Would you be able to show me a photo of your single embossed star brick you found near Henry?Nice brick! I know nothing about it but it seems like a good old one. Believe it or not there are some avid brick collectors out there, but I know of only 2 personally, one who is quite serious is a 30+ year bottle collector which is the main focus, and the other is an eccentric antique-shop owner on Chincoteague Island who also deals in bottles and wants to be interred in a mausoleum built out of his brick collection []. The hobbies must go hand-in-hand!
I will save the cool ones I find out and about, and have accumulated quite a few "good" ones. I have some with a singular debossed star from a pre-civil war era brick factory out in the country near Henry, Illinois, plus several bricks debossed with big fat letters reading "Heckard & Sons Canton, ILL" which I have actually seen sell for around 20 bucks a pop. I have access to a bunch more too, and may have to obtain them if I feel like it.
The most insane bricks out there are the "Culver Blocks" with 1901 patents. They were used to build the Indianapolis motor speedway nascar track , and although most of them were used elsewhere, people sell those things for 20-500 bucks each claiming them to be actual bricks from the track! Here in Champaign, IL I could get a truckload of those pieces of crap, sell them as the original bricks used in the speedway, and make a fortune. Just search eBay and you will see the scam they are running, it is so silly (but very tempting!).
Not 300 yards from me is an entire wall built out of those old paving bricks which is being demolished, and some roads here were made of them too which are getting torn up. Some asshole is selling them at 52.85 each in a large dutch auction (was selling them for 65 earlier) and recently sold 4 to 1 person! I might have to go do the same, just at the righteous deal of 20 bucks a pop...
I think P.T. Barnum would be selling them too if he were still around. []