Since 1924, Martin Brick Co., locaed at 1110 Cottonwood Street, has been under the ownership and operation of the Martin family. C. W. Martin and his son, Lang C., came here in 1924 from Wise County, Texas, where Mr. Martin had operated a brick and tile plant since 1908, and Lang had gotten some early experience.  They took over a well equipped plant set up originally in 1912 by J. P. Morris, prominent Coleman County rancher and financier.  The plant had been closed down by the company that owned it.  Three days after taking over, the Martins had brick coming off their production lines.

     Those first few years were good ones, as building was active and there was a good demand for brick.  Things went well from 1924 to 1929 but then the black days of the depression came, and with them a financial struggle for the young firm.  The market for brick all but dried up, as building throughout the nation was practically suspended.

     Somehow, through drastic cutbacks in wages and reductions of personnel, the company managed to limp through a 10-year disaster period.  Finally, the tide turned in the late '30's, and the business began to flourish once more.

     When World War II came along, Lang felt the need to serve his country.  Therefore, his wife, Kathleen, was left to operate the plant from 1942-1945.  During this period, the brick industry was declared an "essential industry" by the U.S. Government, due to the need for building training facilities.  Even with the plant running full capacity, their production still ran about a year behind their orders during this time.

     Nestled against the hillside in the western part of the city, Martin Brick Co, has tried to keep pace with the times and is constantly making changes to improve equipment and methods of manufacturing its product.  The plant has been completely revamped since its early days: Two 200 ft. long tunnel kilns were installed in 1947 and 1950, replacing the old round kilns and giving a capacity of 45,000 bricks a day.  New dryers were constructed in 1968.  Various additions to automate brick handling have been added, including a setting machine installed in 1977 which automatically cuts, groups, and places the brick on the kiln cars at a rate of 12,000 brick per hour.  The latest updating project at Martin Brick Co. is scheduled to begin the latter part of 1983.  Because of spiraling natural gas costs, an alternative is being sought for this traditional fuel used in the kilns.  A system is being installed which will burn a biomass fuel.  A biomass fuel is a byproduct of anything that grows and will burn - thus it is a replenishable fuel.  Examples are: sawdust, peanut hulls, cottonseed hulls, rice hulls.  In this case, the proposed fuel is sawdust, available in the Junction area as the byproduct from the extraction of oil from the cedar trees grown in that area.  Even considering trucking costs from Junction, estimated cost for this fuel is considerably less than natural gas at its present rate.

     The third generation Martin to be associated with the plant, Lang C. Jr., joined the firm in 1960 after receiving a Ceramic Engineering degree from the University of Texas.  Lang Jr. "grew up" in the brick business quite literally.  Their home, for most of his early life, was located on one corner of the brick yard, and learning the "ins and outs" of making brick was a natural part of his life.  Shortly after returning to Coleman and the brick plant, Lang Jr. began developing an unglazed quarry tile.  In 1962, a subsidiary company, Flooramic Tile Co., was formed to produce these tiles, with Lang as President and General Manager.  The tile, well received from the beginning, developed a reputation of exceptional quality, which led to the association with Dallas Ceramics, a nation-wide manufacturer and distributor of ceramic tile.  With such marketing possibilities, the little plant, now called Creative Ceramics, flourished.  Production went from 30,000 sq. ft. of tile per month in 1974 to 150,000 sq. ft. in 1977 and eventually to 230,000 sq. ft. in early 1979.  The Dallas firm purchased controlling interest of the plant from Martin Brick Co. in August, 1976.  Lang continued as President of the company until he sold the remainder of the stock to them in June 1983.

     Having run both the brick plant (since Lang Sr. died in 1965) and the tile plant for i8 years, Lang is looking forward to being totally involved in the brick business again: and with the modernization projects on which he continually works.

     The fourth generation is waiting in the wings: sons Greg and Ted.  Although their interest at present seem to reach in other directions, only time will determine whether Martin Brick Co. will become a four generation business.