Disposes of Brickyards. O. Duclos, After 26 Years of Brickmaking Here, Sells Business. Announcement was made Tuesday of the sale of the O. Duclos brickyards, houses, lands and business two miles west of the city to Alphonse Dugas and P. O. Duclos. While it had been rumored for several days that the transfer would be made details had not been completed until this week. The deal is one of importance, including as it does the transfer to the new owners of the yards, seven houses, 220 acres of land and the well established business. The new proprietors take possession immediately and begin business with the brightest of prospects. They are both young men of sterling qualities and have the confidence of all acquaintances. Mr. Dugas has been in the barber business in Little Falls for the past twelve years and Mr. Duclos, who is a son of O. Duclos, has been superintendent of the brickyards for his father the past two seasons. He has an intimate knowledge of the business and has been very successful in the operation of the yards.
Mr. Dugas plans to occupy the residence at the yards which has been the O. Duclos home for several years, and Mr. and Mrs. Duclos will move to this city as soon as a suitable house can be found. The O. Duclos brickyards were established in their present location twenty-six years ago, being first opened up by Mr. Duclos and Louis J. Hamlin, now a resident of Minneapolis. The Little Falls & Dakota railroad had only been constructed a few months previous to the opening of the yards. After a few months Mr. Hamlin retired from the business and since then the yards have been controlled solely by Mr. Duclos. Since the opening, in 1882, the yards have never been idle a season. The capacity of the yards has been between three and four million brick per season and the latter figure has been reached at various times.
The clay at this point is of the finest for good brick making and the demand for the local yard’s product has taken the entire output annually. The retiring owner states that the supply of clay still available will run the yards for a much longer period than they have been operated in the past. Most of the brick now manufactured are marketed in the northern part of the state and the Dakotas. In earlier years the Northern Pacific used much of the Duclos product in the west, and the large N. P. station at Butte, Montana, is constructed of Little Falls brick. O. Duclos began the making of brick forty-eight years ago and opened yards at various points. He came from New Hampshire to Little Falls, and some of his first product here was sold to build the Northern Pacific’s Como car shops at St. Paul. He has been very successful and his brick have gained him an enviable reputation as a brick maker. He still owns the yards at Wrenshall which are being operated by another son and son-in-law, Ernest Duclos and B. O. Hart. (Little Falls Daily Times, Wednesday, June 17, 1908)
Duclos Buys Yard. Al. Dugas Retires from Brick Business – Will Again Run His Barber Shop. Tuesday afternoon Al. Dugas sold his interest in the Duclos-Dugas brickyard about two miles west of the city. His interests go to his partner, P. O. Duclos, who recently purchased the yard with Mr. Dugas from O. Duclos, who had conducted the yard for over twenty-five years. P. O. Duclos will now run the yard himself. He is experienced in that line, having managed the yard for several seasons prior to his purchasing it. Mr. and Mrs. Dugas will return to the city and Mr. Dugas will again go into his barber shop in the Buckman hotel block on Sept. 1. Mrs. Dugas will take active charge of her millinery store on broadway. They left Tuesday evening for Chicago and Milwaukee and Mrs. Dugas will purchase her fall stock while gone. (Little Falls Daily Transcript, Wednesday, August 12, 1908, unknown page)
Duclos Take Big Contract. Will SupplyInternationalFalls With Five Million Brick. P. O. Duclos, one of the local brick manufacturers, has been awarded the contract for furnishing the brick for a new paper mill to be erected by the International Falls Power company. Mr. Duclos has received an order to supply the northern town with 5,000,000 “baked stones” which have been sold at $6 per thousand. The shipping orders on the brick have not been received as yet but it is understood that the bricks will be shipped some time this week as it is the desire of the InternationalFalls people to commence work at once. A portion of the shipment will be made from the F. X. Goulet yard of Staples. This contract is the largest ever made by a local brick maker and the size of the order speaks well for Mr. Duclos and the product of his yard. (Little Falls Daily Transcript, Monday, March 8, 1909, unknown page)
