Henry B. Pfaltzgraff & the Pfaltzgraff Pottery
Pottery has been made under the Pfaltzgraff name in York, Pennsylvania, from 1811 to present times.
Henry B. Pfaltzgraff was born in Manchester Township (Pennsylvania) May 10, 1854. His parents were George B. and Eleanora (Braumer) Pfaltzgraff, of Germany, who came to America soon after being married. They lived in Baltimore one year, and then they moved to Conewago Township, where they remained only a few years, and then removed to York Borough, where they lived several years, and then removed to Manchester Township, about three miles west of York, where the father died in 1873. They had a family of six sons and five daughters, Henry being the youngest.
As Henry grew old enough, he began the pottery trade with his father, but in 1869 he commenced to manufacture pottery on his own account. For six years Henry manufactured red ware, and then removed his works near the old homestead of his father. From 1875 he employed four men in manufacturing stoneware, to the amount of from 50,000 to 100,000 gallons annually, receiving the clay for his wares from New Jersey, and made “none but the best of goods”.
Henry also operated a small farm of forty acres. In 1878 he married Elizabeth Bentzel at York, who died September 25, 1881, leaving two children: Lucy and Elizabeth. On October 2, 1882, Henry married, at Mount Wolf, Arabella Kohr, from which union two children issued: Henry and Isaac. Pfaltzgraff belonged to the Dunkard Church, was a Democrat in politics, and was a delegate to the county convention in 1883.