Carl Mehwaldt: A Pioneer German-American Potter
Decorative Arts in Winston-Salem,
And 19th-Century Immigrant
Redware From Western New York State
By Justin W. Thomas
For one reason or another, I
consider the career and life of Carl
Mehwaldt (1809-87) to be a fascinat-
ing story. He was a journeyman
potter from Germany who traveled
to Russia and Lebanon to expand
the knowledge of his trade. He then
returned to Germany and eventual-
ly migrated across the Atlantic
Ocean, landing on Long Island. He
made his way through New York
City, traveling northwest along the
Erie Canal on a barge, before set-
tling near Niagara Falls in western
New York.
The Buffalo Historical Society
first published his story in 1921, fol-
Carl Mehwaldtʼs (1809-87) house with some later additions, his
pottery was located behind the house.
My niece and nephew outside the Das Haus Museum in what used
to be the Village of Berkholz in western New York.
The site of the Holy Ghost Church where Mehwaldt hung two
memorial wreaths for his sons, Charles and Herman, who died in
the Civil War in 1864. A giant red earthenware chandelier made
by Mehwaldt also hung in this church, until the building was torn
down in 1906. At right, a plaque hangs on the memorial rock,
reading, in part, “Bergholz German Lutheran Settlement Founded
Oct. 12, 1843.”
The pitcher is attributed to the
Mehwaldt Pottery. Courtesy of
The New York State Museum.
A lidded jar likely made at the
Mehwaldt Pottery is inscribed
on the side with the number
”49.” Courtesy of Gene Pratt.
lowed by an article in the September
1922 issue of “The Magazine
Antiques.” Ada Walker Camehl (1866-
1939), who lived in western New York
and authored some pottery books,
wrote the articles. Camehlʼs articles
were also among the earliest pub-
lished stories devoted to a single
American potter; these stories were
based on her firsthand accounts
with Mehwaldtʼs living daughter and
locals who remembered the
Mehwaldt Pottery from their child-
hood.
Born May 25, 1809, in Bruessow,
Prussia (later Germany), Carl Ludwig
Heinrich Mehwaldt, as his birth cer-
tificate reads, has been the subject
of a name dispute for decades. He
This double handled vase
made by Mehwaldt missing
one handle descended through
local ownership. Courtesy of
Bob Mueller.
This lidded jar attributed to
the Mehwaldt Pottery came in
a variety of sizes, glazes and
types of handles. The base on
this example is inscribed “80”
and “8.” Courtesy of Gene Pratt.
One of the wreaths that Medhwaldt made for one of his sons
killed in the Civil War. This was just rediscovered in Seattle, Wash.
Courtesy of the Das Haus Museum.
It was not known until recently
that Mehwaldt actually made a
third wreath. Here are remains
of that attributed wreath.
Courtesy of Bob Mueller.
is recorded as “Charles” in the
United States Federal Census, as
well as some business directories.
He did have a son Charles.
In a history of his life, docu-
mented and preserved because of
Camehl: “Mehwaldt came of a line
of potters; for his father and his
grandfather before him had spent
their lives at the potterʼs wheel.
After he had learned the trade,
young Mehwaldt, as was the custom
of the country, passed several years
as a journeyman potter, in search of
experience. In the early 1840s, a
man of wealth, Williams by name,
gathered together several families
from the neighborhood of Bruessow
and brought the little band to the
United States. They purchased a
piece of land in western New York,
on the Niagara frontier, cleared the
timber and built a hamlet of log
houses. Remembering the village
from which they had come, they
named the new home New Bergholz,
later dropping the “New.”
Fired by the glowing accounts,
which came back to the Fatherland
from this transplanted colony, a
second company came together in
1851. Among this group were the
potter Mehwaldt, his wife, Albertine
and their children. Their voyage
lasted seven weeks, and as seems
to have been the not uncommon
fate of sailing vessels during those
years, the ship ran ashore upon a
sandbar off Long Island, the pas-
sengers were rescued, and the party
made their way across New York
State by way of the Erie Canal, even-
tually arriving in Bergholz.”
