Grand Ledge Clay Products 1906-1986

After the success of the Sewer Pipe Company and its eventual sale, many of the same local investors again decided to band together and form a second clay factory. In 1906 these businessmen, among them were John Fitzgerald and R.E. Olds of Oldsmobile fame, formed the Grand Ledge Clay Products Company.

They purchased a fine parcel of land at the corner of West Jefferson and Lawson Road which showed excellent prospects for rich deposits of shale. Over the years, the factory mined several clay pits, all of them along the river on Lawson Road. The new factory’s land was also right next to the Sewer Pipe Company’s parcel (today’s Fitzgerald Park).

At the time the Vitrified Sewer Pipe Company was going great guns in producing its clay pipe, but interestingly, the new factory was not planned as competition. At this time in history many large urban areas were rebelling against the forest of telephone poles and vines of electric wires that darkened their streets. As part of the new urban planning, such eye soars were going to be buried underground. Today we use plastic conduit pipe to run wires underground, but in those days they used clay conduit tiles. Grand Ledge Clay Products specialized in this new product and eventually shipped tons of clay conduits all over the nation. Chicago was a major market. The clay conduit was a tube, about a foot long and 3inches square. It was made in single tubes, or could be fused together into bundles of two, four or six. Ironically, in spite of local editorials calling for their use to bury our power lines, Grand Ledge was not one of the cities to use them.

Clay Products was one of the larger employers in town with around 90 men. They prospered making clay conduit until the 1930’s. During the Great Depression production slowed along with the nationally economy. Then in 1937 a great fire destroyed the factory and the dies used to extrude the conduit forms. The factory was rebuilt and the company used the opportunity to shift production to sewer tile, drainage tile and chimney flues.

By the late 1970s the work force shrank as competition from plastic pipes increased. In the 1980s the company tried to expand into floor tiles and other products. The efforts seemed to come too late however, and the Plant was closed in 1986. Sadly if the company had lasted a couple more years they might have been able to capitalize on the wave of historic restorations and the need for specialty products. For me, I will remember Clay Products as it was, with the large kilns huddled around the tall chimneys and the yard full of rows and rows of clay tile ready for shipment.

Grand Ledge Sewer Pipe Co. 1886-1966

For many decades, Grand Ledge was known around the country for its clay industry. Grand Ledge was the clay products capital of Michigan and some years produced more clay products than any city in the nation. The large industrial pottery factories began here in the 1880s.

Local investors decided to capitalize on Grand Ledge’s rich clay deposits found in the area. They purchased 40 acres on the south side of West Jefferson Street and founded the Grand Ledge Sewer Pipe Company in 1886. Shale was quarried in a pit on the site behind the factory. The clay was fired in 12 large bee-hive kilns to produce a wide range of sewer and drainage tile. After just a few years, with the clay pit was being exhausted, the plant was sold in 1898 to the Ohio-based American Sewer Pipe Company.

Ohio companies were the main competition to the Grand Ledge industry. Ohio workers also came along with the purchased and settled in the area. During this time 61 acres were purchased across Jefferson, along the River. A new quarry was begun near what is today the water treatment plant. Shale was put into small rail cars and pulled by mules along narrow tracks to the factory across the road.

The company became American Vitrified Products in 1912. It was the largest factory of its type in Michigan and one of the largest in the United States, employing about 100 men. Working with the hot kilns, fire was always a danger. The plant caught fire and burned in 1923 and was rebuilt larger in 1924. The Great Depression forced the closure of the plant from 1930-1937. “Vitrified”, as it was known, reopened and was in operation until 1966.

The following year the land was sold to the City. The 61 acres north of Jefferson were added to Fitzgerald Park. A few years later the 40 acres south of Jefferson were developed into the Ravines Mobile Home Park. The name “ravines” referees to the old clay pit on the property. Most of this pit was filled in during the construction process. The area of Valley Ridge Street was the storage yard for tile waiting for delivery. Fiddler’s Cove Street now occupies the site of the old factory.

Fitzgerald Family’s Long History

With the passing of Lorabeth Fitzgerald I thought I would repost my history of the Fitzgerald Family.

  (Read More about Lorabeth)

With recent elections, it put me in mind of our own local political dynasty, The Fitzgerald Family. Four generations have served our state in public office, this week I will discuss Governor Fitzgerald.

