Access to the photos in our Louisville Fire Brick Photo Album was made possible through the kindness and generosity of Mr. Bill Shuck.
Mr. Shuck is the owner and operator of LFB. In May of 2008 I contacted Mr. Shuck as I was working on the Carter County rails-to-trails project.
As a result of our conversation, Mr. Shuck offered to let me make copies of the photos in albums in the company's Grahn administrative office.
The LFB office administrator, Carol Imel, brought me four large albums of photos that ranged from the early 1900's to 2000. 

My original intent was to make copies of a few selected photos of local employees of the company, but as I scanned through the albums I realized what a 
treasure I had been given. These albums are very different from the typical family photo albums that we all possess. These photos tell a story of 
Louisville Fire Brick Company in a very intimate and yet comprehensive way. In a greater sense, they tell something of the story of all of the brick plants 
that have been such an essential part of the fabric of Carter County for over 100 years. Most importantly, they tell us something of the lives of all 
those hundreds of workers who supported and raised their families through their labor in our Carter County Brick plants.

In these albums are many one-of-a-kind photos of the people of the community of Louisville Fire Brick. They tell the story of men and woman at work
at a process that uses the very soil of Carter County to create a product that allows man to harness the elemental forces of nature. 
Many of the photos in these albums are of the plant buildings and equipment used in the brick making process. At first I did not intend 
to use many of these photos, but then I thought, "will there be brick plants in Carter County a hundred years from now"? Whether there 
are or not, I think it's important that the full story of the Louisville Brick Plant be preserved for future generations. Though the machinary changes, 
the essential processes that are performed in 2008 in the manufacture of brick are not greatly different from those of 1908. Our ancestors labored 
in buildings and operated machines very much like those that are depicted in these photos. The current generation of brick yard workers are the 
proud representatives of our ancestors who, in their times, did the hard work of brick production.

Viewing these photos must change the lives of each of us in some small way. The people in these photos are Carter County people. They are us.

In closing, I would again like to express my sincere appreciation to Mr. Shuck for sharing these photos with us.

John Grace
June 6, 2008