Washington Brick, Lime and Manufacturing Company, Freeman
Washington Brick, Lime and Sewer Pipe Company, Freeman
Advertisement for the Washington Brick and Lime Company. From Spokane City Directory, 1889.
History
According to J. T. Davie, a pioneer brickmaker of Spokane, Washington, Henry Brook came to Spokane about 1882 and
worked as a contractor. In 1886, Brook and Davie purchased 80 acres of land on Cannon Hill Park in Spokane for the
purpose of establishing a brickyard. Brook had earlier purchased 40 acres of adjoining land there. Davie made the
bricks for Brook to use in his construction projects. In 1888, Davie sold all of his interests in the brick business
to Brook, who ran the yard under the superintendence of George B. M. Rambo. After a short time, Brook sold out to two
men from the east, Spear and Belt. When H. N. Belt left the business the same year, Joseph H. Spear teamed up with Brook to
form the Washington Brick and Lime Company on May 1, 1889. Capital stock was $50,000. Henry Brook was president and
Joseph H. Spear was secretary and treasurer. The company office was at the southwest corner of Stevens Street and
Railroad Avenue in Spokane.
This company went through several name changes over the years. In 1892, the company name was changed to Washington Brick,
Lime, and Manufacturing Company. Henry Brook remained as president and Joseph Spear as secretary and treasurer. In 1909,
Washington Brick, Lime and Manufacturing Company and the Spokane Sewer Pipe Company merged to form the Washington Brick,
Lime, and Sewer Pipe Company, with a capital stock of $2,000,000. Officers of the new company were Joseph H. Spear, president
and general manager; William M. Colby, Mason City, Iowa, vice-president; S. J. Boal, Minneapolis, Minnesota, secretary;
T. Ed Redman, Jackson, Michigan, treasurer; and L. A. Spear, director. In 1938, the company changed its name back to its
original name of Washington Brick and Lime Company. Officers at that time were Neal R. Fossen, president and general manager;
C. P. Lund, vice-president; Ernest L. Frank, secretary and treasurer.
The Washington Brick and Lime Company owned five clay plants in Washington and a lime plant at Bay View, Idaho. The plants in
Washington included Spokane, Freeman, Mica, Clayton, and Dishman. This article will focus on the Freeman plant, Spokane County,
Washington.
The plant at Freeman was built in 1899 for the manufacture of common brick, firebrick, dark red and mottled brick.
This plant was to replace the Spokane plant, which had depleted its clay deposits used to make just common brick. The
plant at Spokane had been destroyed by fire in 1897. The Freeman plant was located about 15 miles southeast of Spokane.
The clays at Freeman were derived from the weathering of gneiss, schist, basalt, and granitic rocks. The clays were mined
in pits that were as deep as 30 feet by 1910. Powder was used to loosen the clays, which were carefully mined selectively
from the various pits. Common brick was formed from the mixture of deep reddish brown clays derived all of the mentioned
rocks. Gray fire clay of mostly kaolinite was selectively mined from clay derived from the granitic rocks. The fire clay
ranged in thickness as much as 40 feet, but was irregularly distributed and not as abundant as clays for common brick.
The clays from gneiss, schist, and granitic rocks were loaded into tram cars and taken to the plant situated 100 yards
to the south of the pit. The basaltic clays came from a pit situated just south of the plant.
View of the plant of the Washington Brick and Lime Company at Freeman. From Shedd, 1910.
The Freeman plant in 1910 contained an auger stiff mud brick machine with a capacity of 30,000 brick a day, a repress
machine for common repress brick and firebrick, and a dry press machine. The clay was processed with disintegrating rolls,
a pug mill, and a hand-operated wire-cutting table. All machinery was driven by steam power.
The bricks were taken from the brick machines, stacked on small steel cars, and put into six steam heated tunnel
driers, each with a capacity of 166,666 brick. The brick entered the steam-heated tunnel driers starting with a temperature of
120 degrees F and ended with a temperature of 180 degrees F at the end of the tunnel. It usually required 48 hours
to totally dry the bricks, but with raised temperatures, that was done in 24 hours.
The common bricks were burned in up draft rectangular kilns. The firebricks were burned in a down draft bee hive
kiln with a capacity of 50,000 brick. It required 11 to 14 days to burn common brick.
View of the kilns of the Washington Brick and Lime Company at Freeman. From Shedd, 1910.
In 1900, the plant started out with a daily output of 40,000 common brick. Firebrick, clinker brick, and special products were
added shortly afterwards to the product list at Freeman. By 1910, the common brick daily output was at 50,000. But according
to Shedd, firebrick was no longer being made at this plant. Fire clay was shipped to the Clayton plant for the
manufacture of firebrick. By 1917, the capacity was increased to 120,000 brick per day.
