Teapot, taken to Dayton as a wedding gift for Percival and Eva (nee Hanson) Johnson. Percy was involved in the financial management of the Dayton Coal and Iron Company set up by the directors of Sir Titus Salt (Bart), Sons and Co Ltd. Eva was the youngest daughter of William Hanson, the head of the engineering department at Salts Mill. The Saltaire historians Dave Shaw and David King visitied Dayton to research its history and were given the teapot to to give to Eva's great-nephew Donald Hanson, who had been the chair of Illingworth, Morris the last owners of Salts Mill as a working textiles business. Donald donated the teapot to the collection, as he considered it 'a known 19th century artefact that binds the communities of Saltaire & Dayton'.
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In the 1860s, William Hanson moved to Saltaire to work as a fitter at Salts Mill. Sir Titus Salt valued William's engineering skills highly and eventually promoted him to head of the Engineering department for the Mill. William Hanson’s youngest daughter Eva became a school teacher in Saltaire. She was engaged to Percy Johnson, a senior book-keeper at Salts Mill. Around 1884 Percy travelled to Dayton, Tennessee with Titus Salt Junior and Charles Stead to oversee the finances of the Dayton Coal and Iron company that they had founded in 1883. Eva travelled to Dayton to marry Percy Johnson in 1885 and among the wedding gifts that went with her was a teapot. Percy and Eva remained in the United States and eventually settled in Canada. Back in Britain, Eva's grand-nephew Donald Hanson rose through the ranks of the textiles giant Illingworth, Morris that purchased the Salt business in 1958. Donald eventually became chair and joint chief executive for Illingworth, Morris in 1981. In May 2012 Saltaire Historians Dave Shaw and David King were invited to visit Dayton, and Donald requested that they enquire about his great aunt and uncle to find out more about their time in Dayton. Donald had many fond memories of Aunt Eva’s visits back to Yorkshire with gifts of American toys that could not be found here. In Dayton, Shaw and King contacted Pat Guffey, County Historian for Rhea County, and he had an immediate answer ‘Percival knew my great grandparents and presented them with a teapot brought from England, when he finally left Dayton’ – asking ‘would you like to have it, to give to Mr. Hanson’. The teapot was brought back to Saltaire where it was presented to Donald, who then donated it to the Saltaire Collection. The Saltaire Collection is very grateful to Dave Shaw and David King, for this wonderful item and its story.
Digital image credit: Saltaire Collection