To Open Brick Yard Monday. Duclos Yard Will Start Operations for the Summer Nearly Two Weeks Earlier Than 1909. As planned by Manager P. O. Duclos of the Duclos brickyard, the summer’s operations at the brickmaking plant west of the city will be commenced Monday morning. The date of opening the yard for this season is nearly two weeks in advance of that of 1909 when work was not commenced until May 10. In fact this year’s record is among the earliest set, as the average opening date varies from May 1 to May 15. A full crew will be put to work at the outset and a season’s run of 6,000,000 brick is looked forward to. Although the run of last season fell a little short of the six million mark, it is thought that that record can be established during the present summer. Contrary to the practice of last year, the clay will be shoveled by hand from the pit rather than taken out by wheel scrapers. The wheel scraper idea was tried last season but was found deficient in as far as the system thus employed allowed too great a surface of clay to be exposed. During the burning of the kilns, wood only will be used and a large percentage of the wood will be slabs from the Pine Tree mill. (Little Falls Daily Transcript, Tuesday, April 26, 1910, unknown page)
Double Output At Duclos Brick Yards. First Continuous Kilns in Northwest Are Being Installed by P. O. Duclos – Modern Machinery Will Be Used – Output of Yards Contracted for Two Seasons. Improvements which are being made at the brickyards west of the city owned by P. O. Duclos will make them the best in the northwest, in fact the only yards in the northwest in which continuous kilns are used. The new equipment will double the length of the season, more than double the season output, eliminate practically all waste, make the brick more uniform and will require 10 less men than are now employed. The improvements include patent kilns, known as the Klose Continuous kilns, a new brick machine, and a system of elevators, hoists and monorail track for handling the brick. A large clay shed will enable the yards to operate in rainy weather. In fair weather six clay carts will be used, three to supply the machine and three to store clay in the shed for use when it is impossible to obtain clay from the pits.
Work is well started on the building which is to enclose the kilns. The structure is to be 157 by 87 feet and three stories in height. The first story contains only the kiln chambers, the second floor is known as the firing floor and the third as the drying floor. The kilns are in twin rows, each 124 by 19 feet and 8 feet in height. A fire will be maintained from the time operations begin at the yards in the spring until fall. A 70-inch election suction fan controls the draft and the heat can be turned from one chamber to another. The building will be filled up with clay to the level of the top of the kilns so that the only heat which can escape from the kilns will be from the top and this radiation will furnish the heat needed in the drying room overhead. The fire will be between the two rows of kilns and will be fed from overhead. Coal screenings will be used for fuel instead of wood as at present and Mr. Duclos states that this will cut the cost of fuel in two.
The new building is just west of the old kiln sheds. At the south end of the new building a smaller structure will be placed for a new brick machine. The new machine will be the best obtainable and with it either hollow or solid brick can be made. An automatic cutting table is a feature of the new machine. On the old machine the cutting is done by hand. The new machine will require 125 horsepower while only 50 is used by the machinery now in use. From the machine the brick will be hoisted on a power elevator to the drying room over the firing floor in the main building. From the elevator the green brick will be trucked to the drying racks where they will remain for six days or until bone dry. They by means of a gravity elevator they will be lowered to the firing floor where an electric hoist will pick them up in units of 360 bricks and a monorail will carry them to whatever kiln chamber the setters are at work in. The electric hoist will then pass to a kiln chamber where the brick are ready for removal and will pick up another unit of 360 brick and take them to the railway track where they will be loaded into cars.
The operation is continuous. As soon as a chamber is emptied it will again be filled with green brick and fired. A clay shed 150 by 80 feet will replace the small drying sheds now located west of the new building. The shed will hold clay enough to make 2,000,000 brick and in rainy weather the yard will not have to be closed. The yard can also be kept in operation after frost has closed the clay pit and can be opened six to eight weeks earlier in the spring. Mr. Duclos estimates that the differences in opening and closing in the spring and fall and the time which will be gained by working rainy days will double the length of the season. The new buildings, kilns and machinery will make the manufacture of brick an operation entirely independent of the weather. Under the old system storms or atmospheric conditions often resulted in the loss of quantities of brick as well as forcing the men to suspend work. The capacity of the new plant will be 45,000 brick per day. The capacity of the present plant is nearly as large per day but the added length of the season and the elimination of waste will more than double the season output.