Bricks from the Freeman plant were shipped by rail throughout the Northwest Pacific. It is believed that the firebrick from
this plant was marked with the company name "WASH. B. L. & MFG. Co., SPOKANE, WASH" between 1900 and 1909. It is
not known if other products were marked at this plant, but it is possible.
In 1905, at the Lewis and Clark Exposition in Portland, the company exhibited its products, including
architectural terra cotta, ornamental brick, dry pressed brick, red, cream and granite colors; firebrick,
milled and screened fire clay, repressed brick, common brick in white and red, mantels, fireproof tiling,
sidewalk tiles, vitrified sewer pipe, agricultural drain tile and lime. Some of these products came from other
plants owned by the company.
In 1919, A. B. Fosseen became president of the company when he replace Joseph H. Spear. By 1933, the company was
in financial trouble due to declining sales of clay products. A reorganization of the insolvent company was led
by Eric A. Johnston and his new corporation took over the properties in 1943. Some improvements in the clay products
business helped the company to succeed with dividend payments made to the shareholders and reduction of indebtedness.
In 1957, the company was purchased by Gladding, McBean and Company and dissolved.
Henry Brook, a founder of the company, was born in England in 1842. He married in England in 1865. He and his wife, Kezia,
immigrated to American in 1870, and he became a minister in the Methodist church in Minnesota. They arrived in Spokane,
Washington, in 1883. He died in 1908 at the age of 60 years and left a wife and four daughters. Census records reveal
they originally had nine children.
Joseph H. Spear, a founder of the company, was a native of Illinois, born in 1853. His father was from Ireland. He
married is wife Jennie in 1875 and they had eight children. He was a lumber dealer in Springfield, Illinois, prior
to coming to Washington. He died in Oakland in 1920 at the age of 67 years.
Washington Brick, Lime, & Manufacturing Company Bricks
Firebrick
The firebrick is buff and mostly uniform in color. The worn nature of the brick found did not allow for an accurate description
of the brick form. The marked side is imprinted with the company abbreviations in recessed letters as "MADE BY" on the
first line, "WASH. B. L. & MFG. Co." on the second line, and "SPOKANE, WASH" on the third line. The letters are in
block letters and a lower case "o". The alumina clay grains are flattened on the surface. This brick was made using dry
pressed process. Dimensions are not available.
View of the marked face of the Washington Brick, Lime, & Mfg. Co. firebrick. Photo courtesy of Nils French.
References
Ancestry.com and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, online database, 2017.
Brick, v. 12, no. 2, February 1900, p. 97.
Clay Products at the Portland Exposition, Clay Worker, v. 44, no. 3, September 1905, p. 246.
Clay Worker, v. 44, no. 3, September 1905, p. 270.
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Settlement to the Present Time, Volume 1, S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1912.
French, Nils, written communications, 2019.
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Federal Census Records, 1900.
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Glover, Sheldon L., Clays and Shales of Washington, Washington Division of Geology Bulletin 24, 1941.
Gurcke, Karl, Bricks and Brickmaking, University of Idaho Press, Moscow, Idaho, 1987.
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Report For 1901, v. 1, pt. 3, 1902.
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Pacific Coast Architect, v. 1, no. 3, June 1911, p. 115.
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Pacific Coast Architect, v. 5, no. 3, June 1913, p. 137.
Parker, Wally Lee, Historical Fragments #1: Washington Brick & Lime's Henry Brook, The Bogwen Report Online,
http://thebogwenreport.blogspot.com/2012/01/historical-fragments-1-washington-brick.html (accessed December 19, 2017).
Roberts, Milnor, The College of Mines Series of Ores, Coals and Useful Rocks of Washington, University of Washington
College of Mines, Seattle, Washington, April 1917.
Roy V. Stewart et al., Appellants, v. Eric A. Johnston, et al., Respondents, Supreme Court No. 30415,
Department One, June 14, 1948, http://courts.mrsc.org/supreme/030wn2d/030wn2d0925.htm (accessed December 19, 2017).
Shedd, Solon, The Clays of the State of Washington, State College of Washington, Pullman, Washington,
June 1910.
Spokane Brick Plant Burned, San Francisco Chronicle, July 22, 1897.
Spokane City Directory, 1889.
Spokane City Directory, 1890.
Spokane City Directory, 1893.
Spokane City Directory, 1910.
Spokane City Directory, 1939.
Spokane, Wash.: Washington Brick, Lime & Sewer Pipe Co., Brick, v. 32, no. 1, 1910, p. 77.
Washington Clay Interests Consolidate, Brick, v. 31, no. 6, December 1909, p. 226.
