An Update: Loyd-style pottery markers -- A link to Peppertown Pottery

1980s marker presented as an 1880s marker. A correction

by Terry Thornton
email: hillcountrymonroecounty@gmail.com

In the photo essay posted yesterday at this blog, Loyd-style Pottery grave markers markers (click to view), a pottery marker was identifed as a Loyd-style marker with speculation that it was one of the pre-1900 ones. That is not the case. The marker, shown below, was made in the 1980s by Itawamba County Mississippi potters, the late Titus and Euple Riley, of Peppertown Pottery.

According to Itawamba County historian Bob Franks, the Rileys experimented with making grave markers of clay similar in style to the 1870s Loyd-patented markers. Two of their pottery markers were installed at Keys Cemetery and are shown above. The one for Mr. Clouse was pictured in the previous article.

According to Franks, the Clouse graves were unmarked and the Rileys made the markers for them in the 1980s. Further, the name "Levi" should be "Eli." "Elie Clous" and Elizabeth Clous are found on the 1880 Lamar County, Alabama, federal census. The family consisted of

Elie Clous, 35, born Alabama

Elizabeth Clous, 26, born Mississippi

Erlich F. Clous, 9, born Alabama

Katie M. Clous, 7, born Alabama

Mary A. Clous, 5, born Alabama

William J. Clous, 2, born Alabama

Didemie J. Clous, 5 months, born Alabama

Elizabeth was the daughter of Daniel Lockhart and Dedema Liles Dill Lockhart of Gattman, Monroe County, Mississippi. Daniel Lockhart's grave marker in Lockhart Cemetery contains the following information.

Eli Clouse, according to Franks, was the father of Eldridge Frazier Clouse. Eli and his family moved from northwest Alabama into northeast Mississippi after the Civil War. The Clouses last lived in the Greenwood community of Itawamba County and are buried in nearby Keys Cemetery. Their graves were marked with stoneware/pottery markers made by in the 1980s by Titus and Euple Riley of Peppertown, Itawamba County, Mississippi. The markers for the Clouses were made in the 1980s and are in the style of the older circa 1880s Loyd-style grave markers.

Thanks to Bob Franks for sharing his extensive knowledge of Itawamba County history and for documenting the Clouse stoneware/pottery markers at Keys Cemetery.

Sources:

Clouse Family Information and Peppertown Pottery Information by Bob Franks, emails to Terry Thornton, March 20, 2010.

Clouse Family Census Information, 1880 Lamar County, Alabama, Federal Census. Transcribed from the census images at Heritage Quest, March 21, 2010. Accessed through the Lee-Itawamba County Mississippi Library System.

Clouse Markers photographed in Keys Cemetery, Itawamba County, Mississippi, March 19, 2910, Terry Thornton, Fulton, Mississippi

Lockhart Markers photographed in Lockhart Cemetery, Monroe County, Mississippi, October 25, 2008, Terry Thornton, Fulton, Mississippi