Frank Dwight Fitzgerald was born January 27, 1885, the son of John W and Carrie Fitzgerald. On June 28, 1909, Frank married Queena Warner. It was about 1913 when he served as clerk in the State Legislature. From 1919 to 1923 He was deputy Secretary of State. He served various positions with the Michigan Republican Party. In 1932 he was a delegate at the Republican National Convention and helped nominate President Hoover for another term.

In 1931, Frank was elected Secretary of State of Michigan. In 1934, Fitzgerald left his office to run for Governor of Michigan. He was elected Michigan’s 34^th Governor and served 1935-1936, a full two year term. As Governor he promoted a balanced budget, smaller more efficient government and the civil service system for State employees. Michigan did not have a governor’s residence at the time, so the Fitzgerald home at 521 E. Jefferson served as the official Governors Residence during most of his term.

In 1936 he campaigned for re-election against democrat Frank Murphy, but he was defeated. During this campaigned the family moved to 219 W. Jefferson. This stately home was built by the sister to Ransom E. Olds, of Oldsmobile fame. The house has remained the Fitzgerald Family Home ever since.

Two years later, the home’s dining room became campaign headquarters when he again ran for re-election against Frank Murphy who was running for his own second term. Fitzgerald won the election and became one of only two Michigan Governors to serve two non-consecutive terms in office.

As Michigan’s 36^th Governor he took office on January 1, 1939. Sadly within just a few weeks he became ill and the dining room went from campaign headquarters to a sick bed for the ailing Governor. It was there that he died on March 16, 1939. The only Governor of Michigan to die in office.

If you look round our town there is much to remind you of our Governor. His portrait prominently overlooks all City Council Meetings in the Council Chambers. Saginaw Highway from Grand Ledge to Lansing was dedicated as the Frank D. Fitzgerald Memorial Highway. His home on West Jefferson is a State Historic Site. During his first term in office the City dedicated the ball field down by the bridge as Fitzgerald Field. In 1940 after his death, the City renamed Riverside Park as Fitzgerald Park. Finally his gravestone, a tall white obelisk, towers over others in Oakwood Cemetery.

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1930s Campaign Advertisement

YOUR GOVERNOR – He kept his word. No new taxes, no new debts, and a balanced budget in two years. He converted a $6 million deficit into an $8 million balance, taking the State definitely out of the red and into the black. He did all this, without losing sight of the human side of government.

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As I mentioned last time, The Fitzgerald Family has long been involved in public service.

John Wesley Fitzgerald started it all. He was born in 1850 to Irish parents. He later married Carrie Foreman. John W. Fitzgerald lived at 220 E. Jefferson and was elected to the State House of Representatives for 1895-1896. He also served as Postmaster for Grand Ledge. His son, the future Governor worked with him as a mail clerk before joining politics.

John Warner Fitzgerald was the grandson of John W. and son of the Governor. John had his own long and esteemed public service career. He was born November 14, 1924. When just a freshman at Grand Ledge High School, his father died. John graduated in 1942 and went on to MSU for two terms before joining the Army during World War II. After the Army he returned to get a bachelors degree from Michigan State University and a law degree from the University of Michigan Law School.

After passing the bar, John return to Grand Ledge and opened his own law practice in 1955. That same year he also became the Legal Counsel to the State Senate. In 1957 John ran for State Senator for his district and was elected. He began serving in the State Senate in 1958. The Michigan Constitutional Convention of 1963 created the Michigan Court of Appeals and John Fitzgerald was elected as one of the first nine judges in 1964 and was named Chief Justice Pro-Tem of the Court. Justice Fitzgerald left the Court in 1974 when he was appointed to fill a vacancy on the Michigan Supreme Court. He ran for re-election for his own term in the fall of that same year. He won the election for an eight year term. In 1982, the final year of his tern, he was elected Chief Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court.

Even beyond his work in the court system, John left his mark on Cooley Law School. In 1973 he taught the very first class in the new school. He also was a founding member of the Cooley Board of Directors. Justice Fitzgerald remained part of the School for 34 years. The graduating class of 2006 was even named in his honor.

While John was at MSU he met and married Lorabeth Moore. They had three children: Frank, Eric and Adam. Justice Fitzgerald pass away in 2006.

The fourth generation of the family to serve was Frank Moore Fitzgerald, son of John and Lorabeth. Frank was elected to the State House in 1987 and served until 1998. Governor Engler appointed him State Insurance Commissioner in 1999. From 2000-2003 Frank served as the State Financial and Insurance Services Commissioner. In 2003 Frank became a Managing Partner in the Clark Hill law firm. Sadly Frank died suddenly in 2004.

