A good combination of geographical attributes aided and assured the oncoming settlers of a good means earning a livelihood for their families. The flat fertile soil along a river’s edge and the gently rolling hills enticed the crop and dairy farmers to extensive acreage. Clay beds beneath the salt marshes spurred the growth of the red brick-making industry to be rivaled as the principal industry only by growth of Cedar Hill Railroad Classification Yards. All of these guaranteed the continuing growth of the village.

Source: http://www.sttheresenoh.com/History.htm

"Thomas was involved in the brickmaking industry. Other brothers may have been also. I have checks made out to Tom from the First National Bank of Sing Sing from the firm of "O’Brien, McConnon & Vaughey" who I believe were brickmakers. There are five checks totaling 1275 dollars, the smallest being 150 dollars. This might not seem like much money today but the fact is that the average worker at that time was making about one dollar a day!"

Captain Paye assures me that he once made the run from New York to Denning’s Point (on Newburgh bay), fifty-eight miles up, in four and one half hours with the schooner Harriet Ann. Once, in 1868, he left Hamilton Ferry, Brooklyn, with the sloop Commodore Jones at nine p. M., wind east-northeast, went to Fishkill, and was back at Hamilton Ferry at eight P.M. next day. Of the twenty-three hours’ interval, four were spent in loading."
Source: http://www.ulster.net/~hrmm/diglib/verplanck/prt-part1.html

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The "Paye" bricks...are from the brickyard run by Captain John Paye who died in 1909. He was a Hudson River sloop captain who retired to make bricks (Fran Laffin, letter Oct. 30, 1989)."
Source: http://www.chelseayacht.org/history/bricks.htm

According to Daniel deNoyelles' book, "Within These Gates," the Peck Company produced high-quality brick. "They usually demanded a higher price for their brick for they took extra care, making an excellent facing brick," he wrote.

The Peck Company was also one of only a few manufacturers that produced brick inland. Its bricks were transported via a "narrow gauge railroad" from its brickyard to its pier, Peck's dock.

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From: Preservation (the magazine of the National Trust for Historic Preservation), July, 2002 "Fire Destroys N.Y. Mansion" by Augustus Rylands:

"After three decades of neglect, the historic Henry M. Peck house in West Haverstraw, N.Y., 35 miles north of New York City, burned down on July 3, just as a project to restore it was about to begin.

The mansion was built in the 1860s for Peck, whose family owned a brick-manufacturing business and who in 1852 was elected a trustee of the village of Haverstraw, then known as Warren. In 1931 the state purchased the building as a home for the superintendent of a nearby hospital. Peck's house fell into disuse in the 1970s and was boarded up, but recently the hospital's foundation launched an effort to restore it."

On his website HudsonValleyRuins.com Rob Yasinsac has a photo of the Peck Mansion.

Webmaster Note: For more info on Poughkeepsie brickmaking, see HAIGHT.

P & M Ruins

Many efforts were made to try and stay in business: In 2000 an award from NY State ERDA of more than $4,000 was granted to Powell and Minnock. Annual energy bills for the facility exceed $1.6 million. NYSERDA's award helped to fund an efficiency study of the facility that recommended a number of ways the company could lower its energy costs, including lighting upgrades and retrofits, installing more efficient electric motors, and modifying the kilns used to manufacture the bricks, which would allow 63% more bricks to be processed through the kilns each day. These recommendations could save Powell and Minnock about $640,000 per year. The total cost to implement these recommendations will be a little more than $1 million, which will be covered by the energy savings in less than two years.
(Source: http://www.nyserda.org/Press_Releases/press2000.asp)

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To see the actual directory page, Click Here.
(Source: Staten Island, Richmond County, NY Genealogy Resources

In 1884, John C. Rose founded the Rose Brick Company. He is credited with introducing the above deck shipping method that made it possible to carry as many as 600,000 brick in a single load. Previously, the old sailing vessels were only loaded below decks and carried no more than 75,000 brick.

John C. ran the business with his 4 sons for several years but in 1897 one son, John Bailey Rose, took over the helm and turned the family company into a hugely successful business.

John made each of his 1000 employes feel his own importance in the success of the company and increased output from 42 to 100 million brick per year.

