[Newspaper]
Publication: The Press and Tribune
Chicago, IL, United States
vol. 13, no. 14, p. 2, col. 5
The American Pottery Company.
(From the Peoria Transcript.)
Yesterday, Messrs. Johnson, Luscell and Fenton, three of the projectors of the great pottery establishment that is to be located in this State, a charter for which was granted by our last legislature, opened a store in Smith’s block, next to the Peoria House, for the exhibition of specimens of their manufacture. The Transcript has already given an account of this projected enterprise, which is to establish, through a chartered company, a pottery in this State, sufficiently large to give employment to one thousand operatives. The enterprise is no chimerical one. It is a bona fide enterprise, to be prosecuted in a legitimate way, and in a branch of art that promises a more stable footing, less competition and a surer profit to investment than any we are able to name.
Although the opening of the rooms had not been previously advertised, the store was visited throughout the day by a large throng of our citizens, who, with scarcely an exception, frankly confessed their entire ignorance that such wares can be manufactured in this country.
The object of these gentlemen in visiting Peoria is to obtain subscription to the stock of the new company. This is the first place in which specimens have been exhibited, and a systematic effort made to obtain subscriptions. The proposed capital is [dollar: $300,000]; the prices of shares [dollar: $100] each. Peoria is one of the points which have been examined for the locality of the works, and as the enterprise is a sure thing, it becomes our capitalists and real estate owners to look about themselves and consider whether or not it will be to their interests to have the thing come here. Other cities are in the field to secure the location, and it only requires that they should obtain a controlling portion of the stock to settle the thing in their favor.