The Loveless Pottery & Brickmakers

Shortly after the closing of the Harrington Pottery, a new family came to town to mine the rich deposits of the area. The Loveless family were potters near Warren, OH. Their son, George, left the family pottery business when he heard about the clay deposits to be found here in Grand Ledge. George Loveless and his family settled on 12 acres at the corner of West Jefferson and Gulf Streets.

The Loveless Pottery was founded in the late 1850s .Although his farm was located near the clay deposits of Fitzgerald Park, the pottery was located on the east side of town in a hollow at about 205 Franklin Street. The clay was excavated from the large gully behind the shop in the 600 block of East Jefferson and fired in kilns on the property. The Loveless Pottery made household wares such as jugs, crocks and butter churns. They also were the first here to make clay tile which was used to line water wells. His son, George B. Loveless, was a peddler who sold his wares door to door.

In 1887 the railroad was building the trestle and laying the line to Grand Rapids. George Loveless had allowed the railroad graders to work on his property along Gulf Street but no agreement had yet been reached for the right of way. When the workmen were nearing the new trestle, they reached the Loveless property. They found the way blocked by a pile of railroad ties and George Loveless sitting on top with a shotgun. He threatened any that crossed onto his property. The Railroad soon settled payment to him. He was at the time 80 years old.

The first industrial clay products made in Grand Ledge were bricks. Although they were each made by hand, the quantities produced were on a larger scale then the wares produced by the family pottery shops. Due to fires, Grand Ledge underwent a boom of brick construction in the 1870s and local brick certainly helped the effort. Many of stores in the 200 Block of South Bridge date from this time.

The Tinkham Brickyard opened in the late 1860s. This was located on the J.C. Tinkham farm, where Burt Avenue is today. J.C.’s cousin Justice Campbell was a brick maker at the time and likely ran the business.

The Derbyshire Brickyard was opened in the early 1870s. Charles Derbyshire was a retired farmer from Eagle. His brickyard was located on the Harrington Pottery property. It is likely we still see his handmade bricks today. Derbyshire built his own very prominent brick house at 207 East Jefferson (the former Smith Bros Law Office, today the Davis Building.)

Herrinton Pottery

Grand Ledge has a long and illustrious history in the clay industry. Over my next several columns I will give a history of this important historic industry that lasted well over a century and shaped so much of our town.

Grand Ledge is blessed with rich natural deposits of high quality clay and shale. Scientific examinations have determined that deposits found here are of the best quality for making brick, tile and other baked clay items. Natural outcroppings along the river have made the minerals available for thousands of years. Yet most of the shale can be found sixty feet or more below the surface. Once quarried, the shale is crushed, blended into clay, shaped and then fired in kilns. Firing the local clays produces fine quality products infused with attractive natural iron spotting.

Settlers were not the first to be attracted to the clay deposits. Native Americans recognized the value of the clay that is so abundant in the area. The first settlers reported finding the remains of “ash kilns” left behind by the Native American potters. Such kilns were reported in the gully where the Log Jam parking lot is today, near the corner of West Main and Tallman Road, and near Fitzgerald Park.

With ash kilns, native pottery was stacked on the ground and covered with leaves, husks, twigs, straw, etc. After all these layers, a final thick blanket of ash covers the mound to insulate the kiln and keep the heat in. Once the fire is started, the straw burns away, letting the ash fall between the pottery wares, keeping the heat in and letting them bake. After several days, the firing process is complete. The ash remaining is then saved for the next batch of pottery to be fired.

Information about the first potteries in Grand Ledge is scant. However, from pioneer recollections, maps, and census records I have been able to put their story together.

Lewis Herrinton was a potter from Scipio, New York. In the 1840s he came with his family west and along with this partner Timothy Wellman, opened one of the first known potteries in Michigan in Springfield Township, Oakland County.

In the 1850s, hearing of the clay deposits to found in Grand Ledge, Lewis Herrinton moved here and purchased 10 acres off Lawson Road that ran down to where the dam is today. The Herrinton Pottery was born. In the kilns on the site he made practical household items like jugs, crocks, bowls and churns. It is distinguished as being the first pottery in Grand Ledge, and one of the very earliest in Michigan, however it was short lived. Lewis Herrinton died in the late 1850s. His widow, Sophia, would become a teacher and his son Edward a well known local painter.