My friend Mark hosted a bike camping weekend at Point Pinole. He's interested in old bricks, and he collects them. His front yard has a nice border of bricks with the different maker's marks, and part of the draw of Point Pinole was an old brick dump, where I found this brick:
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| A San Francisco City Hall brick |
It inspired me to research the bricks used for the second San Francisco City Hall, and I compiled that research in a few blog posts. I have one more to publish in that series. I'm interested in local history, and I knew about the Remillard family and brick company for their contributions to Oakland and the San Francisco Bay Area. It was another bike ride that brought me back to them, and their bricks. I wrote about it here: Remillard Brick Company and Buck's Landing. It turns out I was wrong. Mark pointed out some errors in it. He, and others have done plenty more research than I have into bricks, and the people and companies which made them in the Bay Area. I'll revise that post. The research into the Remillard Brick Company, and the Remillard family resulted in enough information that I'm putting it here.
This blog posts contains a chronological dive into newspaper articles about the family, their companies, and the bricks and structures they produced. I abstracted one major article about Lillian Remillard here, and reference it below. The final article, about the Remillard brick works at what's now Larkspur Landing is worth reading, but it is newest, so you have to go to the bottom to read it.
More about Remillard Brothers / Remillard Brick Company:
swfwefwef
OAKLAND BUSINESS HOUSES IN 1866 (Continued)
This list is in continuation of one published on Nov. 5th.
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Brick Kiln: P. N. Remillard, Lake shore N. of the Bridge.
...
Santa Margarita creek was another name for Gallinas creek, historically.
HOME INDUSTRIES.
The Manufacture of Bricks.
As early as 1860, an extensive bed of clay in Redwood Canyon, four miles beyond San Antonio, was found to be of such excellent quality for brick, that a Frenchman got possession of it, and started in to make a fortune. Soon thereafter, however, one "Jim Minor,' now in the Southern country, crowded out the son of la belle France, and prosecuted the enterprise for some time, until, finally, it fell into the possession of the three Remillard Brothers. Shrewd, sagacious, and industrious, this "band of brothers" went to work systematically, and, through their energy and indefatigability, built up a
A LARGE AND FLOURISHING BUSINESS.
For eleven years they manufactured annually four millions of brick. At that early day the demand was equal to the supply right here in Alameda county. Sand was near at hand, and inexhaustible supplies of wood could be obtained in the contiguous foot-hills. Not so the deposits of clay. They faded away as they have at San Quentin, in Sacramento, and in other localities in California, which for years furnished nearly all of the ordinary brick used in the State for building purposes. So the Remillards abandoned their nearly worked out beds, and prospected for richer deposits.
SAN RAFAEL YARDS.
Finally after "prospecting" around in the vicinity of the great metropolis and its suburban cities and villages, a most desirable location was found four miles to the west of San Rapfael, [sic] and immediately in the shadow of the frowning Tamalpais. Here the Company secured one hundred acres of the very finest clayey soil. Their Works are already conducted on an extensive scale, although they have been in active operation but one year. They employ
NONE BUT WHITE LABORERS.
At present seventy-five men are at work in the yards, who turn out daily seventy five thousand brick. The workmen get from fifty to sixty dollars per month, besides their board. Brick makers, brick layers, and contractors say the reputation of this San Rafael brick is superior to that of any made on the Pacific Coast. There are three qualities of this brick: The finest is used for ornamental work, principally in beautifying parterres, and ornamental house work. The second is in great demand for building purposes, and we may remark en passant, that already the firm has supplied the new City Hall in San Francisco with two millions of this character of brick. The third and inferior to the other two kinds is mainly used for chimneys, and common necessities around dwellings, stores and hotels. The supplies of fuel in the immediate neighborhood of their extensive kilns are of course a thousand times beyond the demand; or what it will be ages hence. The oak is first placed on the kilns, and after that the more combustible pine. Once in twenty four hours the "bakery" turns out its supplies.
DEMAND FROM OAKLAND.
Since the Remillard Brothers left Oakland there has not been a brick kiln
smoked either in this valley, or East Oakland, or as we are creditably
informed on the
Encinal. So that the demand for this valuable building material here is necessarily
great. And the San Rafael yards are furnishing a very large proportion of all
the brick used in Alameda County. Already schooners making four trips per week
bring down each forty thousand brick, and in the course of a few weeks, it is
intended that a cargo shall be landed on Webster Street wharf every day in the
week. The prices demanded on delivery in Oakland vary from twelve to fifteen
dollars per thousand. The Company intend to build an office on the wharf
before long, where orders received from any part of the city will be filled
and the brick duly delivered without extra cost to the purchaser.
