North Carolina native John M. Wilson trained to be a lawyer and later became a Presbyterian minister and entrepreneur. In 1850, he moved his family and those whom he enslaved to Missouri. In the wake of the violence that arose in the region in the dispute over whether Kansas would enter the Union as a free state or a slave state, Wilson moved in 1856 and settled in Seguin, Texas. By 1857, he established the Guadalupe Pottery, which was active until 1869. Most of the work was carried out by enslaved workers, some of whom later established the firm of H. Wilson & Company. They may have learned the trade while in North Carolina or from others trained in southern pottery traditions associated with the Edgefield District of South Carolina, which included the use of a partially subterranean groundhog kiln and alkaline or ash glazes.

A butter churn was taller and narrower than a storage jar of the same capacity. This allowed for more efficient motion of the dasher (agitator) through the cream, agitating it to cause the fat particles to come together as butter.