The stock market crashed on October 24, 1929, ending seven years of prosperity.
Many businesses closed and the number of unemployed skyrocketed. By the winter months of 1932-1933, a fourth of the entire labor force in the country was out of work. Evictions loomed and mortgages were foreclosed upon.
The depression had a deep impact on Macomb. American Steel Products, the main employer in town, closed in 1931. Buckeye Pottery was temporarily shut down and retail businesses plummeted. Goods were traded using the barter system, and people planted huge huge gardens, but there still was not enough food. Fortunately, two major companies came to Macomb in the 1930s, which were a Godsend.
One was Hemp and Company, a St. Louis maker of tinware and products made from sheet metal. The other, and the focus of this article, was Haeger Pottery. When Buckeye Pottery closed and filed for bankruptcy on June 22, 1938, 70 workers lost their jobs. But the next year, in 1939, the former plant of Buckeye Pottery was leased by Haeger Pottery Company of Dundee, Illinois. Haeger produced mixing bowls, jugs, and other stoneware, as well as pottery they were starting to sell to florists According to local historian John Hallwas, in his book “Macomb, A Pictorial History,” the first art pottery was drawn from the kiln on December 15, 1940. The next year, Haeger bought the plant. It was producing over 200 different types of art ware, such as figurines, floral planters and vases. In 1946, the Macomb facility added a showroom next to the factory. They expanded the showroom in 1950 and again in 1968. In 1948, the company had around 200 employees and was producing 7,000 pieces a day. In 1961, Haeger purchased a former ceramics plant at 1300 West Piper Street, and in 1969 that facility became the Royal Haeger Lamp Company.
Haeger Pottery went on to become the world’s largest maker of art pottery, and Macomb, Illinois was a big part of that success. Haeger Pottery had a major economic impact in Macomb, Illinois. Besides employing dozens of area workers, they contributed to the city by supporting the school and university, by spending advertising dollars, by paying taxes, and by putting Macomb on the map and drawing in thousands of tourists., including many WIU parents.
Sidenote: This writer remembers vividly, as a junior high-aged girl, staying over at a friend’s house who lived very close to the Haeger Pottery’s Showroom on Calhoun Street.
We made frequent trips to their candy counter to purchase “candy sticks.” If I recall correctly, they were 10 for a dollar. There were at least two dozen flavors to choose from including raspberry, tutti-frutti, rootbeer, apple, raspberry, blueberry, peach etc. I remember seeing all of the beautiful items on display in the showroom, and wondering what would happen if someone broke one.
Also, I remember when my brother was in the Air Force he went into a gift shop in California. What he saw there made him homesick, pieces of Haeger Pottery made in Macomb, Illinois.
