The Pensacola News from Pensacola, Florida • 17

Inside Section Insight 2D Social Security 2D Comics 3D TV Listings Dr. Donohue 4D Brickmaking in Pensacola is in the spotlight today Look for 'Christmas in the City' Insight, the weekly Pensacola Area Chamber of Commerce column, highlights the upcoming 'Christmas in the City. See page 2D Next Tuesday MeTeasacolaJews iyolvemeilt Tuesday, November 24, 1981 Spotlight Brickmaking Pensacola Takes Its Place rP JUMJ J1EU II i -L I i it v.v. ii iii i-i rt mi i "1 r--i I I I -r' "i 4 i Olin Bell of Cornell University wrote, "from the ceramic viewpoint, Escambia County is perhaps the most interesting one in the state." Another writer said the clay contributed to "superior aboriginal ceramics." In other words, the Indians made good pottery. In 1766, the great British potter Josiah Wedgewood was sent a sample of Pensacola clay for experimental pottery work.

The various clays were described as suitable for common brick, fire brick, face brick, terracotta, stoneware, potters clay, and roofing tile. The brickmakers were not the only people interested in the local clays. In 1828, a Benjamin D. Wright wrote to the director of the federal land office to complain that "squatters" along the bay were depleting the clay and the forests in their zeal to produce the hard, little building blocks. He said the clay is found in few places and that "it is believed that the only clay in the U.S.

of which fire bricks can be made is to be found in the neighborhood of this place." The bricks made from this good clay were bringing $40 to $50 per thousand in New York and Philadelphia. And many Pensacolians have been pleasantly surprised, while wandering along the shore of the bay or the bank of a local creek, to find desposits of the white or gray, malleable clay. Wright's letter reflected the fact that the shoreline of Pensacola Bay was a favorite spot for brickyards. It offered deposits of clay, wood for the kilns, and transportation via water. For example, one of Pensacola's earliest brickyards, that of Joseph Noriega, was built on 1,120 arpens (about 950 acres) of land between Devil's Point and Loro's Point, near Gull Point.

And one of Pensacola's largest and last antebellum brickyards, the Abercrombie yard (also know as Raiford and Abercrombie, and Bacon and Abercrombie) was also located near Gull Point. It was the Abercrombie yard that was to employ a brickmaker-inventor-engineer by the name of John Williamson Crary, who was to devise a mechanical brickmaking machine that was the greatest advancement in its field. "No other West Florida business, even in lumbering, received as much national recognition as this premier antebellum Pensacola brick manufacturer," the Florida Historical Quarterly said of Bacon and Abercrombie. Crary's device, which could turn out 47,000 bricks per day, was written up in the January 1860 edition of Scientific American. It allowed Pensacola to dominate manufacture of the brick, a mundane piece of baked clay that William Lazarus, in his "A Study of Bricks in the Vicinity of Pensacola, Florida," imbued with the democratization of the building trade: 'The brick," Lazarus proclaimed, "put into man's hand a medium of free expression, scarcely restricted as to size or material.

You have free choice as to how you wish to put your bricks together." The brick had come a long way from the clay of its beginnings. By CARL WERNICKE News Staff Writer With clay good enough to catch Josiah Wedgewood's interest and plenty of pine to fire its kilns, pre-civil war Pensacola took to brickmaking the way it took to lumbering and fishing with a passion. Brickmaking brought out many aspects of Pensacola. Some of its better known names worked in the industry, one based on the natural physical gifts of the area. It even sparked in 1828 what must have been the first complaint about damage done by man to those gifts.

In the decade stretching through 1860, Pensacola dominated the Gulf Coast brickmaking industry. Brickyard sites lined the bay from Pensacola to Milton between 1860 and the industry's start on Bayou Texar in the 1750s. For years Pensacola's wharves bustled as bricks by the thousands moved from the yards to ships for transport all over the South. The biggest brickyard in the area delivered 18 million bricks for federal projects before the Civil War brought all of Pensacola to a standstill. Before a crash in 1846, Pensacola manufacturers were exporting between 250,000 and four million bricks a year.

