at Cokato, Wright county, by James Runions, 300 M. yearly, for six years, at $8, the clay now nearly exhausted; (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)
At Cokato brick-making was begun by James Runions in 1873. During the following six years he made on an average 300,000 yearly, selling at about $8 per thousand. The color is red. The quantity of workable clay here, extending over a half acre or so, is thought to be nearly exhausted. The section of a well at this brick-yard, close east of the main street and north of the railroad, is soil, 2 feet; yellowish gray clay, 2 feet; gravel and sand, 3 feet; yellowish "hardpan" (till), 12 feet; dark bluish till, said to be not quite so hard as the foregoing, 4 feet, and extending lower. Water came in veins in the dark till. (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, Page 262)