Jan Olivia Rowe interview with Lamar Howard Franklin

The John Burrison Georgia Folklore Archive recordings contains unedited versions of all interviews. Some material may contain descriptions of violence, offensive language, or negative stereotypes reflecting the culture or language of a particular period or place. There are instances of racist language and description, particularly in regards to African Americans. These items are presented as part of the historical record. This project is a repository for the stories, accounts, and memories of those who chose to share their experiences for educational purposes. The viewpoints expressed in this project do not necessarily represent the viewpoints of the Atlanta History Center or any of its officers, agents, employees, or volunteers. The Atlanta History Center makes no warranty as to the accuracy or completeness of any information contained in the interviews and expressly disclaims any liability therefore. If you believe you are the copyright holder of any of the content published in this collection and do not want it publicly available, please contact the Kenan Research Center at the Atlanta History Center at 404-814-4040 or reference@atlantahistorycenter.com. Please note that a loud, piercing noise disrupts this audio in a few places. This interview begins with Lamar Howard Franklin, a third generation potter, describing his business, J. W. Franklin and Sons Pottery, located in Marietta, Georgia. At 2:00, he explains that he used pugmills and molds to process and shape clay, and his grandfather used a traditional potters wheel. They used clay sourced from a nearby stream, Rockwood Creek. Franklin remarks that he rarely glazes his pottery. At 8:14, Franklin explains that his shop mostly resells pots rather than crafting them in-house because there isnt much clay left in the Rockwood Creek riverbed. He also details how one of the older machines in his shop operates, and at 13:00 says florists from North Georgia are his main customers. Next at 16:50, Franklin details specifics about his kiln, including fuel sources. Also, although many small potters use groundhog kilns, his is a round downdraft built in the late 1920s that uses pipes to channel heat and dry air. Lamar Franklin (1914-1992) was born in Marietta, Georgia, to William Jefferson Franklin (1885-1940) and Clara Bell Franklin (1891-1961), along with three siblings. He married LeVert Baldwin Weerins (1917-2015) in 1940, and they had three children. In 1940 he also signed up for the draft. Afterwards, he took over his familys pottery business, J. W. Franklin and Sons Pottery, that is his grandfather, James Wilie Franklin (1855-1930), started in 1901. Introduction Mr. Lamar Franklin owns and operates the J.W. Franklin and Sons Pottery located at 899 Franklin Road in Marietta, Georgia. He was born in 1914 in Marietta and grew up near the pottery. The pottery was started in 1901 by his grandfather,J.W. Franklin.. Mr. Franklin lives across the street from the pottery. He has three sons none of which are interested in the business. He is an active member of Rotary Club International and of the United Methodist Church. On November a.1, 1970, I visited Mr. Franklin at his pottery. When I had set up the appointment he had been,aapprehensivetabout: my. inte est in the pottery. He said Iater that' e t`thought that I might be a reporter from the Journal who would blow everything out of proportion. When I arrived with a friend) Louis McCleod, Mr. Franklin took us into the pottery where we set up the tape recorder. At first Mr. FranKlin seemed a littia:hesitant about talking about his busines. He implied several times that there really was not much to know about the pottery and that other potters such as Meaders and Gordy in North,,Georgia would be more helpful. After assuring him that I wanted to know about his pottery, I began asking questions and he readily volunteered information. When I left we were sharing our experiences with pottery and I felt very warm about him and his wok. I found I^Mr. Franklin to be very cordial. He seemed interested in me, my background, and my experience with pottery. He seemed to 1te concerned about my comfort. When I left I was excited about what I had found. I was also sad that people like Mr. Franklin are being forced by urbanization and "progress" to give up a whole way of life. 2 3 Transcription How old is your pottery? My grandfather started it in 1901. I..'m the third gen-- eration. Specifically, what kind of equipment do you use to make the pots? The clay is pressed out on flower pot machines. It is processed through grinders and pugmills and comes out of pugmills and cut off in blanks. Blanks are put on machines and presses out a flower pot. (photo) Is the machine like a mold? Yes, it has different molds. We have twoThiachines: one makes 2"-5",tthe other 6"-12". They're made in various heigths . The standard pot is same height as diameter. .The azalea pot some people call 3/4 pot is about 3/4 as tall.