Little Falls Fire Clay Company, Little Falls (Sopenah)
Little Falls Fire Clay Company advertisement. From The Ranch 1907.
History
The Little Falls Fire Clay Company was established in 1896 at the former brickyard of the Washington Fire Clay Company at Little Falls
(Sopenah, Vader), Lewis County, Washington. Company office was based at 726 Pacific Avenue in Tacoma. The new company overhauled the
machinery in the old plant under the management of Walter S. Bowen. The clay property covered 1,200 acres.
Clay was found east of Little Falls decomposed from Eocene shale and mixed with gravel. The clay varied in colors of yellow, red, and
white and ranged from fine to coarse. The clay was mined from open cuts and hauled in tram cars pulled by horses to the plant, 3,000 feet west.
Main pit was 34 feet high, 80 feet wide, and 250 feet long. Four tram cars were 1 1/2 to 2 tons capacity and of the bottom dump type.
About 80 tons of clay a day hauled to the plant cost 25 cents a ton. The tramway was on elevated tracked that terminated at the storage
room, 120 by 80 feet, at the rear of the mill. The storage room had a capacity of 5,000 tons. About 5,000 tons of shale per year from
another source was shipped in by rail and mixed with the local clay. The clay was suitable for making paving brick and sewer pipe.
At the plant, the clay and shale were ground in a 8-foot dry pan and then thoroughly mixed and tempered in a pug mill, which
consisted of two 7-foot wet pans. Some of the gravel that was found with the clay was also ground and added to the mix. From there,
the clay was fed to the press for making sewer pipe or drain tiles or fed to the brick machines.
The brick plant had American paving brick press machines, each with a capacity of 40,000 brick a day and an American dry press machine with a
capacity of 18,000 brick per ten hours. Also a No. 2 Giant brick machine with automatic cutters had a capacity of 50,000 brick per day.
View of the Little Falls Fire Clay Company plant at Little Falls. From Dilley 1909.
The main building, made of bricks, was 80 feet wide, 240 feet long, and four stories high. It was steam heated for drying sewer pipe.
The machinery, including a 250 horse power Corliss engine, a 20 horse power Atlas engine, two 100 horse power boilers, and one
auxilary 60 horse power boiler, was powered by steam using coal (in 1910). Seven large circular down draft kilns were used to
fire the wares. The largest kiln was 36 feet in diameter, another was 28 feet in diameter, and five were 26 feet in diameter. The
kilns were started with a wood drying fire of 100 degrees F and then slack coal was used to bring the heat up gradually to 2,300
degrees F over two to five days, depending on the products being fired.
View of the Little Falls Fire Clay Company plant at Little Falls. From American Clay Magazine 1908.
Products manufactured included sewer pipe, paving brick, drain tile, dry press facing brick, and firebrick. Yellow clay was used to
make the redware. White clay was used for making firebrick. In June 1896, machinery for firebrick, vitrified paving brick, and
sewer pipe were installed. In July 1896, a dry press was installed for face brick, ranging in colors from white to dark brown.
By 1909, hollow tile was added. Sewer pipes ranged from 3 to 24 inches in diameter. Drain tiles were 1 or 2 foot lengths and 3 to 12
inch widths. The plant was on the main line of the Northern Pacific railroad for transport of products.
In 1903, Thomas J. Mackintosh became the new general manager when the company reorganized. He was assisted by Fredrick W. Eastman in 1908.
In 1907, four kilns were rebuilt and $15,000 spent on improvements, which increased production 70 percent over the previous year.
By November 1, 1907, the yard was entirely sold out. The stock was replenished in 1908 to about 100 cars. In 1909, the officers of
the company were A. J. Hayward, president; S. R. Balkwill, Vice-president; Joshua Pierce, secretary and treasurer; William Jones,
B. L. McCormack, Henry Hewitt, Jr., and Thomas J. Mackintosh, board of trustees.
In May 1911, Thomas J. Mackintosh resigned from his general manager position with the company and he was succeeded by W. S. Dimmick.
In October 1911, the company went into receivership with Dimmick as the receiver. The sewer pipe plant remained opened but the brick
plant closed. During the spring of 1912, Little Falls Fire Clay Company was declared insolvent when the Raymond Company brought
suit for nonpayment of machinery purchased by the former company. The company's properties were sold to the Standard Clay Company
and the Little Falls Fire Clay Company was dissolved. In 1914, the plant was destroyed by fire.
Little Falls Brick From Little Falls
Little Falls Paving Bricks
Little Falls paving brick is dark red and uniform in color. Form is very good with stright edges and even
smooth surfaces. The longest and shortest edges are rounded. The middle length edge is sharp. Repressed lines are visible along the
long edges. Transverse striations are on the ends. Stack indentations may be present on the sides. The marked face has the company
abbreviations "L.F.F.C.CO." in recessed block letters that span 6 3/4 inches and stand 5/8 inch. Periods are square shaped. Conveyor
imprints of a grid pattern of dots may be present on the face. Interior contains mostly vitrified red clay that is very massive,
hard, and compact. A few clasts, 1 percent, of subrounded white granite and quartz, less than 1/8 inch in diameter, present.
This brick was made using a brick press. Length 8 1/8, width 3 5/8, height 2 5/8 inches.
View of the marked face of the L.F.F.C.Co. paving brick.
Other versions of the L.F.F.C.Co. marked paving brick, shown below, display the company abbreviations on the face of the brick.
One is a dark red and another is a reddish tan color.
View of the marked faces of the L.F.F.C.Co. paving bricks showing different colors. Photo courtesy of Kristie Paylor.
View of the marked face of the L.F.F.C.Co. paving brick. Photo courtesy of Robert Anderson.
Microscopic view of the interior of the L.F.F.C.Co. paving brick (50x, field of view is 1/4 inch).
References
Brick, v. 5, no. 1, July 1896, p. 29.
Brick, v. 30, no. 4, April 1909, p. 228.
Brick and Clay Record, v. 41, no. 8, October 1912, p. 322.
Clay Record, v. 8, no. 6, 28 March 1896, p. 23.
Clay Worker, v. 55, no. 5, May 1911, p. 780.
Clay Worker, v. 56, no. 2, August 1911, p. 175.
Clay Worker, v. 56, no. 4, October 1911, p. 438.
Dilley, W. R., Little Falls, (Sopenah) Washington, The Coast, May 1909.
Grace Evangelical Church of Vader, National Register of Historic Places, No. 03000162, March 28, 2003.
Little Falls Tile Factory, American Clay Magazine, v. 2, no. 7, May 1908, p. 2-4.
Matsumura, JoAnn, written communications, 2017.
Paylor, Kristie, written communications, 2019.
Anderson, Robert, written communications, 2019.
Shedd, Solon, The Clays of the State of Washington, State College of Washington, Pullman, Washington,
June 1910.
The Little Falls Fire Clay Co., Clay Record, v. 8, no. 12, 29 June 1896, p. 17.
The Ranch, Seattle, Washington, 1 September 1907, p. 5.
