Hampton Village to Munion Field

[MarkBNJ]

Had a great 40+ mile run through the woods last Saturday. As usual Jon and Jack took a crapload of pictures. A selection of them have been uploaded to a gallery here. Here are a few of the more interesting ones.

The Jersey Central trestle south of Hampton Village off Rider's Switch Rd.

An old sidewalk at Hampton Village.

This funnel web denizen came out to see who was making all the noise. In the gallery is a shot of him still inside where you can see his legs poking out.

Jon got a nice shot of this interesting orange fungus. There were a bunch in a cluster around the base of a tree near Washington.

Some ruins East of Callico that I think used to be a cement plant. There are some other ruins further back and a large open sandy area as well.

This little guy was sunning himself on a bit of burnt log behind the cement plant ruins.

Not sure if this is a grasshopper, but he's a beefy fellow.

I named this the Fried Egg Fungus.

Crossroads at Munion Field.

Lots of these bricks in the area of Munion Field. The imprint is of the Sayer and Fisher Brick Co. of Sayerville. They made bricks through the 60's, so who knows how old these are?

An unfortunate use for some of the bricks at Munion Field.

That's all for now. Full size versions are in the gallery.

 

[james ungehajer]

Looks like you had an interesting day. Nice pics.

 

[this_is_nascar]

Nice photos. Where is Munion Field? I've heard of it, but don't beleive I was ever there.

 

[james ungehajer]

Nice photos. Where is Munion Field? I've heard of it, but don't beleive I was ever there.

http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?lat...33&size=l&symshow=n&u=4&datum=nad27&layer=DRG









Jim

 

[this_is_nascar]

Thanks.

 

[watchingtrainsgoby]

some awesome pictures mike. the grasshopper is my favorite.

 

[MarkBNJ]

Thanks . The photo credits go to my friends Jon and Jack, who are usually exploring with me. I have a cam too, but it's a crappy 2.x megapixel job from years ago.

The close-up macro shots are usually Jon's work, since he has a new Sony 8 mp cam that takes great closeups.

I save all the pics in raw format, at least 2500 x 2500 or so, so if anybody wants a wallpaper of any image at a certain dimension let me know in a PM with your email address.

 

[woodjin]

Nice report and photos!

 

[piker56]

Thanks for the post and pictures. I've seen S&F bricks in the pines that looked really old, the lettering looked like it was done by hand. I never knew what the full name of the company was. Also, did you really run that far in one day or was it a figure of speech? I do trail runs but nowhere near that far!

 

[MarkBNJ]

The company made bricks from the 1860's I think, so there could be S&F bricks from a wide range of dates.

Yeah, it was a total of 45 miles, approximately. We entered at Hampton Road off of 206 and popped out on Stage Rd. (or Leekstown, not sure) south of Munion Field. In between we wandered quite a bit.

 

[MuckSavage]

The company made bricks from the 1860's I think, so there could be S&F bricks from a wide range of dates.

10 years ago, I added a wood burning stove to my house. I wanted to buils a brick hearth. Turns out that a friend of mine had a brick patio that he wanted to remove. I took up the patio in excahange for keeping the bricks. I scrubbed each of them by hand & alot were imprinted with "S&F Co" When I mortared them into place, I left the imprint to face out. I thought it added a neat touch of "character" to the project. I could share some pics if you like.

Thanks for giving a little history to my project!

 

[Jerseyman]

The company made bricks from the 1860's I think, so there could be S&F bricks from a wide range of dates.

Yeah, it was a total of 45 miles, approximately. We entered at Hampton Road off of 206 and popped out on Stage Rd. (or Leekstown, not sure) south of Munion Field. In between we wandered quite a bit.

Mark:

James R. Sayre Jr. of Newark, New Jersey and Peter Fisher Sr. of New York City formed their co-partnership in 1850. Sayre provided the capital and Fisher brought the practical experience. Prior to forming the company, Sayre operated a lime, cement, and building supply business in Newark while Fisher owned and operated a schooner to freight brick and other products in and around New York harbor. They established their new brickyard at a place called Wood's Landing on the Raritan River, a name derived from James Wood Sr., who owned and operated a small brickyard adjacent to the riverbank. Wood employed 50 or 60 hands there. Sayre and Fisher built a common brick plant, a fire brick plant, and, later, an enamel brick plant. The firm also built the town that would become Sayreville, New Jersey. Between 1851 and 1912, Sayre and Fisher acquired almost 2,000 acres of clay-bearing land. By 1876, the New Jersey State Legislature erected Sayreville Township as a separate political entity. Sayre and Fisher incorporated under the general New Jersey corporation laws in 1887. In 1928, the company sold out to Chicago interests and the new owners formed the Sayre & Fisher Brick Company, but by 1934, in the depth of the Great Depression, the new corporation entered receivership with few bricks in production. Nine years later, the company formally discharged its receiver and reorganized to resume brickmaking operations. Unionization of the workforce occurred in 1945 and brick production increased from 18 million to 62 million per annum with an ambitious forecast of 80 million to 100 million in the near future. During the postwar years of the 1940s, the company discontinued fire brick and enamel brick production and razed the obsolete plants that once produced them. In 1948, the company owned almost 1,500 acres of high-quality clay deposits. I can't quite remember, but I think S&F brickmaking operations ended during the 1960s.

Based on the imprinted information on the pressed face brick you found, it dates to sometime between 1928 and the close of operations.

Best regards,
Jerseyman

 

[MarkBNJ]

Thanks for the background info, Jerseyman. When we returned from the woods that day my buddy Jack typed "S&FB Co." into Google and found some of that backstory. We were impressed . Someone had a situation similar to MuckSavage, where they had some of these bricks and wondered about them, and posted to a forum. However, your level of research continues to show that nothing beats going back to the sources.

I agree that the brick probably dates to the latter half of the company's life. My thought was that the pressing looked too crisp to be very early.