Daugs & Wiest, brick manufacturers of Blakeley, have made an assignment to Dennis A. Kelley of said village. Their assets are considered to be in the neighborhood of $5,000, with liabilities amounting to probably from $10,000 to $12,000. Their largest creditors live at Belle Plaine. The firm has been operating two brick yards, one in Belle Plaine and another at Blakeley. Inability to dispose of their brick is regarded as the cause of their failure. (Arlington Enterprise, Thursday, August 6, 1896)
At Blakely a deposit has been used in the manufacture of cream-colored brick. It consists of laminated clay about 30 feet thick the upper half of which shows the common weathered yellow color, characteristic of these clays. The extent of the deposit is uncertain on account of the talus from the overlying hill of drift, but it can be traced for some distance along the Minnesota River bluff. A plant established here has been operated steadily since about 1890, making common brick. Recently a large proportion of hollow brick have been made with a stiff-mud machine which has a capacity of about 35,000 brick per day. (Clays and Shales of Minnesota, Frank F. Grout and E. K. Soper, The University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1914, Page 155)