The Shinnick, Woodside & Gibbons No. 3 Cast Iron Kettle
SSC MUSEUM COLLECTION
Catalog No. SSC-SWG-KTL-1875-001
Tea Kettle | No. 3 | Bail Handle | Zanesville, Ohio
Circa 1870–1890 • Shinnick, Woodside & Gibbons • Ohio Foundry Corridor
Top view of the Shinnick, Woodside & Gibbons No. 3 kettle showing the full maker’s mark cast in raised letters around the perimeter of the lid: “SHINNICK, WOODSIDE & GIBBONS” on one half and “ZANESVILLE, O.” on the other, with the size number “6” visible near the spout. The lid retains its original finial knob and hinged attachment. The bail handle arches over the top in a single wrought iron loop. This is the second Shinnick-foundry partnership represented in the SSC collection—and the second chapter in the story of Zanesville’s most important nineteenth-century cast iron foundry dynasty.
The SSC collection’s Crown Jewel is a Shinnick, Hattan & Co. No. 9 kettle dated June 23, 1863—a Civil War-era piece from Zanesville, Ohio that anchors the entire collection. That kettle documents the earliest known Shinnick partnership at the Zanesville foundry. This piece—a No. 3 kettle marked “SHINNICK, WOODSIDE & GIBBONS” and “ZANESVILLE, O.”—documents a later partnership configuration at the same foundry, representing a different era in the same family’s cast iron manufacturing legacy. Same city. Same foundry tradition. Different partners. Different decade. Two pieces of iron that together span the arc of a Zanesville foundry dynasty.
The Shinnick name runs through Zanesville’s industrial history like a thread through fabric. The Shinnick family was one of the most prominent manufacturing families in Muskingum County, Ohio, with interests in rope and cordage works, cast iron foundries, tile manufacturing, and banking. William M. Shinnick (born 1846 in Zanesville) served as city clerk, assistant postmaster, and member of the board of education before becoming secretary, treasurer, and eventually general manager of the Mosaic Tile Company. His philanthropic legacy—the William M. Shinnick Educational Fund—remains the largest benefaction in the history of Muskingum County. The Shinnick foundry operations that produced this kettle were part of a broader family enterprise that shaped Zanesville’s industrial identity for decades.
The Shinnick Foundry Partnerships: A Zanesville Dynasty
Top view with the lid open, showing the maker’s mark in its full arc around the lid perimeter. The raised-letter casting reads “SHINNICK, WOODSIDE & GIBBONS” on the right side and “ZANESVILLE, O.” on the left. The lettering is cast directly into the iron as part of the original pattern. The interior of the kettle and the bail handle attachment points are visible. The open lid also reveals the interior of the kettle body—clean casting with smooth walls, consistent with quality hollow ware production.
The Shinnick foundry in Zanesville operated under at least three known partnership names across the second half of the nineteenth century. The earliest documented configuration is Shinnick & Co., which appears on pieces dated as early as 1863. The next known partnership is Shinnick, Hattan & Co.—the firm that cast the SSC Crown Jewel, a No. 9 kettle carrying the date June 23, 1863. And then there is Shinnick, Woodside & Gibbons—the partnership represented by this kettle—which produced tea kettles, camp oven lids, and the “New Sensation” stove line from their Zanesville works.
The exact dates of each partnership’s formation and dissolution are not well documented in publicly available records. What the pieces themselves tell us is that the Shinnick name was the constant—the anchor partner who remained while other names came and went. Hattan was a partner in one era. Woodside and Gibbons were partners in another. The foundry continued to produce hollow ware and stoves under each configuration, and each partnership left behind marked pieces that document its existence. The tea kettle was the foundry’s signature product across all partnership eras—the item that appeared under Shinnick & Co., Shinnick Hattan & Co., and Shinnick Woodside & Gibbons alike.
The No. 3 Kettle: Zanesville Hollow Ware
Detail of the spout and size marking. The cast spout protrudes from the body of the kettle in a wide, gently tapered form designed for controlled pouring. The number “6” is visible in raised cast numerals on the body near the spout. The bail handle attachment point—a cast iron ear with a wrought iron loop—is visible above. The heavy casting, the wide spout, and the stout proportions are characteristic of a stove-top tea kettle designed for daily household use in the era of wood- and coal-burning cook stoves.
