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reflects Wilson’s prior experience in Peoria. These were apparently a Right: hole worn in
popular product. An 1889 article in the Bonaparte Journal commented on the floor by a worker
the “growing demand for their stone fruit jars” (Rogers 1999:8). at a wheel or lathe at
Bonaparte Pottery.
In 1889 it was reported that the pottery had increased production by
another 20 percent; however, economic conditions in the country were Left: clay handprint made by a worker at the Bonaparte Pottery.
changing rapidly. The financial panic of 1893 made
it increasingly difficult to obtain credit. distance from population centers, the cost of
The transcontinental railroad, completed in 1869, production and distribution became prohibi-
was changing transportation routes and with tive. Operations at Bonaparte ceased ca. 1895 (Rogers 1999:9).
them, the routes for the distribution of goods
and population centers. These factors, coupled The significant architectural and archaeological features identified at the
with the introduction of mechanized production Bonaparte Pottery site include the 1876 pottery factory building, which
techniques created a severe decline in manu- still stands, the archaeological remains of two types of kilns, a huge waster
facturing in Bonaparte and towns like it in the midden, and a waster pit where broken pottery and other debris were
1890s.The pottery was unable to compete with discarded.
mechanized, mass-producers such as Red Wing in
Minnesota and the Western Stoneware Company The construction style of the factory building follows a European Medieval
in Illinois, and because it was located a greater tradition of building that was brought to this country by German immi-
grants (Harris ed. 1977:275; Howe et al. 1987:109). This construction tech-
Reconstruction of nique, referred to as “fachwerk”, is characterized by heavy timber framing
a horse drawn pug with brick masonry infill, called “noggin.” In the Bonaparte factory the
mill, from Rogers noggin extends all the way from the first floor to the attic (Rogers 1999:2).
et al. 1995.
Much of the interior of the building has been left virtually unchanged for
more than a century and evidence of the pottery operations is still vis-
ible. The basement and second floor still show clear markings from the
The University of Iowa Off ice of the State Archaeologist 37
