John Milton
Meaders,
the son of Christopher and Candace Garrison Meaders, was born
in 1850. He was the youngest son of 11 children. In 1871, John
married Marie "Mattie" Lambert. She was born in 1848.
They had 3 girls and 5 boys. Mattie died when the youngest child,
a girl, was only 18 months old. She is said to have been a kind
and hard-working woman. Her oldest son, Wiley,
always referred to Mattie as a saint. She is buried at Mossy Creek
Methodist Church.
John Milton
was a man of many talents. A wagon right and a carpenter by trade,
he also hauled wagonloads of local pottery into the hills. These
were traded for chickens, which he would then take to the local
markets to trade or to sell. In 1892, John surprised his family
by announcing that he intended to start a pottery shop. John had
three things a potter needed, a large deposit of clay on his land,
plenty of lumber, and a bunch of big healthy boys. No one in the
family had ever turned ware; he had only hauled ware for other
potters. In the years prior to building his shop, it is said that
there were up to 75 pottery shops on Mossy Creek alone.
Not being
a potter himself, John hired local potters William Dorsey, and
later Marion Davidson, to turn in his shop. They taught the older
Meaders boys the trade and by 1895, the Meaders boys had taken
over the running of the shop. John Milton continued to haul their
ware until his retirement in the mid 1940s. John's son, L.Q.,
took over the deliveries.
Cared for by his two unmarried daughters, John lived at home until
his death. He died in 1942, at the age of 92. He is buried at
Mossy Creek Methodist Church.
John
Milton and Mattie
Meaders
