THE REPUBLICAN

August 24, 1883

 

WAUPACA INDUSTRIES

 

Brick Yard of Chamberlain Bemis & Co. – A lively institution

 

In company with Mr. J. W. Chamberlain, one of Waupaca’s enterprising citizens, and senior member of the firm as noted above, the REPUBLICAN scribe took a pleasant ride out to the brick yard where the famous Waupaca red brick are made.  But few of our citizens realize what a lively enterprise this is.  And the future possibilities of their immense bed of fine clay and excellent water power within a half-mile from the south-eastern limits of this city is something of importance to Waupaca’s future welfare as well as the profits it will bring for the labor put in it.  The works are situated a half or three-fourths of a mile south of the Central railroad track.  A wagon road will be opened, and the brick for shipment will be hauled and loaded in cars on a side track, thus saving a couple of miles over the present way of delivery to the depot.  Eventually a spur track will be built by the Central – perhaps another season.  Mr. C. J. Doty, of Clintonville has charge of the works.  Mr. Doty is a practical brick maker, having laid brick for thirty years, and made them for the past eleven.  He and his wife occupy a residence near the yard.

 

This brick yard was opened in 1881 by W. S. Bemis & Geo. Hanson, and the first brick made was for the new court house.  Subsequently Messrs. Churchill & Chamberlain purchased the yard, but last spring Mr. Churchill sold to the original firm, and now the works are owned by Chamberlain, Bemis & Co.  They own eighty acres of land, which contains the finest bed of clay, a magnificent water power formed by the north and south branches of the Waupaca river, converging here.  They have a Martin patent machine driven by an iron turbine wheel, and when in operation turns out sixty-six pressed brick per minute.  They have drying sheds with a capacity for holding and drying 100,000 brick, ready for burning.  At the time of our visit one kiln was just about cooked, containing fifty thousand Waupaca red brick and another was being prepared to receive the seething flames of pine and oak.  They have a ready sale for their brick, and aside from a good local trade, they have orders from Stevens Point, Fifield, and other towns up the line.  They also make nice well brick, and we wouldn’t be surprised if a bed of clay for pottery and tiling lay in the river bed, and a plan is suggested to turn the course of the stream across an elbow which will give neatly a half mile of bare channel containing most beautiful clay.  From fifteen to twenty men are employed here, and the monthly payroll amounts to from six to seven hundred dollars; a no insignificant sum to enter into the trade of Waupaca.  And these works are jut in their infancy.  The future of them, we predict, will pan out better than the county gold mines.

 

There are mineral springs boiling up near these works that are also likely to become famous, but “water works” isn’t the theme in this article.