Fire brick manufacturer

[invent4hir]

All, while digging a metal target I dug what I think is a piece of a fire brick at a site once occupied by the earliest doctor in the area (late 1790s-1814). Story has it that even George Washington visited his cabin. The property was passed down through his family until his great-grandson was the last to own it. Shortly after his death in 1959 the local fire department burned down the cabin for practice. Since then the area has been turned into a park and trees now cover most of it. Does anyone know a fire brick manufacturer whose first name ends with "PLE" and last name with "LIT"? Any help is appreciated as I intend to donate it along with some other artifacts I found there to the local historical society for an upcoming exhibit.

 

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[A2coins]

Very interesting wow you have a great historic site

 

[Tpmetal]

I used to work with fire bricks from Zelienople PA. not sure if they were around back then or not.

 

[highnam]

Have you checked online databases for fire brick, from what I gather it was cheaper to buy brick from England, Scotland before the turn of the century. U.S. didn’t have very quality material and ships sailing from Europe needed ballast anyway.
Good luck!

 

[alabama11]

That is an early maker's mark for brick, but up there the industry was very early.
I have been collecting bricks with maker Mark's for years. Maybe it is time for a brick forum. I know there are book references.
In Nashville there were some great furnaces producing brick and much of what I have came from that area. Mostly post civil war time period.

 

[sprailroad]

I had collected bricks for years while traveling around on the job. Interesting stuff. With names such as "Snowball", "Pluto" etc. Must have at least 60 different maker's mark's.

 

[HuntinDog]

I've been a bottle digger/detectorist for 40+ years and dug a bunch of named bricks.
If I found something with writing on it I packed it home.
Probably have 40 or so different ones, but not any that look like that one.
It looks more like a stepping stone though.
Hope you find an answer.
Maybe go back and dig around and find a whole one.

 

[DCMatt]

Maybe?

SIMPLE
SPLIT

I don't know much about brick but I'm guessing that piece is 20th C.

 

[invent4hir]

All, thanks for your inputs. I've been searching the internet off and on since posting. Still no luck yet. I even went to a dictionary website and listed all the words in the English language ending in "ple" and "lit". Still working my way through the lists.