I've covered the creation of bricks for San Francisco City Hall in some other blog poss.
I looked at the 1892
Official Map Of Marin County, California, which I've georeferenced for another project, and there is a 75-acre
parcel assigned to
P. N. Remillard
a the mouth of Gallinas Creek, AKA Santa Margarita Creek.
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| The 1892 Official Map Of Marin County, California map, georeferenced, showing the location of the P. N. Remillard parcel and modern-day Buck's Landing |
REMILLARD BROTHERS.
As one of the indices of the growth and prosperity of this young city may be mentioned the marvelous increase in the demand for brick. With two thousand, structures erected or under way, vast quantities of this building material have been and are required. Among the heavier importers and dealers in brick are the Remillard Brothers. They came to Oakland in 1854, remained a short time and then went to the mines. After sojourning in the diggings for six years, they returned to Oakland, and commenced manufacturing brick in San Antonio and Clinton, both of which suburbs are now incorporated in the city of Oakland. This was in 1861. The brothers also opened a brickyard at Haywood, and subsequently at San Quentin. They then moved to San Rafael, where their main yards are now located. Lately these enterprising men have opened a brick yard at the potrero in San Pablo, about fifteen miles north from Oakland, the grounds lying immediately on the shores of the bay. From the clay obtained in this latter yard, bricks were made for the new Cornell Watch Manufactory at Berkeley.
Last season, at San Rafael, there were molded 14,000,000 brick; and at San Pablo, 6,500,000 additional. During the present season. twelve gangs of men will be employed at San Pablo, and from 12,000,000 to 14,000,000 brick will be manufactured, and the number turned out at San Rafael will not be less. At the latter yards the company have two large reservoirs for water supply, of a capacity of 10,000,000 gallons of fresh water. At the potrero on the San Pablo Road, this firm own a reservoir of a capacity of 3,000.000 gallons of fresh water. Upwards of four miles of pipe, from one-half inch to five inches in diameter are used. At San Rafael there are in use twenty-four machines, with twelve gangs of laborers.
The Remillard Brothers employ over two hundred men continually. They use annually ten thousand cords of wood and fifteen schooners in their business. Last year the brothers manufactured 500,000 pressed brick for the U. S. Appraiser's Stores in San Francisco. No imported brick equals this for beauty, durability and general serviceableness. Of the immense quantities of brick manufactured by this firm, last season, 5,000,000 were used in Oakland. Pretty good evidence this that our city is not wholly built of wood.
The names of the members of the old firm of Remillard Brothers were,
Peter N.,
Hilaire,
and
Edward. The new firm of Remillard & Co., consists of four brothers. i. e, the
three above named, and
Frank Remillard, and
T. Lamoureux, brother-in-law. Their principal office is in
Wilcox's block, Broadway. They also have an office on Clay street wharf in San
Francisco.
REMILLARD BROTHERS. 23 Jan 1876, Sun
The Morning Times (Oakland, California) Newspapers.com
In a later article, below you'll read that Frank's death is what caused them to close down the brick works on Gallinas Creek.
BRICKS.
Building Material Made by the Remillard Brick Company.
The office of the extensive brick-works of the Remillard Brick Company is
situated at the corner of Second and Clay streets. They were established as
Remillard & Brother in 1861, first in Marin County and then in Contra
Costa County. The works at the present time are located at Pleasanton, Alameda
County; in Marin County on the edge of the bay, and in Contra Costa County,
near San Pablo. The Company makes common and compressed bricks, about twenty
million of the former and half a million of the latter per annum, in all three
yards. Common brick averages $9 per 1,000, and pressed brick about from $30 to
$40 per 1,000, so that it will be seen that the Remillard Brick Company is
turning out, in rough figures, about $200,000 worth of bricks every year. They
employ 300 men and use 80 horses and teams, so that the annual output, though
not ascertainable, can be easily imagined to be very large. Besides
manufacturing bricks, the Company contracts to put up buildings, and are at
present erecting the large
Blake & Moffit building
opposite the EVENING TRIBUNE office. They use between six and seven thousand
cords of wood per annum in the manufacture of bricks. The property in Marin
County is 75 acres in extent; that at Pleasanton covers 30 acres of ground -
both places being specially chosen for the character of the clay. They also
sell lime, cement, plastering, etc. The officers of the Company are
P. N. Remillard,
President;
P. H. Lamoureux, Secretary, who are also Directors in conjunction with
Edward Remillard,
F. L. Fortin
and
H. Remillard. The capital stock is $200,000, in 2,000 shares of $100.
20 Jan 1887, Thu
Oakland Tribune (Oakland, California) Newspapers.com
Victor L. Fortin was a director of his brothers-in-law's Remillard Brick Company, while also launching his own, competing Fortin Brick Company, if I'm understanding this right. There was no F. L. Fortin living in Oakland at that time, but Victor L. Fortin did live in Oakland, was married to Julie Remillard. He was a brother-in-law to the founders, like P. H. Lamoureux, who was married to Judith Remillard.
