The Newark China Clay Company

It's been fairly well documented that from the mid-1800's through the early 1900's, the mining of kaolin clay was big business in and around the Hockessin area. We touched on it a bit in a post about the Diamond State Kaolin Company. But kaolin mining wasn't just restricted to the immediate Hockessin vicinity, as we saw in a post mentioning the Peach Kaolin Company, which was located on Paper Mill Road. And apparently that vein of clay continued westward, at least through the area just beyond Corner Ketch Road. In that spot (now part of White Clay Creek State Park), for more than 30 years, the Newark China Clay Company extracted and processed kaolinite for multiple uses. One of its employees in the 1920's and 1930's was Frank Morris, father of our memoirist Myrtle Emma White.

However, the story of the Newark China Clay Company begins not with Morris but with Victor Ullmann, a Swiss immigrant who came to this country in 1892. Ullmann was a man of many pursuits, but his most valuable one was a widow named Louisa Graham. Her value came (in addition to being a wonderful woman, I'm sure), not from her married name of Graham but from her maiden name of Stoeckle. Louisa was the daughter of Joseph Stoeckle, owner of the Diamond State Brewery in Wilmington and one of the wealthiest men in the city. Ullmann worked first for the brewery as a cooper and then as the head of its barrel-making shop. But in 1904 he and his brother Henry became involved with the Mineral Products Manufacturing Company (MPMC) of Philadelphia, and convinced them to move their plant to South Wilmington.

Victor Ullmann

The MPMC built a new facility at Buttonwood and C Streets, and seems to have operated for about 9 years. In November 1913 their building was leased to the Moore Motor Truck Company of Philadelphia, and presumably the MPMC had ceased operations prior to that. I don't know what led to the end of that firm, but I do know what Victor Ullmann was up to next, and his new venture also had to do with minerals, this time of the clay variety. On September 16, 1912, Ullmann purchased four acres of land on the east side of Pleasant Hill Road, just west of Corner Ketch Road, from Harley A. Mousley. Mousley had purchased the 93 acre farm in 1891, and would hold on to it until 1929, when it was acquired by Samuel Hallock duPont.

Approximate location and shape of the Newark
China Clay Company's 4 acre lot

Ullmann and his newly-created Newark China Clay Company (NCCC) also signed deals with Mousley and Alban Buckingham for access to mine clay on their farms. NCCC would pay Mousley 20¢ and Buckingham 25¢ for each ton of clay removed from their farms, with an annual minimum of $50 and $250 respectively. Ullman also agreed to be as minimally invasive and disruptive as possible to the normal workings of the farms. The lease deals were for ten years, with the option to renew, which he did in 1922 and in 1932. The manager of the operation (at least at first), and probably the man who knew how to do it, was Robert Griffin Miller. He had experience in the business, and was listed as working in a clay mill in Philadelphia in the 1910 Census.

The clay was mined from pits that reached as much as 100 feet deep and 30 feet wide, although in reality they usually only went about 50 feet deep. It could be dangerous work, as tragically demonstrated in January 1936. That's when 55 year old James Miles fell 36 feet into a pit, suffering fatal injuries. There seem to have only ever been about 6 employees at any given time, including Myrtle Emma's father Frank Morris. The photograph below is the only one I'm aware of showing even part of the NCCC site. Frank is on the left. The man on the right is said to be Ford Johnson, but I've been unable to find anything more on him.

Frank Morris and Ford Johnson at the Newark China Clay Company 

After the clay was mined, it was cleaned to remove dirt and sand, filtered, then pressed into flat bricks and dried. The NCCC workers loaded the clay onto wagons (later, trucks) and took it over to Thompson's Station on the Pomeroy and Newark Railroad to be shipped out. When the "Pumpsie Doodle", as it was known, ended freight service in the late 1930's, the clay was taken to Newark. Below is a diagram which shows the locations of the structures on the company's four acre lot, as well as an aerial photo of the site taken in 1937.

Diagram of the Newark China Clay site

The Newark China Clay Company site, 1937

The Newark China Clay Company continued operations into the 1940's, although it apparently did shut down for about a year in late 1933/early 1934, probably due to the economic climate. At the start of America's involvement in World War II in late 1941, the clay mill was abandoned. The buildings were left as they were, with a mound of weathering clay still lying nearby. The property was seized by the sheriff and sold in 1945 to Henry Gregg Danby and his son John Kenneth. Two years later, they sold it to Samuel Hallock duPont, who already owned the surrounding land.

Eventually the site became part of White Clay Creek State Park, which it is today. In the last few years, park personnel and state archaeologists have done studies and excavations at the NCCC site, and have really come to appreciate the importance of it. A new trail has been placed near the site, and there are plans to install something in the near future to recognize the historical significance of the location. And because it does lie within the state park, this relic of early 20th Century Mill Creek Hundred industry should be protected for generations to come.