WASHINGTON BRICKS

J. T. Davie Brick Company, Mead
Consolidated Supply Company, Mead
Building Supplies, Inc., Mead

History

John Tait Davie. From Spokesman-Review, 1920.

Spokane Historian Nelson W. Durham credits John Tait Davie with burning the first brick in Spokane in 1880. J. T. Davie, as he was better known, was born in Scotland in 1851. His parents were Malcolm and Catherine Davie. Malcolm and his brother William went to work as servants with the Hudson's Bay Company in 1833, and ended up at Kettle Falls, Washington, in 1834. Malcolm returned to Scotland in 1840 and two years later married Catherine and they raised 10 children. J. T. Davie was the fifth child among his siblings. When his father Malcolm died in 1861, J. T. went to live with relatives, John and Isabella Tait, according to the 1861 census records for Orkney, Scotland. In Scotland, he was educated in public schools and worked as a clerk in a dry goods store. In 1872, J. T. Davie left Scotland for Boston, Massachusetts, where he learned the trade of brickmaker. About 1874, he moved to Napa, California, where he made bricks for the Napa State Asylum and engaged in other masonry jobs. In 1879, he moved to Spokane, Washington, where he saw an opportunity to open his own brickyard.

Davie operated several different brickyards in Spokane from 1880 to 1922. This article will focus on the brickyard that he opened at Mead, Washington, about four miles north of Spokane. About 1902, Davie found glacial clay favorable for making brick on the north side of Deadman (Peone) Creek about a mile north of Mead. The brickyard stood on the south side of Mt. Spokane Park Drive and immediately west of the Great Northern Railroad. Davie formed a partnership with Peter Erickson and John A. Hurd to open the brickyard there. Peter Erickson was a longtime associate of Davie at his Spokane brickyard. John Hurd was associated with the Idaho Lime Company, which was located at Addison T. Dishman's brickyard in the southwest edge of Spokane. The Idaho Lime Company became the sole agent for the sale of Davie brick.

Idaho Lime Company, advertisement from Spokane Directory, 1907.

At the announcement of the opening of this brickyard, Davie told the Chronicle newspaper that he had purchased 100 acres of land with "an inexhaustible supply of good clay for the making of red brick." He was planning to make two kinds of brick, a soft-mud sand brick and a stiff-mud wire-cut brick. He ordered machinery with an automatic cutter to make the stiff-mud brick. The plant was to be powered by a 60 horsepower engine and a 70 horsepower boiler. The clay was taken from the pit to the plant using rails and cars. The cost of building the plant was $1,600 and the cost of the new machinery was $4,000. They planned to start with 30 to 40 workers and later employ 60 to 70.

In February 1906, J. T. Davie Brick Company was incorporated with a capital stock of $30,000. The incorporators were J. T. Davie, Peter Erickson, and John A. Hurd, with Davie being president of the new firm. The articles of incorporation specified that the firm can make brick, deal in building materials, run boarding houses, hold real estate, operate a railway, and develop electricity. The principal place of business was at Mead.

In 1906, the brickyard was visited by geologist Solon Shedd of the State College of Washington, Pullman, who collected composite samples of the clay for laboratory analysis. Shedd described the clay as light yellowish and fine-grained with scattered scales of white mica and black sand grains. It had a fair degree of plasticity and a total shrinkage of 10 percent after burning. It dried rapidly and did not crack in burning. At a fusing point of cone .01 (1,130 degrees C) it had a dark red color, and was almost steel hard, and had a clear metallic ring. Shedd noted that common and red repressed brick were being made. Unfortunately, he did not describe the brick plant at that time.

In 1907, bricks from this yard went into the new State Armory building at Second Avenue and McClellan Street in Spokane. A majority of bricks were also handled by the Consolidated Supply Company, a dealer of building supplies, at Spokane, which sold the bricks to local builders. The Consolidated Supply Company was formed in 1915, when the Idaho Lime Company, which was started by Addison T. Dishman, and the F. T. Crowe & Company were consolidated into a single building supply company. The brick plant was temporarily closed during World War I, but resumed brick production afterwards.

J. T. Davie died in 1922 at the age of 71 years. He was buried in the Elk's Section of the Greenwood Cemetery at Spokane. Peter Erickson became president of the J. T. Davie Brick Company and continued operations at the brickyard until he decided to retire in 1928. Peter Erickson, a native of Illinois, died in 1933 at the age of 73 years. He had worked with Davie since arriving at Spokane in 1883. He was survived by a wife and four sons. His remains were interred in the Greenwood Cemetery.

Consolidated Supply Company advertisement from Spokesman-Review, 1928.

In December 1928, the Consolidated Supply Company entered into an option on the J. T. Davie Brick Company's brickyard. In December 1929, the supply company finalized the purchased for $12,500. The Consolidated Supply Company was a major building supply firm located at W1310 Ide Avenue in Spokane. James H. Evans was president, Charles A. Bartleson was secretary-treasurer, and J. H. Shields was the sales manager of the Consolidated Supply Company. They continued the manufacture of the popular Davie brick, which it had sold successfully at its store.

