Sylvanus Johnson, Iowa City’s first brickmaker.
Johnson was a Connecticut native, born November 12, 1813, who worked in his father’s brickyard before moving to Iowa City. One of Iowa City’s earliest settlers, Sylvanus arrived here in 1839.
I like to call him Mr. Red Brick since it was his brickyard in Outlot 24 (at the corner of Burlington and Gilbert Streets) that made much of the building material used in the earliest days of The Red Brick Campus.
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