LACLEDE BRICK COMPANY
Below are links to several files on the Laclede Brick Company. The details in the
various articles are a bit contradictory or at least quite unclear. However, the two
most authoritative sources are the 1947 company publication, and the 1904 story from
BRICK magazine. However, the two are not quite in agreement.
Basically I piece the story together something like this:
- 1844: A plant was opened. This is actually 4 years earlier than I have read anywhere else. If so, this
must have been the elusive brick works of the "English Quakers" to which I can't find any references.
It's not at all clear what the name of this plant was.
- 1854: The official publication of Laclede-Christy in 1947 claims the photo in that
publication is from the plant as it was in 1854. That's at least two years earlier than
most other sources give on the plant.
- 1869: Evidently this is the date of the official incorporation of the Laclede Firebrick
Manufacturing Co.
- 1907: In 1907 the Laclede Fire Brick Manufacturing Company and the Christy Fireclay
Company were consolidated and incorporated under the laws of the state of Missouri as the Laclede-Christy Clay Products
Company.
MORE DETAILED STORIES ON LACLEDE FIRE BRICK MANFACTURING CO.
Bob Corbett
bcorbett@netcom.com