De Noyelles BrickyardS

DE HART PATENT

Detail of hand drawn map commissioned by Daniel De Noyelles showing the original Rockland County land grants of the American colonies 1884 The De Hart Patent was divided into two parts in 1792, with the Allison family taking the northern clay deposits and the De Noyelles taking the southern clay deposits.

The De Noyelles continued to lease and partner with brickyards for the next century. By 1880 extensive leasing was well established in Haverstraw with as many as twenty six leases for brick manufacturing on the lands of only seventeen landowners, sixteen of which also owned brickyards themselves. However, by the late 1800’s, the extensive amount of digging along the Hudson River resulted in less clay being available to brickyard manufacturer's.

The De Noyelles Brick Company however, was not officially incorporated until 1906 when Daniel De Noyelles, fifth lineal descendant of the french soldier John De Noyelles, became the first president of the incorporated company. In 1928 as Haverstraw brickyards increasingly struggled to compete with the clay rich upriver brickyards, the De Noyelles began modernization efforts, installing new steam driven equipment, including a new pug mill, steam shovels for digging and a steam drying system. The new modern plant could produce 115,000 bricks per day and ship immediately by truck and train.

The De Noyelles Brickyard is one of the oldest brickyards in Haverstraw. It was begun in 1815 when Peter De Noyelles leased land to James Wood from Colchester England, on the banks of the Hudson River. James Wood had learned to make bricks in England and was credited with improving the brick-making process through the use of vented molds. James Wood also added 1% coal (culm) to the clay/sand mixture needed to make bricks which also greatly reduced the firing time. These two innovative contributions consequently allowed for the mass production of bricks on the Hudson River and the brick Industry grew rapidly.

According to Daniel De Noyelle, from his book “Within these Gates”, by 1883, as the need for manufacturing bricks continued unabated, Haverstraw’s brick makers struggled to keep up with demand, and the brickyard owners were forced to think of increasingly innovative ways to recover the valuable Varve Clay deposits. Dan De Noyelles II, grandfather of Daniel De Noyelles, constructed a Cofferdam measuring two thousand feet long and some five hundred feet wide out onto the “river flats.” The enclosed river water was then pumped out into the Hudson so the clay land that was previously below the river’s surface was now easily exposed and dug out.

For the next 25 years hundreds of millions of bricks were made from this clay deposit. This successful extraction model was copied and the Excelsior and Fowler brickyards also built their own Cofferdams.

One of the first brickyards to open, the De Noyelles Brick Company was one of the last brickyards to close when in 1938 it was sold to the Rockland Brick Company and run for two years by John L. De Noyelles. In 1940 the Rockland Brick Company finally closed marking the end of the Haverstraw brick industry.