This picture was taken back in 1920 from the Seward brickyard smokestack looking west down Oak street toward the Mill, the Blue river, & RR water tower. The horizontal street is South 1st. The house in the bottom-right corner of the picture is where Elaine's grandparents, Charles and Anna Koch lived at the time. The picture was taken by a fellow who climbed the smokestack to repair lightening damage, took the picture, fell to his death, but the film was salvaged to produce the picture. (As the story goes) Many of the houses are still occupied. The mill burned to the ground in 1938 and the dam was destroyed some years later. The dam transformed the Big Blue River into a beautiful body of water that extended beyond the Seward City Park. Harold Davisson wrote about the Mill and the Brickyard in his: "Stories about a small town by a small town Boy" 1900-1973. As a youngster, I remember being at the brickyard one evening with my Dad and his lifting a cover enabling us see the red-hot coals in the kiln heating the bricks.
This picture was taken back in 1920 from the Seward brickyard smokestack looking west down Oak street toward the Mill, the Blue river, & RR water tower. The horizontal street is South 1st. The house in the bottom-right corner of the picture is where Elaine's grandparents, Charles and Anna Koch lived at the time. The picture was taken by a fellow who climbed the smokestack to repair lightening damage, took the picture, fell to his death, but the film was salvaged to produce the picture. (As the story goes) Many of the houses are still occupied. The mill burned to the ground in 1938 and the dam was destroyed some years later. The dam transformed the Big Blue River into a beautiful body of water that extended beyond the Seward City Park. Harold Davisson wrote about the Mill and the Brickyard in his: "Stories about a small town by a small town Boy" 1900-1973. As a youngster, I remember being at the brickyard one evening with my Dad and his lifting a cover enabling us see the red-hot coals in the kiln heating the bricks.
There is a lady on the sidewalk that leads from the small shed to the house in the lower ride side of the photo. Is that Anna Kock?
ReplyDeleteYes it is. We think she was on her way back from the privy.
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