Sometime after Mehwaldt
arrived, he established a pottery
business, which operated similar to
other rural country potters found
This candlestick was likely
made at the Mehwaldt Pottery
and closely resembles the
remains of a candlestick recov-
ered at the site of the pottery
and now at the Das Haus
Museum. Courtesy of Gene Pratt.
elsewhere in western New York,
Pennsylvania, Virginia and through-
out New England. But his skill is
perhaps what sets him apart from
some of these other potters.
Mehwaldt manufactured red
earthenware from the early-1850s
right up until around the time he
died in 1887. He must have also
exported some of his wares, seeing
that there was only so much
demand from the small village in
which he lived. He may have taken
advantage of the Niagara River and
shipped some of his production to
communities along the waterway,
such as Buffalo, where the expand-
ing population had already reached
81,000 people by 1850.
The utilitarian wares he made
consisted of a wide variety of forms,
some decorated with colors that
resemble a Rockingham glaze, and
others reportedly partially created
using animal blood. He made lidded
jars, pitchers, candlesticks and
drawer pulls. Other forms include
jugs, strainers, handled pots, cake
molds, vases, chimney flue liners
and flowerpots. Camehl was also
able to identify that he made cups
and saucers, bottles, mugs, teapots,
teakettles, dishes, platters, bowls
and coffee pots. Rarely is any of this
pottery marked, but Mehwaldt is
known to have inscribed the letter
“M” into some of his wares. Some of
the lidded forms were also inscribed
with a number that matched a lid to
a vessel accordingly.
Interestingly, I suspect that
some of Mehwaldtʼs lesser-known
production could be mistaken for
wares made in Pennsylvania and
other areas where there were
German-American potters. For
instance, Mehwaldt is known to
have produced a selection of minia-
ture dinner sets, along with toy
whistles in the form of pigs, owls,
roosters and birds around
Christmas. He also made inkstands
with penholders, a form common to
Germany and Pennsylvania in the
18th and 19th century.
However, after researching a
lot of this material, I was compelled
to learn more about Mehwaldtʼs life.
I decided to travel to the Das Haus
Museum, which is a part of the
Historical Society of North German
Settlements in western New York,
and the site of the Mehwaldt
Pottery, located about 10 miles east
of Niagara Falls. Not only did I want
to learn more about his career, but
I was determined to hear more
about two special pieces of pottery
he made for two of his sons after
they died in the Civil War. I consider
these objects to be national trea-
sures today.
The Site of the Mehwaldt Pottery
I arrived at the Das Haus
Museum with my nephew, Jason,
and niece, Alexis, on Aug. 14, 2019.
The museum is located directly
across the street from Mehwaldtsʼ
house and the site of his pottery.
Mehwaldt was clearly a remarkable
potter based on the wares that I
have seen in the New York State
Museum in Albany, N.Y., as well as
private collections, and an object
owned by the National Museum of
American History at the Smithsonian
Institute in Washington, D.C.
However, it is his lesser-known pro-
duction that really sets him apart.
Upon arriving to America, two
of Mehwaldtʼs sons, Charles (d.
1864) and Herman (d. 1864), became
enamored with patriotism, and
enlisted in the northern army
during the Civil War in 1862. Neither
returned home. Charles was killed
in Cold Harbor, Va., on June 3, 1864,
and a few weeks later, Herman died
in Petersburg, Va. Likely over-
whelmed with emotions, Mehwaldt
decided to memorialize his sons by
Museum of Early Southern
N.C.
