Niles Firebrick

Last updated

Niles Firebrick was manufactured by the Niles Fire brick Company since it was created in 1872 by John Rhys Thomas [1] until the company was sold in 1953 and completely shutdown in 1960. Capital to establish the company was provided by Lizzie B. Ward to construct a small plant across from the Old Ward Mill [2] which was run by her husband James Ward. Thomas immigrated in 1868 from Carmarthenshire in Wales with his wife and son W. Aubrey Thomas who served as secretary of the company until he was appointed as representative to the U. S. Congress in 1904. The company was managed by another son, Thomas E. Thomas, after J.R. Thomas died unexpectedly in 1898. The Thomases returned the favor of their original capitalization by purchasing an iron blast furnace from James Ward when he went bankrupt in 1879. Using their knowledge of firebrick they were able to make this small furnace profitable. Later they used it to showcase the value of adding hot blast to a furnace using 3 ovens packed full of firebrick. The furnace was managed by another son, John Morgan Thomas.

Fire brick was first invented in 1822 by William Weston Young in the Vale of Neath in Wales, the county just east of Llanelli where the Thomas family lived before emigrating to Niles. It is recorded that Firebrick was made in the Llanelli area in 1870 but the market was highly cyclical and it was difficult to make a living at it. [3]

From 1937 to 1941 the company worked to prevent the United Brick Workers Union (CIO) from organizing the workers in preference for an independent union favored by management. The CIO union prevailed. [4] In spite of this episode the company had good relations with the employees and tried to keep them employed during economic downturns. [5] The "Clingans" mentioned in that referenced interview were Margaret Thomas Clingan, a daughter and John Rhys Thomas Clingan, a grandson, who took over management of the Company when T.E. Thomas died in 1920.

Patrick J. Sheehan worked various jobs at Niles Fire Brick Company from age 13 up until 1897 when he was appointed superintendent of the plant. When Sheehan started with the company they occupied a plant covering a floor space of 3,600 square feet, two kilns, and the output was 640,000 bricks per year. The plant was moved to Langley street eighteen months afterward, and the output increased to 1,200,000. This Langley street works has constantly added to each year, until the output was 6 million, and in 1905 they built the "Falcon" plant on the site formerly occupied by the Langley street plant, which doubled production to 12 million per year. [6] By 1955 the output was 25 million. [7] The work of molding and firing brick was highly labor-intensive. Immigrants from Southern States and European countries, especially Italy, were sought to perform labor under difficult working conditions. [8] [7]

An article in the March-April "The Niles Register" of the Niles Historical Society discusses the history of the headquarters of the company at 216 Langely Street with a pattern shop in the back where skilled workers created the molds for custom bricks ordered by the mills in the 1902- 1912 period. After that the pattern shop was used by the Sons of Italy and later by the Bagnoli-Irpino Club. This was a result of the large percentage of immigrants from the Bagnoli-Irpino area in Italy. One of the founders of the club was Lawrence Pallante, an early immigrant from that area and presumably an ancestor of the reference articles. Immigration from that area began in 1880 and extended to about 1960.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Niles, Ohio</span> City in Ohio, United States

Niles is a city in southern Trumbull County, Ohio, United States, situated at the confluence of the Mahoning River and Mosquito Creek. The city's population was 18,443 at the 2020 census. It is a suburb of the Youngstown–Warren metropolitan area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United Mine Workers of America</span> North American labor union

The United Mine Workers of America is a North American labor union best known for representing coal miners. Today, the Union also represents health care workers, truck drivers, manufacturing workers and public employees in the United States and Canada. Although its main focus has always been on workers and their rights, the UMW of today also advocates for better roads, schools, and universal health care. By 2014, coal mining had largely shifted to open pit mines in Wyoming, and there were only 60,000 active coal miners. The UMW was left with 35,000 members, of whom 20,000 were coal miners, chiefly in underground mines in Kentucky and West Virginia. However it was responsible for pensions and medical benefits for 40,000 retired miners, and for 50,000 spouses and dependents.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United Farm Workers</span> Labor union for farmworkers in the United States

The United Farm Workers of America, or more commonly just United Farm Workers (UFW), is a labor union for farmworkers in the United States. It originated from the merger of two workers' rights organizations, the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) led by organizer Larry Itliong, and the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) led by César Chávez and Dolores Huerta. They became allied and transformed from workers' rights organizations into a union as a result of a series of strikes in 1965, when the mostly Filipino farmworkers of the AWOC in Delano, California, initiated a grape strike, and the NFWA went on strike in support. As a result of the commonality in goals and methods, the NFWA and the AWOC formed the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee on August 22, 1966. This organization was accepted into the AFL–CIO in 1972 and changed its name to the United Farm Workers Union.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Labor history of the United States</span>

The nature and power of organized labor in the United States is the outcome of historical tensions among counter-acting forces involving workplace rights, wages, working hours, political expression, labor laws, and other working conditions. Organized unions and their umbrella labor federations such as the AFL–CIO and citywide federations have competed, evolved, merged, and split against a backdrop of changing values and priorities, and periodic federal government intervention.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Sweeney (labor leader)</span> American labor leader (1934–2021)

John Joseph Sweeney was an American labor leader who served as president of the AFL–CIO from 1995 to 2009.

