Ezra A. Dunn and his Pottery

Ezra A. Dunn (1821-1898) was one of my great great great (3X) grandfathers.  Last month I visited his grave at Rose Hill Cemetery in Matawan, Monmouth County, New Jersey.  Ezra is buried with his wife, Hermoine Dunlop, and some of their children.

From the 1850s until his death in 1898, Ezra owned and worked at his pottery business in Middletown Point (which became Matawan Township in 1857, but is now Aberdeen Township, Monmouth County, New Jersey).  The business was originally called Van Schoick and Dunn, but morphed into Dunn and Dunlop and then Dunlop and Lisk.  William A. Dunlop (1833-1910), one of the eventual owners, was the brother of Hermoine Dunlop, wife of Ezra A. Dunn.

An example of the pottery can be found at this online auctioneer or here.  Ezra painted the images on the pottery.

I found a picture of the Pottery workers, circa 1870, in the book, Images of America, Around Matawan and Aberdeen.  Ezra Dunn is supposedly one of the people in the picture, but I don't know which one.

1874 notice in local newspaper
Van Schoick and Dunn became Dunn and Dunlop

I don't know where Ezra Dunn came from.  On his death certificate from 1898, his parents are listed as Nathaniel H Dunn and Sarah.  I need to explore the business partner, Josiah van Schoick, as well as Ezra's wife, Hermoine Dunlop.

The Monmouth County Historical Association has the books from this pottery business.  I was able to go through them.

The books look and feel quite old.  Inside are manual ledgers of accounts receivable and payable.  The customers are listed with their addresses and dates of purchases and payments.  Someone could go through these and transcribe the people in these books- a great way to place someone at a location in a given month and year.

It is amazing and fortuitous that someone kept these records and then donated them instead of tossing them.

Photograph of Another Great Great Grandmother

This photo discovery is another great great grandmother- my paternal grandfather's maternal grandmother, Catherine Dunn.  The previous post was about photographs of his paternal grandmother, Clara Uhl.

Catherine Dunn was born around 1865 in Matawan, Monmouth County, New Jersey to Ezra A. Dunn (1820-1898) and Hermoine Dunlop (1827-1900).  In 1886 in Matawan, Catherine Dunn married William Walling Winterton, a son of John R Winterton and Sophia Walling.  I descend from William and Catherine's daughter, Laura Winterton, born in 1891 in Matawan.

The Winterton family was living in Holmdel, Monmouth County, New Jersey in the 1900 federal census.  William Winterton first appeared in the Newark, Essex County, New Jersey city directory in 1906.  In the 1910 federal census, the family lived in Newark.  Also in 1910, Laura Winterton married Howard Lutter of Newark.

The timeline of the family's residence from Monmouth County to Essex County is important for dating this picture because it was taken in Newark by H. J. Thein of 476 Broad Street.

On the back is written "Grandma Winterton."

An online check of Henry J Thein, photographer, provides us with the years he was operating in Newark at this address:  1881-1899, 1911.  Based on the availability of Catherine Dunn in Newark, I don't think this picture was taken before 1900.  If the picture was created in 1911 or even a few years earlier, Catherine would be about 40 to 45 years old.  I think the woman in the picture looks younger.  It is entirely possible that Catherine traveled to Newark to create this picture in the 1880s or 1890s.  The glitch is that I have a "Winterton Family Album" with photographs mostly by photographers in Matawan and Keyport.

A picture of Catherine later in her life was already discovered because it was labeled as such:  "Grandma Winterton (Catherine Dunn)" and with a stamped date:  May 16, 1937.  What luck.

I think that I have some more photographs of Catherine Dunn as an older woman.  They are not marked, but the resemblance is obvious to the labeled picture of the older Catherine.

Unlabeled picture.

Is this the final picture of Catherine Dunn, wife of William Winterton?  She died in 1944.