#brickyards

Weymouth’s Long Lost Estuary

The Backwater.

During the long process of applying for a lottery grant for our park and gardens we created a historical document that reveals the life of what was once a bustling sea faring tidal area.

Parts of these articles will be appearing in the Dorset Evening Echo as a series provided by Weymouth & Portland Heritage group.

You’d probably have to be of a certain age to know what I…

Old Brickyards

This historic marker, located in Cedar City reads:

It is believed that the first fired bricks in Utah were made in Cedar City in connection with the attempt of the Deseret Iron Company to manufacture iron in 1852. The blast furnace was located in the vicinity of 400 North 100 East. Fired brick was made near there for use in the lining of the blast furnace and construction of some…

111 Years Ago today: 19 DIE IN LANDSLIDE; MORE HOUSES IN PERIL—Haverstraw Residences and Occupants Engulfed in Great Pit.—BRICKMAKERS WILL PROFIT—Disaster Laid to Their Encroachments and $200,000 Worth of Clay Dumped on Their Property.—The NY Times*

On this day, please join us in remembering those who were lost in the catastrophic landslide of 1906.

*N.B. The NY Times reported 22 deaths, actually, a total of 19 people died Jan. 8, 1906 including four volunteer firemen, the local rabbi and members of several prominent local families.

“In its brickmaking heyday, Haverstraw was a robust, bustling village. Brickmaking was as typically American as roast turkey or the Liberty Bell. Almost every successful brick manufacturer served his apprenticeship between the handles of a brick barrow or behind a “stiff tail” or in the clay pit. Included in Haverstraw’s roster of noted men are many who worked in the brickyards as boys.

The excavation of clay for use in bricks caused Haverstraw’s greatest catastrophe, the landslide of January 8, 1906. The clay under a 100 foot deep embankment slipped out and the Rockland Street business section and a number of homes from Liberty to Jefferson Streets were destroyed. 19 lives were lost and only a providential snow storm arrested a fire that would have burned a large section of Haverstraw.” Excerpt from BRICKMAKING IN HAVERSTRAW —A PERSONAL RECOLLECTION - South of the Mountains, Vol. 6, No. 1; Jan – Mar 1962

To read the article in its entirety, visit our recently digitized South of the Mountains, Vol. 6, No. 1; Jan – Mar 1962 here: http://www.hrvh.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/hsrc/id/919/show/913/rec/1

To see the full NY Times article: http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9A03E4DD1438EF32A25753C1A9679C946797D6CF

Jim Spruil, ca. 1895, a typically earnest, faithful, hard-working brickyarder in North Rockland’s prime.

Excerpt from Within These Gates, by Daniel de Noyelles

Jim Spruil was from “a fine old Haverstraw family which had lived here a long time.”  They were” deeply involved in the religious life of the Calvary Baptist Church on Clinton Street in Haverstraw.”  Jim Spruil was a “clay cutter” for the Malley brickyard.  DeNoyelles recalls that “In 1919, Jim Spruil’s son, Herb Spruil worked as his partner, at the DeNoyelles brickyard.”  Herb and Daniel were both sophomores in High School at that time. 

Before Combe Grenal: The early scientific work of F. Bordes and the Allonne Brickyards Source: http://bit.ly/14PHCMj   (image) This is a typical Acheulian handaxe from Allonne (Oise department in northern France). Since many years, I am fascinated by the elegant elongated late Acheulian handaxes from this site. I am still astonished by the uniformity of the Allonne handaxes, which in my view displays a very special local tradition and “style”. An elongated Allone handaxe will be certainly recognized as such in any random sample of European bifaces. On the other hand smaller handaxes from the same strata (OIS7?) resemble Cordiformes from the much later MTA.  The flake industry is non-Levallois.......... Read More