A number of people and institutions with varying numbers of Pamplin
Factory pipes in their possession have given us an opportunity to
examine them. The largest number of specimens were in the hands of the
following.
Our attention was first called to these pipes in 1968 at the Craft Club
in Arrow Rock, Missouri, where some of them appeared for sale as an
unusual item. They obviously had been underground, for the bowls and
bases were still filled with earth containing numerous rootlets growing
through the pipe cavities.
It was learned that the pipes had been supplied by Francis B.
Fitzgerald, Suffolk, Virginia; David I. Dautenhahn, Marshall, Missouri,
put us in touch with him. As a youngster, Fitzgerald had on various
occasions visited his grandfather’s farm, which was near the Pamplin
Factory, and had played in the water of a little creek on pipe plant
property. In so doing, he discovered that there were numerous clay pipes
in a bank which apparently had been placed in the creek to form a dam.
(The dam was probably for the purpose of retaining water to mix with the
clay). He had hundreds of these pipes. Practically none would seem to
have been rejects—how or why they got into the dirt which was used to
make the fill is unknown. Through the years Fitzgerald had made a
selection of forms representative of this group, all of which he made
available to us.
Since that time an owner of the pipe plant property had secured many
pipes, later acquired by the Appomattox National Historic Park. They
were made available to us by Alford L. Rechtor, Superintendent.
The Virginia Historic Landmarks Commission supplied photographs of some
Pamplin pipes, as well as photographs of a pipe mold and pipe maker’s
bench (Plate 6) and saggers (Plate 7). We were granted the use of these
by Edward F. Heite and Edward A. Chappell of that institution.
John W. Walker of the National Park Service, who had worked in the area
and become interested in the pipes made there, provided us with a copy
of his field notes and some examples of pipes.
John C. Ewers of the Smithsonian Institution had visited Pamplin. He
gave us much information and showed us several pipe forms from the area
that are in the collections of that institution.
Rex L. Wilson, National Park Service, loaned us a copy of his
manuscript, “Clay Tobacco Pipes from Fort Laramie, Wyoming and Related
Sites”, in which he identified some specimens as having come from
Pamplin.