Four of the six brickmaking companies in Florida were located on Escambia Bay and the Blackwater River. The 1850 federal census of Santa Rosa and Escambia counties enumerated 38 manufacturers of all kinds. Only six were not engaged in lumbering or brickmaking. Compared to today, bricks were cheap before the Civil War. From about 1812 through the 1830s, a brick yard run by the Gonzalez and Bonifay families used 25 laborers probably including slaves to turn out 1 million bricks, worth $9,000, at a peak rate of 145,000 bricks per year.

Today, a local brick merchant said bricks cost upward from $118 per thousand, or $118,000 per million. And no commercial brickmakers exist today in Pensacola. A pamphlet put out by the Historic Pensacola Preservation Board listed the following brickmakers in Pensacola before the Civil War: Juan Ruby, J. Noreiga, M. Bonifay, John B.

Bahan, John de la Rua, S.A. Hubbell, Henry Slayback, B.C. Willis, J. Gonzalez, John Hunt, Yniestra, Jackson Morton, Hall Murrell, Clapp, Bacon and Abercrombie, James J. Pritchett, and Waugh.

Brickmakers between 1800 and 1860 listed by other sources include Barrineau Brothers, Barkley, Christian, Hyer and LeBaron, and Bright Plantation (on the Blackwater River near Milton). Later-era brick makers included Southern Brick Dolores Brick Pensacola Brick Co. (used for the YMCA), and the W.R. Taylor which produced 50 million bricks between 1929 and 1949, using local clay with nothing added. It was the clay that made Pensacola such a brickmaking center.

Brickmaking machine hailed as major breakthrough (Art by Jem Sullivan) Crary Cranks Out Bricks Via Machine By CARL WERNICKE News Staff Writer It's not always easy, trying to make a brick. In 1854, two Southern gentlemen of means and ambition, Messrs. Philip Raiford and Anderson Abercrombie, heard of plans in the highest places to commence federal construction of brick fortifications. Many bricks would be needed to build the federal forts, and somebody had to make those bricks. Now, these Southern gentlemen, possessed of land and residency in the South, knew a good thing when they heard of it.

It seems Northern brick would not do. It could not take the heat and humidity of the Gulf Coast. Raiford and Abercrombie, through sufficient means, managed to get a federal contract to produce brick. It could have been Abercrombie's relation in Congress who greased the tracks, but that isn't important. Raiford had land abutting Mobile Bay, which he offered as the site for the proposed brickyard, i But the federals had an officer, both brave and true, who knew his bricks.

And he did not want Alabama bricks. He wanted bricks made from the good clay of Escambia County, and the federal contract so specified. Protests from influential Florida landowners who had land end clay elsewhere to offer were to no avail. Well, Raiford and Abercrombie had the contract, but they didn't know anything about making bricks a formidable obstacle, since their contract called for 65 million of the little blocks. The federals wanted strong, hard bricks that would stand up to the heat and humidity of the subtropics and repel the shot and shell of future conflicts.

Anyway, being men of readily available cash, Abercrombie and Raiford soon had a brickyard on the shores of Escambia Bay. But their bricks were bad. The government wanted its bricks and did not care, at this point, where they came from so long as they proved satisfactory. And it pointed out that the contract could be cancelled if the bricks were not delivered. Abercrombie and Raiford got bricks from other Pensacola brickmakers and from around Lake Ponchartrain near New Orleans.

Meanwhile, they were discovering that the brickmakers (hey -hired one after the other could not produce quality bricks in the quantity -needed. In June of 1855, they bought a different brickyard, refurbished it and beun making bricks. Hopes were hi4h. But during testing by federal officials, the new batch of bricks was determined to be substandard. They crumbled under heavy pressure, contained too much sand, impure clay and were improperly tempered, poorly molded and inadequately fired.

