The relationships of the Iowa stoneware companies extended beyond the Iowa border to other companies which included the Western Stoneware Company of Illinois and Red Wing Union Stoneware Company of Minnesota. The true beginning of Iowa's large  stoneware companies can be traced to Martin White's employment at the Burger and Harrington plants in New York.

   Martin White  1859 Moving from New York, he started his pottery in Cedar Falls.

  Fort Dodge Pottery  1870 Discovering a clay vein with an adjacent coal vein to supply coal for the kilns, White starts the Pottery w/ investor Richard Meigs @ FD.

  Union Pottery Works  1880-1892 White opens the Works next door to the Pottery after selling his interest to Meigs. It supplemented the types of production pieces rather than competing directly with his former partner.

  Hartwell & Bower  1883-1896 Ebenezer Hartwell, a former potter at the FD Pottery, leases the Pottery from Meigs & changes the name. Bower's contribution appears to be strictly financial.

  White's Pottery Works  1892-1896 Taking over the Union Pottery Works following their father's death, William & Arthur White continue the White legacy.

  Fort Dodge Stoneware Company  1896-1906 Merger of Hartwell & Bower with the White's Pottery Works plant.

  Western Stoneware Company  1906 Western Stoneware of Illinois buys the FD plant and it becomes Plant 7 in the Western conglomerate. 

  Plymouth Stoneware Company 1908-1909 L.E. Armstrong, a brick & tile plant owner & stockholder in Western Plant 7, starts the Plymouth plant in Marshalltown, Iowa and continues the use of the modified fleur-de-lis FD gallon capacity mark.        

  Red Wing Union Stoneware Company  1909-1910 Red Wing buys the Plymouth plant and continues the use of the modified fleur-de-lis FD gallon capacity mark.