Alma James Palmer

The following was found on Family Search.org, and was written by one of Alma James Palmer's grandsons. Brickmaking - The old fashion way: One of the first memories I have of my grandfather Palmer is going to a site in the middle of downtown Farmington, New Mexico where he was making bricks. That was back when Farmington was very small. I vaguely remember them making bricks in their front yard next to where we lived there in Kirtland. The way I remember it, he said he had made over five million bricks by hand. He seem to have a love for making brick. He would get a contract to to make bricks for a building and when possible, he would make the bricks on site. I know he went to multiple sites in Colorado and New Mexico. My father told of many of the places that he went with his father to make brick. I even remember going to the school site in Ignacio, Colorado where he was making bricks. That was after he had moved to Tiffney, Colorado, to farm.

My father, George Elmo Palmer inherited that talent and love. He wanted to make bricks like his father. However by the time he was able to be in a position to do that, there wasn't much demand for hand made bricks He would collect clay everywhere he went. Then we would make mud out of the clay and put the mud in brick molds to form the adobes. Once the adobes were dry, he would put them in a small electric kiln to burn them and turn them into bricks. They were never very many, it was more of an experiment to see what color the turned and how hard they got It was a desire of his to make brick, so he bought a bankrupt brick plant and had it hauled to Kirtland, New Mexico. He was never able to put a building around the plant so it never was completed, So he decided to do it the old fashion way. Grandfather Palmer came down and helped him make bricks along with by brothers and sisters. I remember bringing my future wife, Sandra home to meet the family. Dad and Conard Visage, a cousin, were out at a brick kiln, keeping the fire burning. They used wood as fuel for the fire. The kiln had maybe 100,000 bricks in it.