Hutchinson Brick & Tile Works

M. C. Madsen, Hutchinson, Minn., has put in new machinery and additional kilns at his plant, thus greatly increasing the output. He is also turning out a superior quality of drain tile, for which there is a great demand. (Clay Record, Clay Record Publishing Company, Chicago, August 28, 1896, Volume IX, Number 4, Page 23)

M. C. Madsen, of Hutchinson, Minn., has started his brick plant for the season. (Clay Record, Clay Record Publishing Company, Chicago, June 22, 1898, Volume XII, Number 12, Page 23)

M. C. Madsen, the brick and tile manufacturer, of Hutchinson, Minn., will open up a new brick yard at Glencoe, Minn., in the spring. A specialty will be made of sidewalk tiling. The clay at Glencoe has been tested satisfactorily. (Brick and Clay Record, Volume XX, Number 2, February 1904, Windsor & Kenfield Publishing Company, Chicago, IL, Page 76)

Fire broke out in the kiln sheds of the brick plant of M. C. Madsen, at Hutchinson, Minn., and they were burned before the blaze could be checked. (Clay Record, Clay Record Publishing Company, Chicago, August 31, 1905, Volume XXVII, Number 4, Page 33)

Long Siding. The farmers ordered a carload of tiling from the Hutchinson Brick & Tile Co. They say farming does not pay unless the low lands are drained. (The Princeton Union, Thursday, July 26, 1906, Volume XXX, Number 33, Page 8)

Former State Senator William E. Harrington of Hutchinson has become a convert to the proposition that the productiveness of Minnesota lands can be doubled by tile draining and has employed a crew of six experts who will lay for him this year twenty-eight miles of tiling, taking, one-third of the output of the Hutchinson Brick and Tile Works, one of the largest plants in the state. (The Princeton Union, Thursday, June 20, 1907, Volume XXXI, Number 26, Page 7)

The Hutchinson (Minn.) Brick & Tile Works, owned by M. C. Madsen, have been doing business even during the winter months, there being a large demand among farmers for tile. (Brick and Clay Record, Volume XXX, Number 3, March 1909, Kenfield-Leach Company, Chicago, IL, Page 163)

The Hutchinson Brick & Tile Works are exceedingly busy this season and plans are now being made for extensive increase of capacity, including the building of a new drier. (Brick and Clay Record, Volume XXXI, Number 2, August 1909, Kenfield-Leach Company, Chicago, IL, Page 81)

The Hutchinson (Minn.) Brick & Tile Works, owned by M. C. Madsen, will be enlarged. New kilns and tracks to claybank and a clay haulage system will be installed. (Clay Record, Clay Record Publishing Company, Chicago, February 28, 1910, Volume XXXVI, Number 4, Page 41)

The plant of the Hutchinson (Minn.) Brick & Tile Co. is to be improved and its capacity increased. New kilns will be built and tracks laid for an industrial railroad from the coal pit to the works. (Brick and Clay Record, Kenfield-Leach Company, Chicago, IL, Volume XXXII, Number 3, March 1910, Page 197)

The Hutchinson Brick & Tile Works, Hutchinson, Minn., have greatly improved their plant by adding new machinery to it. The workmen are now busy installing it. (Clay Record, Clay Record Publishing Company, Chicago, March 30, 1910, Volume XXXVI, Number 6, Page 40)

Minnesota Drain Tile in Demand. Farmers are taking advantage of the season to haul tiling during the winter months and Mr. Madsen, proprietor of the Hutchinson (Minn.) Mine, Brick and Tile Works, writes to the "Clay Record" that between January 10 and February 7, over 400 loads of tiling were taken from his factory by farmers’ teams. So rapidly was his stock reduced that a number of customers hauled the tiling they required and piled it up on adjacent lots so as to make sure of getting what they wanted, and will haul it to their farms at their leisure. During the past season about 120 cars of tiling have been taken from Mr. Madsen’s factory and all was used within hauling distance of Hutchinson. Mr. Madsen has brought experienced and expert tile layers from Illinois and during the past season forty of the these men have been at work in this vicinity. The demand for tiling is growing so rapidly that the capacity of the factory is insufficient and will be increased as rapidly as possible. The increase provided for will permit an added output of at least one-third for the coming year. The rapid growth of the demand for drain tile in Southern Minnesota is significant, and those well informed insist that it has not yet fairly started. When there is a full realization of the advantage to be derived from tile drainage it will not cease until practically every acre of land in this section is tile drained. It should not be understood that this is a wet region or that surface drainage is impracticable, but it has been demonstrated in other states that tiling land adds so immensely to its productivity that drainage is highly profitable. There are a number of striking examples of what tiling will do for cold, unproductive land in this vicinity which have from time to time been referred to. (Brick and Clay Record, Kenfield-Leach Company, Chicago, IL, Volume XXXII, No. 4, April 1910, Page 229)

