[1/16/12] Monday Memories: Bybee Pottery

Bybee Pottery (Image courtesy ofhttp://unusualkentucky.blogspot.com/2008/06/bybee-pottery.html

We're heading home from Kentucky today. It's been great to have a long weekend to spend with John's family. Of course, I forgot my camera cord, and only took one picture.

Oh well.

One of the things I wanted to do on the way home today was stop by Bybee Pottery.  Bybee Pottery is one of my most favorite places in Kentucky, and I haven't been able to go the past few times we've visited Kentucky because they've been closed for the holidays or for the weekend.

So I was pretty excited that we'd get to stop by today.

I have so many fun memories of Bybee Pottery. When we lived here many years ago while John was going to school, we'd go to Bybee Pottery when family came to visit or just for fun.

Here's some Bybee Pottery history from bybybeepottery.com: 

The oldest existing pottery west of the Alleghenies, Bybee Pottery is located in the small rural town of Bybee, among the southern hills of Madison County, Kentucky. The old log building has housed the equipment and business of the Bybee Pottery for over a century. It stands as a landmark of pioneered days. Legend states that this pottery was originally established in 1809, and actual sales records prove its existence as a thriving industry as early as 1845. 

The process of mining the clay, grinding it in the antique pug mill, throwing and shaping it by hand into articles of ornamental and practical use on the potter's wheel, is very much the same today as it was over a century ago. 

The clay used by the pottery is found in ample deposits approximately three miles from Bybee. This clay is open-pit mined several feet beneath rich Kentucky topsoil. History records that this same clay was mined by the first settlers of Kentucky, then taken to Fort Boonesborough to be used for making crude dishes.

The clay, mixed with water, is ground in the old pug mill and stored in an ancient vault where it is kept moist and pliable. It is weighed on old balances to secure uniformity, and then thrown by the potter and shaped into the desired form. Each piece is allowed to dry completely, then it is glazed and fired in a kiln heated to 2200 degrees. Emerging from the kiln, the clay, now a finished piece of pottery, is ready for sale. 

Walter Cornelison, successor to Webster, James Eli, Walter and Earnest Cornelison, is the fifth generation Cornelison to own and operate Bybee Pottery. 

Going to Bybee was quite an adventure. We'd have to arrive there by 6 am for the 8 am opening. When you arrived, you'd put your box or laundry basket in line in front of the door and then you'd wait in your car until a bit before opening. You needed to know the layout of the store and it was best to take a partner or two with you. Taking small children on this adventure was not a good idea, which we discovered the hard way. Once the doors opened everyone made a mad dash to get what they wanted. Once you found what you wanted, you'd place it on the floor and put a piece of paper on your pile with your name on it. Then it was safe. John would go with me, or one of my mothers-in-law, and we'd make a plan as to who would go where and get what. My parents liked to go to Bybee when they'd come to visit, too. The Bybee peole would put out about 1000 pieces every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and by 8:15 am everything would be gone. The shelves would be empty.

It was so fun!

These are a couple of the pieces I have (images courtesy of bybybeepottery.com, where you can order Bybee Pottery):

 

And I absolutely love all of my Bybee Pottery! I love it's history. I love that it's been a family-run-and-operated business for 200 years. I love to use it in my home.

I just love it!

When we got to our hotel Friday night, I tried to find the Bybee website. I had heard that you don't have to go so early anymore to buy Bybee Pottery, that you could go on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and they would have some stock. But I couldn't find their website.

I did find a news article from May 31, 2001, which said that due to economic troubles, the Bybee family had to lay-off all it's employees, sell all it's stock, and close it doors. The family was hoping to reopen at some time.

Oh my goodness. I was so sad!

Really, really sad. Sad that this Bybee Pottery era seems to be over. Sad for the family who has worked together for so many years and so many generations for something that they were so passionate about. Sad that I probably won't be able to ever get original Bybee Pottery from the Bybee Pottery store in Bybee, Kentucky, again. A Cornelison nephew has started a Bybee store close to Louisville, and he is making Bybee pottery.

But it's just not the same.

I hope to be able to visit his store during a future Kentucky trip, because I would like to get some more Bybee pottery, and I'm so thankful he's trying to keep Bybee Pottery alive in some way.

But it's just not the same...