Claybank Brick Plant Historical Society

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October, 2005 N E W S L E T T E R Volume 12, Number 2

Paul Brunner
Paul was born in 1889 in Dingolfing, Germany. He came to Canada in 1929 with his wife and four children Paul, Mary, Bill and Kaye. They settled in the Nokomis district, where he worked as a farm hand for a short time. They then moved to Claybank where he started to work at the Brick factory from approximately 1929 to 1953 when he retired.
When he began work at the Brick factory, he only worked for a few hours a day as bricks weren't in great demand at that time. The bosses at the Brick Plant during the time Paul worked there were Charlie Arthur and Sam Matthew. Paul's sons Bill and John also worked at the Brick Plant. Paul was a boiler engineer and fired the kilns, always working shift work.

Ironically his grandson Leonard Brunner (Bill's son) was the person who took the last load of bricks from the factory after it was closed down.

Mrs. Brunner took in laundry to supplement their income. They had 4 more children after arriving in Canada, Ann and Betty were born in Claybank, Teresa born at the house they resided in at the Brick factory and John born at the Providence Hospital in Moose Jaw (1934).

Mrs. Brunner took ill in 1934 and passed away in 1942, leaving Paul to raise the family while working full time at the brick factory.

Upon retiring in 1953, he moved to Moose Jaw to live with Betty and Ted Ulmer and family. He resided there until 1962. He then moved to Calgary where he lived for some years before moving to Frankford, Ontario to live with his daughter Kaye, where he passed away in October 1975.

Bill was born in Germany in 1922 and came to Canada with his parents and brother Paul and sister Kaye in 1929. They lived in the Nokomis district, where his father worked as a farm hand for a short time.

The family then moved to Claybank. Bill married Millie Beitel April 22, 1946, they had five children Gordon born in Avonlea, Garry, Shirley, and Kelvin born in Kelowna and Leonard born in Armstrong.

Bill worked at the Brick factory from approximately 1940 to 1948. They moved to Winfield, B.C. in 1949 where he worked in road construction until 1959. They then moved to Armstrong, B.C. where he worked road construction until his retirement in 1975. Their son Gordon passed away in 2002. The other children and his wife Millie still reside in B.C.

Bill passed away in 1999.

John Brunner

John was born in 1934 at Claybank, he went to school in Claybank and was taught by the nuns. John started to work at the Brick factory in 1951 worked there approximately 2 years.

In 1954, John moved to Moose Jaw and was employed as a truck driver for Mill City Transport working on the Trans Canada Highway when it was being built at the time in the Maple Creek area. He was laid off in the fall of 1955. He then began working at Wards Moving and Storage until 1957, when he was offered a job Redi-Mix Concrete in Saskatoon. He was employed there for approximately 16 years working as a concrete batch engineer, and later moved into sales.

John married Veronica Fikowski in 1955 in Moose Jaw, where they lived for 2 years before moving to Saskatoon. They had six children Tim and Crystal born in Moose Jaw, Dean, Joyce, Robin and Curtis born in Saskatoon.

John decided to start his own business as a sewer and water contractor in 1974, namely "Brunners' Backhoe Service Ltd.", where he employed his three sons, as well as other employees. He enjoyed his new found career and worked hard at making it a very successful company, which still is in operation to date and is now in the hands of his sons Tim and Curtis. His wife Veronica took care of the office duties, working out of their home for several years before owning their own building and 3 backhoes. Most of the work was in the city, however, some country work was also done. He had a good working relationship with the City of Saskatoon, as well as being well respected throughout the area.

After 25 years in business the decision was made to turn things over to the boys, and did so in 2000. They remained very active in the day to day operations of the company and Verconica still does to date.

John passed away July 26, 2004.

Hands-on Programming … Another Year of Fun!

The Brick Plant was abuzz with activity for the months of May and June as approximately 800 students helped create another successful Hands-On Programming year. The schools began to arrive on May 17th and didn't give Programming Coordinator, Pat Machmer, and Programming Assistants, Tanya Holland & Tara McKay, very many 'quiet' days until June 28th. Students from Kindergarten to Grade 9 enjoyed tours of the Brick Plant as well as hands-on fun through participating in the Making & Baking Program, Hand Molders Program, Ancient Pottery Program, and Eco-Education Program.

