History of Pottery in Montgomery Texas
The Kirbee Kiln Site is a 19th-century kiln ruin located in Montgomery County, Texas, where stoneware was manufactured by the Kirbee family. It is one of the largest groundhog kilns ever recorded in the American South.
Around 1849 Jamses Kirby started a pottery just four miles south of Montgomery. The Kirbee's kiln made much needed pottery products. for the area residents. The Kirbee Kiln was founded and operated by James Kirbee, who was originally from Edgefield, South Carlolina, and had relatives and acquaintances who were also potters. One of his acquaintances was Rev. John Landrum. By 1830, Kirbee and his family had relocated to Georgia; and by 1840, they had migrated to Montgomery County, Texas. The kiln itself was likely built around 1849, as it appeared in the 1850 Schedule of Industry and Manufacture. James was likely assisted by his sons M.J. and Louis. The kiln ceased operations in the 1860s due the industrial and economic collapse in Montgomery County after the Civil War.
The site was one of several kilns surveyed by the Texas Historical Commission between 1973 and 1974. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on August 28, 1973.
At the time of the archaeological surveys in the 1970s, the Texas Historical Commission named the Kirbee Kiln Site as the largest groundhog kiln that had then been excavated in Texas, and it remains one of the largest ever recorded in the American South.
It measured 39 feet (12 m) across and 8 to 10 inches wide and was constructed of brick. The kiln was rectangular in shape, consisting of an opening at the very front for loading and firing, a depressed firebox, the loading shelf in the middle, and a fireplace-shaped chimney at the very back. A unique feature of this kiln was the presence of a second firing box located midway along the loading shelf; a side door would have provided access. The chimney is believed by the excavators to have decreased in width towards its top. The buttresses of the Kirbee Kiln were large and angled but also included several smaller ones, a rare feature that could have functioned to support its size, offer resistance against the sloped ground, and double as a retaining wall. The entire floor of the kiln was sandy soil.
Kirbee's stoneware had similarities to techniques observed elsewhere in Georgia and South Carolina, particularly the alkaline glaze that was characteristic of contemporary Edgefield stoneware; and the vessels were also comparable in features such as their handles and shape. Because of the quality of the clay at the site and kiln firing temperatures, few examples of Kirbee stoneware have survived. One large jar is kept in the collection of Sam Houston Memorial Museum and Presidential Library of the Republic of Texas. A small mixing bowl from the Kirbee Kiln is on display at the Nat Hart Davis Pioneer Complex in Montgomery Texas.
