Founding: James H. Owen (1866–1923) Original Owens Pottery was founded in 1895 by James Henry Owen (known as "Jim"), who was born in 1866, the son of Benjamin Franklin Owen. The Owen family had been involved in pottery-making in the Seagrove area since at least the early nineteenth century. J.H. Owen learned pottery from Paschal Marable of Randolph County, and upon returning to Moore County taught the craft to members of his own family. He opened a shop on the land in the Westmoore community that would become the site of Original Owens Pottery. J.H. Owen was among the first potters to work with arts advocates Jacques and Juliana Busbee, who came to the Seagrove area in the early twentieth century seeking traditional Southern folk pottery. He helped establish the early Jugtown pottery style, developing processes for turning and firing that would influence potters across the region. Owen experimented with adding decorative features to familiar utilitarian forms such as jugs and churns, and developed a distinctive "floor vase" form. His wife, Martha Jane Scott Owen (1875–1953), contributed to the family business by molding small clay figures for sale, and her family sold the Busbees the land that became
Jugtown Pottery. J.H. Owen died in 1923, the same year the Busbees formally opened Jugtown Pottery.
M.L. Owens (1917–2002) James H. Owen's son, Melvin L. Owens — known throughout the Seagrove community as
M.L. Owens — became the central figure in the pottery's development over the middle decades of the twentieth century. Born in 1917, M.L. learned the craft at his father's side and eventually took over the family pottery operation, expanding both its scale and its reputation. M.L. Owens is widely credited with developing the pottery's signature
Owens Red glaze — a vivid, high-fired scarlet glaze that became the pottery's most recognizable product and one of the most celebrated glazes in the Seagrove tradition. He also spent decades prospecting for native clay, locating clay deposits across Randolph, Moore, and Lee counties as well as in South Carolina — caches that the pottery continues to draw from today. M.L. taught all eight of his children the craft; six of them became potters, spreading the family tradition from Seagrove to
Jugtown and the
Blue Ridge Mountains. M.L. Owens died in 2002. His obituary appeared in the
Greensboro News & Record.
Current operations M.L. Owens turned the pottery over to his son
Boyd Owens (born 1948) in 1975. Boyd has continued to operate Original Owens Pottery as a working pottery — not a museum, but a shop where clay is thrown daily. He works primarily in plates, platters, and dinnerware. His sister
Nancy Owens Brewer (born 1953) has worked alongside him throughout and is recognized as one of the most prolific potters in the Seagrove area, producing thousands of pieces a year by hand including the pottery's signature painted folk-art series. Unlike most contemporary potters who work with commercially prepared clay, Boyd Owens continues to dig native clay from sites identified by his father — traveling to locations across Randolph, Moore, and Lee counties to haul red clay from about two feet below the topsoil. The clay is dried, then pulverized in a hammermill powered by an engine from an old Farmall tractor — a process Boyd has noted is necessary because dust from clay processing destroys conventional motors. The pottery's grinder has been in continuous use since 1930. Dinnerware is fired at approximately 2,250 degrees Fahrenheit, and the kiln can accommodate up to 700 pieces per firing. ==The Owens family and Jugtown Pottery==