Another brickmaker was hired, but he, too, was a failure in the specialized field of making bricks for fortifications. See BRICKS 2D News Notes Happenings SIGN LANGUAGE CLASS p.m. Escambia High School. Information 455-6964. DANCE RAINBOW ROUND DANCE CLUB: p.m.

Firemin's Hall, 906 S. St. Information 434-5129. SEASIDE FUN BUNCH: p.m., Ragon Hall, Hwy. 297.

Information 438-7627. PROSPECTIVE CHAPTER OF SWEET ADELINES, INC. p.m. St. Andrew United Methodist Church, 836 Michigan Ave.

Information 453-6583. WEDNESDAY NORTHWEST FLORIDA BLOODMOBILE 11 a.m. -5 p.m., K-Mort Shopping Center, Nlcevllle. DOBERMAN PINCHER CLUB 7:30 p.m. Rodeway Inn West.

Information 453-6865. SIGMA CHI FRATERNITY ALUMNI Noon, Sheraton Inn. INFORMATION FORUM 7 p.m., Community Health Center, main conference room, 1201 W. Hernandez St. Free alcohol counseling program.

Information 432-1222. "FRIENDS" p.m., Will-O-WIck Gor-dens Club House, 6880 Fairfield Drive. A peer program for Mental Health Patients receiving counseling for stress or depression. Donations accepted. "Friends" is a community ofter-care program.

Information 453-1012. OVEREATERS ANONYMOUS 7 p.m., Sacred Heart Hospital, Administrative Conference Room. Information 476-5404. OVEREATERS ANONYMOUS 10:15 a.m., Sears. Information 433-0497.

CHILDREN'S STORY HOUR 10:30 a.m., Pensacola Public Library, 200 West Gregory St. Puppet Shows, games, crafts, dramas to promote reading ond library use for youngsters. Sponsored by the West Florida Regional Library. Information 438-5479. TOASTMASTER CLUBS WEST FLORIDA CLUB: 7-8 a.m..

President's Dining Room, UWF Commons. Information 476-5900, ext. 416 or 417. SERVICES VETERANS ASSISTANCE 9 a.m. 1 p.m., 1901 Brainbridge Ave.

Chapter 23 of the Disabled American Veterans of Pensacola have volunteer service officers available to assist veterans, widows of veterans, and veteran's dependents in filing claims with the Veterans Administration and with other Federal and State agencies. I nformatlon 453-2000. YOUNG MENSA For PATS students interested In continuing contact with peers. Information 492-0800 or 455-4380. ADULT HIGH The PJC Adult High School and Adult Basic Education programs are open on a continuous basis.

Information 476-5410. TODAY NORTHWEST FLORIDA BLOOD CENTER Blood donations of various types are needed daily. The Northwest Florida Blood Center is located at 2201 N. 9th Ave. and is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m.

to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. A person can donate one pint of blood every eight weeks. All blood types ore needed for the Thanksgiving Holiday weekend.

NORTHWEST FLORIDA BLOODMOBILE 7:30 a.m. 3 p.m., Bapiist Hospital, 1000 W. Moreno St. LUPUS FOUNDATION OF PENSACOLA 7:30 p.m. Pensacola Loan and Savings, 180 N.

Palafox St. Information 478-4920 or 438-9515. BROMELIA SOCIETY OF NORTHWEST FLORIDA 7 p.m. Information 944-1713 or 476-0928. LOIS MACGILL DUPLICATE BRIDGE CLUB 7:30 p.m., 1300 E.

Gadsden St. Duplicate bridge game open to the public. Information 438-1079 or 438-8734 PARENTS WITHOUT PARTNERS 8-11 P.m., Lamplighter Recreation Room, 711 Underwood Ave. Information 476-6532. ON E-DAY-AT-A-T IM 7:30 p.m..

