242 FLORIDA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY—I5TH ANNUAL REPORT 
CHAPTER X 
DEVELOPMENT AND POSSIBILITIES OF THE CLAY 
INDUSTRY IN FLORIDA 
early history 
Common building bricks have been produced in Florida since the 
early days of its history. Ruins of the old English and Spanish settle¬ 
ments in the vicinity of Pensacola indicate that brick were used to a 
large extent in the construction of dams, foundations, fireplaces, etc., 
in the eighteenth century. The very earliest enduring structures, both 
at St. Augustine and at Pensacola 1 were of stone, but later buildings 
were of brick. While it is not known that these brick were made from 
local clays, it is curious to note that brick plants are now operated in 
close proximity to some of these old Spanish and English landmarks 
and that clay suitable for common brick is found underlying many of 
them. It seems improbable that the brick used here would have been 
imported. The exact date when brick were first used is not recorded. 
In 1766, clay from Pensacola was shipped to Josiah Wedgewood’s 
pottery in England, for experimental purposes 2 . Williams, writing in 
1827, states that both brick and fire-brick were manufactured in West 
Florida and shipped to New Orleans. 3 
During the nineteenth century, both before and after the Civil 
War, the Anglo-Saxon settlers, then blazing the trail for the permanent 
settlement of the Florida of today, operated small brick-yards to supply 
their immediate needs. Many of these crude plants, which are now 
abandoned, may be found throughout the central, northern and western 
portions of the State. Fort Jefferson, on the Dry Tortugas, in the Gulf 
of Mexico, was built in 1860 of brick made on Escambia Bay. 4 
RECENT HISTORY 
In the last three or four decades, eighteen or twenty plants, manu¬ 
facturing structural materials, have been in operation more or less con¬ 
tinuously, and during this time the rank of Florida, as determined by 
1 Gonzalez, Mrs. S. J., Pensacola, Its Early History, Quarterly of the Florida 
Historical Society, p. 10, April, 1909. 
2 Meteyard, Eliza, Life of Josiah Wedgewood, Vol. I, p. 471, 18.65. 
3 Williams, John Lee, A View of West Florida, p. 69, 1827. 
4 Crary, J. W., Sr., Brickmaking and Burning, pp. 14 and 35, 1890. 
