Brick Manufactures

Originally called Butler Brick Company, the firm was founded in 1873 five miles east of Elgin, Texas. Irish immigrant bricklayer Michael Butler discovered clay pits at the site shortly after the Texas and New Orleans Railroad arrived there in 1871.
The community that grew up around it came to be known as Butler, a company town with a company store and brick houses for employees who farmed on the side.
In August of 1895, stockholders of the Diebold Fire Brick Company incorporated the Canton Pressed Brick Company as the successor company to the Diebold Fire & Brick Company. Officers of the new company included: Henry S. Belden, President; C.J. Diebold, Vice President; James G. Barbour, Secretary/Treasurer; S.J. Allen, Superintendent. The first annual meeting of the Canton Pressed Brick Company was held in 1896.
In 1904 Paul Belden, Henry’s youngest son, returned to Canton to assist his father as the company was in dire financial straits. Paul's friend, P.D. Hardy went along to see if his own business experience might be helpful. They arrived in Canton in 1904 and began to pick up the ruins of the Canton Pressed Brick Company.