This is a cast iron tea kettle in the classic nineteenth-century form: a bulbous body with a flat bottom designed to sit on a stove eye, a wide spout for pouring, a hinged lid with a finial knob for lifting, and a bail handle that arches over the top for carrying and hanging. The kettle was the most essential piece of cast iron in the American household—more essential than the skillet, more essential than the Dutch oven. Every home needed boiling water, and the cast iron kettle sat on the stove from morning to night, keeping water hot for tea, coffee, cooking, cleaning, and bathing. A household could function without many things, but not without a kettle.
The Shinnick, Woodside & Gibbons kettle is a production piece—standard hollow ware from a Zanesville foundry that specialized in this category. The casting quality is solid: clean walls, smooth interior, well-formed spout, and crisp lettering on the lid. The flat bottom indicates this was designed for a stove-top rather than a fireplace crane or hearth trivet. The bail handle is wrought iron, attached to cast iron ears on opposite sides of the rim. The lid is original to the kettle, as evidenced by the matching patina and the fit of the hinge.
Open view of the kettle showing the interior cavity, the lid in the open position with its hinge mechanism, and the bail handle raised. The interior shows age-appropriate patina and use wear. The overall form is immediately recognizable as a stove-top tea kettle—the same form that sat on every cast iron cook stove in America from the 1840s through the early 1900s.
Piece Details
Manufacturer
Shinnick, Woodside & Gibbons, Zanesville, Ohio
Piece Type
Cast Iron Tea Kettle, No. 3
Form
Bulbous body with flat stove-top bottom, wide cast spout, hinged lid with finial knob, wrought iron bail handle, cast iron handle ears
Material
Cast Iron with wrought iron bail handle
Marking
“SHINNICK, WOODSIDE & GIBBONS” and “ZANESVILLE, O.” cast in raised letters around lid perimeter; size number on body near spout
Purpose
Household stove-top tea kettle for boiling water
Date of Manufacture
Circa 1870–1890
Place of Manufacture
Zanesville, Muskingum County, Ohio
Condition
Good — maker’s mark and city mark fully legible on lid; original lid with hinge intact; finial knob present; bail handle intact; spout intact; body shows age-appropriate patina and surface oxidation; interior shows use wear; no cracks or breaks
Acquisition Date
March 13, 2026
Acquisition Source
eBay — Seller: buyandselltechworld
eBay Item Number
356347203040
Order Number
24-14353-72058
Purchase Price
$170.00 item + $16.35 shipping + $15.79 tax = $202.14 total
SSC Catalog Number
SSC-SWG-KTL-1875-001
Collection Designation
Ohio Foundry Corridor
The Shinnick Foundry Partnerships: Documented Configurations
c. 1860s
Shinnick & Co. operating in Zanesville, Muskingum County, Ohio. Produces cast iron hollow ware including tea kettles. Pieces dated as early as 1863.
c. 1863
Shinnick, Hattan & Co. configuration documented. The SSC Crown Jewel—a No. 9 kettle dated June 23, 1863—carries this mark. Tea kettles are the primary known product.
c. 1870–1890
Shinnick, Woodside & Gibbons configuration documented. Products include tea kettles, camp oven lids, and the “New Sensation” stove line. This partnership represents a later era of the same Zanesville foundry operation.
Late 1800s
The Shinnick family’s industrial interests in Zanesville extend beyond the foundry to include rope and cordage works, tile manufacturing (Mosaic Tile Company, incorporated 1894), and banking.
1894
William M. Shinnick becomes secretary and treasurer of the Mosaic Tile Company at its incorporation. Eventually rises to general manager.
1923
William M. Shinnick dies May 30. The Shinnick Educational Fund, the largest benefaction in Muskingum County history, is established from his estate.
Status
The Shinnick foundry partnerships are all defunct. No successor foundry company has been identified. The Shinnick name survives in Zanesville through the educational fund and the family’s legacy in the tile industry.
Two Kettles, Two Partnerships, One Foundry
The SSC collection now holds two Shinnick-foundry kettles from two different partnership eras. The Crown Jewel—the Shinnick, Hattan & Co. No. 9 kettle dated June 23, 1863—represents the Civil War-era configuration of the foundry, and it is the piece that The Kettle and the War will be built around. This new acquisition—the Shinnick, Woodside & Gibbons No. 3 kettle—represents a later partnership era, likely dating from the 1870s or 1880s when the Hattan partnership had ended and Woodside and Gibbons had joined the firm.
