Editor Clay-Worker: We enclose herewith a draft for $2.00 to apply on our subscription account to the Clay-Worker for this year. Your paper is too valuable to do without. The outlook for the coming season is bright. We are using a Kells & Sons brick machine and it works to our entire satisfaction. We have the nicest clay bed we have ever seen. It contains about 50 acres; is clay 22 feet deep, with only from one to two feet stripping on top. The quality of the clay is of the very best. We have had it analyzed, and it proves to be suitable for paving brick, drain tile, pottery and the very best building brick. Delbohm, Johnson & Co. Willmar, Minn. (The Clay Worker, T. A. Randall & Co., Indianapolis, April 1892, Volume XVII, Number 4, Page 464)
In 1888 John Dehlbom and John Samuelson formed a company for the purpose of starting a brickyard in Willmar. They purchased lots 1 to 11, block 57, village of Willmar, and started the brickyard there. Soon after John Samuelson sold out his share in the business to Charles Johnson. In 1891 Johnson sold his share to Lewis Moline and Lewis Fridlund, and soon after that Lewis Moline bought one-half of Dehlbom’s interest. About this time it was found that the supply of brick clay on the land was about exhausted, and it became necessary to look about for a new place. After much prospecting Messrs. Johnson and Fridlund located a bed of excellent brick clay in sections 16 and 17, Willmar, about one mile west of the village. They purchased the NE 1/4 NE 1/4, section 16, and the NW 1/4 NW 1/4, section 17, paying $2,000 for the property. The machinery was moved to the new location in 1892, and they spent a large sum of money in erecting buildings and improving the plant. In 1894 (June 27) a severe windstorm demolished the sheds, and later a fire occasioned loss to the company. In 1899 N. N. Flykt, who had been with the company since 1891, bought Mr. Dehlbom’s share. The firm name was then changed from Dehlbom, Johnson & Co. to Willmar Brick Co. Mr. Flykt has had charge of the yard since that time. The total value of the land and plant is placed at $16,000. The plant has a capacity of 3,000,000 bricks per season. The clay is of an excellent quality, and the company has frequently obtained large contracts where the quality of the brick was required to be of the highest standard. (Illustrated History and Descriptive and Biographical Review of Kandiyohi County, Minnesota, Published by Victor E. Lawson and J. Emil Nelson of the Willmar Tribune, The Pioneer Press Manufacturing Departments, 1905, Page 388)