In Retrospect
It has been published that
Mehwaldt was generally a lone pot-
ter who received some help with
digging and kneading clay and pre-
paring glazes from his children and
other local kids. Mehwaldt is con-
constructing two red earthenware
sidered to have been the only pot-
wreaths in their memory. He began
ter working at this business,
with a round pottery frame, 16 inch-
although I believe I may have
es in diameter, and meticulously
observed otherwise. While studying
decorated both wreaths with
a group of handled pieces owned
hand-modeled flowers that grew
by the Das Haus Museum, I noticed
around his home; each wreath was
differences in the way some of the
adorned in sunflowers, roses, dai-
handles were made. Perhaps
sies, myrtles, zinnias, water lilies
Mehwaldt had different styles, but I
and buttercups, surrounded by
would not be surprised to learn if
leaves. The wreaths were then fired
there was another person employed
in the kiln without a glaze, and
with him in some capacity.
afterwards, carefully painted with
Carl Mehwaldt was an incredi-
vibrant colors.
bly talented potter who lived a
Mehwaldt hung the wreaths in
tough life with many family trage-
the Holy Ghost Church, only a few
dies. However, he remained a potter
hundred yards from the site of his
well into his 70s. Mehwaldt may
house and pottery, until the church
have given up the potterʼs wheel at
was torn down in 1906. Where the
an earlier age, but there was no one
wreaths went next is not completely
to succeed him in the business. This
known, but apparently, Ada Walker
was reportedly a disappointment
Camehl had come into the posses-
since he was a third generation
sion of at least one of the wreaths
potter, and he had hoped the family
based on the information she pub-
legacy would continue after him.
lished in “The Magazine Antiques.”
But his skill as a potter and an artist
The whereabouts of these wreaths
should never be forgotten. He was
have been unknown in recent years,
unquestionably one of western
but one was just rediscovered in
New Yorkʼs most talented potters,
Seattle, Wash., and has returned
who produced some of the regionʼs
home to the Das Haus Museum.
most memorable wares, some of
However, it has not been previ-
which appear to be unique to
ously published that there was
American production today.
actually a third wreath manufac-
tured by Mehwaldt. This wreath had
Sources
resided in a local home, hanging
Camehl, Ada Walker. “The Old
above a doorway, until it was acci-
Bergholz Pottery.” Publications of
dentally knocked over many years
the Buffalo Historical Society:
ago, breaking into dozens of pieces.
Volume XXV The Book of the
It then descended through the fam-
Museum, 1921.
ily to the present owner, Bob
Camehl, Ada Walker. “Mehwaldt,
Mueller, who was generous enough
a Pioneer American Potter.” The
to come to the Das Haus Museum
Magazine Antiques (September
and share the remains of this trea-
1922).
sure. It is currently unknown who it
Lewis, Clarence O. “Mehwaldt
was made for, but it may have been
Death Ended Bergholz Pottery Era.”
made for another soldier killed in
Niagara Falls Gazette (May 26, 1965).
the Civil War who belonged to the
Ketchum, William C. Jr. Potters
Bergholz community.
and Potteries of New York State,
I also learned about a huge red
1650-1900 Second Edition. Syracuse,
earthenware chandelier created by
N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1987.
Mehwaldt for the church; it was
described as four feet in diameter,
illuminated with four rows of can-
dles, and decorated with hand-ap-
plied objects. The chandelier was
eventually removed when the
church was torn down, and part of it
ended up in Camehlʼs collection,
but its whereabouts today is
unknown.
Mehwaldt also apparently
manufactured stoves, similar to
those made by some of the south- This mug likely made at the
ern Moravian potters. I was sur- Mehwaldt Pottery has a glaze
prised to see the remains of this very similar to the jar inscribed
type of production recovered from with the number “49.” Courtesy
the site of his pottery, which of The National Museum of
reminded me of an intact well-pub- American History at the Smith-
lished stove in the collection of the sonian Institute.
This dish is attributed to the Mehwaldt Pottery. Courtesy of The
New York State Museum.
A black glazed lidded jar and jug attributed to the Mehwaldt Pot-
tery. Courtesy of The Buffalo History Museum.