BRICK-MAKING; FROM DRYING THE WET BRICK IN THE SUN TO FIRING DRY BRICK IN A KILN, A HUNDRED YEARS OF FAMILY HISTORY CAN BE FOUND AT JACKSON

Just-pressed bricks are headed for the kiln at Kasten Clay Products in Jackson.

These new bricks are put through a tumbler to make them look old.

JACKSON -- Rudolph C. Kasten had just finished a brick-making apprenticeship when he rode into Jackson at age 27 and bought half of what is now Kasten Clay Products.

The year was 1895 and Kasten had left his apprenticeship with a Uniontown brick maker (because the town was too small for two brick makers) and moved to Jackson where the brick maker there couldn't keep up with demand.

Kasten was half owner of the business until 1920 when his four sons purchased the other half from Joe Schmuke (then the Kasten & Schmuke Press Brick Co.), making it a family business. The sons, Arthur, John, Louis and Walter, believed Schmuke agreed to sell the business because he thought brick lasted too long and soon everyone would have a brick home, driving the brick makers out of existence.

Even though the art of brick making has changed from drying the wet brick in the sun to firing dry brick in a kiln, a century after R.C. Kasten launched his business, the family -- six direct descendants of R.C. Kasten -- continues to make bricks, feeling no threat of extinction.

In fact, the Kastens have turned the one clay products business into three separate corporations: Kasten Clay Products, Kasten Concrete Products and Kasten Masonry Sales Inc.

Although the companies have the same set of directors, each business has different products to offer.

From decorative concrete stepping stones to bricks which are produced on site and distributed, to simply distributing such goods as spas and gun safes, Kasten has adapted over the years and began offering other products to serve a growing customer base.

The family added a distribution division in 1980, and since then Kasten started distributing products like spas and gun safes because they saw a demand not being met.

"Guns -- rifles and shotguns even -- are easy to steal and easy to get rid of," said David Kasten, the founder's grandson and vice president and general manager of the companies. "So we thought gun safes would be perfect for us to sell."

Kasten was right. The distribution business now makes up half of the sales for the companies, targeting at least 10 states.

But the family's legacy will long reflect their brick making.

From the first kiln and clay pit where Main and Georgia streets intersect today to the current site established in 1926, Kasten has continually updated the process of brick making to reflect the latest technology.

When the current plant went into operation in 1927, it was one of the most modern plants of its kind, using the first tunnel kilns west of the Mississippi River. At first, the tunnel kilns were coal-fired, then they were converted to gas in 1960 and in 1989, the company began using 20 tons of sawdust a day -- a waste product from a Scott County company.

Kasten can produce 14 million bricks a year and distributes those bricks using 18 delivery trucks, but it still can't meet the demands of area builders with their one facility. The company buys and distributes brick from other companies, too.

The company also has expanded its holdings to include Carbondale Brick and Block in Carbondale, Ill., and Innovative Energy Products in Mount Vernon, Ill., both purchased in the late 1980s.

"In the future we'll look at other products to offer, too," David Kasten said.

R.C. Kasten died in 1929 already leaving a legacy for brick making that his descendants have continued for 66 years and no doubt will maintain for many years to come.