Bricks. In the S. W. 1/4 of section 8, Stowe Prairie, seven miles south of Wadena, brick-making was begun in 1881 by Murray & Allen, their product that year being 80,000, sold in Wadena for $11 per thousand. These are red bricks of fair quality, made from stratified clay, to which an eighth part as much sand is added for tempering.
Attempts to make bricks by Frank and Joseph Ward in the S. W. 1/4 of section 10, Stowe Prairie, in 1879 and 1880, failed on account of the limestone particles in the clay (till), by which the bricks were cracked after burning. (A Report on the Geological and Natural History Survey of Minnesota, 1882-1885, Volume II, N. H. Winchell and Warren Upham, Pioneer Press Company, St. Paul, Minnesota, 1888, Page 577)