Longworth Family
The founder of the Ohio family, Nicholas Longworth (16 January 1783 - 10 February 1863), came to Cincinnati from Newark, New Jersey sometime before 1808. He was a winemaker who has been called the "Father of the American wine industry." However, the root of the Longworth family wealth was Longworth's real estate success.
He and his wife Susanna had five children. Their son, Joseph's daughter Maria Rives (Longworth) Nichols Storer founded Rookwood Pottery in Cincinnati, named for the Grandin Road home of the Longworth family on the east side of Cincinnati. (The house was so called because loud rooks - blackbirds of the family corvidae - constantly hovered around the place.)
Kataro Shirayamadani vase which currently holds the highest price for a Rookwood piece at auction selling for $350,750 at auction at the Cincinnati Art Galleries in June 2004.
