The Hewell family traces its roots in Georgia to pre-Civil War days, those roots firmly planted in the Georgia clay. Six generations of Hewells are known to have been engaged in the making of stoneware and earthenware in Georgia, a long-standing family tradition thought to go back to origins in England and Ireland.

The first known Hewell potter, Nathaniel Hewell (1832-1887), found the making of pottery a profitable sideline to his occupation as a farmer in Barrow County, Georgia. He produced tableware and utilitarian ware such as churns, jars, and jugs during the War Between the States. His son, Eli Hewell (1854-1920), moved the pottery to Gillsville, Georgia around 1900. Eli's son, Maryland (1891-1964), perpetuated the family tradition, operating a pottery in Gillsville in the early 1920's, using a local source for raw materials. He made utilitarian ware - churns and jugs - through the 1940's, as well as whiskey jugs for the R.M. Rose Distillery in Atlanta.

Maryland's son, Harold Hewell, says his father wanted all his sons to be potters and Harold has, literally, kept his hand in the craft, still working daily in the pottery shop turning ware. His sensual handling of the graceful forms is born of many years of intimate understanding of the clay in his hands. Harold's son, fifth-generation Chester Hewell - himself a potter - credits his father with transforming the business from the early "old timey" ware. Today Hewell's Pottery specializes in unglazed horticultural ware - flower and strawberry pots and gardenware. Hewell's Pottery is one of the largest suppliers of horticultural ware to the eastern and mid-western states and Canada. Production of the garden pottery is still done by hand in a 10-wheel shop on the site where the operation relocated in 1965. Anyone who witnesses the workers in the Hewell pottery shop will have a hard time looking at humble gardenware again without an appreciation for the skill of the potters. Three generations of the family are involved in running the business and the production of ware. The raw clay is obtained within sixteen miles of Gillsville.

Harold's wife, Grace Nell, whose production in the shop is an inspiration for the other turners, is one of a small number of female potters whose work has been recognized by those in the craft and collectors alike. In addition to the gardenwares, Grace Nell creates grape-decorated vases, incised pitchers, chicken bowls, and miniature face jugs. She began her career in clay, working alongside her husband and father-in-law in the Gillsville shop, beginning the Monday after her honeymoon with Harold in June of 1949. She proudly recalls turning, carrying, and loading ware into the kiln up until the day their son, Chester, was born. While Harold served in the Navy in 1952, Grace Nell continued turning ware in the old shop with her father-in-law, Maryland, to keep the family business going. She tells of working in the unheated shop in weather so cold the clay was laced with slivers of ice and warming her hands in her hair. With tears in her eyes, Grace Nell remembers the terrible day the shop burned in the 1970's. Engines from three counties responded, saving the kiln from the blaze that destroyed the pottery shop. "Pottery is my life and I love it. I can't imagine doing anything else," she says.

Around 1979, Chester Hewell, a friend and admirer of the work of Lanier Meaders (the legendary north Georgia potter who brought national attention to the face jug and other old time pottery), built a groundhog kiln and began to return to the utilitarian pottery forms in stoneware produced by generations of Hewells before him. Using traditional alkaline and ash glazes on ware burned with the time-honored wood-fired kiln method, he and his father, mother, and two sons now turn out familiar, historical forms of ware, each glowing with a deep, dark glaze or the distinctive, dribbled texture of the so-called "baccer spit" finish. Says Chester, "Workin' the clay is a part of my history, and the history of Georgia. We make the gardenware because we have to eat. But we make the old-timey ware because we love it."

This same sense of place in history and in their pottery family can be seen in the work of Chester's sons, Matthew and Nathaniel. Both work in the pottery shop, turning gardenware by day, but pulling up pitchers, jars, and jugs after hours to fill the wood-fired groundhog kiln. Grace Nell remembers her grandson, Matthew, as a small boy, sitting on her ball bench "plottin' to keep the pottery going." By age six he had his own miniature wheel where he turned small pieces of gardenware to be sold in the family shop. Nathaniel, named after his great-great-great grandfather, was showing an interest in the craft by age four.

Three generations of Hewells live within sight of the garden pottery shop that supplies their livelihood. Close by is the groundhog kiln where, on burnin' days, flames shoot high from the chimney as the kiln is fired off in the last stages of burning the old time ware. Matthew swells with pride when he says, "I've never moved away from Gillsville. I like what I do and I want my children and grandchildren to keep turning, too."