Hooked on History: CBS TV series dramatized 1947 Scio Pottery fire

Scio residents tuned into CBS television on Dec. 16, 1956, to watch a dramatization of a key moment in the history of the Harrison County community.

That evening, the anthology series Telephone Time, sponsored by the Bell Telephone Co., ran an episode titled "Scio, Ohio." It told the story of Lew Reese, a businessman who had turned an abandoned pottery into the thriving Scio Pottery Co. during the Great Depression, only to suffer a tremendous setback just before Christmas in 1947.

More Hooked on History:'Silver Bill' Voges lived colorful life, died tragic death

The episode starred William Talman as Reese. Talman is best known for portraying district attorney Hamilton Burger in the TV series "Perry Mason" during the late 1950s and the 1960s. He first gained public attention in 1953 for his role as a psychopathic killer in the movie "The Hitch-Hiker." In it, he terrorizes two friends on a fishing trip to Mexico.

Ann Spencer played Reese's wife, Hazel, and William Pullen portrayed Scio banker Jay Spiker.

Lew Reese moves into town

It was a story familiar to most Scio residents, as the pottery was the lifeblood of the community at that time.

In 1932, Reese, who worked at a pottery in East Liverpool, came to Harrison County on a rabbit-hunting trip. It was then that he conceived the idea of reviving the old Albright China Co. plant in Scio, which had closed in 1927.

"The building was on its last legs," according to the book "Lew Reese and His Scio Pottery." "The equipment, what remained of it, was about to fall to pieces. Weeds grew lush all around the plant. Some had even seeded themselves in the batches of clay which lay about inside.

"A five-year accumulation of dust lay on everything. Much of the machinery had been removed by thieves or destroyed by vandals."

But Reese was convinced that he could make the plant a success. He had $2,000 of his own money to buy the abandoned factory, and he borrowed the rest to purchase it at a sheriff's sale for $8,000.

More Hooked on History:Scio College baseball team was nearly unbeatable in 1895

Reese gained fame for handing out Christmas presents

The first few years were rough for Reese, but he used his innovative ideas on how to run a pottery to make the company a success.

He gained fame for his annual Christmas gifts to his employees. In 1933, he bought every one of his workers a 39-cent box of chocolate-covered cherries. His generosity grew as the years passed. In 1945, he passed out handsome billfolds to all of his employees, stuffed with a total of $60,000 ($936,000 in 2022 dollars) in Christmas bonuses. The following year, Reese gave out $705,000 in bonuses ― the largest gift ever made to employees of a plant as small as Scio Pottery.

Then in 1947, tragedy struck.

On Dec. 11, Reese traveled to Pittsburgh with his secretary, Lena Hiller, to plan the annual employee Christmas party. He planned on giving out more than $300,000 in bonuses to his workers that year.

While he was gone, fire broke out at the pottery. It spread quickly and was soon out of control.

"Girders twisted and bent, machinery buckled under the immense heat generated by the fire," the pottery history book says. "Oil drums exploded, sending mushrooms of smoke into the sky. The five hydrants near the plant were wholly inadequate to the task."

When Reese got back to Scio, the pottery was still burning. A reporter rushed up to him and asked, "What do you intend to do, Mr. Reese?"

"Do?" responded Reese. "Why, we'll build her up again, better than she ever was."

More Hooked on History:Series of calamities hit Scio churches in early 1970s

Hundreds of people helped rebuild the pottery

The next day, hundreds of people showed up with wheelbarrows to remove debris from the site. Those who didn't have wheelbarrows came with shovels to work. The workers included the new minister of the Methodist church in town, the plant attorney, who drove in from Cadiz, and Ed Onslow, a former Major League ballplayer.

Steel companies offered assistance, and the Pennsylvania Railroad, whose line ran through Scio, promised to expedite the shipment of materials needed for rebuilding. The mayor of New Martinsville, West Virginia, wired Reese to say that his town's concrete block plant was preparing 2,000 blocks as a gift to the people of Scio.

The workers didn't get their Christmas bonus that year, because the money was needed to rebuild the plant.

Then Reese made the announcement the Scio Pottery would go into production again on Feb. 13, 1948, a little more than two months after the fire. He picked Feb. 13 because that was the date when production began at the plant in 1932.

Employees and town residents did most of the construction work. Everything at the plant began to take shape in early February.

"The machines were almost completed," the pottery history book says. "The plant had been rebuilt ― better than before.

"In what was record time for construction under any circumstances, the Scio crew had built in the dead of winter a huge factory. But would it run? They were getting perilously close to the deadline that Lew had set, and the closer they came to it, the more desirous they were of meeting it."

The kilns were fired up on Feb. 8. It took five days for the kilns to get hot enough to produce ceramic cups. Everything went on as schedule, and Scio Pottery resumed production on the day Reese said it would.

Unfortunately, Reese did not live to see his life portrayed on TV. He died in 1952 at age 59.

The pottery continued to operate into the 1980s before it closed. The plant is now the home of the Scio Packaging Co.

Jon Baker is a reporter for The Times-Reporter and can be reached at jon.baker@timesreporter.com.

This article originally appeared on The Times-Reporter: Telephone Time series dramatized 1947 Scio Pottery fire