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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.
