The Smith Family Pottery tradition had its beginnings in 1918: in the northeast corner of Perry County, Alabama. E. B. Smith began forming items from clay with his hands and firing them in his blacksmith shop. From this humble beginning, he built a log building to use as a pottery shop. He installed two potter's kickwheels and hired a Mr. Brown and Mr Ralph Phillips to turn pottery so that his two sons, Oscar and Norman, could learn to make pottery. Mr. Brown and Mr. Phillips were paid two cents a gallon for turning pottery.

The first wood-burning kiln was made of rocks and red dirt mortar. It only lasted for a few firings and had to be rebuilt.

Oscar and Norman made pottery in the log building until it began to fall apart. Oscar built his shop in 1938. With the help of family members, bricks were molded by hand and dried in the sun for building his new kiln. The kiln was built with raw (unfired) brick. The bricks were fired with the first load of pottery. It took approximately two cords of wood to fire each kiln.

The clay was dug out of the ground with a pick and shovel. The first layer of clay was approximately four feet under the ground. It was then soaked in a wood box and then put in a mudmill, which was pulled by a horse and later a tractor.

Oscar made pottery at this location in Perry County until 1964. At age 59, he was forced to retire because of a leg and hip problem. Norman continued making pottery until the mid 1980s, when he became disabled... therefore, the old family tradition came to an end.

In 1988, Oscar's son, Pettus "Smitty" Smith , after retirement, built a small pottery shop in Chilton County near Clanton, Alabama, to again continue the family pottery tradition. As in the past, he too digs his clay from the earth with a pick and shovel. He also processes his clay with an old-type mudmill pulled by a trator. He has two potter's wheels -- one electric wheel, and his father's old kick wheel. However, he uses two electric kilns.

THUS, the Smith Family Pottery tradition continues today in 1995, awaiting for a son, daughter, granddaughter, or grandson to create an interest and pick up the pottery tradition and carry it into the next generation!!