Craft unionism refers to a model of trade unionism in which workers are organised based on the particular craft or trade in which they work. It contrasts with industrial unionism, in which all workers in the same industry are organized into the same union, regardless of differences in skill.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fire brick</span> Building material

A fire brick, firebrick, fireclay brick, or refractory brick is a block of ceramic material used in lining furnaces, kilns, fireboxes, and fireplaces. A refractory brick is built primarily to withstand high temperature, but will also usually have a low thermal conductivity for greater energy efficiency. Usually dense fire bricks are used in applications with extreme mechanical, chemical, or thermal stresses, such as the inside of a wood-fired kiln or a furnace, which is subject to abrasion from wood, fluxing from ash or slag, and high temperatures. In other, less harsh situations, such as in an electric or natural gas fired kiln, more porous bricks, commonly known as "kiln bricks", are a better choice. They are weaker, but they are much lighter and easier to form and insulate far better than dense bricks. In any case, firebricks should not spall, and their strength should hold up well during rapid temperature changes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Great American Boycott</span> 2006 protest

The Great American Boycott, also called the Day Without an Immigrant, was a one-day boycott of United States schools and businesses by immigrants in the United States which took place on May 1, 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers</span> Former American steelworkers union (1876–1942)

Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers (AA) was an American labor union formed in 1876 to represent iron and steel workers. It partnered with the Steel Workers Organizing Committee of the CIO, in November 1935. Both organizations disbanded May 22, 1942, to form a new organization, the United Steelworkers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph G. Butler Jr.</span> American industrialist, philanthropist and historian

Joseph Green Butler Jr. was an American industrialist, philanthropist, and popular historian. He is remembered primarily for establishing the first museum in the United States dedicated solely to American art.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Weston Young</span>

William Weston Young (1776–1847) was a British Quaker entrepreneur, artist, botanist, wreck-raiser, surveyor, potter, and inventor of the firebrick.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">W. Aubrey Thomas</span> American politician (1866–1951)

William Aubrey Thomas was an American scientist and politician who served as a US Representative from Ohio from 1904 to 1911.

Hoffman Plastic Compounds, Inc. v. National Labor Relations Board, 535 U.S. 137 (2002), is a United States labor law decision in which the Supreme Court of the United States denied an award of back pay to an undocumented worker, José Castro, who had been laid off for participating in a union organizing campaign at Hoffman Plastics Compounds plant, along with several other employees. The case was originally filed against Hoffman by Dionisio Gonzalez, an organizer with the United Steelworkers.

Palermo's Pizza is a frozen pizza manufacturer, headquartered in Milwaukee that makes a number of branded products including: Palermo's Primo Thin, Palermo's Neighborhood Pizzeria, Screamin' Sicilian, Urban Pie Pizza Co. and Connie's Pizza, as well as a number of private label products.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Congress of Industrial Organizations</span> North American federation of labor unions from 1935 to 1955

The Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) was a federation of unions that organized workers in industrial unions in the United States and Canada from 1935 to 1955. Originally created in 1935 as a committee within the American Federation of Labor (AFL) by John L. Lewis, a leader of the United Mine Workers (UMW), and called the Committee for Industrial Organization. Its name was changed in 1938 when it broke away from the AFL. It focused on organizing unskilled workers, who had been ignored by most of the AFL unions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clackline Refractory</span>

The Clackline Refractory, also known as Clackline Clay and Brick, is a heritage listed brickworks site in Clackline, Western Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Union–Miles Park</span> Neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio, United States

Union–Miles Park is a neighborhood on the Southeast side of Cleveland, Ohio, in the United States. The neighborhood draws its name from Union Avenue, and Miles Park in its far southwest corner.

The Mahoning Valley Steel Company was formally organized on July 12, 1916, with a capital investment of $600,000. The original officers were Jacob D. Waddell, president; T. E. Thomas, vice president and treasurer; W. Aubrey Thomas, secretary; directors, John M. Thomas and M. T. Clingan and the officers named above. An interesting family dynamic was that Jacob D. Waddel married Mary Ann Thomas in Dec. 12, 1917, making him the brother-in-law to the other directors, all children of John Rhys Thomas.

Butler is an unincorporated community in Bastrop County, Texas, United States. It is located within the Greater Austin metropolitan area.

The Portsmouth Steel Company, formerly Portsmouth Iron & Steel, AKA Portsmouth Steel Corporation, was a steel manufacturing company based in Portsmouth, Scioto County, Ohio.

References

  1. "John Rhys Thomas".
  2. Ruminski, Clayton J. (2017). Iron Valley. Columbus: Trillium (Ohio State University).
  3. "Pwll Interpretive Panel".
  4. "NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD v. NILES FIRE BRICK CO".
  5. Phillip Tomlin (Aug 8, 1994). James Allegren (ed.). "Oral History Niles Fire Brick" (PDF).
  6. Upton, Harriet Taylor (1909). A twentieth century history of Trumbull County, Ohio. Vol. 2. Chicago: Lewis Publishing. p. 131.
  7. 1 2 Pallante, Martha I. (20 September 2003). "To Work and Live: Brickyard Laborers, Immigration and Assimilation in an Ohio Town, 1890-1925".
  8. Pallante, Dr. Martha (2016). Niles Fire Brick Company. The Business Journal.