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Brick Making, A History by Florence L. Kroes (1966)
Such was a brickyard of my grandfather's, Edward Leonard, in the year of my father's birth, 1856, only he transported his equipment by horse or mule and cart, which were used in hauling and in mixing the clay. Some sort of grinding device was used wherever possible and power for the grinding was applied to an attached sweep. This yard was located on the farm at East Cooper, a stop later on the old C.K.& S., owned by the Vandenburg family. The house built from these brick is still standing and was, until a few years ago, still owned by descendents of the same family that built it. It is interesting to me to know the first yard in our area, to my knowledge was owned or run by the father of Mr. Martin Bates and it was located just out of Cloverdale, west and opposite the east end of the Guernsey Lake road. He had the help of his three young sons. A pit was dug in which the clay was put and tempered and "ground" by the trampling feet of the three small sons. I believe at this time he was quite newly arrived from England because in the early 1890s or late 1880s he had lived in one of my father's houses on his brickyard west of Kalamazoo. The boys were very small, though I think Martin himself may have been old enough to drive the horses or mules on the sweep which operated the press. The father probably worked there only one season. About his yards at Cloverdale, I only learned after we came to Delton. After a season or two at the site west of Cloverdale he acquired a horse or a team and more equipment and began a new yard at the site of the later Cloverdale yard near the southeast end of Long Lake. Whether this was before or after the coming of the railroad, I do not know. What information I had about that came to me from Mr. George Kahler who had known both locations. A good permanent brickyard at this time period required access to water transportation or later to railroads. Always in the beginning it was a seasonal affair and quite dependent on the weather. A wet summer was a poor season for a brick maker. In these early yards it was customary to haul a good supply of clay from the pits and make a huge pile in the autumn to provide what aid the weathering could give in fitting the clay for tempering. In the usual clay banks the clay was so hard it had to be loosened by a pick and fresh from the bank it required much more working to fit it for molding. After the knowledge of what clay was suitable for brick and the tempering and fitting of the clay, the skill in molding and drying the brick properly, it was then that the rather tricky business of setting the brick in the kiln began. A kiln was a series of arches or tunnels thru the width of the kiln, which was at least 20 feet wide, and the benches in between the arches, which were four and sometimes five brick in width, the arch space was the length of two brick. The green brick were wheeled from the drying sheds on special wheel barrows, carrying for convenience of reckoning, about 100 brick. The wheelers were then expected to pitch the brick, four at a time, usually, to the setter. The end benches, between the first arch and the end of the kiln were about half the width of the other benches. They were worked up straight until they were five brick high when they began the overhang for the arches which increased with each layer until only the narrowest width of a brick space was left. The next layer covered this eventually. Great skill was needed to so place or "set" the brick that space was left between them for draft so that fire and heat could spread thru out the entire kiln. The method preferred by many was known as skintling or as it was commonly called "skintle" which means the brick were set diagonally, 3/4 of an inch apart at the most. The kilns were set about 32 bricks or layers high though some went as high as 44. As the setting continued toward the top, it was necessary to "draw in" so that at the top the kiln was about 16 inches narrower than the bottom. When all the benches were completed, the entire kiln was walled in with a suitable covering of dried green brick and brick bats and mudded over completely. This was called scoving. The top was covered with about two layers of flat laid brick with air spaces. The firing was started slowly and gradually worked into the center of the arches. As the kiln dried out the heat was increased until eventually the entire mass was at a white hot heat. The whole process took from 7 to 10 days. After the firing ceased the arches were closed up tightly and the kiln was left to cool off gradually. To open it too soon would have caused much cracking. A well burned kiln contained mostly outside or hard brick with soft or inside brick in only the few top layers. The burning process varied from kiln to kiln and from yard to yard. My brother told me that the Delton clay required a longer burning period than the clay my father had at the Kalamazoo yard, from 3 to 5 days longer. Weather was sometimes a drawback or perhaps some of the brick were not sufficiently dried. Early brick makers used wood for burning, well dried, especially for the beginning. The wood was cut in 4 foot lengths. Later when it was available, coal was used, and still later, oil and gas. In the latter part of the 19th century there were many small brickyards quite permanently located in and around Kalamazoo. The first yard I knew was my father's, William Leonard, about 4 miles west of Kalamazoo, which he acquired about 1884. At this time there were many yards along the South Haven railway line (which was later taken over by the Michigan Central lines), besides some of the Kalamazoo yards, and my father's, there were two good sized yards at William's Crossing, one at at Kendall and one at Gobles and Bloomingdale and at least one at South Haven. Unless it is still at South Haven, I believe none