Together, the two pieces document the continuity and evolution of a single Zanesville foundry operation across decades. The Shinnick name appears on both pieces. Zanesville appears on both pieces. The product—cast iron tea kettles—is the same on both pieces. What changed was the partners. The foundry persisted; the partnerships shifted. This is how nineteenth-century American manufacturing worked: partnerships formed, dissolved, and reformed as individual partners died, retired, moved, or shifted their capital to other ventures. The products kept coming out of the foundry, and each partnership left its name in iron on the pieces it produced.
For the SSC collection, having both Shinnick, Hattan & Co. and Shinnick, Woodside & Gibbons pieces means the Zanesville foundry story is no longer a single data point—it is a documented arc. Two partnership eras. Two marked pieces. One family. One city. One unbroken tradition of casting tea kettles in Zanesville, Ohio.
Bottom of the kettle showing the flat stove-top base. The smooth, flat bottom was designed to sit directly on a stove eye for maximum heat transfer. The casting gate mark is visible at center—the point where molten iron entered the mold during casting. The surface texture and patina are consistent with a heavily used household kettle of the mid-to-late nineteenth century.
Why This Piece Matters
The Shinnick, Woodside & Gibbons No. 3 kettle matters because it extends the documented history of the Shinnick foundry beyond the single Civil War-era data point established by the Crown Jewel. With this acquisition, the SSC collection now covers two partnership eras of the same Zanesville foundry—proving that the Shinnick operation was not a brief or ephemeral enterprise but a sustained manufacturing business that persisted across multiple decades and multiple partnership configurations. The Crown Jewel says the foundry existed in 1863. This kettle says it was still operating, under new partners, in the 1870s or 1880s. Together, they document at least two decades of continuous hollow ware production from the same Zanesville tradition.
It also matters because the Shinnick family’s significance to Zanesville extended far beyond the foundry. The Shinnick name is woven into the city’s industrial, civic, and philanthropic history—from rope works to cast iron to tile manufacturing to the educational fund that remains the largest single benefaction in the county’s history. The kettle is one node in a much larger network of Shinnick contributions to Zanesville’s identity as a manufacturing center.
And it matters because the SSC collection’s founding purpose is to document the obscure, defunct foundries of Ohio—and to assemble enough pieces to tell their stories. One Shinnick kettle is a fact. Two Shinnick kettles from two different partnerships is a story. And a story is what the SSC collection exists to preserve.
The iron endures. The markings tell the truth. The story deserves to be told.
Sources & Further Reading
Physical examination of piece: “SHINNICK, WOODSIDE & GIBBONS” and “ZANESVILLE, O.” cast in raised letters on lid perimeter. No. 3 cast iron tea kettle with bail handle, hinged lid, finial knob, and wide spout.
WAGS (Wagner and Griswold Society) Foundry List (wag-society.org) — Lists both “SHINNICK, HATTAN & CO. ZANESVILLE, OH — tea kettles” and “SHINNICK, WOODSIDE & GIBBONS, ZANESVILLE, OH — camp oven lid.” Confirms both partnership names as documented Zanesville hollow ware producers.
William M. Shinnick Educational Fund (shinnickeducationalfund.com) — Biography of William M. Shinnick (b. 1846, Zanesville; d. May 30, 1923). Shinnick family involvement in rope and cordage works, Mosaic Tile Company, banking, and civic service. The fund is the largest benefaction in Muskingum County history.
WorthPoint (worthpoint.com) — Auction record for a Shinnick & Co. Zanesville No. 7 tea kettle dated 1863. Confirms the earliest known Shinnick partnership configuration.
Pinterest / Victorian Cobweb — Trade card image for the “New Sensation Stove” manufactured by “The Shinnick Woodside & Gibbons Manuf Co Zanesville Ohio.” Confirms the partnership also produced stoves.
SSC Internal Collection Records — SSC Crown Jewel: Shinnick, Hattan & Co. No. 9 kettle, dated June 23, 1863 (SSC-SHINHATTAN-KTL-1863-001). Subject of the forthcoming book The Kettle and the War.
About Steve’s Seasoned Classics
Steve’s Seasoned Classics is an online museum dedicated to preserving and documenting the heritage of American cast iron, with a focus on Ohio foundry pieces from the 19th and early 20th centuries. The SSC collection features over 130 pieces with detailed provenance, historical research, and photography for each item.
