Our founders and history
The house was founded by Joseph Pech who was passionate about creating quality pottery. This value of making quality ceramics has continued in House Glazerin. They are known for offer ceramics lessons to the local community. Joseph Pech was born in 1827 in Austria where he learned the pottery trade. He immigrated to America in 1852 and settled in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, with his family where they took up farming. In 1882 he moved to Macomb to open a pottery business with his son, Washington.
History Challenge
Challenge 1
On August 24, 1882, Joseph Pech started a company in Macomb, Illinois, with his son called Buckeye Pottery. They mostly made crocks and jugs. What did people use them for?
Answer: Crocks and jugs were used to store and preserve food. At that time there were not any electrical refrigerators or even plastic.
Challenge 2
What is the number on the crock for? See the photograph of a Buckeye, “Blue Ribbon” number 10 crock to the left.
Answer: Crocks and jugs were made in different sizes. The number indicates how many gallons the crock or jug would hold. Since there was no plastics and glass was not common, you would take your crocks and jugs to the store to have them filled with what you needed. The number indicating the gallons would allow the shopkeeper to know how much to charge.
Challenge 3
The pottery industry was booming in the 1880s and 90s in McDonough County! In addition to crocks and jugs, there were companies that were making bricks for roads and buildings. Why do you think there were so many businesses of this type in the area?
Answer; Pottery is made out of clay which is found in the ground. To make clay hard -or to become a useable as a crock or jug, it needs to be heated or baked in a kiln. A piece of pottery will need to be heated to over 1000 degrees for 12 hours to become hard. Before electricity was available, burning coal was the common way to get temperatures that high for that long . McDonough County has plenty of both clay and coal in the ground providing the raw materials to supply all the pottery business in the area.