Steele County. Cornell Brothers, at Owatonna, manufacture stoneware. The clay employed is a fine, rich, plastic, blue clay, and is at present obtained from Eldora, Hardin county, Iowa. This bed of clay is being exhausted, and its quality is deteriorating. This has determined the firm to try a gray clay found about one mile east of Owatonna. This is the same layer of clay which crops out at the mineral springs near the city. It has been found to work well. Excellent fire-brick is made from this clay. This firm has just started in business. (The Geological and Natural History Survey of Minnesota, The Fourth Annual Report, For The Year 1875, N. H. Winchell & M. W. Harrington, The Pioneer-Press Company, St. Paul, 1876, Page 113)