Submitted photo Malcolm Sissons
Four very early soft mud bricks (top to bottom): a buff brick from Manitoba, a brick without frog from Ewart Duggan chimney, PURMAL brick and CBC.
I am often asked about frogs, not the leaping kind, but the depression in the bedding plane of a brick. The frog served to force the clay to the corners of the mould and provided a key for mortar. There is a big frog population to be found in Medicine Hat!
The very first bricks in Medicine Hat were likely imported from further east. Even as late as 1900, the News reported that only about half of the 850,000 bricks used that year were from local manufacturers. From the time of the first buildings in 1883, bricks for chimneys were shipped in by railfrom brickyards in Manitoba.
In 1886, David Corbin, a brick-maker from Ontario, partnered with Ben McCord, a retired Mountie, to manufacture the first soft mud bricks, formed using wooden moulds but without a frog, down at the site of the Medicine Hat Brick and Tile. They were used to build John Ewart’s house (still standing) and other projects, including the Tweed and Ewart store. Tweed and Ewart briefly owned the brickyard before Charles and Jacob Purmal took over the operation in 1896 (PURMAL imprinted in frog). The frog was made by installing a block of wood in the base of the mould. Raised letters in mirror image could be attached to imprint a brand name.
In 1897, Henry Brier began making soft mud brick at the west end of Burnside flat. The Medicine Hat News building across from the Bank of Montreal apparently used his bricks (now covered in stucco). H.C. Yuill set up a brickyard on the River Flats near the overpass and imprinted YUILL in his bricks but ceased operation almost immediately. The Crockford brothers were also making brick out at their coal mine site (Echo Dale) at the turn of the century. The other known soft mud brick manufacturer was Charles Hoffman, located where Porter’s Hill comes close to the Ross Creek. His Canadian Brick Company used CBC in the frog and that had nothing to do with radio.
In 1901, the Purmals introduced extruded/wirecut common brick and no frog was possible. Four years later, they began producing pressed brick with PBCO in the frog. Dry-pressed brick were made on a mechanical press with steel moulds. In 1909, they amalgamated with Texan Llewellyn Pruitt who had built a dry-press brick plant beside the rail line below East Glen (LP imprint).
In quick order between 1907 and 1913, other dry-press brick operations started up, including REDCLIFF BRICK & COAL, (which was crammed into the frog), Alberta Clay Products (ACP), Redcliff Clay Products (RCP, REDCLIFF) which later became Redcliff Premier Brick (PREMIER, REGAL), and Redcliff Pressed Brick (I-XL). Eventually, three round core holes replaced the frog in these pressed brick and frogs were virtually extinct by the 1960s.
Medicine Hat Brick and Tile manufactured extruded, wirecut brick, distinguishable by core holes and texture with the imprint of MHBT (and later IXL) on the back of the brick. All of these products were manufactured in Medicine Hat and Redcliff between 1886 and 2010, an era of 124 years. So now when you find a brick in your basement or garden or at a demolition site, you can figure out its heritage!
Malcolm Sissons is a member of the Heritage Resources Committee of the City of Medicine Hat.