In March 1932, the company elected Charles H. Bartleson as president, E. Lee Smith as vice-president, and L. D. Buck as secretary- treasurer, and they became the sole owners of the firm. This set the company up for a name change to the Building Supplies, Inc.

In July 1933, after being idle for over two years, the brickyard was reopened by the Building Supplies, Inc., with 25 workers. A kiln of 1,250,000 bricks was burned. Some of these bricks went into the South Manito, Hillyard, and Union Park sewers. The plant was being operated under the provisions of the National Recovery Act, pending the adoption of the code of the Pacific Coast Brick Manufacturers' Association.

View of the Building Supplies, Inc., Spokane, from Spokesman-Review, 1952.

In 1934, Building Supplies, Inc., furnished 90,000 bricks for the Cheney sewer project. In 1935, bricks were used in the General Electric's new American homes at 20th and Lincoln at Spokane. The plant produced 3,000,000 bricks in 1936. The company stated that its plant had made as many as 6 million bricks in one year.

The brickyard was visited by geologist Sheldon Glover in 1936, and he gave the following report. The clay pit was on the east side of the brick plant. The pit was about 600 feet long and 250 feet wide and 18 feet deep. The pit exposed as much as 6 feet of overlying clayey sand, silt, and gravel, which had to be removed to reach the desirable 14 feet of soft buff-colored clay with sandy layers. The buff clay rested on 4 feet of water-bearing sand, which in turn rested on 12 feet of light blue clay. These beds were horizontal and highly stratified. The soft buff-colored clay was used to make brick.

A dragline scrapper was used with a trap to fill the clay car. The car was pulled by a gasoline locomotive up an incline to the plant, where the clay was dumped into bins. The plant contained a soft-mud machine with a disintegrator and pug mill, which had a capacity of 25,000 brick per day, and a stiff-mud machine, with a capacity of 30,000 brick per day. The bricks were dried on pallets in open-air roofed racks, which took about eight days. The brick were fired in three clamp scove kilns of 385,000 brick capacity. Three days were allowed for water-smoking and six days for the firing. Wood was used for fuel.

Building Supplies, Inc., advertisement from Spokesman-Review, 1939.

In 1937, the yard furnished 75,000 brick at $18.50 per 1,000 for the WPA sewer project. The company also moved to its new office and warehouse at N528 Cedar Street in Spokane. The plant closed again during World War II, when some of the men joined the military. When the plant reopened, most of the bricks were used in new homes built in the region. During 1946 and 1947, a record-breaking 3,500 homes were completed. By 1946, a spur line was shown on the Deer Park quadrangle map extending from the Great Northern Railroad to the brickyard. This allowed the bricks to be shipped out by rail. Prior to that, motor trucks were used to transport the bricks to Spokane.

In 1953, Building Supplies, Inc., president Charles H. Bartleson and his wife, Susan, were killed in a car crash in Oregon, which was a devastating loss to the firm. Charles Bartleson, 70, was a native of Minnesota. The couple was survived by three sons. Bartleson was succeeded by Lee Smith as president of the company. In 1966, Fred M. Bartleson was president of the company and he remained in that position until he retired in 1980. Although, this company was reported as being active as late as 1980, there was no further activity reported from the brickyard, which may have closed by then. The brickyard site today still has an old plant building, piles of clay, and a water-filled clay pit.

Davie Bricks

Davie Sand-Molded Brick

The Davie soft-mud sand-molded brick is pale orange-red to red and uniform in color. The form is good with dull edges and corners. The surface has a coating of fine sand. Occasional subrounded lumps of red-burned clay is visible on the surface. The marked face has a deep rectangular frog, 6 inches long and 2 3/4 inches wide and a half inch deep. Inside the frog are recessed the geometric shaped letters of the company name "J. T. DAVIE" over "BRICK. Co" that stand about 3/4 inch high. The interior is composed of a fine-grained clay, locally granular and lumpy, with minor pores and an unidentified grayish mineral less than 1/8 inch across. This brick was made using the soft-mud process. Length 8 1/8, width 4, and height ? inches.

View of the marked face of the Davie common brick. Photo courtesy of Audrey Davie Anderson.

View of another version of the marked face of the Davie common brick, showing a large quartz clast. Photo courtesy of Richard R. Old.

View of another version of the marked face of the Davie common brick, exposing a large quartz clast. Photo courtesy of Richard R. Old.

View of the interior clay body of the Davie common brick.

Davie Wire-Cut Brick

Davie wire-cut brick are not available to show yet.

References

WASHINGTON BRICKS

J. T. Davie Brick Company, Mead Consolidated Supply Company, Mead Building Supplies, Inc., Mead

History

Davie Bricks

Davie Sand-Molded Brick

Davie Wire-Cut Brick

References

Contact Dan Mosier at danmosier@earthlink.net.

J. T. Davie Brick Company, Mead
Consolidated Supply Company, Mead
Building Supplies, Inc., Mead