Olmsted County. Brick are made at many places in the county. The most of them are made at Rochester. E. P. Brown burns 350,000 a year. Whitcomb Bros. burn, as they tell me, 1,200,000 brick per year, in five or six kilns. The brick here and at Brown’s are machine made. V. Whitcomb has a small brickyard near that of Whitcomb Bros. In all cases coming under my observation the brick are made from the washed clay. This is in beds from two feet to ten or twelve feet or more. Although this material is sandy, more sand is usually put in in making the brick, which are consequently tender, and of poor quality. The brick vitrify but little when burned. (The Geological and Natural History Survey of Minnesota, The Fourth Annual Report, For The Year 1875, N. H. Winchell & M. W. Harrington, The Pioneer-Press Company, St. Paul, 1876, Page 95)
Mr. E. Whitcomb, formerly of Rochester, but for the past half dozen years residing at Gainesville, Ga., has returned to Rochester, where he will engage in brickmaking. (New Ulm Weekly Review, Wednesday, April 10, 1878, Volume I, Number 15, Page 2)
E. Whitcomb and M. P. Whitcomb, brick manufacturers, Rochester (Warner & Foote, 1878 Plat Book of Olmsted County, Minnesota)
Correspondence of The Winona Republican, Rochester, Oct. 2. A fire broke out in Whitcomb’s brick yard, south of town, on Monday morning, and destroyed the sheds. Loss, $200. (The Winona Daily Republican, Friday Evening, October 3, 1879, Page 2)
Whitcomb Edward…Rochester (Minnesota State Gazetteer and Business Directory including Dakota Territory 1880-81, Volume II, R. L. Polk & Co. and A. C. Danser, St. Paul and Detroit, Page 978)
Mr. E. Whitcomb has the contract for furnishing the brick for the east wing of the insane hospital to be built in Rochester this season. Sixteen hundred thousand brick will be used. (The Winona Daily Republican, Monday Evening, January 23, 1882, Page 1)
Rochester. The storm also ruined 140,000 brick in Whitcomb’s brickyard. (Winona Daily Republican, Wednesday, May 16, 1883, Page 3)
A brick maker in Rochester has burned the present season 1,100,000 bricks. (The Saint Paul Daily Globe, Monday Morning, October 29, 1883, Page 4)
Page 345. Brick of a red color are made at many places in the county (Olmsted), in all cases from the washed clay, which is the same as the loess loam. It is in
Page 346. deposits from two to ten or twelve feet thick. Although this material is sandy, more sand is usually put in in making the brick. The brick are consequently tender and of poor quality. They vitrify but little when burned. (The Geological and Natural History Survey of Minnesota, Volume I, 1872-1882, N. H. Winchell and Warren Upham, Johnson, Smith & Harrison, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1884)