The Way We Were: Great Chicago Fire a lucky break for fledgling tile/brick company in Naperville founded in 1871

Every week we publish a historic photo highlighting a story from Naperville’s past from the history archives of Naper Settlement.

One of city’s first successful businesses was Naperville Tile & Bricks, which started as a partnership between George Martin and William King in 1871.

The launch year was providential given it was the same year as Great Chicago Fire, providing a business boon for a company able to supply much-needed supplies to contractors rebuilding the devastated city.

Seven years later, Ernst von Oven would buy out King’s portion of the business, resulting it being renamed the Martin & von Oven Tile and Brick Works.

Its two owners were pillars of the community.

Martin, who immigrated with his family to Naperville from Scotland in 1833 at age 6, was one of the first Naperville Village Board trustees and had several business ventures in town, including Producer’s Bank. (Naperville was incorporated as a village in 1857 and became a city in 1890.)

Von Oven was born in Germany and came to Naperville with his family in 1854. Not only did he operate Naperville Nurseries, located at Aurora Avenue and Oswego Road, he owned a fruit farm with his brother, Adelbert, and partnered with B.B. Boecker in 1884 to operate the Naperville Stone Quarry.

By 1886, the company was producing 1 million tiles and a half-million bricks every year.

Those tiles and bricks helped build Naperville homes and businesses in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many of which still stand today.

After Martin died in 1889, his daughters took up his stake in the company. Katherine “Kittie” Martin was the firm’s bookkeeper for almost 30 years and managing partner for 16 years until her death in 1908.

A 1905 newspaper article about the company said it owned 10 acres, land on which the Von Oven Scout Reservation is located today at 701 S. West St. Fifteen men worked at the plant, which operated from April through Thanksgiving each year.

A key to the company’s success was its access to 30 acres of land rich in clay. Located four to seven feet below ground, the clay was yellow and blue in color and, once removed, transported to the factory by horse-drawn wagons.

It was shoveled as needed into a suspended apron conveyor that took it to a smooth roll crusher. From there, it would go into a processing machine and then to a cutter, which would slice it into tiles ranging in size from 3 to 15 inches.

Five buildings — each two to three stories in height — served as tile drying houses.

Clay bricks were cut by hand and stored in groups of 128 to 144 on pallets in two drying sheds that could hold up to 42,000 bricks each.

Solar power was part of the drying process. Each shed had folding roof sections and vertical slats to let in the sun and air.

Once dried, the bricks and tiles were taken to three coal-fired kilns — each 22 feet in diameter — to be baked. Tiles needed 90 hours in the kiln, while bricks required 110 to 120 hours.

Finished products were transported by wagon to the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad line for shipment.

Some of those bricks and tile can be seen in the Martin family home, known as Pine Craig, which was built in 1883 and is now the centerpiece of Naper Settlement at 523 S. Webster St.

Caroline Martin Mitchell, Martin’s daughter and last surviving family heir, bequested the mansion, carriage house and more than 200 acres of land to the city of Naperville. In addition to Naper Settlement, you’ll also find Naperville Central High School, Sportsman’s Park, Roy Ory Community Garden Plots, Knoch Park and portions of the Edward Hospital complex sitting on former Martin land.

Andrea Field is the curator of history at Naper Settlement. For more information, go to www.NaperSettlement.org.

Steve Metsch is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.