Pottery – the plain red ware used to make milk pans, bean pots, jugs and mugs – was an essential for the frontier housewife.

A pottery was one of the first industries established in a new town – right after the saw mill and grist mill.

The first pottery in our region was established by Peter Clark, who was born in 1764 in Danvers, Mass., where he learned the trade from his father, also Peter. According to various accounts, the younger Peter wanted to be a farmer, and in January 1774 he and his wife, Hannah, and his brother John moved to Lyndeborough. After they moved into an earlier settler’s cabin, he built a saw mill in order to construct a house.

Clark kept a line-a-day diary for more than 30 years that notes he began building a house at "the four corners in North Lyndeborough." The project included a barn and a pottery shop, which he intended to run as a sideline.

The Revolutionary War intervened, however, and he joined the local militia, in which he was commissioned a captain. He didn’t complete his buildings until December.

Clark began making pottery sometime in 1776, using local clay and a primitive pottery wheel. The kiln was in a separate building across the road.

He was again interrupted by the war, and took part in the battles of Bennington and Saratoga. He was promoted to major, a title he used for the rest of his life, although he actually preferred "Deacon," since he served the Congregational Church in that capacity much of his life. He also served several times as a selectman, town clerk and town moderator.

Clark’s sword is on display at the Bennington Battle Monument. Saratoga was his last battle, although in 1779 he was on garrison duty in Portsmouth.

An undated article in "New England Potters" recalls a visit to the site of the pottery in 1940 and described it as at "the four corners, even now sparsely settled." Those roads are now New Road, Sharpe Road and the 2nd New Hampshire Turnpike. The site is called "Henry Holden’s" in the town history, but provides no details.

In 1940, there was only a cellar hole. The 2nd New Hampshire Turnpike, still known locally as the "Francestown Turnpike," was built in 1802.

After the war, Clark returned to his pottery business aided by two of his sons, Peter and Benjamin. Clark died in 1851, and the pottery burned four years later. The third Peter took up farming and Benjamin became a minister.

Major Clark also founded a pottery in Francestown around 1800. That area, a few miles up the turnpike from his home, is still known as Clark’s Village. That pottery existed for about 20 years and closed for lack of good clay.

Daniel Clark’s diary records that in 1819 there was "an upset in Lyndeborough" and the pottery failed. This Clark brother had a successful pottery in Concord called Millville Pottery. The younger Peter began hauling clay from Amherst and saved the business.

Major Clark’s brother William was also a potter and had a shop on the same site. He died in 1855.

The business was continued for another generation or two in Concord, with little sign of the operation left in Lyndeborough or Francestown.

After Major Clark’s death, the pottery was purchased by John Southwick, who continued to produce pottery for about eight years, driving his products to Boston for sale.

The article notes that the bean pot, as we know it, was invented by the Clarks in 1844.

Clark’s pottery was plain and serviceable, with little decoration – just what the frontier housewife needed. Pottery is fragile, and few old pieces remain. Although several Lyndeborough residents own examples of the work, the Lyndeborough Historical Society has one piece, undated and unattributed.

The Lyndeborough Heritage Commission is considering placing a historic marker at the "four corners."

Keep up with the past with Another Perspective, which runs monthly in The Telegraph. Jessie Salisbury can be reached at 654-9704 or jessies@tellink.net.