DanielSeagle.com

"A 70-Year Tradition of Pottery Making in the Catawba Valley"

Meet The Seagle 'School' of Potters

In the Catawba River Valley, Master Potter Daniel Seagle (1805-1867) founded what has become known today as The Seagle "School" of potters.  These potters all studied as apprentices to Daniel, and turned and burned their pots at the Seagle kiln in Vale, N.C.

The Seagle School of potters (in addition to Daniel)  include:

• James Franklin "Frank" Seagle (1829-1892).  He was Daniel's son
• Daniel Holly (1811-1899)
• John Goodman (1822-1903).  He was Daniel's son-in-law
• Isaac Lefevers (ca. 1831-1864)
• Another potter, known only by his maker's mark, "JCM," may also have learned the trade in The Seagle School

These potters kept the Seagle pottery tradition going in the Catawba Valley for 70 years.  Biographical information, gleaned from a variety of sources, about each of The Seagle School potters is included below.

D A N I E L    S E A G L E :

Daniel Seagle was the first master potter in the Catawba River Valley.  The son of Adam and Eve (or Eva?) Seagle, he was a Lutheran of German descent who lived in the Vale, N.C., area from 1805-67.  He married Sarah Hoover in 1821.  Daniel established his pottery business near a creek not far from Trinity Lutheran Church by ca. 1824.

The Seagle name comes from German word, "siegel,"
which means "seal."  Seagle (see family coat of arms at right) is an occupational name for a maker of wax seals commonly used to certify the authenticity of letters & documents--a position known as a “Siegelbeamter.”

By all accounts, Daniel Seagle was a perfectionist, with high standards for quality.  To him, the form of his pottery was more important than the function.  This was his aesthetic credo.  He taught his apprentices these high standards.

In the early part of his career, Daniel Seagle made lead glazed earthenware.  However, according to the book Turners and Burners, Seagle switched in the 1830s to making stoneware, fired at higher temperatures to hold liquids.  During this period, Seagle and the other Catawba Valley potters who followed him were making utilitarian pottery, mostly to sell to farmers.  They would make storage jars (for sugared fruits, brined meat, nuts, honey, pickled corn, etc.); preserve jars; crocks for milk, pickles, fruit butters, kraut and meat pastes); bowls; jugs for storing whiskey, molasses, vinegar and water; and pitchers for storing buttermilk, milk and water.

These vessels were the Tuppereware® of the 19th century, used before glass bottles and jars were manufactured and long before refrigeration.  Because these pottery vessels were used daily by farmers, many of them did not survive.

Daniel Seagle's stoneware vessels have an alkaline
glaze, often with drippy olive and brown runs.  This glaze, common in the Catawba Valley, was made by mixing pine ashes with crushed glass, clay and water.  Documented sizes for Seagle's pots range from 1/2 to 30 gallons.  Seagle proudly stamped his pottery with a "DS" mark (example, right photo*) and a number indicating how many gallons the vessel would hold.  Many Catawba Valley potters did not stamp a mark on their pieces.

Daniel Seagle was one of the first potters in the Catawba Valley to use glass runs for decoration.  However, glass was not readily available in large quantities at this time.  He traveled to nearby Lincolnton, N.C., to dig glass scraps from a Revolutionary War dump.

In his earlier years, Daniel Seagle added stars and fylfots to his familiar "DS" mark.  (The fylfot is a decorative arts symbol used by Germans--but not limited to them--to express good luck and friendship.  It is shaped like a pinwheel or propeller.)

What are the characteristics of Daniel Seagle's pottery?  In addition to an alkaline glaze for stoneware, most of his pots have a bulbous (like a light bulb) form and are well centered with thin walls.  According to the book N.C. Pottery:  The Collections of the Mint Museum, Seagle threw "majestic" jugs, "full and robust with a great energy."  Some of his jugs look spherical, almost like basketballs.

Michael Ball, a potter who owns Riverbirch Pottery in Vale, N.C., today, says Daniel Seagle's "sense of proportion is just over the top."  And another present-day potter in the same area, Kim Ellington, said in an interview, "I've seen about every version of what the Seagles produced; there are no bad Seagle pots!  They were skilled (potters).  They had it down.  Seagle was like Tiger Woods; that's just how good he was."

Daniel Seagle set a high standard, to which all potters since then have been compared.

According to the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts, Daniel died in April, 1867, and apparently left no will, since his personal belongings were sold at a two-day sale on May 30-31, 1867.

  *Photo courtesy of Virginia collector MAT

J A M E S   F R A N K L I N   
S E A G L E :

Like father, like son?  Yes, in the case of Daniel Seagle and his son, James Franklin "Frank" Seagle (1829-1892).  Frank learned the pottery business from his talented father.  He stamped his pots "JFS," and they are in high demand by collectors today.   (See photo of his one-gallon preserve storage jar below.)

Frank Seagle married Mary Rhoney, and they had 10 children.  After Daniel Seagle died in 1867, Frank and Seagle School potter John Goodman carried on the pottery business in Vale, N.C.  They grew the business to the point that at one time, they employed as many as 10 turners. 

Frank Seagle is buried at Trinity Lutheran Chuch in Vale, N.C., a short distance from the Seagle kiln site.

D A N I E L   
H O L L Y :

Seagle School pottery Daniel Holly was born Nov. 26, 1811. He became an apprentice of Daniel Seagle in 1828, at a time when Seagle was making earthenware. 

Holly later made stoneware with Seagle, and Holly's son, Marcus A. Holly, also made stoneware.  (The Mint Museum in Charlotte, N.C., owns one "MAH" marked jar.)

Daniel Holly died May 17, 1899, and is buried at the historic Daniel's Lutheran Church (organized in 1774) cemetery in Lincolnton, N.C. (see tombstone photo below).  No other Holly family members' graves are located near Daniel's grave. 

N.C. Highway Historical Marker near Vale mentions the Seagle School.

J O H N
G O O D M A N :

Born in Cabarrus County, N.C., in 1822, John Goodman moved to Lincoln County in 1842.  Goodman married Daniel Seagle's daughter Barbara (1826-1907) and was a Seagle School potter.

He used a "JG" mark on his pots.

After Daniel Seagle died in 1867, Goodman and Seagle's son, James Franklin, kept the Seagle pottery business in operation into the 1890s. 

Goodman is buried at Trinity Lutheran Church in Vale, N.C. (see tombstone photo below).

I S A A C
L E F E V E R S :

Perhaps the most storied member of the Seagle School potters is Isaac Lefevers (ca. 1831-1864.  He was described by an Associated Press writer in August, 2008 as "the James Dean of North Carolina pottery."  As the writer further described Lefevers, "Like the actor known for 'Rebel Without a Cause,' Lefevers was talented and died young.  The Lincoln County potter died in 1864 at age 33 from an injury suffered in the Civil War.  Because he was so young, few of his pots survive."

The name "Lefevers" derives from the French occupational name for an ironworker or smith.  His name is listed in the 1850 census as being a member of Daniel Seagle's household, and he learned the pottery trade from Daniel.  In 1856, Lefevers married Catherine Rhodes of Lincoln County.

Image:  www.footnote.com

The N.C. Museum of History in Raleigh includes on its Web site section titled "N.C. and the Civil War" an audio recording of an actor reciting Sgt. Isaac Lefevers' letter to his wife, Catherine.  At the time, Sgt. Lefevers was in Company K (Catawba Braves), 46th Regiment, N.C. Troops. For more information on this recording and to access it, click here.