Clay Times Three: The Tale of Three Nashville, Indiana, Potteries

Brown County Hills Pottery

Brown County Hills Pottery 1959–1969
85 Brown County Hills Pottery owner, Carolyn Ondreicka, routinely signed her name to the pieces she decorated, as seen in these marks on the mountain man whiskey set on the opposite page. Looking for something creative and therapeutic to do with her time in her adopted community of Nashville, Carolyn Ondreicka decided to open a Pottery, using Claude Graham’s skills as the potter. The rudimentary beginnings were in 1958, when Claude began to throw pots on her front porch1 using his electric wheel made from an old washing machine.2 The next year, the pottery operation was set up in Carolyn’s basement and she rented a retail storefront downtown to sell it. Brown County Hills Pottery was officially in business in the summer of 1959. 86
CLAY TIMES THREE Carolyn Jane Carstens was born in Chicago and raised in nearby Oak Park, graduating from Oak Park-River Forest High School. Her father, Herbert Carstens, was president of H. Carstens in Forest Park, a manufacturer of surgical instruments. She attended West Suburban Hospital School of Nursing in Oak Park, a block from her parent’s home. After graduating in 1938 in a class of 44, she worked as a registered nurse at both West Suburban and Oak Park hospitals. The 1956 Brown County Directory, published by the Brown County Democrat, lists both Carolyn and her husband William Ondreicka at their local address on Creamer Road just off Greasy Creek Road, two and a half miles northeast of town. Perhaps initially intended only as a getaway, the house soon became Carolyn’s refuge and principal home. From 1957 on, telephone book listings show only Carolyn’s name. Carolyn became a charter member of the Brown County Historical Society in 1957, along with many notable Brown County supporters. Her involvement there is believed to be mainly financial, however, and she was not known to be active in other local organizations . She focused on the Pottery and occasional entertaining. Her Nashville property was acquired prior to her marriage to William. She bought her first piece in 1943 — five acres from Ralph Yoder. At the time, she was Carolyn Cramer, married to Gilbert Cramer, also from Cook County, Ill. Four years later, she purchased five more acres from Yoder. When the couple divorced she returned to her maiden name, and she retained the 10 acres when Gilbert Cramer filed a quit claim deed in 1951. William Ondreicka was nearly 10 years her senior. They had no children. Originally from Czechoslovakia, he was a commercial contractor and president of Comet Construction & Builders Supply Co., Chicago. The couple led very separate lives, Carolyn’s immersed in Brown County. Her Nashville property included her main log house, a guest cabin and another small cabin, which has since been demolished.3 She set about remodeling her home using local craftsmen. Significant work was also done in the yard, including the addition of two filtered ponds.4 The house was filled with the rustic antiques she collected: a spinning wheel, old churns, a four-poster canopy bed and rocking chairs among them.5 Nashville artist June Bryan recalls meeting Carolyn. She visited her home with a friend, Claude centers a ball of clay on the wheel with another ball waiting in the forefront. Photo courtesy Rosemary Quillen. Amelia DeWees, who was measuring the house for drapes. “She was eclectic,” June said. “She was a very flamboyant dresser, tall, slender, and wound her hair up in a knot, very artistic.” Handyman becomes potter again One of the craftsmen Carolyn hired to do carpentry work at her home was Claude Graham. He had worked for the Brown County Highway Department as a heavy equipment mechanic after leaving Camp Atterbury in 1948, then returned to work as a handyman doing electrical and carpentry work. When she learned of Claude’s skill as a potter and his work at Brown County BROWN COUNTY HILLS POTTERY
87 Top and bottom of the molded clamshell serving dish, 21.5in by 16in. Collection of Rosemary Quillen. Wearing his trademark cap, Claude Graham is drawing up a vase at the wheel in the basement workshop of the Ondreicka home. Note the large molded clamshell dish on the bottom shelf. Photo courtesy Rosemary Quillen. Pottery, they began discussing a pottery facility in her home, and he was hired on. Claude restyled Carolyn’s walkout basement into the Pottery’s...