Stoneware bowls, pitchers, crocks, and jugs were essential items in the early 19th-century kitchens of Wayne County, and the Historical Society has several fine examples turned out by a local craftsman, Doylestown native Samuel Routson.
After serving an apprenticeship with one of the many pottery makers in Summit County, Routson returned home and opened his own pottery works in 1836. Doylestown was a growing village, home to lumber yards, tanneries, grist mills, and a brick works, and Routson’s enterprise thrived initially. In 1847, he sold the business to Graham and Hower, and opened a general store at the intersection of Portage Road and Marion Street, where he sold groceries and dry goods, and also served as Doylestown’s postmaster for several years.
Harsh winters and crop failures in the mid-1850s, however, took their toll on local merchants as well as farmers, and in the spring of 1856, Routson closed his store and moved, with his wife Jane, and their eight children, to Wooster, where he returned to the pottery business.
