Additions and Corrections to Wooten Pottery

As a result of communications with Edwin Wooten, a great grandson of J. R. Wooten, and other research, much has been learned about the Wooton/Wooten Pottery in Washington County, Virginia. While Wooton was apparently the early spelling of the name, both Wooton and Wooten can be found in Virginia census records. Furthermore, J. R. Wooton, the maker of the flowerpot was sometimes referred to as John Raymond and other times as Raymond John. He was born in Washington County on March 9, 1851 to James T. Wooton, born 1827, and Charity Ann Harris. There is a great deal of confusion regarding James’ middle name. Genealogical and census records exist for him with the middle name of Alexander and also the initials of L, S, and I. The records that suggest his name was James Alexander are particularly confusing as J. R. had a brother born in 1849 named James Alexander.

Current knowledge suggests that J.R.’s grandfather, John, also known as Jehu, born about 1803 in North Carolina, was the first Wooton potter in Virginia. He married Frances Vestal, daughter of James, born in 1767 and Nancy Ann Swaim. At least three of Frances’ brothers were potters, leading one to presume that a Vestal taught John to pot. John and Frances moved from North Carolina to Virginia between 1835 and 1840.

The assumption in 1999 that John Raymond was the J.R. Wooten, age 42, in Jefferson County, Tennessee in 1880 is incorrect. John Raymond was found in the Washington County Virginia Census in 1880. He was listed as being 30 years old and his occupation was that of farm laborer. Living seven households away was his brother James A., age 30, occupation potter. Another brother, William T., age 14, was living in James’ household. His occupation was recorded as “works in pottery”.

Although J.R. and his wife Hester Ann Merritt were married in Virginia in 1875 and their first child was born there in the same year, it appears that all their other children were born in Tennessee beginning in 1878. The family apparently moved back and forth between the two states, as they were in Virginia for the 1880 Census and in Tennessee for the birth of a son in July of 1880.

The births most important to this investigation were those of a son born in Kingsport, Tennessee in 1886 and a daughter born in Tennessee in 1888. These births make it reasonable to assume that J.R. potted at the Benjamin Anderson Pottery in Hawkins County where it is believed the flowerpot was made.

In 1999 it was recorded that he signed his name on the flowerpot as Wooten. That is incorrect. He spelled it Wooton. Also, it was thought that the other name incised on the flowerpot was Hattie Halperon. That too is incorrect. Closer study of the writing led to the investigation of the names Fulperson and Fulkerson. This resulted in her identification. Living in Hawkins County in 1880 in the household of F. N. Fulkerson, a daughter, Hattie S., age 12 was found. Thus, it appears that our original theory was correct regarding “a man named Hooten” who worked for Benjamin Anderson in fact being a man named Wooton.

Marcus King and John Haynes returned to the Hawkins County pottery site to study sherds which could be found on the surface. John found a piece of kiln furniture where a potter had practiced writing his name in the wet clay. The name is Wooton.

Edwin Wooten believes his great grandparents moved to Hamburg, Iowa some time around 1892. That is where John Raymond died in 1932. So the Hamburg, Iowa connection that Napps mentions does in fact exist; however, the direction of the move appears to be reversed.

There is no evidence to suggest that J.R.’s father, James T., ever left Virginia. He died there at a young age in 1865. However, sometime in the middle to late 1870s J.R.’s mother remarried and at least two of his brothers moved to Iowa. One of those brothers, John W., born in 1848, can be found in the 1880 Hamburg Iowa Census. The other brother, Melville C., born in 1852, had a daughter born in Iowa in 1879.

It is tempting to speculate that four brothers traveled to Iowa together and two returned home to Virginia. Returning home is less uncommon than one might expect. If James Alexander and William Turner, the potters who Napps credits with founding the Wooten Pottery, did make the trip as theorized, that would explain the confusion regarding these potters coming from Iowa. In any event, there was a clear Wooten family connection with Hamburg, Iowa prior to 1880. Obviously, Napps was unaware of earlier Wooten potters.

Below are images of the signed sherd found at the Hawkins County pottery site, J.R. Wooton and the flowerpot he made in Tennessee in 1890. When Edwin Wooten first read about this flowerpot, he was not at all sure that his great grandfather had actually potted it. While oral tradition within his family in Iowa was that his great grandfather had been a preacher and a potter, no examples of his wares were known. Moreover, Edwin knew him as Raymond not as John Raymond or J.R.. The only written record to date which supports the fact that his great grandfather, John Raymond Wooton, was indeed a potter has recently been discovered in the 1920 Hamburg Iowa Census. There under his occupation is found the word Potter.