of them are operating now, 1966. When I remember this yard of my father's, it was operating a machine-press and grinder. It was built on two levels. The lower level was the lower story of a 2-storied shed which housed all the brick making machinery, and between it and the kiln shed were the drying sheds. On the far side of the kiln shed was the railroad over which the brick were shipped. Not all of the brick were shipped this way though, some were freighted into Kalamazoo by wagon. My father had 2 or 3 heavy teams for this work and if I remember rightly the wagons held 1,000 brick. They made two trips a day. Sometimes the nearby farmers in their off season hauled brick, or wood. I found an entry in an old ledger which said that one H. Lusk hauled about 7,000 brick for the Children's Home in Kalamazoo for $1.17 per thousand and another entry where he had hauled 16,500 at $1.00 per thousand to a firm known as Bush and Patterson. These men liked winter work and my father did not keep many men in the winter, usually only one teamster. On this lower level were the press, the sand box, and vat for soaking the molds, a turn table which received the wet brick upon which pallets were turned so the truckers could place the pallets on the barrow with which they were wheeled to the dry sheds. The pallets as I remember them, were made of lath with air space between them to aid in drying. As I remember it there was a press with molds which held 6 brick. They were dumped up on the pallets on a turn table from which they were placed upon barrows and wheeled to the dry sheds. The molds were soaked in a vat of water, sanded and placed in the press to be pushed out when filled. On the upper level and under the roof of the shed which housed the machinery below was the top of the grinder press, into which the prepared mud was dumped from wheel barrows. In the open space in front of this open shed were three large circular pits, the dimensions of which I'd have to guess. They were I think, about 3 feet deep and about 20' across, t he sides were bricked and also the bottoms. The clay from the clay bank, after it had been loosened by picks and then shoveled into two-wheeled dump carts was hauled by teams to these pits. While one pit was being filled, another was being soaked and ground. The grinding was done by a huge wheel perhaps 10' high that was so rigged on a shaft which was attached to a drum in the center of each pit. It was moved from one pit to another as needed. When used, the shaft was drawn around and around the pit by a team. The wheel was so arranged that it worked outward on the shaft to the outside wall and then automatically returned to the center. This was continued until the clay was sufficiently prepared. It was sanded over the top, smoothed with a plank, and then waited until needed for the machine when the third pit was emptied. Keeping the team moving was the first job of my brother Leon. He was delighted to think he could help by keeping the team moving. The setting and burning here followed the same pattern as that used by the earlier yards with improvements. I remember my father had patented a grate made of metal with doors and a draft arrangement and there was improvement in the molds. This was the same system used by my father on the Delton yard, only here everything was on a much larger scale. The power was provided by a steam engine, and the machines were larger. The chief differences were in the use here of a pug mill, a large grinder which took the place of the open pits, and the clay was brought up a long incline to the pug mill by cable cars, which had been filled by a two-wheeled scraper which hauled it to a platform and dumped into the cars. This was practically the only use for a team of mules and horses here. The clay here was very different too, though the color was much the same. In this part of the nation the favorite color was red, cherry red, but the colors of clay were quite varied, from white thru cream, light red, and deep red. There are at least three main methods of making brick, the soft mud method, which my father thought more suitable for the clay on the Delton yard; the stiff mud type which used less water and was the original system installed at Delton. In this method the stiff mud was forced out in long ribbons on a conveyor belt and cut by a revolving wire cutter. These brick were also called wire cut brick. The third method is called dry mud and naturally used less water and a great deal of power to force it into the molds. These brick are dried more quickly and burned more quickly. There is now not much demand for the common brick. In fact I understand that such brick are impossible to find if one wants to repair a chimney built of common brick. Most of today's fired brick are made of shale which can be fired at a higher temperature and makes a very durable brick. I do not know how many yards are operating in lower Michigan. There are still some at Detroit, at Grand Rapids, and Grand Ledge, where they make the type of brick used by my brother Leon in his house on East Orchard Street. They also make tile here. These are year-round industries. I do not know of any yards left in Barry County. There was one at Schultz and one at Cedar Creek. The house occupied by Mr. Earl Bever, I am told, was made of Cedar Creek brick. In Kalamazoo County, between Cooper center and Alamo, but not on the center road, there was a one room school, called the Jug Corners School. When I inquired the reason for the name I was told by my grandfather that a man had once made jugs near the corner. When I was shown the place there was nothing left to mark the spot. The school is now an antique shop. That I suppose is the price of progress. If you are interested in learning more about early brick making, please visit Don Bayley's Brick Collecting site.
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nkroes@yahoo.com | Last Updated: October 23, 2008