REMILLARD BRICK COMPANY.
One of the Prime Factors in the Improvement of Pacific Coast Cities. Many large and imposing brick blocks in this city and San Francisco testify to the activity and business enterprise of another of Oakland's prominent business firms. The Remillard Brick Company, whose office is at the corner of Second and Clay streets, was established by P. N. Remillard and his brother in 1861, when they started a brickyard in Marin county, and shortly after another was established at San Pablo in Contra Costa county. To these has been added a large establishment at Pleasanton in Livermore Valley in this county. These works turn out an average of 20,000,000 common and 500,000 pressed bricks annually, aggregating a yearly product valued at $200,000. Over three hundred men and eighty horses and wagons are required to carry on the gigantic work. In this county the property covers thirty acres and in Marin county seventy-five acres. Between six and seven thousand cords of wood are used each year for the burning of this immense mass of building material. In addition to the manufacture of bricks, the company also takes contracts for the erection of buildings. St. Mary's College in this city was erected by this firm and now stands as testimony of their excellent work. The two Remillard brothers conducted the business by themselves until 1879 when it was incorporated with a capital stock of $200,000. The officers of the company are: P. N. Remillard. President; P. H. Lamoureux, Secretary; Edward Remillard, H. Remillard and F. L. Fortin, Directors. The bricks manufactured by this company have the reputation of being of superior quality in every way, being clean, hard and durable. Their pressed bricks are particularly noted for their excellence.
This land purchase, a parcel from the Greenbrae ranch is where Larkspur Landing is, now. More on that, below. If the death of Frank marks the end of the brick works at Gallinas Creek in 1885, this marks the start at Greenbrae in 1891.
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| Remillard parcel, near San Quentin prison on the 1892 Official Map Of Marin County, California |
Here we see racial hatred and eclusionary practices not leading to more employment of white labor, but rather cheaper labor costs. It's not unlike what's happening now, in America, with wealth dispariy, racial division, deportation and tariffs.
A SQUEEZING
Oakland People Like to Embrace, But Not Each Other
PROCESS FIRM BUT GENTLE
Sixty Million Squeezes Given and Taken Every Year.
What Impressions Are Produced From the Brick Industry.
Oakland people like to squeeze. Whether it is the mildness of the climate, the salubrity of the atmosphere, the fertility of the soil or the beauty of the women, cannot be told - they like to press, and that is enough.
It has taken many years to work up to this advanced stage of perfection, but the residents have been industrious, and may now enter any squeezing tournament in the land with fair chances of winning the prize medal. People are astounded at this great trait in the character of the Oak City, and cannot help but admire the winsome grace, the fervent power, that is exhibited during the operation.
This predisposition to pressure is altogether confined to the commercial world, where it is conducted with marvelous skill. Ever since as early as 1860, before the throes of the Civil War had wrapped the country in a mantle of blood, has this potential pressure been going on, until the present time it has made an impression on the industries of the world that excells that of any other commonwealth.
This is a peculiar variety of pressure; it is a pressure as gentle as that which the ardent swain uses when holding his sweetheart's dimpled hand; it is a pressure that, if supplied in sufficient quantities, would move the snow-capped Rockies from their foundations, and transfer them to the middle of the unsalted seas; it is a pressure that is supplied by Oakland people to a greater degree of intensity than that of any other municipality in the Golden West. This pressure is a novelty when inspected by the eager eyes of the uneducated, and they marvel at its silent, herculean strength. They carry away with them, after a visit to the mammoth squeezers, impressions that exert a great influence upon their habitations of the future.
