There were once more brickyards than shipyards
by Charles Francis
Anyone who is familiar with the town of Penobscot knows that there is a lot of clay to be found in the soil there. While that clay is not especially good for people who want to garden today, back in the mid-1800s and well into the twentieth century, that clay played an important role in the Penobscot economy, because that clay was used in brick making. In fact, brick making was so important to the town that there were once more brickyards than shipyards.
In Maine, Penobscot bricks were used in the construction of buildings like the Vine Street School in Bangor, and the Lubec National Bank. The biggest market for Penobscot bricks was Boston, however. In the era of the coasting schooner, millions of Penobscot bricks made their way to the Hub to become a part of hundreds, if not thousands, of Bay State building projects.
If you have ever wandered around Winslow’s Stream or Mill Stream, or along the shore of Northern Bay, you may have seen evidence of some of Penobscot’s old brick yards. It is still possible to find bricks there — whole or broken. Some may even have mortar on them. If that’s the case, they were once known in the trade as demolition bricks. That means they were used in sample construction. Broken or not, they are well-formed, baring evidence to the fact that Penobscot brick was quality brick.
Brick making was the dominant industry in Penobscot in the 1870s, 80s, and later. According to the Maine Register, there were over thirty brickyards in town in the decades surrounding the turn of the twentieth century. In fact, brick making was still an important Penobscot industry in the post-World War II years. Well-known Penobscot family names like Wardwell and Leach either owned or worked in brick factories. For a time, Mill Stream, where the Leach’s lived, was known as Leach Stream.
The most common first occupations in Penobscot were farming, milling lumber, and, of course, fishing and shipbuilding. At one time the town had a plant that made caskets. Knit goods also formed a part of the Penobscot economy. While it is not clear when the first bricks were made in town, the industry dates back at least to the 1840s. The 1850 census lists brick making as one of the town’s ‘products of industry.’
Brick making was hard, back-breaking work, and, to begin with, it wasn’t all that profitable. A small operation of three to five men could turn out between five and six hundred thousand bricks in a summer. Around the time of the Civil War, 150,000 bricks went for $525. The bricks were made in kilns requiring firewood, which was a part of the expense of running the operation. The 150,000 bricks probably took some seventy cords of wood to make. The most basic method of making bricks was all hand-work. The clay had to be dug, scraped, and shaped before it could be dried. It was mixed with water and put in molds. The result was a ‘green’ brick. The green bricks were then set out on a hard surface to dry. Sand was sprinkled over the top as a protection from the direct sun. The sun-hardened bricks were then formed into their own kiln for baking. The burn fire was kept going for a week or more.
Brick making required a division of labor. There were pit men, tenders, and strikers. Pit men kept the clay mixing box tilled, supplying the water to the mix. Molds typically held six bricks, which were what a man could comfortably carry. The tender shoveled the clay for the molds. A good tender would shovel as much as three tons of clay in an hour, and sometimes four. Strikers put the clay into the molds and carried them to the drying area. They also formed up the kilns and kept them fired up. A productive three-man crew would average 12,000 bricks a day. This figure came to something like 70,000 pounds.
As time went on, the business of brick making became mechanized. One of the early machines used in the process was called a Hobbs Mud Machine. It was powered by a horse walking round and round in a circle. It was the pit man’s job to keep the poor creature moving. The machine itself consisted of a circle of spikes extending into the clay mixing box. The movement of the spikes kept the clay mix fluid.
Once the bricks were baked, they were ready to he shipped out. Most of the vessels that carried them from Penobscot’s streams or Northern Bay were small, locally built schooners. The bricks were loaded on board by hand. Brickyard workers and the schooner crewmen worked together in the loading. It was a process which required a high degree of dexterity. The men formed a line, tossing four bricks at a time down the line. The bricks were tossed two to a hand. To maintain their stability, the men were usually barefoot. Dropped bricks could result in a major and incapacitating injury.
The day of the Penobscot brickyard is long gone. One of the last brick factories in town was operated by Willis Wooster in the late 1940s. Today, however, someone wishing to outline a flower garden with bricks can probably find plenty at the locations of the old brickyards. Penobscot bricks were especially famous for their beautiful red brick color, and make attractive borders.
