-
Difficulty:
-
-
Terrain:
-
Size: 
(small)
Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions
in our disclaimer.
Due to too many DNFs, I have put the cache in a larger container (small lock n lock with room for small swag), and relocated to (I hope) an easier place to find. New coords taken with multiple averages, on two GPSrs, with good signals.
With several caches in the vicinity, including up at Valley Falls, this is a great place to pack a lunch and make a day of caching in the woods. Also a great opportunity to CITO.
Please reseal, and re-hide container carefully.
Happy Caching!
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I’m sure there were earlier instances, but the first reference I can remember to brick-making was when Pharaoh had the Hebrews hard at it gathering their own straw and clay to build his empire. Later on, brick-making was brought to Britain by the Romans, followed by the Flems reviving it in the Middle Ages.
Here in Almost Heaven, the mining of fine clay to make bricks, pottery, and such, was a thriving industry for nearly 150 years. West Virginia’s clay is some of the very best, known for its very fine grit, thus producing superior bricks and other items.
The Hammond area was settled in 1802 and was originally called “Nuzum's Mill,” after Mr. Richard Nuzum who was its first inhabitant. In the mid-1860’s Nuzum sold almost 400 acres of his land to a Mr. James Watson. Watson built a brick factory and used the clay along the river bank to start making his bricks.
The factory changed owners several times. I have found bricks stamped “Fairmont,” “Tygart,” “Hammond,” and “Bessemer.” Then, in 1899, Hammond Fire Brick Company purchased the land, minerals rights, and factory. They bought a few more acres to go along with it, and renamed the place “Hammond.” Though not terribly original, the moniker stuck, and it’s still on the maps today.
The Hammond Fire Brick Company mined the seam of clay that ran below the seam of coal beneath their land, making money hand-over-fist on both. By 1910 they were knocking out some 50,000 bricks per day and Mr. Hammond had himself quite the little domain.
The town of Hammond itself was entirely built and owned by Hammond Fire Brick Company. As you might surmise, all the buildings were made of brick. There was a post office, a country store where all the old folks congregated for social hour, and, for a while, a school house. The little brick homes were owned by the Hammond Fire Brick Company as well, and rented to the employees and their families, so the Company was also making money on the groceries and rent. Pretty sweet setup, if you were Mr. Hammond.
By 1940 or so they were firing thousands upon thousands of bricks per week. Who knew there was such a thing as a “brick contest,” but the bricks produced by Hammond were of such superior quality they took first place at a judging of fired brick at the Chicago World Fair. Hammond bricks were used to help construct the Empire State Building, the Ford Motor Company building in Detroit and, among other things closer to home, the now historic caretaker’s house and Chapel at the Woodlawn Cemetery, which were built in 1928 with bricks donated by Hammond Fire Brick Company. And I read a blog entry by a person in “Marple Stockport, England” whose house there was built with Hammond bricks!
More high-quality clay for the factory came from a mine in a little town called “Heifersville,” which was nearby, up the railroad tracks, somewhere in the Valley Falls area, but I can’t locate a dot for the metropolis of Heifersville and a Google Earth search turns up “huH?”
But you can’t take it with you and, following Mr. Hammond’s death in the 1940’s, the brickyard changed hands one last time. The new owner had neither the business acumen nor brick-making skills of Mr. Hammond and the company declined. Less than 10 years later the brickyard burned in a suspicious fire. One old resident of Hammond said that it was set by a man whose name she couldn’t remember to get the insurance money. The insurance company figured it out and the perpetrator apparently killed himself rather than face the music. By 1957 Hammond was a ghost town.
Ruins and fading memories are all that remain of Hammond, and folks who were originally residents, or who remember a thriving Hammond, are passing away. But it’s a stunningly beautiful area, rich in history, with incredible flora and fauna to appreciate, down on the banks of the Tygart where my Daddy used to swim as a boy.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Ba gur evtug fvqr bs gur perrx, nf lbh snpr gur snyyf, qbja ybj, va n uvqrl ubyr va gur ebpx jnyy.