Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1908-06-11
A THRIVING
NEW INDUSTRY
First Kiln OF Ladysmith Brick Begins
Burning This Week.-Company
Not Selling ANY More Stock

SuTHuh9 tHtS Weeks-NOUpdny
Not Selling ANY More Stock
A few months ago along last win
ter-when the matter of manufacturing
brick at Ladysmith was first agitated,
it was a hard matter to get sufficient
stock subscribed start the enterprise;
there was so much preliminary work to
be done before any results could be OBJ
tained that those who had money to in
vest were looking in other directions.
There are plenty of men who are willing
to invest in the stock of the Ladysmith
Brick and Tile Co. today, however, and
they are only burning their first kiln of
brick this week; but no more stock is
being issued, and those who have few
shares are holding onto it, believing
they have good thing. This is also
the opinion of every visitor to their
| plant two miles southeast of this city.
In company with J. L. Ryall, the
secretary and treasurer of the company,
the editor of the News Budget rode be-
hind Ryall's roadster Zip" out to the
brick yard Saturday morning and there
saw AZ brick being turned out every
minute-as fast as they could be handled.
They had been making brick only ten
| days and had met with a misfortune in
their drying shed falling down, but
there were 10000 brick built in two
arches in the kiln and enough more in
| the drying shed to make out the first
kiln of $4,000 which they began burning
Wednesday.
The drying shed has a capacity of
5000, which is being increased one
half by the building of another shed,
with the intention of filling the entire
shed every week. The brick machine
is only run five hours per day, the 16
hands employed being busted at other
work on the premises the balance of
the time cleaning up the tools, moving
brick to the kiln, filling the pit and
cutting poverty wood for fuel. There
is no chance for "a man TO be idle. long
there. A boarding house 14x40 has
been built and will be conducted by Ray
Crameron, who moved his family in
this week.
The company owns five acres bought
from Jos. Stevens, which lies east from
his house on the main road and about
quater of a mile south of the 500
track. The supply of clay is almost in
exhaustible, being nineteen feet deep,
and the land lays so that the pit can be
easily drained to nearly the full depth
of the vein, which underlies the whole
tract. There is sufficient poverty wood
right at hand to furnish fuel for power
for several years. Jos. Stevens is the
engineer and J. c. Harris, an eXper-
fenced brick maker, is manager. The
pay roll of the company now amounts
to $115. so per week.
This enterprise required a vast a.
mount of confidence and hard work, as
the ground had to be cleared of brush
and stumps, bitches dug for drainage,
buildings erected and quite a sum in
vested in machinery. The work was
commenced last February, a saw mill
put in and all the necessary lumber
sawed up. Samples of the clay had
been previously sent to several brick
yards and tested in different ways. 1t
was the opinion of all who tested it
that it was superior to that which is
being used in many different parts of
the state, and some who have examined
it pronounce it to be the right kind of
material for the manufacture of tiling
and earthenware, which the company
may undertake later on.