Children's Home Society, 5375 N. 9th Ave. Information 434-6798 or 476-1 110. WEST FLORIDA ANTIQUE AUTO CLUB 7:30 p.m., 6677 N. Davis Highway, Pensacola Home 8.

Savings. Information 968-2707 or 455-7184. HIGHER CONSCIOUSNESS 7:30 P.m., 2640 Whaley St. A practice and methods course following the Handbook to Higher Consciousness. Open to the public.

Information 438-3557. PARENT STUDY 7-9 p.m.. Nativity Catholic Church, 9917 Hillvlew Drive. Information 432-1222 ext. 290.

AMERICAN NATIONAL RED CROSS SERVICES Cardiopulmonary training and first aid training for individuals, groups and industries. Information 432-7601. WOMAN'S MINISTRY 9:30 p.m. Evangelist Center Assembly of God, Willard Norris Road. Information 994-6990.

LA LECHE LEAGUE Morning ond evening meetings at vorious locations the first and second Tuesday each month. Information 477-0800 or 478-9377. WOMEN IN NEED YWCA, 1417 N. 12th Ave. Information 432-5495.

OVEREATERS ANONYMOUS 7 p.m., Fomily Practice conference room, U.S. Naval Hospital. Information 453-5898. BARBERSHOP HARMONY SOCIETY 7:30 P.m.. First Presbyterian Fellowship Hall.

33 E. Gregory. Information 432-4545. Civic Band Plays Tonight The Pensacola Civic Band will present the second concert of the 1981-82 season tonight at 7:30 in the Pensacola Junior College Fine Arts Auditorium. The concert is free and open to the public.

Jim Etherton, conductor of the band which is now in its 1 1th year, is a member of the PJC music faculty and one of the band's founders. The community adult band is co-sponsored by both PJC and the University of West Florida. This year's membership includes 60 members who come from a variety of professional backgrounds. This holiday concert will be a first for the civic band, which has recently expanded its season to six concerts. In addition to two more indoor concerts, the band plans two outdoor "concerts in the park." 'One Mo Timer Curtain Goes Up When the Saenger curtain goes up for "One Mo' Time!" Wednesday night, the audience will be swept back into 1926 New Orleans for an evening of Bessie Smith blues and vintage jazz at the Lyric Theatre.

"One Mo' Time!" celebrates and presents the hot jazz and sultry blues handed down by 1920s black songwriters and singers. Such numbers as C. Rider," "My Man Blues" and "Darktown Strutters' Ball" will fill the show from end to end with moving music. Seville Quarter will host an after-theater party with free admission to show-goers, free hors d'oeuvres and happy-hour prices on cocktails. Tickets for the show are available at the Saenger box office Monday through Friday from 10 a.m.

to 4 p.m. Credit card orders can be phoned in to 438-2787. Rotary Newsletter Presented to UWF Pensacola Rotary Club President Willis Merrill Jr. and Hank J. McRoberts, editor of the club's newsletter "The Helicopter," recently presented a complete set of the newletter for 1979-1980 and 1980-1981 to the University of West Florida's Special Collections librarian Dean DeBolt for deposit with the club papers in the John C.

Pace Library. Scene from 'One Mo' Previous gifts of club records have included minute books from 1915 (founding date of the Pensacola Rotary) to 1922, newsletters from 1922 to 1979 including "The Rotary Reminder" (1922-1935, 1940-1949), "The Rotogram" (1935-1940), "The Spinning Wheel" (1949), and "The Helicopter" (1949-1979). Audiotapes of speakers and meetings during 1975-1976 when Holly Veal was president have also been presented to the library. The latest donation updates the files of "The Helicopter" and completes a documentary record of 66 years of the Pensacola Rotary Club and its continuing service to the local community. All records donated to the library are arranged, preserved, catalogued, indexed, and made available for use to all West Florida citizens.

See NEWS NOTES 2D.