Mr. Madsen, drainage engineer, of the Hutchinson (Minn.) Brick & Tile Co., introduced an innovation by advertising to furnish free of charge a drainage plat for any farmer proposing to tile his land. Mr. Madsen has been kept busy early and late fulfilling his promise, and the prospects are that an immense amount of tiling will be done in that locality the coming season. Land owners are coming to recognize the importance to having a survey made by a competent engineer before laying tile. (Brick and Clay Record, Kenfield-Leach Company, Chicago, May 1, 1911, Volume XXXVIII, Number 9, Page 457)

H. Madsen, Hutchinson, Minn., has made additions to his plant, including an electric motor and other equipment. (Brick and Clay Record, Kenfield-Leach Company, Chicago, July 1, 1911, Volume XXXIX, Number 1, Page 35)

An electric motor has been installed at the brick and tile factory at Hutchinson, Minn. (Brick and Clay Record, Kenfield-Leach Company, Chicago, July 1, 1911, Volume XXXIX, Number 1, Page 18)

M. C. Madsen, the proprietor of the Hutchinson Brick & Tile Works, at Hutchinson, Minn., afforded a very effective showing at the county fair. It will be samples of grain which was grown on land, reclaimed from a former peat bog and slough, by the use of clay drain tile. This land was absolutely useless until it was drained. After draining, the rich land produced abundantly. Mr. Madsen has done a great deal of tiling work. (Brick and Clay Record, Kenfield-Leach Company, Chicago, October 1, 1911, Volume XXXIX, Number 7, Page 280)

During the past year many improvements and enlargements have been installed at the Hutchinson Brick & Tile factory, Hutchinson, Minn. (Brick and Clay Record, Kenfield-Leach Company, Chicago, October 1, 1911, Volume XXXIX, Number 7, Page 262)

M. C. Madsen, of Hutchinson, Minn., a well known brick and tilemaker of that place, has recently contracted to erect nine silos of hollow clay blocks, during the spring and summer. The use of clay block silos is growing rapidly in the Northwest. Their excellent record wherever they have been used, even during the severest winter in many years, - that just passed, - has served to make them very well favored. As farmers learn more about them, they are very anxious to have them constructed. Other brick and clay manufacturers who make the silo blocks are taking good orders for the silos. (Brick and Clay Record, Kenfield-Leach Company, Chicago, May 1, 1912, Volume XL, Number 9, Page 430)

Four kilns are under fire on the plant at Hutchinson, Minn., where the plant of the Hutchinson Brick & Tile Works is located. Walter Madsen, the drainage engineer of the concern, has received letters from private citizens and county authorities in Litchfield, Lester Prairie, Mayer, Watertown, St. Bonifacious and Monticello, asking him to lay out farm drainage systems there and in the vicinity of Hutchinson. The institution of a drainage engineering department is an enterprising move on the part of this tile making concern and will be sure to give them a splendid return in the near future. (Brick and Clay Record, Kenfield-Leach Publishing Company, Chicago, June 1, 1913, Volume XLII, Number 11, Page 994)

The particular advantage of the drain tile here produced (Hutchinson) is that they resist frost exceedingly well. (Clays and Shales of Minnesota, Frank F. Grout and E. K. Soper, The University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1914, Page 127)

The Hutchinson (Minn.) Brick & Tile Works has received orders for an unusually large supply of drain tile, to be ready for shipment in the Spring. In one ten day period, orders came in for eleven carloads. (Brick and Clay Record, Kenfield-Leach Company, Chicago, January 6, 1914, Volume XLIV, Number 1, Page 105)

M. C. Madsen, Hutchinson, Minn., wants some method of clay storage. He washes his limey clay by a German process, which requires a storage capacity for one year. (Brick and Clay Record, Kenfield-Leach Company, Chicago, February 17, 1914, Volume XLIV, Number 4, Page 488)

The Hutchinson (Minn.) Brick and Tile Company has increased its capital stock to $200,000, and is building an addition to its plant that will substantially increase the output. A spur has been built from the railroad, over which shipments can be made directly from the kilns at a great saving in time and expense. M. C. Madsen, founder of the original company, has been elected president; William E. Harrington, vice-president, and Walter T. Madsen, secretary and treasurer. Other interested parties are H. H. Ames and F. N. Moore. (Brick and Clay Record, Kenfield-Leach Company, Chicago, April 4, 1916, Volume XLVIII, Number 7, Page 661)

George Madsen, formerly connected with the Hutchinson (Minn.) Brick and Tile Company, has accepted a position with the Minneapolis Clay Products Company as foreman of its plant in North Minneapolis. Accompanying him in this change was his brother, Carlisle Madson, who will be employed as a drainage engineer by the above company. (Brick and Clay Record, Kenfield-Leach Company, Chicago, April 18, 1916, Volume XLVIII, Number 8, Page 764)