Another Touring Season
The tourists keep on coming and numbers have increased from last year even with a reduced number of touring days. Last year tours took place on weekends from the May long weekend until July 1st, seven days a week for July and August and last touring days were the September long weekend. Excluding Heritage Day 1120 tourists passed through the gates on these days in 2004. Our 2005 Guides were: Sherry Gadd, Meagan Nestman, Tanya Holland, and Tara McKay (PEI), many thanks to them for their dedication.
This year, 2005, due to funding cuts, tours were offered seven days a week from July 1st until August 28th. July saw 702 people pass through the gates and 692 tourists visited the Brick Plant in August. With Heritage Day and School Programming included well over 3000 people have discovered the Claybank Brick Plant National Historic Site this year. We would like to thank our 2005 Interpretive Guides that made the tours of the Brick Plant so informative and enjoyable.

More on the movies
As time goes by the abandon movie sets installed at the Claybank Brick Plant have started to show some sign of wear and tear. The scaled down miner's camp bunkhouse set and the miner's graveyard set were especially interesting to our school tour groups. Our regular visitors this summer were also pleased to be able to inspect an actual movie set.

The production company - Mouseland Productions Inc. left the sets as a legacy of the filming that took place on the Site and this allowed our visitors to see how sets are manufactured to convey the realism that a movie commands. The abandon graveyard on a hill southwest of the Plant looks as though it has been there for a century or so. It is only when you touch one of the grave stones and find that it is actually artistically painted styrofoam or note that one of the headstones belongs to an individual that lived from 1771 to 1911 that you realize that this indeed is a movie set.

This film was, almost, not the only movie to be filmed in part at the Brick Plant this season. A cyborg film for science fiction television was slated to use the Massold Clay Canyons and one of the fireboxes of a Kiln in their after armageddon scenes. But due to the Brick Plant not being located within some invisible circle that is considered a drivable distance from Regina we were deleted from their plans.

The Historical Society will lobby the Directors Guild, SaskFilm and IASTE to have that circle expanded as far in our direction as it goes into the Qu'Appelle Valley area and if successful that would put Regina in the virtual middle of the circle. The Site would be in the company of such locations as Rouleau or rather Dog River in the Corner Gas series and generate more interest in using this region for location filming. The airing date for the television mini series Prairie Giant - The Tommy Douglas Story has finally been released. The series will be aired, here in Saskatchewan, on January 15th and 16th of 2006 on the CBC network.

2005 Heritage Day

We are grateful to all of our many, many volunteers and to the following Inkind and financial Sponsors of our annual Heritage Day event: RJ Electric - Machmer Trucking - Beitel's Insurance - RM of Elmsthrope - Long Creek Golf & Country Club - Funke Trucking - Flash Welding & Hopper Cones - Westrum Lumber - Dean Clarke Agri - Gracom Masonry - Acklands/Grainger - Community Celebrate Centennial grant and Celebrate Canada Day grant. Thank you so much to the following volunteers in random order:

SaskTel Pioneers - Doug Waugh - Zack & Helen Holizki - Elaine Neiswandt - Jim Duncan - Rich Ludwar - Dan, Elaine, Stewart, & Janelle Flegel - Ryan & Connie Machmer - Scott & Sherry Duncan - Kelsey & Rachelle Maier - Bob & Pat Machmer - John & Carol Holizki - Ralph & Cecile Wilkinson - Kelly & Hilda Maier - Phil Jelinski - Vaughn, Marilyn & Dale Gross - Richard, Andrea & Ashley Zaremba - Wayne & Terri Maier - Lana & Brittany Ludwar - Garry and Beth Akins - Dody Ridgway - Rick & Michelle Nestman - Joan Maier - Sheila Noess - Trenna Gadd - Evelyn Chaput - Russ Adams - Brittany Graham - Bob Thrope & Bandits -
Larry & Brenda Paysen - Barry & Karen Gross - Lloyd, Gwen & Nicole Beitel - Jerry & Patti Rodger - Eric Klatt.

Heritage Day was a very special event this year, it celebrated not only Canada Day but our own Provincial Centennial. Many of the tried and true exhibits and demonstrations were on hand such as: Ropemaking, Blacksmith, Brick Laying, Facepainting, free Balloons, Old time music, and Entertainers. The original machinery was again running and Fred Bodnaryk was recognised as one of the earliest former employee attending Heritage Day. New on our roster this year were the Eagle Claw Dancers. They danced their ancient steps in very colourful and dazzling costumes.

