George L. Clayton, father of Oliver Jones "Pete" Clayton (1906-1988) founded Clayton Pottery in the Greenville/Spartanburg area around 1912. Pete was the only one of his father's four sons that became a turner, while his brothers worked digging the clay, hauling, glazing, and finally firing the wares in the kiln. Pete recalled that Clayton pottery produced about a hundred gallons of finished ware per day. Pete was instrumental in helping Billy Henson revive the traditional alkaline-glaze tradition in South Carolina.
This area in the upstate of South Carolina became known as Jugtown and was the states's most important upstate pottery center. Mass producing pottery from 1850-1940, Jugtown produced more than a dozen pottery shops over the century. Although a definitive connection between Edgefield and Jugtown has not been established, it seems likely that their was a relationship between the two locations.