-.oSometime ;tad make a cyclone (?) pot which is about 7/8 in height of a standar d.c-Then we have bulb pots which are about 1/2 in height of standard. (photo) Do you remember or did anyone ever tell you how your grandfather made the pots? In the beginning they were made on ^otter's wheel. Had a kick wheel in the beginningthen later on had a power wheel, then after that there was a method called jiggering which was a plaster mold. Soft Qla-7 was put inside and a templit (7) pushed the clay against the outside of the plaster molds When +he clay dried it shrank away from the plaster mold. They were emptied and we processed them. Worked three times', a day like that. Presses like we have now-.got one machine in 1914, conveyor in 1925. What kind of clay did you use and do you use now? It's an alluvial clay. We mined it down near Rockwood Creek. It was deposited there many years ago by water washing. It was washed off the hillside hundred of thusande of years ago. And you still use that clay when you make pottery? Yes. Have you ever used glazes at all? Yes, in the beginning they made some tlazed pottery, made some jugs, some were glazed and milk bowls and what not. So you haven't made flower pots? Yes, we've always made flower pots bt jugs and things were: made for syrp and whis1ey. Joke was.:T model Ford came along and it was too rough for jugs so had to go to tin cans. Do you remember what kind of glazes were used? They used a glaze called Albany slip,brown glaze, glaze came from up in New York. But make a similiar glaze by shifting ashes or anything that fuses at a low temperature. Of course, various colors come from different metallic oxides. You don't do any glazig now? No. (ta pe not transcribed) When you get clay out of the riverbed how... It's not in the riverbed. It's in the bottom land near the creek. Originally it had an overburden in there of 18"- 2' deep. Clay probably varied from 4'-12' Washed into variant 5 depths of sand underneath. Of course,,we can't use the sand. Of course in the beginning they would take a wagon and go down and Set a load of clay, use that, and in a few days go back and move over a few feet and dig another load of clay. The last few years,15-20 years, we've used drag lining to take out everything: the old walls that were left in there. And we've used a good bit of top soil, too. Of course, get the grass and root and organic material off of it and blend it and make a clay out of it. Your grandfather set up the pottery as a commercial pottery? That's right. Originally they were in:<the city of Marietta. Papa started in town, lived out here and operated in Marietta for two years and then moved out here. So you've been out here since 1993; that's when this building was built? I don't remember when this building was built. It was here ever since I can remember and I was born in 1914. My first memory of this building was right here. (Tape not transcribed.) You mentioned earlier you don't maze many pots anymore: You buy them? Yes, we buy them and resell them. Why is that? Well, the labor market is part of it. Labor got to be a real critical item with us. Of course, we're small operato r C: in the pottery business. The pottery business is like a lot of other things; you've ;ot to be a big operation to make it economical. Of course years ago there used to be machine shops where we could order flower pot dyes. That's another critical thibg It's hard to get those now. The dyes are made of part steel and part of-them cast iron. Good bit of machine work on them. Company in Detroit where We could order one and they would ship it to us. They went out of business and that's a factor quitting making. (Tape not transcribed.) Do you have any old e quipment around? This jigger machine (photo) over here. Most of the plaster of paris molds we've disposed of. When I was real small we used to make V".'on up on that machine. In 1925 we bought t1e.-: trigger machine.: The last few times we used that we made some 12". How does it operate? Clay is made up real soft. A ball of it is put in the bottom of plaster mold, a temolit goes down inside and a man uses his hand and this templit pushing up against the side.:Th.e clay is formed against the plaster of paris mold. Plaster of paris mold forms the outside and templit and hands form inside. So it's almost lice the wheel? Yes, but there's more uniformity and it's faster. Wita the wheel there's always variation. No two Qf them are exactly alike. Are you the only in. ou:r family left'that''ss in the business? Yes, I'm the last generation. (Tape not transcribed.) 7 Of course we've been squeezed in here by urban growth. Apartment projects on both sides of us. (Tape not transcribed.) In 1991 he (grandfather) and another fellow were supposed to start a pottery business. And on the day they were going to start the partnership the other map didn't show up. So my grandfather started on his own. My -Dad was, I don't know exactly ,how old he was then, he and he had two brothers so it became known asTJ.W. Franklin and Sons Pottery. I've kept the same name..I've owned the business since.l95G. 1 ve kept the same name. Do you have unlimited sup ply of the clay? (asked by Louis McLeod) No, it's not unlimited. That particular area is pretty well exausted.. Would that be another reason for not making anymore pots' 1 That would be another reason. Do you know of any place where I could dig? Most of the broken ones are in Franklin Road. (Tape not transcribed.) How do you sell your pots? Most of our business was in Atlanta area. There used to 1 be a good many florists in the Atlanta area. We've never been a big business. It was through personal contact. most of our customers have been with us for years. It^'.s reached the point where they would call us this morning, expect us to deliver this afternoon. North Georgia has been our primary market over the years. Not as quite as many growers in Atlanta area. Even Ej though the po pulatin has grown why the number of greenhouses and amount of flowers grown in the Atlanta area is less than it used to be . _ '(Pape not transcribed.) These pots over here: t lat's the finished Pot-(Photo) No, they..were formed on machines and placed over there and dried. (Tape not transcribed.) Those would be