The Broadview
Brickyard company was formed around 1904. The plant employed approximately 30
men in the summer. J.T. Carr was the proprietor from 1906-1907.
In order to
make the brickyard, eight inches of sod was removed and three men dug a nine
foot hole. Three men loaded transport vehicles with clay. One man pulled
vehicles up an incline to hopper by cable. The clay was mixed with water by
knives and then poured into molds and the excess scraped off. The molds were
brought forward to a revolving table that was operated by a boy.
A “striker-off”
turned the molds to a “dumper” who turned the bricks to a wooden “palette”. The
table was turned and the bricks were passed on to a “trucker” (harrow). Bricks
were placed on “Hacks” that held 6500 bricks. A yard full was about 200,000
bricks. During the weathering or drying the bricks were turned. “Green” bricks
were removed from the hacks and taken to a kiln by a “wheeler”. Arches of coal
and wood three feet high were used to heat the bricks first to red hot and then
to white hot.
