John Hallwas wrote in his 1990 book “Macomb A Pictorial History” that in the early 1930’s, Macomb, Illinois was in desperate need of employment.
When the Buckeye Pottery declared bankruptcy on June 22,1938, 70 people lost their jobs. But in the following year the Buckeye plant was leased by the Haeger Company of Dundee, Illinois, which produced mixing bowls, jugs, and other stoneware.
The first pottery was drawn from the kiln on Dec.
15,1940, and the following year Haeger bought the plant.
By 1948, the company had 200 employees. By 1967, Haeger employed around 270 workers. One does not have to search far to find persons who actually worked at Macomb’s Haeger Pottery. Here are stories from but just a few: Gwynne Evans Worthington said, “I worked at Haeger Pottery usually as summer jobs around 1970-1972. I was just 16 years old or so. It was a good summer job and I didn’t mind it, except that I was in the glaze room and it got mighty hot in the summer months.