Mr. Duclos has contracted for the output of his yard up to 12,000,000 brick to the Hydraulic Pressed Brick company of Minneapolis for this and next season. This is exclusive of a contract with the Minnesota & Ontario Car company of InternationalFalls for 2,000,000 brick and local contracts. The InternationalFalls contract has been nearly filled. If it becomes necessary to store brick the old kiln sheds will be used. Mr. Duclos is at present employing a full crew of 30 men in making brick and nearly the same number at work on the new plant. More men are needed. He expects to have the plant in operation by September 1. While the new plant will produce more brick it will require less men to run it. One of the principal savings in labor will be in filling the kilns. The new kilns will only have to be filled and plastered over the top with clay to keep the gases from escaping while the old kilns have to be built up and cased all over with clay. The machinery which will be installed in the new plant will also effect a big saving in labor.
Although 2,000,000 brick have been made this season the entire output has been needed to fill orders and Mr. Duclos was forced to use concrete and lumber in his own building. Concrete walls reach to the level of the top of the kilns and above that the construction is frame. The capacity of the drying room will be 240,000 green brick which with the machinery and the weight of the roof makes it necessary that the third floor be built to support 10,000 tons. The floor will be supported in the center by two brick walls two feet apart and two feet in thickness which divide the two rows of kiln chambers. Twenty-eight concrete piers, two feet square with footings four feet square and four feet deep will help to support the floor of the drying room. Fir timbers, 10 by 10 inches, will rest on the concrete piers and will support girders 10 by 14 inches in dimension. The roof is to be flat and covered with a composition roofing. This spring Mr. Duclos took a trip through Nebraska, Missouri and Illinois and visited different brickyards. At Wahoo, Neb., a plant similar to the one Mr. Duclos is installing is in operation but the capacity is only half what the capacity of the Duclos yard will be. The principle on which the continuous kilns are operated has been in use in Germany for many years but is now in the northwest. (Little Falls Daily Times, Saturday, July 19, 1913)
Ready for Work in Few Days. Motors and Machinery Being Installed in New Plant at Duclos Brickyard. O. Duclos, owner of the brickyard west of the city, expects to begin operations in his new plant within ten days. The large building which encloses the kilns and drying room has been completed and the new brick machine has been installed and is ready to begin pressing brick as soon as the rest of the machinery has been installed and the motors connected up. Workmen are now finishing up the elevators and the Water Power company has a crew of men at work wiring the building. A 60-horsepower motor will run the brick machine and a 50-horsepower motor is being installed to run the clay elevator and crusher. A seven and a half horsepower motor operates the power elevator and a small motor will run the monorail car. A large fan will be installed to control the draft in the kilns and this is what is now delaying Mr. Duclos in opening the plant. The fan and the motor which will drive it are expected in a few days and when received the plant will be ready to turn out brick. The new brick machine is an improved model and will turn out a better quality of brick besides being equipped to make hollow brick. The new plant is designed throughout to save labor and the motors which are located throughout the big building will do much of the work now performed by hand. The bricks are cut automatically in the new machine and deposited on a truck which will be conveyed to the drying room on the second floor by a power elevator and deposited on drying racks without being re-handled. After drying the trucks pick up the brick again and take them down an incline elevator to the kiln room where the loads are distributed by the monorail hoist. After being burned the monorail again takes the brick and conveys them to the door of the car in which they are to be loaded. Mr. Duclos expects to keep the yard in operation until Dec. 1 this fall and by keeping a supply of clay in one of the old kiln buildings it will not be necessary to suspend work on rainy days. (Little Falls Daily Transcript, Saturday, September 13, 1913, unknown page)
Brickyards Now Owned By 1st National. Local Bank Takes Over Interest Of Other Claim – Some FarmLand. Will Not Operate Yard, But Has It On Market For Sale. A deal was closed Saturday whereby the First National bank purchased the interest of all other claimants against the Duclos brick yard, including 150 acres of farm land. It is not the intention of the bank to operate the brick plant but an attempt will be made to find a purchaser for the plant and clay bed, and the balance of the land will be divided into small lots and sold off in acre lots with the small houses which are now located at the brick plant. It is expected that a brick manufacturer can be located so as to get the plant in operation with the opening of spring. The Duclos brickyards have always been considered the best yards in this section and their purchase would be a good investment for anyone. Past performances have shown that the yards have an excellent and unlimited amount of clay. (Little Falls Daily Times, January 29, 1918)