Carved in a low river bed

[GoVidGo]

DATE: Sept 2012
DETECTOR: no applicable
PLACE: river bed that was very low.
FIND: a carved riverstone that has words, that I can't figure what they mean, and a groove around the stone.
DETAILS: I was hunting below an old town from the 1880's along the riverbed. The river was really low and I could actually walk out onto the river rocks. There used to an old town along the river and railway that had a general store, glass factory, smithy, homes, tannery, and other buildings. This is about 100 yards where I dug up the Civil War US Cavalry belt buckle (someone brought home from the war, as there was no action in this area). I noticed the stone as I was walking by and saw the carvings....

Looks like a cornerstone? Freemasons? The 'PA' along the bottom would fit 'Pennsylvania' which is where I am (western, PA) and it's from.

Any ideas?

 

[dave5710]

Lots of old bricks have the name of the maker stamped into them. Co. could stand for Company. Is there a town in the area whose name ends in AR?

 

[taz42o]

Reese hammond fire brick company bolivar Pa.


http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/rhfb-co-bolivar-pa-crescent-motif-paver-brick

 

[dave5710]

Nice work Taz, I would not of thought about looking for a Brick on ebay.

 

[Aarong81]

Even now that I know what it says, I cannot find any search results of RHFB Co. BOLIVAR PA online except for a feedback left on ebay when one was sold....

Fast shipping excellent vendor Buyer: Member id stansl00 ( Feedback Score Of 131Teal star icon for feedback score in between 100 to 499) Jan-20-12 23:25
RHFB Crescent Design Collectible Paving Brick Paver Bolivar PA (#220925698251) US $15.70

Other than the image Taz found this is hard item to search for. I wonder how rare their bricks are?

 

[407floyd]

The Reese-Hammond Fire Brick Co was on the river bank at Bolivar from 1898 to 1909.

 

[taz42o]

Only one I see online is the one I posted. But there has to be a bunch around at one time they had three plants producing 250,000 bricks a day although the other two plants had differnt names thats still alot of bricks from bolivar.

Heres some good info on the company...

http://memory.loc.gov/pnp/habshaer/pa/pa2800/pa2825/data/pa2825data.pdf


There are several brick collecting sites online ,selling and buying , but i dont see them listed at any.
If you find any in nice shape might be worth saving as people do collect them. I have a pile of old brick myself.
I worked at a steel mill slag dump here in ohio where they also dumped millions fire brick from Pa. and youngstown Oh. furnaces before ww2.
I dont recall seeing that name on any of them.

 

[Aarong81]

All those bricks had to go somewhere! I bet there are alot of buildings still standing that are made of those bricks. Would the face of the brick with the name on it be on the mortar side when used in a building or would it be exposed towards to inside of the building? Wondering if you could check some local buildings where this was found in the creek and see if the building has that same kind of brick in it.

 

[dave5710]

Wouldn't a paver brick been used in a road. The one pictured (complete) looks to long for a building/foundation brick. Plus the grooves are meant to fit together to keep it in place.

 

[taz42o]

They are fire brick not for paving roads or building homes.
They are bigger than regular brick.

Firebrick, or refractory brick is a block of refractory ceramic material used in lining furnaces, kilns, fireboxes, and fireplaces. A refractory brick is built primarily to withstand high temperature
Fire bricks are made from clays which contain 30-40% aluminium oxide or alumina and 50% silicon dioxide or silica. For bricks of extreme refractory character, the aluminium oxide content can be as high as 50-80%

Some are larger but There are two standard size of fire-brick; one is 9