Jacob and Martin Krenz started the first brickyard in Belle Plaine in the late 1860s, which produced a good quality red brick used in some of the original downtown buildings.
Various sources spell Jacob’s last name as Krenz, Kranz, or Krentz. The spelling used by the family is "Krenz." Jacob was born in Germany (Prussia) and is believed to have come to Minnesota in the 1860s. A brother Martin came later in November 1871. The Belle Plaine history, THIS IS OUR TOWN, by Harold Albrecht, says Jacob married Wilhelmina Schwanke (sometimes spelled Schkenka) in Farmington, Wisconsin, in 1868, where his parents, Anton and Anna Krenz, resided. Jacob and Wilhelmina moved to Belle Plaine circa 1870, according to Wilhelmina's obituary. Jacob died of tuberculosis on June 3, 1884, when daughter Emma was 17 and son August was only about 2. Jacob's tombstone indicates he died 3 June 1883, rather than 1884, as in the Belle Plaine history. The tombstone is not correct. Widow Wilhelmina continued to live in the family home until her death in 1925. She was remarried to a man named Frank G.Sielaff (aka Sieloff) for about 25 years. She sold the brickyard and established a general merchandise store that included a millinery section run by daughters Theresa and Olga.
Albrecht’s Belle Plaine history has a brief section on the Krenz brickyard and several others, beginning on page 102. Information apparently derived from newspaper articles provides the following: "The Krenz brickyard was located by the railroad and river on the north side of Belle Plaine and produced bricks from about 1868 until September 5, 1888. The site was approximately even with Meridian Street, north of the former tile factory. Mixers were on the railroad side and drying yards toward the river. Albrecht states that Krenz sold over a million bricks, employed 22 to 25 men, and shipped to Iowa and the Dakotas." An 1880 Annual Report on geology in Minnesota stated: "At Belle Plaine, Jacob Kranz has made bricks 10 years; annual product, 300 thousand, selling at $5 to $6 per M. The clay used is recent alluvium of the river, with which he mixes one-sixth as much sand as clay." Notes at the Scott County Historical Society suggest that Jacob was born in a little town near Berlin, Germany. His younger brother Martin is stated to have been born in Berlin on January 1, 1847. Martin's passport indicated that he was from Arnsfelde when he emigrated to the United States from Bremen on January 1, 1871. He resided at first with his parents in Farmington, Wisconsin. Martin's Petition for Naturalization gave his birth place as Arnsfelde, Germany, from his trip to the United States in November 1871. (Courtesy of Gary Williams)