This immense attraction is exerted for the purpose of making brick - brick to be used in the erection of mighty mansions, to satisfy the whims of some capricious, plutocrats; brick to be used in the erection of huge manufactories that will supply the world with articles of commerce; brick to be used in the construction of unique tiling for the boudoir of the most fastidious damsel; brick to be used by the enraged son of Erin in subduing the pugnacious propensities of an obstreperous mason; brick for pavements, brick for sidewalks, brick for baking ovens; brick for walls, for foundations - in short, this almost supernal energy is expanded for the sole purpose of supplying Oakland people with the needed article of commerce.
NEARLY AROUND THE EARTH.
By Oakland business men there are manufactured every year 60,000,000 brick, or nearly enough to give one to every man, woman and child in the United States. Computed on the standard basis of six pounds a brick, the weight of this enormous body of building material amounts to 180,000 tons, or enough to fill 9000 cars of 20 tons each. If stretched out on a single track this train would extend a distance of 70 miles, or nearly from Oakland to Sacramento. If placed end to end, these millions of brick would reach nearly a third of the distance around the earth, or 8000 miles; erected into a wall six feet high and two feet wide, they would protect a city 40 miles in circumference from the invasions of barbarian hosts.
The nearly infinite computation that might be deduced from these astounding figures would fill volumes; but it is impossible to here go into them any further.
Fifty millions of these brick bring in the market $9 per M., representing a total of $450,000; the other 10,000,000 sell for $22 per M., in all, $220,000. The grand total amount paid by the purchasers to the manufacturers is thus $670,000, nearly all local producers.
To make this material the services of 670 employes are required. These men are paid $40,000 a month, or $480,000 a year. Besides using many railroad trains, four 300-ton schooners are constantly sailing to transport the brick to points between San Diego and Victoria, and as far west as the Sandwich Islands.
Including the labor and the price of the manufactured product, there is a total sum of $1,150,000 that is kept in circulation on account of this, one of Oakland's most important industries.
In the business are engaged two firms - the Remillard, and the Fortin Brick Companies. These have been established since 1860, and from infant industries have advanced until now, they are among the most powerful concerns on the coast.
HOW TO MAKE BRICK.
The process of making brick is conducted entirely by steam. From the clay bank, the crude earth is steam-shoveled into cars, from which it is dumped in pits. In these is the brick machinery, which increase it to the required temperature, and mix into it the necessary ingredients.
The presses mould and cut the material into the regular bricks, which are then
carried out to racks to dry in the sun two days. In the kilns seven or eight
days, and the now finished material is ready for market.
07 Nov 1895, Thu
The Oakland Times (Oakland, California) Newspapers.com
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| Some of the Remillard / Fortin / Simard family tree, on familysearch.org - I've outlined the principals of Remillard Brick Company (and Fortin Brick Company) in red. |
Elzear Rosalu Simard was a cousin (not nephew, but one generation younger) of the Remillards, and as you can see below, he was the last of the Remillard family to run the brick company. In fact, his death was eighteen days before the following article listed him as vice-president.
Inseparably connected with the growth of the building industry of Alameda county is the name of the Remillard Brick Company. This well-known company has been in operation for over forty years, and its substantial business standing today is due to the conservative, conscientious policy adopted and pursued by its original founders and present management.
The yards of the company at Pleasanton present a busy scene, and furnish employment to about 100 men. Almost an entire block in the waterfront district is occupied by the warehouses and offices of the company, and at any hour of the day many teams may be seen discharging and loading brick, lime, cement and plaster there.
In addition to the extensive factory at Pleasanton, the company operates plants at San Jose and Green Brae.
Many of the most important buildings in Oakland have been constructed with the products of these plants, among which are the Grant, Washington, Lincoln and Market street schools, the large Union Savings Bank Building. Oakland High school, Central Bank, Hall of Records, and various other large buildings that mark the city's prosperity.
The present officers of the Remillard Company are George D. Metcalf, the well-known attorney, as president; M. E. R. Simard, vice-president, and J. P. Gelinas, secretary. The annual disbursement of funds, through the long pay-rolls, helps to swell the grand total of wages that makes Alameda county a great industrial county.
09 Jan 1906, Tue
Oakland Tribune (Oakland, California) Newspapers.com
This was the brickyard at Gallinas Creek, now known as Buck's Landing.
IT ISN'T every day you meet a Countess running a brick-yard - especially
one who has had more than 50 years of success in its management and admits to
87 years of vibrant living.
It's even more unusual when the Countess tells you she has dedicated her life to the memory of her French-Canadian parents and is as proud of her Oakland heritage as anything else she possesses. And her possessions are indeed prodigious.
...