In 1908, he built a 3-mile long electric railway to transport the clay and sand at the upper end of the property to the brickmaking machines. He used 5 high-powered electric locomotives and 50 cars, each with a carrying capacity of 15 tons. This replaced 150 horses. Rose installed 3 electric steam shovels to load the clay into the train cars.

All waste products were re-used: broken and unsaleable/deformed bricks were ground up, pulverized and screened and then mixed with raw materials to give added strength to self-bonding gravel instead of dumping them into the Hudson River as was previously done. This gravel was used to pave the beautiful drives in Central Park and Prospect Park in Brooklyn.

John Bailey Rose served on the Electoral College for President Roosevelt in 1904 and was elected to the NYS Senate in 1908.

He and his father built the company town, Roseton, including Rose Hall and housing for the workers.

The Rose Brick Co. was located on the site of the present Hess Oil terminal, 61 miles north of NYC.

1891 Beers Map showing Rose Brick Co. & Jova's Yards

Sayre & Fisher continued to grow and expand its market. By 1913, they were turning out 178,000,000 bricks per year! When the company celebrated its 100th anniversary in 1950, it estimated that they had made 6,250,000,000 bricks, enough to build over 400,000 modern homes. The Sayre & Fisher Brick Company continued to turn out bricks in Sayreville until the 1960's, when the plant was closed. You can still see some of the brick "company houses" built for employees along Main Street in Sayreville, and one of the smokestacks still stands in front of the Winding River Development where the plant was located."

John Cunningham noted in his book, Made in New Jersey, that the Sayre & Fisher Co. released a production statistic of 178 million bricks in 1913. The Sayreville plant became the largest brickworks in the world. Sayreville bricks were used in the construction of many buildings in the eastern states that included the Empire State Building in New York City and the Statue of Liberty. The company closed its brick manufacturing operations in the early 1970s."

The Sayreville Historical Society contains a large collection of memorabilia, including contracts, brick samples, and company brochures of the Sayre & Fisher Brick Co.

Although the precise date of the first efforts to make brick within the limits of the town has not been ascertained, it is certain that they were made on the western border of the Quinnipiac, a few miles below the North Haven line, a century or more ago. The clay for the first kilns was carted southward for two or three miles from at, or near, the north line of the town, the road leading over what has since been proved to be a nearly continuous deposit of brick clay. Two yards were established near where the present Quinnipiac station is, and were worked for several years, but both were finally abandoned. About 1870 Mr. H. P. Shares opened a clay bed and commenced burning brick, and since then Capt. Crafts, and four or five others, have established brick yards, with present total capacity of from twenty-five to thirty millions of bricks annually. More bricks are made in the town of Hamden than in North Haven.

According to Barber, in 1836, the brick industry of the Quinnipiac valley, partly in the town of North Haven, reached the extent of four and a half million bricks annually. The railway gives great facilities for the transportation of these brick, and they are sent all over the State and even to New York. The clay is well adapted to the manufacture, and it is claimed is not surpassed by any brick clay in the country. The color is good and uniform. The shrinkage in burning-is slight, and the brick hold their form without twisting and warping. The good qualities of these brick are becoming better and more widely known, and the demand for them is increasing.

Until recently the fuel for burning has been chestnut and other hard woods, consuming from five thousand to six thousand cords annually. This incessant and increasing drain upon our forests is now somewhat lessened by the substitution of bituminous coal, which, for eighteen months past, has been successfully used by Capt. Crafts and found to be cheaper than wood.

Brick moulding machines have re placed the slow process of moulding by hand, and the green brick are dried upon shelves instead of upon the ground, as formerly. In the production and delivery of one thousand brick twenty-two tons weight are handled. Each thousand weighs two tons, and the material is handled eleven times. Quinnipiac brick are now worth from $6 to $7 per thousand at the yards. Brick were also made in considerable quantities in the western part of the town about fifty years ago, using the clay of the valley of Wilmot brook, about a mile northwest of the meeting house, but the manufacture has been abandoned at that point for over twenty years. The yards have been turned into meadows and pastures, and only the deep pits remain to indicate the place.

