Receipts from Incorporation Fees. Dec. 2. Verna Brick Co…$50.00 (Annual Report of the State Treasurer of Minnesota for the Fiscal Year Ending July 31, 1910, Syndicate Printing Company, Minneapolis, 1910, Page 113)
The new brick company which has been putting in a plant at Feeley, Minn., is burning its first kiln of brick, there being about 1,500,000 in the first lot. The yard is running full blast, the company has a force of men turning out 30,000 a day from the machines. This company has been in Feeley considerably over a year, building and getting ready for business. They have one of the most up-to-date brick plants in the state including steam drying shed, in which brick can be prepared for burning in any kind of weather. It is anticipated that when they get to going nicely they will run the year around. They have their supply of wood for the coming year, and have contracts and arrangements made for the cutting of thousands of cords for the coming season. Manager Carlson states that the company has sufficient clay, which, by the way, is of the finest quality, to last them over fifty years. (Brick and Clay Record, Kenfield-Leach Company, Chicago, March 15, 1911, Volume XXXVIII, Number 6, Page 349)
No clays were worked in this county (Itasca) up to 1900. Since then the development and activity on the iron ranges have led to the use of some clays in the southern part of the county – the glacial lake or river clays at Verna and Grand Rapids. (Clays and Shales of Minnesota, Frank F. Grout and E. K. Soper, The University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1914, Page 113)
The Verna Brick and Tile Company, Warba, Minn., has just closed its plant after a very busy season in which it turned out a record output of five million brick. (Brick and Clay Record, Kenfield-Leach Company, Chicago, November 17, 1914, Volume XLV, Number 10, Page 1025)
The brick contracts for the new Virginia Technical School of Duluth, Minn., have been awarded to the following firms: The Paine and Nixon Co., will furnish the exterior face brick, while the interior face brick will be supplied by the Thomson-Williams Co., the common brick will be furnished by the Verna Brick Co., and an order for sand-lime brick went to the Range Sand-Lime Brick Co. (Brick and Clay Record, Kenfield-Leach Company, Chicago, IL, Volume 51, Number 9, October 23, 1917, Page 791)
The Verna Brick Co. is developing the deposit at Verna, near Warba station on the Great Northern Railway. The portion of the deposit that is considered available is about 10 feet thick and extends over about 10 acres. It is yellowish gray in color and has apparently been leached. Underlying it and extending over a great many acres of the surrounding country is a blue laminated clay containing a few limestone concretions. The gray clay burns cream-colored and the blue clay is said to burn red and to show a much greater shrinkage. Any attempt to mix the blue and gray clays encounters the difficulty common to all attempts at mixing a stiff, plastic clay with a lean, sandier clay. The plastic lumps remain suspended in the more fluid mass and require very thorough pugging or some other form of mixing to get a satisfactory structure and avoid auger laminations. The yellowish-gray clay, which is being used, slakes [quality by which a dry lump of clay tends to absorb water and fall to pieces when immersed]at once and shows very low plasticity [capability of being molded], requiring 23 per cent of water for molding. The air shrinkage is 3 per cent, and the tensile strength [maximum stress it can withstand before breaking] is well above 100 pounds to the square inch, even after rapid drying. The plant has a capacity of 35,000 brick a day and makes a common brick of cream color, using wood as fuel. (Clays and Shales of Minnesota, By Frank F. Grout With Contributions by E. K. Soper, United States Geological Survey, Bulletin 678, Washington, Government Printing Office, 1919, Page 175)
Contemplate Building Hollow Tile Plant. Verna Brick Co., Duluth, Minn., are finding a ready sale for the products of their plant, according to George H. Crosby, president. The company is testing its clay with the idea of putting up a hollow tile plant in the near future. Their brick output is being sold by the Duluth Builders’ Supply Co. at the present time. (Brick and Clay Record, Volume 57, Number 5, September 7, 1920, Industrial Publications, Inc., Chicago, IL, Page 426)