LILLIAN was one of five children born to Peter N. and Laurin Cordule Remillard, only three living to adulthood. Peter came to California in 1854 at the age of 17 with his brother Hilaire. [familysearch] The two farm boys grew up on the outskirts of a Canadian village 30 miles from Montreal. They mined for nearly seven years. Peter was 24 when he came to San Francisco looking for a job in 1860. That very year he went to work in an Oakland brickyard just east of Lake Merritt.
"That's the brick business I'm in today," the Countess says proudly. Two Frenchmen were the original owners of the brickyard; their names apparently lost to posterity. Peter was at work only three months when they made him yard boss. Three months later one of the partners decided to return to France and Peter became a partner in the brickyard business six months after he went to work.
In 1865 Peter encouraged two of his brothers to come to Oakland and buy out the other Frenchman. It was then that the firm became Remillard & Brothers. Eventually Peter brought his mother and father to Oakland along with his six sisters and a baby brother, age 10.
Bricks from the Remillard Brothers built the first Palace Hotel in San Francisco as well as the rebuilt Palace following the 1906 fire and earthquake, also the Phelan Building, the Shreve Building, the Flood Building. Every brick building in Oakland has Remillard bricks. It was Remillard bricks that built the great Chateau Carolands where the Countess now lives.
As the brick business grew, Remillard & Brothers bought additional brick-making property at Pleasanton (1889), [1884] at the Potrero in Richmond and Greenbrae in Marin County. They also incorporated in 1879 as the Remillard Brick Company.
...
A GAZEBO AT MALAKOFF HISTORIC STATE PARK
Each year at the North Bloomfield Homecoming a restored building is dedicated to public use. It started with a museum, then a stable, added was a general store, then a community church and this year both a new and an old.
The old will be the restored 1873 school house. The new will be a band-stand gazebo. There will be the exciting "coming home" of Countess Lillian Dandini. The $1,000 plus gazebo is her memorial to her father and her uncles. Countess Dandini, a lover of music, a respecter of history, is alive and well, is 93 years of this generation and will arrive in her chauffeured limousine.
Come you all to North Bloomfield on Sunday June 10, 1973. Bring your picnic lunch or partake of the lunch counter and beverage bar of the Grass Valley Jaycees. There will be bands, square dancing, the clang of an anvil and the roar of a monitor. It will be an alive to-day touch of yesterday's great days of hydraulic mining in an authentic living Nevada County Gold Rush town.
Countess Dandini is the personal friend of Nevada City author Ruth Hermann. It
is best that Ruth tell the story of Baby Lillian Remillard.
HER FIRST STEPS
By Ruth Hermann
Countess Lillian Remillard Dandini di Cesena, born April 28, 1880, in Oakland, California, took her first steps in the Sierra town of North Bloomfield where her family was vacationing in 1881. Peter Nicholas Remillard had returned with his wife and children to show them where he had mined for gold from 1854 to 1860.
Peter, whose birthday was April 1, 1837, and Helaire, his eldest brother, had come to California during the gold rush. Their brother, Edward, joined them in 1859.
They were born French-Canadians, Helaire Remillard, Sr., a farmer, and Marie Soule, near Montreal at Saint Valentine. Peter's chum, Antoine Chabot, had already left Canada for California after the gold discovery. Later Peter and Helaire decided to follow Chabot, who in 1852 near Nevada City first developed the process of hydraulic mining that led a year later to use of a nozzle (the mighty monitor) by E. E. Matteson.
According to Countess Dandini, her father and uncle mined in North Bloomfield from 1854 to 1860. Chabot may have been the one who prompted them to go to that area.
With the mines waning in 1860, the three brothers left North Bloomfield, and Peter worked at an Oakland brickyard where he soon became sole owner. In 1865, he organized the Remillard & Brothers Brick Co., which developed into an extensive enterprise. On January 1, 1867, he married Cordule Laurin.
On November 12, 1867 [probably 1967] Countess Lillian Dandini and Thomas Sears were taken by the writer and her husband Victor Hermann, to North Bloomfield. As the party strolled the length of the old street gazing at the quaint houses and picket fences, Countess Dandini decided to fund a memorial to her father and his brothers.
Sunday, June 10, 1973, the beautiful victorian-patterned gazebo will be dedicated to the Peter Nicholas Remillard family. They came for gold like thousands of other men who faced the wilderness, they stayed to build a state; they helped write a chapter in the history of the American West that can never again be duplicated in the golden setting of the California Hills.
24 May 1973, Thu
The Union (Grass Valley, California) Newspapers.com
The Countess And The Brickyard
...