Century House
(Historical Society dedicated to the industrial history of the Rosendale natural cement region)

"The Cement That Built America"

"The Return of American Natural Cement"

Hudson Valley Ruins
(Thomas E. Rinaldi and Robert J. Yasinsac devote an entire section to Rosendale in their chapter on Ulster County)

From
"The Stiles + Hart Plan," Natural Resources Trust of Bridgewater re an abandoned S + H site:
"This 75-acre site was an agricultural fairground with a grand exhibition hall from c1820- 1875. In 1895, a local teacher, Mr. William Basset, Sr., purchased the land and founded the Bridgewater Brick Company. The company mined clay and produced bricks on the site. In 1913, Stiles & Hart Brick Company purchased the operation. Due damage to buildings in the hurricane of 1938, brick production ceased, but clay mining continued until after World War II. The site has been recommended as a National Register District by the Massachusetts Historical Commission.

The four large ponds and the many smaller ponds along with the mounds of defective bricks up to eight feet in height give further historical evidence of this earlier activity. A neighbor now owns the private property that was the site of the former grand exhibition hall, and later a shoe factory.

To the west of the property is Broad Street (Route 18), a busy state road with a park entrance adjacent to the Town River. Many local residents, however, use the wide trail that crosses a private five-acre plot midway along Broad Street. To improve the appearance and safety of the trails, bricks dumped by the trail should be removed; there is a large quantity of bricks near the end of the sewer easement.Useable bricks should be saved and used where appropriate in walkways, at the future parking area at the old town garage or as part of a brick historical designation that highlights historical features that are connected with the brick manufacturing history of the site.

Many of the abandoned bricks on site could be used to mark viewing points for historical features connected with the brick making industry such as the remains of the brick- making factory, the site of the kiln, the excavated ponds, and the location of the railroad spur. A small brick patio could exist at each of these locations enabling visitors to locate themselves on the map.Information maps give details of the site history, the brick making process, the ecology of the site and its surroundings."
Source: "http://www.nrtb.org/stiles"

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The Hudson Valley was once home to 88 brickyards. Some of these early brickyards were Sutton & Suderly, Roak Hook, Hardwick & Walsh, Ziegler & Ziegler, Sutton & Sinsabaugh, Adamo's and Mayone's.

My Great X4 Grandfather, founded the Tuttle Brick Company in Middletown, CT. Here's a history of it:
THE TUTTLE BRICK COMPANY
In 1842, Lyman Tuttle purchased a brickyard from George Gaylord and John Cornwall near the Newfield railroad station, about two miles north of the city area of Middletown, CT. His son, George Lyman Tuttle, assumed ownership of the business in 1846. When George took over operations, the company was annual making about 100,000 bricks. The company grew and in late 1800’s the yearly product of the yard was between 1,500,000 to 2,000,000 bricks. Upon George Sr.’s death in 1890, George Lyman Tuttle Jr. and his brothers, Willis, Wallace and Lewis, who were well versed in all its operations, assumed ownership of the company and served as its officers. The Company was officially incorporated in April 1896. Its annual production of high quality brick equaled competition and the demand afforded employment for more than one hundred men. The yards eventually produced a peak output of about fourteen million brick a year. Many of the finest buildings in Middletown and the Connecticut State Library in Hartford were made with Tuttle bricks. The bricks were also were sent by rail and ship throughout New England. In later years, changes in manufacture led to new additions such as sewer, pallet, and face brick. The company continued on until the depression, labor problems, and changes in building methods led to the demise of the brick industry during the 1930s. It is unknown when the company actually ceased operations."
--David Lyman Stack

From The History of Middlesex County 1635-1885
J. H. Beers & Co., 36 Vesey Street, New York, 1884:

THE TUTTLE BRICK YARD.-George L. TUTTLE started this yard in 1846. He was formerly a resident of Windsor, Connecticut. When he commenced the business, at his present place, which is near the Newfield railroad station, about two miles north from Middletown city, he made annually but 100,000 bricks. From this small beginning the enterprise has grown to be an important industry of the town. The yearly product of the yard is now from 1,500,000 to 2,000,000 bricks. These are mostly shipped to surrounding cities. Mr. TUTTLE also owns a large farm in this vicinity, and is quite extensively engaged in agricultural pursuits. He has at present 125 acres under cultivation, on which are grown the various crops common to this section. He also keeps from 20 to 25 head of stock on his premises.

