About Marshall Pottery
W. F. Rocker founded Marshall Pottery in Marshall, Texas, in 1895. Local white clay and a spring-fed water supply supported its stoneware production. The first operation used a wood-fired kiln, a mule-driven clay grinder and a manually powered wheel. Its pots traveled by wagon to customers in Texas and Louisiana. Charles Studer subsequently owned the business, and Sam H. Ellis took over in 1905.
Ellis expanded production with members of his family. Household stoneware included crocks, jugs and churns, while garden pots became an important industrial product. A destructive fire in 1962 was followed by rebuilding. The company added a retail store in 1974, and the Ellis family sold the business in 1983. Visitors could watch potters at work and buy decorated pitchers, bowls, mugs and other vessels alongside the flowerpots.
Individual potters became associated with the handmade ware. Pete Payne, Kenneth Wingo and Tommy Humphries were among the craftsmen whose work attracted attention. The hand-turned division and retail outlet closed in 2015. Terra-cotta manufacturing continued separately, and later wholesale catalogs retain the Marshall Pottery name alongside Deroma. The blue-decorated stoneware and the industrial garden-pot business therefore have different production histories.