red if they were fired. There's iron oxide in the clay. (Tape not transcribed.) Did you make these over here? (photo) These pots were made on this machine here. Of course in the beginning most of the pottery was fired by wood. We used coal and wood and oh 20 or 30 years ago we switched Over to fuel oil. We use fuel oil to fire pottery with. Of course, ri natural gas is good fuel but we've never had it available around here at this spot. Where is your kiln? It's right out back. (phto.) t ile have a rou kiln with eight fire boxes around the outside. potteries had what they call ground hog kilns. almost in the ground with Just a little ground. nd down draft Most of small They were built Usually a rectangle kiln. Fire was in one end, and stack in the othere end. and the fire would kinda go over the to p of the pottery and it wasn't a Very elaborate arrangement. Is that the kind of kiln your grandfather would have used? In the beginning I'm sure they used that. M How old is the kiln you use now? It was built in the late 20's. So you use the same kiln. It's had a lot of work since then. Like I say it originally s,ed a combination of wood and coal with firerboxes. We tore t:ose off and have got burners for fuel oil. At what temperature s.o you fire? Our clay unfortunately always matured at a high temperature, almost 2100 degrees . (Several revolutions of blank tape.) Some clay, of course,up in northwest Georgia there is some shale clays that J use to make bricks with and some of those clays will mature at much lower temperatures, 16,17, 1800 degrees So it's different type of clay? Yes. These pipes are used to dry pots? (photo) There're pks with boards. Heat, hot water circulates and they dry. How long does it take to dry out pots? 24 hours if the weat:ner is good. If it's real cold and damp it will take longer. .Are these the original pipes? Those have been there a long ti:e. Boilers were added three years ago. A lot of this is real old. Like I said this building is as old as I can remember. Did your grandfather use pipes like these? 10 No. The first thibg I remember there;wasaa brick and concrete arrangement underneath these racks. Fire box down on that end and on this end was a stack and the heat came all the way up through. The bric.kduts radiated from that up through the pots. So when were the pipes added? About 1920, I guess. Of course, in small potteries in Georgia they use to carry their ware: out and let it dry in the sun. On a day like thiayput it out in the sun and at night have to bring it back in. (Ta pe not transcribed.) .,,ELEASEBy letting us collect your traditions--stories, songs, music, sayings, riddles, or beliefs earlier days--you have made a valuable contribution to preserving and understanding Southern history, and especially the history and way of life of your community. Because you have given unselfishly of your time to do this, the Georgia Folklore Archives, whose representatives are dedicated to preserving these traditions, wants to protect your rights to this material by guaranteeing that it will not be used for unscrupulous commercial profits. By signing this sheet, you are giving us permission to use this material for educational purposes so that people who are interested can understand how life was in the old-timey days. Your material will probably not be printed or issued on a record, but if it is, and you don't want your name to be used, say so--we respect your right to privacy. Thank you for the time you have given to help us record a heritage that is an important part of American life. If you remember any more old-timey things that you want to send along to us so that it will always be preserved, write to: Georgia Folklore Archives c/o Prof. John Burrison Georgia State University 33 Gilmer Street South East Atlanta, Georgia 30303 Signed Address For Ga. Fl. Archives: Witness Date s`, g 4 r' ^qi,a f. - "jam ^t Y,t : zl a ' ay,^ a s ^ 'I, K y ,. J r , .H^^7 C M fr w"y ii II . ^ T tt ^^ rs Y r e t C ! t+ z,., eti^, d i^ , o- 'ins de c 'cci er1 ( C^Ck and '^>LS 6 ', Ohm c C CL -5 tj 4 (r) 9-) I AV cr\ I r n5 \ i\ C) 4 4 --, i a .4;] _ a pk j Y-q u} err v^ G i-S a l 0^ o:1er tx-s Ck C ) A PDF transcript exists for this recording. Please contact an archivist for access. Professor John Burrison founded the Atlanta Folklore Archive Project in 1967 at Georgia State University. He trained undergraduates and graduate students enrolled in his folklore curriculum to conduct oral history interviews. Students interviewed men, women, and children of various demographics in Georgia and across the southeast on crafts, storytelling, music, religion, rural life, and traditions. As archivists, we acknowledge our role as stewards of information, which places us inaposition to choose how individuals and organizations are represented and described in our archives. We are not neutral, andbias isreflected in our descriptions, whichmay not convey the racist or offensive aspects of collection materialsaccurately.Archivists make mistakes and might use poor judgment.We often re-use language used by the former owners and creators, which provides context but also includes bias and prejudices of the time it was created.Additionally,our work to use reparative languagewhereLibrary of Congress subject termsareinaccurate and obsolete isongoing. Kenan Research Center welcomes feedback and questions regarding our archival descriptions. If you encounter harmful, offensive, or insensitive terminology or description please let us know by emailingreference@atlantahistorycenter.com. Your comments are essential to our work to create inclusive and thoughtful description.