this have to do with Brown County?
The collection of early stoneware jars shown in the photo were discovered in Brown County and the local surrounding area. A lot of the these stoneware fruit jars were probably bought new at one of the many country stores that sold goods and merchandise in Brown County back around 1900 and before.
You would be amazed at how many Brown County folks today have and use old stoneware containers. Also interesting to note is that many of these folks can give the history of the old crocks and stoneware jars they own and even have photos of the farmhouse or home from“ back in the day” with one or two of the old containers sitting some in the picture as documentation.
A large percentage of old stoneware jars and crocks do not have a makers mark on them and the creators can’ t be identified. It is a known fact, though, that the clay used to make stoneware is good old Indiana clay. There were several companies in Indiana and the whole Ohio valley area back in the 1800s and early 1900s in business to produce these stoneware containers.
The stoneware fruit jars and containers in the photo date from the 1840s up to about 1910 vintage. They are a good example of what was available to use around the home and farm before there was electricity, cars, telephones, and refrigerators. •
submitted by Paul Sachmann from Plum Creek Antiques
54 Our Brown County • March / April 2014