This week at the Brick Plant…
Alex Mc Coleman, Superintendent of Production
From 1924 until late 1941, started his dairy in January 1938. Explanatory notes added are in [brackets]. (For weather reports, remember that freezing is at 32 degrees F and 0 = -18 C)

Sat Sept 3
Temp at 6 am 63 above; clear, with light Sw wind. Temp at noon 88 above. A.G. & Mrs. Reed left for Montana this pm. Temp at 7 pm 82 above; clear.
Monday Sept 5Temp at 7 am 56 above; partly cloudy, fresh SE wind. Temp at noon 70 above; cloudy. Drove Jim to Avonlea School at 8 am. This is Labour Day. Temp at 7 pm 62 above; light rain, did not amount to much.
Calgary at Regina; Edmonton at Winnipeg. Winnipeg & Regina won all games.

Sunday Sept 11 [1938]
Temp at 7 am 46 above; partly cloudy. Clearing in early forenoon. This is a very nice day. Temp at noon 48 above. Did not attend Church on account of bad roads. Took Jim to Avonlea. Roads quite muddy - lots of water in holes. W. Wallace [Fireman] and Dick Welsh went along to Dr. Dunnett to be vaxined for typhoid fever. Temp at 7 pm 52 above.

Monday Sept 12
Temp at 6 am 50 above; clear, a beautiful morning. Continued fine all day. Temp at noon 66 above. Typhoid fever at Spring Valley and Truax. Temp at 7 pm 62 above; light S wind.

Recent Donations & Grants:
The Claybank Brick Plant Historical Society will receive a portion of the Canada Celebrates Saskatchewan grant awarded to the RM of Elmsthrope and will be using these funds to partially complete the Board/staging room on the upper level of the Bunkhouse Visitor Centre by March 31st, 2006. Many thanks goes out the RM of Elmsthrope for including the Site in the grant disbursement.

The Society also received grants from the Summer Career Placements Program (Federal), the Centennial Summer Student Employment Program (Provincial) and Young Canada Works in Official Languages (Federal) in order to hire our summer student staff.

Many thanks go out to our cash and inkind donors without community and member support the programming offered at the Site would most certainly suffer.
Cash Donations: Sig & Diana Beitel - Terry & Fran Aikens - Ron & Carol Watson - Dave Holland - Bob Thrope - Mike & Gina Sudom - Wilmont Wallace - Lloyd Claypool - Helen Holizki - Fred Bodnaryk Janice Anderson - Zack & Helen Holizki. Inkind Donations: Lorrie Graham

2006 - Claybank Crossfiring
Crossfiring is the name of the site-specific performance that is being developed and produced by Knowhere Productions Inc. at the Claybank Brick Plant on September 2, 2006 It will be an all day event in some ways similar to the Claybank Brick Plant Heritage Day … and in some ways it will be completely different. This event will focus on the significance of the Brick Plant and the surrounding hills to both aboriginal and non-aboriginal cultures. We will have artists, musicians, sound artists, choreographers, dancers, video artist etc. etc. participating from all over the country and local talent from the communities of Avonlea and Briercrest. In August, with the help of the Ros Donison from Avonlea Public Library and Lisa Nestman from Briercrest Public Library we conducted a successful Dance workshops lead by Bill Coleman of Coleman/Lemieux Dance Company from Montreal. Bill Coleman is an internationally acclaimed dance/choreographer whose work is experimental, innovative, frequently cross-cultural and community- based. His work has been presented in Scotland, Italy, Singapore, Russia, throughout the United States and Canada.

Then on September 23rd, thanks to Avonlea and Briercrest Public Schools, we had Sound Workshops with installation artist Gordon Monahan. Gordon Monahan's works for piano, loudspeakers, video, kinetic sculpture, and computer-controlled sound environments span various genres from avant-garde concert music to multi-media installation and sound art. Currently living in Germany, since 1978 he has created sound installations and performances at numerous international venues. Monahan showed videos, demonstrated and conducted a hands-on workshop based on the theremin, an early sound synthesizer and explained how to amplify sound with pickups and experiment with sound found. This is just the beginning - we are planning more artist run workshops in both schools in the months to come. Very special thanks to Tim Forer and the Rural Municipality of Elmsthorpe for helping us fund these workshops and to Hilda Maier and Pat Machmer from the Claybank Brick Plant Historical Society for their incredible support.

If you would like to recieve our Newsletter which includes many colour PHOTOGRAPHS please contact us, membership start at $15 per year.

Claybank Brick Plant Historical Society
Box 2-5
Claybank, SK, Canada S0H 0W0
Site Office (306) 868-4774

A Canadian National Historic Site

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(c) Claybank Brick Plant
Historical Society 2006