The pottery is situated on a historical tract of land in north central Randolph County, North Carolina. The tract was settled in 1766 by the Thomas Dennis Family, who along with other Quakers had relocated from Chester County, Pennsylvania. The property sat astride the Trading Road (formerly the Indian Trading Path) which extended from Petersburg Virginia into South Carolina. The location and the existence of large beds of earthenware clay made it ideally suited for a pottery. William Dennis (b.1769) and his son Thomas (b.1791) were the earliest documented potters working at the property. William, a Quaker opposed to slavery, apprenticed George Newby, a twelve year old African American youth, to learn the pottery trade in 1813. The Dennis Pottery not only made simple, utilitarian redware, but a variety of decorative slipware and thinly turned tableware. William moved to Indiana in 1832, selling the land where the house and pottery stood to Peter Dicks, a Quaker businessman and potter who lived in the nearby community of New Salem. James Madison Hays, a potter purchased the property for utilization of the clay beds in 1874. The Pugh family purchased the land in 1939 and the present pottery was established in 1972 by Hal and Eleanor.
