W. H. Matthews advises us that he will start a small plant for manufacturing common building brick at Ada, Minn., and that he is in the market for soft mud machinery. (The Clay Worker, T. A. Randall & Co., Indianapolis, April 1897, Volume XXVII, Number 4, Page 370)
Page 324. Ada. Brick and Tile – 1903. Established in Year – Illegible.
Page 325. 1904. Total Number Wage Earners - 19. Adult Males (Office Force) – 2. Adult Males (Excluding Office Force) - 17. Number of Hours Each Day - 10. Number of Hours Each Week - 60. Average Number Weeks Operated Last Year - 24. Number Employed between 6 p.m. and 7 a.m. - Not Listed. Number Persons Regularly Employed on Sunday - Not Listed. Changes in Name of Firm or New Inspections – Ada Brick Yard Co. (Ninth Biennial Report of the Bureau of Labor of the State of Minnesota, 1903-1904, Volume 2, Great Western Printing Company, 1904)
J. P. Hunt and G. L. Thorpe expect to start a brick plant at Ada, Minn., in the spring. (Clay Record, Clay Record Publishing Company, Chicago, February 14, 1910, Volume XXXVI, Number 3, Page 37)
Steenerson & Peterson, of Pelican Rapids, Minn., expect to remove their plant to Ada, Minn., if enough money is raised there to operate same. (Clay Record, Clay Record Publishing Company, Chicago, March 30, 1910, Volume XXXVI, Number 6, Page 39)
Stennerson Bros. Pelican Rapids, Minn., and T. C. Halvorsen, Ada, Minn., are planning to organize a company to take over the brick yards at Ada, Minn. (Brick and Clay Record, Kenfield-Leach Company, Chicago, September 1, 1911, Volume XXXIX, Number 5, Page 194)
Half a mile from the town of Ada is a deposit of the laminated clay of the Red River Valley. The deposit has been proved over an area of 5 acres and is apparently much more extensive. It is known for a depth of 15 feet by borings which did not reach the bottom. It is overlaid by only a few inches of soil. The clay is yellow and weathered for a depth of about 10 feet and there is only one 6-inch sandy layer included in it. Nearly all the brick buildings in Ada were made from these brick and have stood service very well. The plant has not operated since 1906. (Clays and Shales of Minnesota, Frank F. Grout and E. K. Soper, The University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1914, Page 137)