From a website on the construction of The Connecticut State Library, Mark Jones, State Archivist; David Corrigan, Museum of Connecticut History:

Over 5 million bricks were used in the construction; many were manufactured by the Tuttle Brick Co. of Middletown, Connecticut. These men are laying bricks on January 22, 1909; the high temperature was only 27 degrees
(To see the photos CLICK HERE and CLICK HERE.)

The brick industry grew in the 1880's when Washburn Brothers and Empire State Brick Company opened their brickyards. Later the Staples and Hutton Brickyards were established. At one point, the Saugerties area (including Glasco and Malden) boasted over six brick factories, a ferry service, a school, churches and several saloons. Bricks were sent down the Hudson River by barge to furnish the construction of America's cities.

(Sources: saugerties.ny.us/history.htm
l64.233.161.104/search?...n&ie=UTF-8)

"The Washburn brickyard was a part of Haverstraw's once flourishing brick industry, which lasted from 1800 to 1941. In 1861, Uriah Washburn was one of the first in Haverstraw to supply money for the families of the volunteers in the Union Army."

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From "Sloops of The Hudson" by: William E. Verplanck and Moses W. Collyer G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York & London, 1908:

"The Uriah F. Washurn, built by Jacob Woolsey at Tompkins Cove in 1866, was undoubtedly the best example of these modern schooners. Her captain was James Monahan, who sailed her for 17 years, and is now first pilot of the steamer City of Newburgh of the Central Hudson Steamboat Co. This schooner was built for the Washburn Bros., brick-makers of Glasco-on-Hudson, and she now hails from Perth Amboy, N. J. Her carrying capacity was about 200 tons."

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From: Portrait and Biographical Record of Rockland and Orange Counties New York, Chapman Publishing Co., 1895:

DENTON FOWLER, JR. Few citizens of Haverstraw have a more thorough knowledge of the brick business than the subject of this notice, who has devoted his entire active life to the occupation, and has gained a comprehensive knowledge of every department of the work. He is connected with the firms of U. F. Washburn & Co., which was organized in 1883; D. Fowler, Jr., & Co., which has existed since 1880; and Washburn & Fowler, which was established in 1889. The yards of these companies are situated between Haverstraw and Grassy Point, and have an aggregate capacity of forty-five million brick, furnishing employment to as many as four hundred and fifty men. The same parties compose all three companies, Mr. Fowler's associates being H. C. Blair and Mordecai F. and Lucian H. Washburn.

In Haverstraw, which has been his life-long home, Mr. Fowler was born October 25, 1856. His education was begun in the public schools of this place and afterward carried on in Packard's Business College. While still a boy he began to work in his father's brickyards, in which way he became familiar with every department of the brick business. In 1880 he embarked in business for himself, and organized the firm of D. Fowler, Jr., & Co., which has since carried on an extensive trade in the brick industry. He devotes his attention to the manufacture of brick, and allows no outside matters to interfere with his chosen work. With the firms of U. F. Washburn & Co. and Washburn & Fowler he occupies the positions of Secretary, Treasurer and bookkeeper, and he has also been superintendent of one of the yards for some time.

The attractive residence of Mr. Fowler, which is the old Judge Suffern homestead on Allison Avenue, is presided over by the accomplished lady who became his wife December 19, 1894. She was Miss Lucretia, daughter of Samuel Snedeker, a brick manufacturer of Haverstraw. Though a Democrat in national politics, Mr. Fowler takes little interest in public matters and has never sought nor been willing to accept official positions, preferring to give his attention to business affairs. With his wife, he holds membership in the Presbyterian Church.

He married Perina Costa in 1920, and lived in a house which they rented from the owners of Washburn's brickyard in the town of Ulster, which my Grandmother always called "East Kingston". It was only a few houses up from where she had lived with her family before marrying, and was a large, new 6 family house. Her sisters Luisa and Lil were on the same floor as she and Guido, and three other families lived upstairs. According to my grandmother, this was a wonderful house. Rent was $5. per month, and rent was waived completely during the winter months when the brickyards closed. When electricity was installed in 1925, it added another $1.25 to their rent.

