Late 19th century technology enabled greater production, and with the availability of commercial clays and glazes, more potters began producing the standard blue on white utilitarian ware so common in the Midwest. Today, only a few old style potters remain in Texas, but Marshall Pottery Company in Harrison County, one of the largest commercial potters in the United States, is still producing large quantities of utilitarian and decorative stoneware, assuring that the Texas pottery making tradition lives on. Nearly all of them came out of the Southern tradition of potters trained in the Edgefield District of South Carolina. Some of them were related by blood or marriage before they got to Texas, and those who weren't soon found themselves either related or, at least, working for each other soon after they arrived. Many of their names have been lost to us especially those who came as slaves but the following are the ones we know something about.
Quotation marks indicate actual marks used by the company.
Taylor Brown , born and trained in Georgia, was one of Texas's earliest known potters, settling near present day Henderson in 1839. He probably made all types of crockery and tableware, utilizing slave labor. One of his slaves, Elix Brown, went on after emancipation to work for the Hunt Pottery Co. John Rushton appears to have run the company for the last few years before starting his own company. No example of Taylor Brown's work are known to exist at this time, but shard evidence collected by Dr. Greer shows light green and some brown alkaline glazes.