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Show Bountiful Memories Gi3 LBiii!!! LBnasDouess By BERTHA L. MU1R The brick-making business in Bountiful was one of the first industries which supplied a payroll for local residents. OTHER important means of making a living in the area . were the Woods Cross Canning Can-ning Company, truck gardens, gar-dens, and small business firms. The first bricks made were done by hand, using a pug mill. This was operated with a horse walking round and round moving a mixer in the clay with which the brick was made. The wet clay was placed in wooden molds and smoothed with a wooden stick. THE BRICKS were placed on strips of wood laid on the ground. Other strips of wood separated the rows of brick which were covered with burlap and left in the sun to , dry. These were called adobe brick. Many of the original homes were built of adobe brick and later adobes were used to line brick homes. There was a brick company in East Bountiful Boun-tiful operated by the Hayes Brothers. Thomas Luker made brick in the North Salt Lake area. The Parley P. Hatch Brick Company was located in South Bountiful with Mr. Hatch as manager. This brick company had more modern methods than the earlier brick yards. It was located west of the OSL Railroad tracks in South Bountiful. The Hatch Grocery Store was also operated by Mr. and Mrs. Parley Hatch. MY FATHER, John S. Ledingham, came from Salt Lake City when he was 17 years old to work on the Hatch Brick Yard. He learned the brick business from the very beginning. He boarded at the home of Aunt Josephine Howard. He was manager of the Hatch Brick Yard for Mr. Hatch when he was 18years of age. When he and Bertha 0. Wittenber were married they moved to South Bountiful. John S. Ledingham was in the brick business most of his life. He was manager of the old Kirk Brick Company, later the Improved Brick Company and in later years of his life he owned his own company which was called the Bountiful Brick Company. MY MOTHER, Bertha W. Ledingham, was a partner with him in this company. Only clay was used at the Bountiful Brick Company. All the black soil had been used. The brick made from clay was called white brick. Mother was also a partner in the chicken business later. The Improved Brick Company Com-pany was owned by a group of men from salt Lake City. My father managed this company for many years. Brick was shipped all over the United States from the Improved Brick Company. A railroad spur ran up from the Union Pacific Railroad track to the brick yard. The track was north of where the Meer Fruit Stand is located on Fifth West. MY FATHER went many places in the interest of the brick business. I remember when he went to Chicago on brick business and brought a , pin and watch home for me. I have a letter in my possession which he wrote to my mother while he was in Chicago. He addressed her as Dear Mrs. Ledingham and signed it Your Loving Old Man - John Ledingham. This letter is one of my prize possessions. Thirty men from Greece came to work at the Improved Brick Company. They were not able to bring their wives. They lived in a bunk house next to the railroad spur. They purchased all their supplies at the local stores. This helped the economy of -the town. I DO not remember that they caused any difficulty in the area. They were well received and well treated. For Christmas they gave our family goat milk cheese and boxes of candy that tasted like our present day (aplets and cotlets). These goodies were sent to the men from their homes in Greece. We loved the candy but the cheese us kids wouldn't eat my father called Billy Goat Cheese. When the brick business grew in Salt Lake City and in many areas of the United States, the Improved Brick Company went out of business. It was at that time that my father and mother went into the brick business for themselves. As usual my mother was a partner, as she was also later in the chicken business. This company was named the Bountiful Brick Company. It was operated with local help. ALL MY brothers got their start on the brick yard and worked up to many other jobs. They started out as ' "Water Boys" and worked up to many other jobs. They carried water in buckets to the men. When the Bountiful Brick Company went out of business, my father kept the brick kiln walls and for many years sold the brick in the walls as a means of making money. The brick yards operated by my father through the years brought income to many people. My father gave every tenth load of brick to help build churches and schools in the area. HE ORGANIZED a fire fighting bucket brigade. This was a group of men who used horse teams and wagons at work. When the "Old Fire Bell" rang on the Riley Laundry building, the men and their wagons and buckets rallied for fire fighting and raced the horses down the lane which ran east of our home. When my mother heard the fire bell she gathered us kids into the house for safety. We watched from the windows as the wagons and horses raced by. The men were allowed to go home if the fire was put out around quitting time. My memory of brick making goes back to when I was very young. When we were small children four of us walked down the lane by the Hatch Grocery Store in South Bountiful at noon and night to . meet our father as he came home for lunch and at night, when he was through work. He would toss the baby on his shoulder and we would walk along side telling him of all that had gone on at home. WHEN WE lived in the Lincoln home near the old Bamberger station, I was nine years old. When the wind blew or it rained, we would go with our father to cover the bricks that were drying on the ground. They were set on boards and burlap. Later when the Improved Brick Company took over there were better methods of drying brick, we did not have to hurry over to cover the bricks every time it rained or the wind blew. Red brick was made from black dirt pressed through a press. They were called, pressed brick. White brick was made from clay. The pressed bricks were the most expensive and the wire cut made of clay, were called common brick and were less costly. The home I live in now was made from common brick. THE BRICKS were burned for thirty days in kilns. The outside of the kiln walls were made of brick. They were iron fire doors placed along the lower outside kiln walls. The coal was thrown into these doors and for thirty days men had to work night and day to keep these fires burning. A shot gun was fired into the iron doors during the burning process. This was done so the concussion would loosen the soot from the brick and give the kiln more draft. The fires in the grates were started with paper, wood and coal for the first kiln. For later kilns hot coals were carried on shovels. This was an easier method. WHEN WE were kids, we worried with our mother when our father went to the brick yard at night to inspect the kilns to check the fires. Later there was also a deep well which supplied water for the brick making. An electric pump kept the water supply working. This was after electricity elec-tricity was brought into Bountiful. I was always frightened when my father went to the brick yard at night to inspect the pump in the deep well. 1 feel now it took courage to keep the brick business going. go-ing. One day when the "Old East Wind" was blowing, my father walked the half mile from our home to check things at the brick yard. He was so long getting back we were all worried as we huddled in the house to keep warm. When Dad finally got back home he was hurt and dirty. The wind had picked him up and thrown him over a fence. IT WAS that "East Wind" that blew our windmill down. -All day we watched it as it bent and crumpled up and finally tumbled down, barely missing the house. We all felt our prayers had been answered an-swered that day because the windmill missed falling on the house. The land on which the brick companies were located in Bountiful covers sixty-four and one-half acres on Second West running from 500 South to the Five Points Shopping area. The Bamberger railroad tracks ran along the east side of this property. IN 1930 Amos Cook purchased the land from my parents. Many homes were built by Clyde Cook on the land from which much black dirt and clay had been taken to make bricks. These homes and apartments are lower than the rest of the homes around because of the dirt and clay being used to make brick. There are 126 apartments, apart-ments, 250 single family homes, the Bountiful City building and sheds, parts department building. Jeep Posse Building, Jaycee building build-ing and the old Armory building on the land. The Washington School and an LDS chapel are built on the land. Many young friends who now live in the area where the brick kilns stood tell me they often dig up brick "bats" as the broken bricks were called as they dig their gardens. |