ACCORDING TO Lillian Dandini the Remillard story in California began 26 years before her own birth in 1880 in Oakland.
Young men around the world were still dreaming of fortunes to be found in California's gold fields when 17-year-old Pierre Remillard and his brother Hilaire, 18, decided to leave the family farm near Montreal to head for the mines.
They arrived in San Francisco in 1854 after crossing the Isthmus of Panama and immediately caught a stage to Nevada City where they mined for the next five years.
A year after the arrival of another brother Edward, in 1860, the Remillards separated, with Pierre returning to San Francisco and the brothers going to Oregon.
TWO FRENCHMEN operating a brickyard on the banks of Oakland's Lake Merritt hired the 23-year-old French-speaking Pierre. Within a month "he was boss" and two months later "a partner," his daughter smiled.
.jpg)
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LOOKING LIKE a relic from Civil War days, the historic Remillard Brick
Co.'s kiln in Larkspur has been proven as impregnable as any a fort.
Built some 30 years following the war between the states, it was for 24
years, up until 1915, one of the Bay Area's most productive kilns,
turning out a minimum of 500,000 bricks a year. San Francisco landmarks,
such as the chocolate factory at Ghirardelli Square, the Cannery and the
second Palace Hotel, were built from brick fired within its walls. (Independent-Journal photo) |
When the Frenchmen returned to Europe in 1865, their interest in the firm was taken over by Hilaire and Edward Remillard.
While the firm grew into a mammoth corporation owning Oakland's first building supply yard and brickyards in Marin, Pleasanton and San Jose, Pierre Remillard, as major stockholder, always remained in control.
When he was 28 he married Cordule Laurin, a young girl whom he had met once two years before in Lafayette and had "never been able to forget," their daughter related.
THE COUNTESS' mother had come with her family from Canada to the gold fields near Sacramento when she was 12. Later her father became a storekeeper on the same street in Sacramento where Collis P. Huntington, Mark Hopkins, Leland Stanford and Charles Crocker were selling drygoods and sundries before becoming the "Big Four" of Central Pacific Railroad fame.
Pierre and Cordule settled down to married life in an Oakland mansion where their first child, Philip H. Remillard, was born the next year.
The firm bought 75 acres along the Gallinas Creek for a Marin brickyard in the
1870s near today's Civic Center and Santa Venetia. Brick used for the first
Palace Hotel was fired at this yard.
|
|
| The 1892 Official Map Of Marin County, California map, georeferenced, showing the location of the P. N. Remillard parcel and modern-day Buck's Landing |
REMILLARD BRICK was shipped down the San Pablo Bay in a fleet of schooners named for the Remillard women. When the Countess was 5, in 1885, her father named a new schooner Lillian in her honor.
"It was always on the rocks and in the newspapers," she laughed, "and the family had the greatest time with her."
The Santa Venetia yard, managed by a younger Remillard brother Frank who had arrived with the entire clan in 1869, closed down after his drowning on a trip to Oregon.
A few years later, in 1889, the firm bought 150 acres of the "old Porter Ranch" in Greenbrae, the Countess said. In those days the land occupied by the quarry and abandoned kiln was called Greenbrae. Today it is within Larkspur's boundaries and lies adjacent to the less than 40-year old development called Greenbrae.
CLAY FROM the flatlands lying between San Quentin Prison and today's Highway 101 and "up in the hills" was fired inside a Hoffman kiln into a minimum of 500,000 bricks a year.
It was used to rebuild San Francisco after the 1906 disaster and in those days when young Lillian Remillard was already company vice-president, 400 workmen "mostly Italians" were employed throughout the Bay Area.
...
Deaths of her brother and father, "last of the Remillard men," in the early 1900s undoubtedly changed the course of Lillian Remillard's life.
Philip Remillard, who had built Oakland's first golf links and introduced a game called football to San Francisco, according to his sister, was only 33 when he died in 1901.
THREE YEARS later Pierre Remillard died at age 67 leaving control of his vast empire to his widow who became corporation president and his youngest daughter Lillian, named vice-president at 24. (She became president of the Remillard Brick Co. in 1934 following her mother's death.)
Mother and daughter managed the changeover from steam to electricity and from horses to trucks and succeeded in buying Oakland waterfront property Pierre had been unable to purchase.
"We paid $20,000 and later resold it to Mayor Mott for $60,000," the countess chuckled. [Add a zero, they sold it for $650,000 in 1910.]
...
The Countess And The Brickyard - Daily Independent Journal, Sat, Jul 14, 1973
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