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Kennedy Pottery (1896-1968)
Over one hundred years ago, B.J. Kennedy and his brother, Dave, started a pottery in Wilkesboro. They
made the move from Catawba County to Wilkes, with intentions of opening their own pottery because they
heard there was an abundance of clay in Wilkes.
Stoneware, pitchers and jugs dominated the Kennedy pottery until the late 1920's and early 1930's.
Producing these items were men sitting at foot-driven wheels. A one-horse power mud mill was used to mix
the clay with water and to get the lumps out.
B.J.'s three sons, Ray, George, and Claude, went to work at the pottery in their childhood years. Someone had
to keep an eye on the kiln, which had to stay fired from morning until the following evening. It was the job of the
three sons to make sure the fire had enough pine wood through the night.
Potters from various parts of the U.S. came to Kennedy Pottery to work. Art pottery flourished for a while at the
pottery, but soon a flower pot craze overwhelmed the Wilkesboro business. The mud mill was taken over by a
gasoline engine and skilled hands were replaced by machinery. These machines could produce 15 to 20 pots
per minute.
The pottery closed its doors in 1968 and sold the land for Holly Farms Poultry, now knows as Tyson Foods.
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