An example of effective advertising is afforded by the work now being done by the Hutchinson (Minn.) Brick and Tile Works. This company is placing in conspicuous places along the country highways in its territory, attractive signs, eighteen by twenty-four inches in size, upon which is painted the following: "Tile Your Farms with the Tile That Stands Frost – Preliminary Estimates Free – Hutchinson Brick and Tile Works." Attached to each one of these signs is a unique attention-getter in the form of a sample six-inch tile. (Brick and Clay Record, Kenfield-Leach Company, Chicago, March 13, 1917, Volume L, Number 6, Page 571)

For more than a quarter of a century the Hutchinson (Minn.) Brick and Tile Works has been manufacturing burned clay products in the Northwest. A new record was recently set up when recognition of its product came from Fargo, N. D. – the most distant point to which this company has ever shipped its products. Shipment of twenty-five cars of tile will be made by M. C. Madsen, president of the company, as soon as Walter Madsen, secretary, completes the survey of the farm in which they are to be laid. The Hutchinson plant is planning to start operations as soon as its clay beds are workable. A sufficient supply of material is on hand, however, to supply the local demands and to make frequent shipments to outside points. Many improvements have been made since the plant shut down last fall, which will greatly increase its capacity and enable it to cope with what promises to be the biggest demand for its products which it has ever experienced. (Brick and Clay Record, Kenfield-Leach Company, Chicago, May 22, 1917, Volume L, Number 11, Page 1062)

Hutchinson – The Hutchinson Brick & Tile company plant was partially destroyed by fire, causing a loss estimated at $7,000. (The Tomahawk, White Earth, Minnesota, Thursday, September 12, 1918, Volume XVI, Number 21, Page 3)

The portion of the Hutchinson Brick & Tile Company’s plant, at Hutchinson, Minn., which was damaged by fire last month, is to be rebuilt. M. C. Madsen, president of the company, states that it will be modernized on both a labor and fuel saving basis. (The Clay Worker, Industrial Publications, Inc., Chicago, October 1918, Volume LXX, Number 4, Page 355)

The only brickyard in the county is at Hutchinson, where brick and draintile of excellent quality are manufactured from the ordinary gray drift. The glacial drift here is the same as that found over large sections of the State and is full of lime and quartz pebbles, sand, gravel, and even large boulders. The plant has been successful in the use of this material, with which many others have failed, because of he special washing process devised by M. C. Madsen, whereby the pebbles are completely separated from the clay. This process is of especial importance to all who may be interested in the ceramic industry, because it opens up a field for the utilization of a vast amount of material which has heretofore proved almost valueless. A description of this plant and the methods used is given on pages 55-56. The gray drift exposed at Hutchinson consists of 16 feet of oxidized yellow clay, underlain by a considerable thickness of clay, blue in color but otherwise similar to the yellow clay. The extent of the deposit is to be measured in scores of square miles. As overburden there is a few inches of soil. The clay, as used at the plant, slakes in five minutes, is fairly plastic, and requires 24 per cent of water for molding. Its tensile strength is nearly 100 pounds to the square inch and more than 75 pounds to the square inch when rapidly dried. Its shrinkage on drying is 6 per cent. (Clays and Shales of Minnesota, Frank F. Grout with contributions by E. K. Soper, United States Geological Survey, Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1919, Page 192)

Page 55. Hutchinson Process. At Hutchinson, in McLeod County, the gray drift is cleansed of limestone pebbles by a process that is probably not duplicated in America. The washing machinery occupies a space not over 20 feet square and 15 feet high and washes 130 yards of clay in a day. The clay from the bank is hauled by cable car to the washer, where it is mixed with an excess of water and agitated by a series of vertical rods fastened to a rotating crossbeam. The harrow-like motion of these rods tends to throw the larger pebbles toward the center and leaves the fine clay and sand suspended and distributed throughout the washer pit. A bucket elevator of continuous operation dips into the pit near the center and removes the gravel. The gravel, if cleansed, forms a by-product of considerable value. At the sides of the pit a screen of proper mesh allows the escape of the find sand and

Page 56. clay to one of a series of open ponds in which they are allowed to settle. After a time some of the water is pumped off and the rest is left to sink into the ground. The sand naturally settles close to the intake of the pond, and the clay is carried to the farther side. After partial drying the material is taken to the stiff-mud machine, where the clay and sand are mixed in approximately the same proportions in which they existed in the drift before the washing. Experiments are in progress to determine whether the clay is improved by standing in the settling ponds all winter. The gravel is sold for concrete. Both the clay and the sand contain a considerable about of calcium carbonate (see analysis in report on McLeod County, pp. 191-193), but if care is taken to remove the coarser sand the lime does no harm, and it is certainly less abundant than in the unwashed drift. The plant at Hutchinson uses three round downdraft kilns, and plans are made to double the capacity. It has been found possible with this clay to produce a very good draintile and hollow building block, so that the production of common brick has become secondary. Recently most of the tile made from clay have been on small sizes; the gravel by-product was used with cement for larger tile. M. C. Madsen, of Hutchinson, has been developing this process for about 20 years. (Clays and Shales of Minnesota, Frank F. Grout with contributions by E. K. Soper, United States Geological Survey, Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1919)