At Dayton, brick are made by Medorre Arseno, his yard being the same as that occupied 21 years ago by Lyman Dayton, situated on the north side of Crow river. The brick, which sell for $8.50 per thousand, at the kiln, are generally of a cream color, but those from outside of the kiln are tinged with red. Two or three kilns per year are made here. Mixed wood is worth $1.50 per cord; hard wood $2.00. (The Geological and Natural History Survey of Minnesota, The Fifth Annual Report, For The Year 1876, N. H. Winchell, The Pioneer Press Company, St. Paul, 1877, Page 192)
Brief notes of this production in counties north of the Minnesota river are the following, arranged in their order from south-east to north-west: ½ mile west of Dayton, in Otsego, Wright county, by Medor Arseno, about 250 M. yearly, at $7 to $8 per M.; (The Geological and Natural History Survey of Minnesota, The Eighth Annual Report for the Year 1879, Submitted to the President of the University, Feb. 18, 1880, The Pioneer Press Company, St. Paul, MN, 1880, Page 120)
Page 260. Bricks were first made m this county about the year 1855 by Lyman Dayton; and this work is still carried on at the same place, which is about a
Page 261. half mile west of Dayton, in the south edge of section 36, Otsego. It is a third or half mile distant from the two adjacent rivers, and some 40 feet above them. For several years, up to 1880, this yard was worked by Medor Arseno, with an annual product of about 250,000, selling at $7 to $8 per thousand. In 1881 it was leased for three years by Vassar & Co., who are making 300,000 yearly, selling at $8 per thousand in small lots at the kiln, or in large lots loaded on the cars at Itasca station, on the opposite side of the Mississippi. These bricks are mostly cream-colored, but near the outside of the kiln they are tinged with red. Sand is mixed with the clay for tempering in the proportion of one to six. An area of about two acres of stratified clay suited for brick-making is found here, lying in a depression of the till. The black soil two feet thick, is stripped off, and the next 6 to 10 feet of clay is used. A thickness of 5 to 7 feet, next below the soil, is finely laminated, yellowish gray clay, with here and there irony-stained or dark layers. Some portions of this clay are worthless for bricks because of limy concretions, but most of it is free from them. At a definite line the yellowish hue, which characterizes the upper part of this clay-bed, is succeeded by a dark bluish color. The lower part is further distinguished by requiring a large proportion of sand for bricks and by shrinking more in drying and burning. It contains many limy concretions, but no other pebbles. A well 29 feet deep at the brick-yard got no supply of water, and is said to have failed to reach the bottom of the dark clay. (A Report on the Geological and Natural History Survey of Minnesota, 1882-1885, The Geology of Minnesota, Volume II, N. H. Winchell and Warren Upham, Pioneer Press Company, St. Paul, Minnesota, 1888)