CALIFORNIA BRICKS
Brand name: BEN ALI
Company: Cannon and Company
Location: near N. 13th St. and E. El Camino Ave., Sacramento; office at 400 Forum Bldg, plant at Ben Ali siding, 4 mi. north of Sacramento, 200 acres, Sacramento County, CA
Years: 1910-1963+
Type: Face brick
Description: Brand name impressed on face.
Equipment: soft-mud machine, 2 dry pans, auger feed, pug mill, steam shovel, 5 oil-fired field kilns.
Deposit: 200 acres of yellow-brown sandy clay, red-burning clay, 15-20 ft. thick. Mixed with white clay from Lincoln and Ione and Michigan Bar
Comments: This brick was named after the railroad siding Ben Ali. Company history: Silica Brick Co. (1910), Sacramento Clay Products Co. (<1916), Cannon and Co. (1920). 35-40 employees. Bricks burn in 5 days, tile in 2-3 days.
Source: California State Mining Bureau Bulletin 99, 1928, p. 183-185; California State Mining Bureau Report 15, p. 404;
California Division of Mines Report, v. 51, no. 2, 1955, p. 125-129; Gurcke, Bricks and Brickmaking, The University of
Idaho Press, 1987.
Plant of Cannon and Co., Sacramento, CA.
From Cal. Div. Mines Geol., Bull. 99, 1928.
Comments or questions are welcomed.
Please send email to Dan Mosier at danmosier@earthlink.net.