Winters must have been a financial drain on the couple. Around 1925, Guido took his wife and children to N.Y.C to earn money shoveling snow during the cold months. This arrangement was very difficult however, and they only tried it one season. It was also about this time that the Washburn brickyard was meeting increased competition from newer brickyards 15 miles up the river in Malden. These yards were more modern and were opened year round. The Washburn brickyard closed in 1925, and Guido and Perina moved their family to Malden. My grandmother Perina said she cried for two hours when she saw the dilapidated house they were to move into in Malden. The owner of the brickyard (Staples) did not keep their houses nearly as nice as those in Washburn's brickyard. Never the less, they persevered and eventually fixed the house up. Perina boasted that other than the owner of the brickyard, her family was the first to have running water installed in their home. Apparently the foreman, a Mr. Street, liked the hard working Guido and convinced the yards owner to install a pump for the family.

In 1934 the depression was in full swing. The brickyards started closing and Perina and Guido moved their four children to Poughkeepsie N.Y. Guido officially retired from the laborers union in 1955 at the age of 65, but continued working for private contractors until he was 80.

DENTON FOWLER, President of the People's National Bank of Haverstraw, and one of the oldest and most extensive brick manufacturers in the Hudson Valley, was born in Orange County, four miles north of Newburgh, December 6, 1825. He is a son of Levi Q. Fowler, who, though a native of Ulster County, was reared from early boyhood in Orange County, and there married Lucretia, daughter of Solomon and Mary Purdy. About 1843 he and his wife moved to Newburgh, where he continued to follow the occupation of a brick-maker, owning a yard five miles from the city. After some years spent in Newburgh, he went to Haverstraw, where his death occurred at the age of about sixty three. His wife also passed away at that age.

In boyhood Denton Fowler was employed in his father's brickyard, where he gained a thorough knowledge of the business. At the age of eighteen he went to Cold Spring, where he worked in a brickyard by the month. From that place, in 1843, he came to Haverstraw, joining his elder brother, Mordecai L., who worked in a yard at Grassy Point. In 1845 the latter started in the brick manufacturing business, and Denton purchased an interest in the enterprise. At that time there were only about six men engaged in the business in this locality, and the majority of these used hand machines, only one having a power machine. Their yards were situated near the village, and they gave employment to about thirty men, with an output of three and one-half million of brick. Their products were conveyed by sailboats to New York, where they realized from $3.50 to $4 per thousand in the sale. In 1847 the brother died, and Denton became sole proprietor of the yard, since which time he has conducted the business, being at present the oldest surviving brick manufacturer along the Hudson River.

After having for thirteen years devoted his attention to the management of this yard, Mr. Fowler leased another yard further south, and there he continued until quite recently. With his brother-in-law, Uriah Washburn, he bought the Garner property, half-way between Haverstraw and Grassy Point, and there his son, Denton, Jr., carries on a brick business. He and another son, Everett, under the firm name of D. Fowler & Son, are operating a yard which has a capacity of nine million, and furnishes employment to sixty or seventy men from May to November. In partnership with Ira M. Hedges, Uriah Washburn and George Smith, he purchased the Derbyshire manufacturing yards, and the firm was subsequently merged into the Excelsior Brick Company. His interest in that enterprise is now held by his son Everett.

With the history of the People's Bank, the name of Mr. Fowler is indissolubly linked. He assisted in its incorporation, was a Director from the first, and at the death of Mr. Washburn was elected its President, in which position he has since officiated. His real-estate interests are extensive, and include the ownership of considerable property in Nyack as well as Haverstraw, where he has improved several pieces of land and put up buildings. Near New City he has a farm, the management of which he superintends.

In 1850 Mr. Fowler married Miss Catherine E., daughter of John E. Hogencamp, for many years Clerk of Rockland County, and at one time owner of the farm now belonging to Mr. Fowler. For years before his death he was blind, an affliction which prevented him from engaging in business or farm pursuits. His closing days were spent in New City. His wife was Gertrude Blauvelt, a member of one of the oldest families of this locality, and whose ancestors settled upon the farm now owned by Mr. Fowler. Politically our subject is a Democrat, but while participating actively in public affairs, has never desired official positions. In religious belief he is identified with the Presbyterian Church. He and his wife are the parents of the following-named children : Gertrude M., Mrs. Holly DeBaund, who died leaving two children that are now with our subject; Lucretia, wife of Henry VerValen, Cashier of the People's Bank; Everett and Denton, who are engaged in the brick business; Sarah, Mrs. George Ellison; and Fannie, wife of George Archer.