HAMILTON COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Brick Making in Hamilton County

Bricks are, quite literally, the building blocks of the important structures in the county.
The first brick building in the county was William Conner’s house built in 1823. Later historians said that it was common to build a kiln to fire the bricks and remove it afterwards. The construction of the Conner house was followed in 1827 by the brick homes of Silas Moffitt, William Wilkerson, and Zenas Beckwith. The first public brick building was the Recorder’s office built in 1832.

The business of brickmaking got started in 1840. William Stanbrough established the earliest known real brickyard in the county in Washington Township, where he built a kiln and sold bricks. Evidently, there was enough of a demand that Westfield resident Nathan Johnson was awarded a patent for a brick-making mold in 1854. In addition to brick, clay was used for drainage tiles. By 1869, tile factories had been established in Noblesville, Westfield, and Carmel. There was a community in Washington Township named Tile Factory Corner. In 1880, Fishers had a tile factory on the main street in town.

Brick makers in Noblesville seemed to concentrate on Federal Hill along Stringtown Pike (present-day Lakeview Drive), possibly because of a clay deposit. There had been an attempt to establish a town called Garversville just west of the railroad along present Park Street, and the brickyards usually were in that area. A successful gas well was drilled in 1887 on Federal Hill, which was used to fire bricks. The R. L. Wilson house (present-day Heavenly Sweets) had a sidewalk made with bricks from a natural gas kiln. However, people still reported seeing loads of wood taken to the kilns in 1890.

Among the Federal Hill brick makers was Allen Fisher, who advertised for brick moulders in 1874 and got the contract for the new jail in 1875. Also in 1875, W. H Cottingham owned a brickyard in the area. In 1880, C. W. Fisher had a brickyard close to where the hospital is today. It’s unclear if he was related to Allen Fisher. C. W. Fisher used an “Iron Quaker” brick molding machine to make his bricks. The Gatts family opened a brickyard in 1887 and had various partners through the years. They were one of the brick makers that used natural gas.

In 1888, James Lawson began making brick on Federal Hill and became one of the more successful companies. He had a cousin in Indianapolis who made terra cotta ornaments for buildings. Terra cotta was used in Noblesville – it can be seen as plaques on the Harris-Joseph block (present-day Church, Church, Hittle, and Antrim). It was also used for animal head decorations on the Northside Block, which burned in 1957. Lawson made bricks for sewers, the Strawboard factory, the Carbon Works, the Cicero glass factory, and the Brehm-Haverstick building (later the Holt and Ayres building). The Brehm-Haverstick bricks were saved after the demolition of the structure and are to be used in the new Levinson building. Some Lawson buildings still standing are the Lacy/Knights of Pythias building (present-day Kirk’s Hardware and Linden Tree), and the Red Men’s Lodge (present-day Grindstone’s).

Sheridan had its own tile and brick factories in the 1870’s and 1880’s run by people like Eli Hiatt, William and Barney Fristoe, and Henry Thistlewaite.

Apparently, there were limits to the local brickmakers’ abilities. When the new county courthouse was being built in 1878-9, it was done with brick bought from the Peerless Brick Company in Philadelphia. Allen Fisher later said that he had supplied some of it. When Mayor James Worth Smith began paving the streets of Noblesville in 1894, the bricks were not local, but were purchased from Brazil, Indiana. There was some discussion in the newspaper about not supporting local business. Around this time, the citizens of Sheridan also began to pave their streets with brick.

Eventually the brickyards closed, although it’s not clear if this was from a lack of material from all of the clay mining, a lack of fuel after the gas failed, or a lack of demand as the boom faded. In 1907, Arcadia had the last real brick factory in the county, which was destroyed by fire that year.

SOURCE: David Heighway, Hamilton County Historian