The following essay is excerpted from Charles Ellery Hall’s The Story of Brick (Building Trades and Employers’ Association Bulletin, July, 1905). It was transcribed by Hudson River Maritime Museum volunteer researcher George A. Thompson and additionally edited and annotated by John Warren.
The brick which bears the highly popular brand, “Shultz,” is the product of the Shultz yards at East Kingston, near Rondout, NY. Henry H. Shultz, the present manager of the concern for the Shultz estate, represents the third generation of a family which has been in the brick making business since the earlier half of the last century.
At that period Charles Shultz owned, at Keyport, NJ, an interest in what would now be considered a very modest plant, operated with horses, and having a daily capacity of 40,000, or for the season, 8,000,000 brick. This passed to his son, Charles A. Shultz, who before long realized that the banks of the Hudson River not only afforded enormous advantages in the matter of shipping, but provided a better quality of the raw material, and in tempting abundance.
Accordingly, in 1876, Charles A. Shultz removed to East Kingston and began, at first in a comparatively small way, a business which has been growing ever since, and which, under the management of his son, Henry H. Shultz, has reached a position of the highest Importance in the building material industry.
The first notable step in the development of the Shultz yards on the Hudson River was when steam power was substituted for horses. This was in 1878, and from that time the business of the plant, increasing yearly with the recognized value of the “Shultz” brand, has climbed without one serious check, until, at the present writing [in 1905] it employs a plant the capacity of which is 138,000 per day, or 18,000,000 brick per season.
These commercially satisfactory results have been in great part due to sheer persistence; but a particular “strong” quality of their clay banks and the incessant exercise of thought and care, with constant alertness to seize upon every chance of improvement, had quite as much to do with the reputation which the brand has earned of an almost perfect brick for general building purposes.
The clay banks adjacent to the works yield also quantities of sharp sand This, with “culm” [the aerial stem of a grass or sedge] in the proper proportions, is used on the Shultz yards to form a brick in which there is both yellow clay and blue, one-third of the former and two-thirds of the latter. Special attention is given to the processes of mixing and tempering. The latter is carried on in a circular pit with a “tempering wheel” worked by steam power.
So far there is no secret in the composition of the Shultz brick. But in the precedent process of mixing the case is somewhat otherwise; the strength, beauty and evenness of color for which this brick is noted has not been secured without years of thought and experiment, both by the late Mr. Shultz and the present manager of the estate.
The expenditure of time, thought and capital upon all this repays itself in more than one way. There is the enormous saving involved in the fact that here the percentage of waste arising from the spoiled brick is lower than in almost any modern plant where brick are made on anything like the same large scale.
The economy is continuous from the very first moulding to the finished product. It is based on — apart from the careful and skillful mixing already referred to — a system of special attention in the details of “jarring” the moulds, of “dumping,” “edging” and “hacking” upon the open yards which are in use here.
Then again it is a principle of the Shultz works that good drying is half the battle, if the manufacturer cares to produce an output of good color, and not the ugly grey which results from burning half-moist brick.
Eternal vigilance is the price of success in these matters, and to complete the claim after watching the brick like delicate infants from “hack” to kiln, the “setting” is there done like a work of art, so as to ensure the perfection of draft for the burning.
The fuel used in these kilns is hard coal, the kiln consuming, on an average 100 tons to each 1,000,000 brick. Another notable feature in the Shuliz works is their system of repairing all machinery and tools on the premises, a complete machine shop and staff of experts being maintained for that purpose.
The well known corporation of The Terry Brothers Company is represented in the market by two highly respected brands of brick: The “Terry” and the “Terry Bros.” The latter is made from blue clay alone; the former from mixed blue and yellow.
The company’s banks at Kingston and East Kingston, where, the two plants are situated, are of enormous extent. These deposits run mostly to blue clay, the East Kingston banks showing a large percentage of yellow, those at Kingston containing only blue.
The banks are overlaid with an excellent quality of sand for both moulding and mixing. The company’s plant includes eleven machines with an aggregate dally capacity of 250,000 or 30,000,000 bricks per season. Both circular pits and improved sod pits are used here – eight of the former and three of the latter.
The product is shipped down the river on the company’s own barges, of which it owns seven, varying in capacity from 200,000 to 325,000 brick per barge.
The Terry Brothers Company enjoy the distinction of being the first concern on the Hudson River to burn brick with coal for fuel. This innovation was begun in 1884, and has been continued ever since.
After more than twenty years experience with mineral fuel in their kilns, the management maintain that it gives a more uniform burn than can be obtained with wood fuel. In addition to this important point of uniformity, they believe that coal is more manageable, more amenable in nice adjustments and in every practical respect more satisfactory than wood.
Besides the honor of being the pioneer coal burners of the Hudson river yards, the Terry Brothers Company claims a smaller percentage of broken brick than any other plant.
This very favorable condition for a concern using only open-yard systems, which no doubt operates to the advantage of the consumer by reducing the waste for which the consumer has to pay in the long run — whether he knows it or not — is secured by a system of exceptionally careful handling, both of the green brick and of the burnt, in every one of the processes from moulding to culling.
The dumping here is performed very gingerly, the edging is done as if the brick were so much porcelain, though with great speed, which can only be consistent with extreme care when as is the rule of this establishment, the workmen are all thoroughly practiced in their business.
Lastly, the cullers lay down the selected brick taken from the kiln so deftly that very few foremen of buildings have ever had good cause to complain of ragged edges on the “Terry” or “Terry Bros.” material since these brands appeared on the market. Artificial coloring material is not used in either brand, the natural color alone being relied upon to produce a good red brick.
The Terry yards were founded in 1850 by the late David Terry. At his death, which took place in 1869, the business was taken up by his sons, Albert and Edwin, who carried it on in partnership until 1902, when Edwin Terry retired and the concern was incorporated as the Terry Brothers company: Jay Terry, vice-president; David Terry, secretary and treasurer.
Learn more about Hudson River Brickyards at BrickCollecting.com or pick up a copy of George V. Hutton’s book The Great Hudson River Brick Industry: Commemorating Three and a Half Centuries of Brickmaking (Purple Mountain Press, 2003).
Illustrations, from above: “Drying Brick, Brick Yard, Rondout, New York,” postcard (Hudson River Maritime Museum); A Shultz Company brick (BrickCollecting.com); view of drying yards and machine sheds of the Hutton Brick Company (Hudson River Maritime Museum); and a Terry Brothers brick (BrickCollecting.com).
