Brick by Brick, the Blakeley Brickyards

The Blakeley area of Scott County is a beautiful area to visit and explore, but one of the things hidden away in this corner of the county is a history that helped build Minnesota

Ed Wards Brickyard from 1890s

 and the country as we know it today. This region of our county was once home to a thriving business of brick making. These bricks, formed from local clay and fired right here in Scott County would be loaded on trains by the ton to be used in buildings in the County,  Twin Cities, and across the county.

The late 19th Century saw a boom in construction across the country, industry was starting to take hold a main player in the American economy and the demands of the growing country required bricks to build factories, houses, and all manner of other construction. From the 1860s through the early 1910s the Blakeley area, including Belle Plaine, operated six different brickyards at various times through the period. At the peak of their production, this region of no more than 5 miles was producing nearly 60,000-70,000 bricks per day.

One of the first brickyards in the area was opened by I. N. Dean, the founder of Blakeley, in 1870. The brickyard employed dozens of men throughout the season and many made their way through the winter by helping prepare for the next season by cutting timber. The largest of the brick kilns in the area measured in at 35 feet long and 20 feet high, it was powered by cotton wood that was typically cut the winter beforehand.

The region had several brickyards which operated  throughout the years, the major yards were: Wiest and Daugs, Mierbachtol, Ed Ward’s, Peter Becker’s, Jacob Krenz’s, and Dean’s Yard. Dean’s would eventually be bought out in 1882 by A. Wiese and operated by Sam Kahn until it closed in 1914. These brickyards produced different kinds of bricks which served several purposes. Bricks made from yellow and blue clays created bricks useful for interior construction, while red or crème colored bricks served as exterior materials. Becker’s and Krenz’s produced crème and red bricks respectively with the rest producing mainly interior brick.

When all six yards were in production they employed between 200-300 people, and the average wages for a brickyard worker in the late 1800s was around 15 cents an hour. Brickmaking requires particular conditions, though, and production would shut down if it rained or when winter came. Many of the workers that didn’t migrate for the winter, would be employed to cut timber for the kilns for the coming season. An entire winter would be required to cut enough wood to feed the massive kilns. The kilns themselves would be firing 24 hours a day with people watching it constantly to ensure it maintained the required temperature. The bricks were made from a mix of sand, water, and clay and pressed into forms to be fired.

The brick business was booming in Scott County toward the end of the 19th century, orders in the range of 2 million bricks were being submitted annually from construction firms in the St. Paul and Minneapolis with others coming from as far away as New York. Many of the bricks which came out of Belle Plaine and Blakeley went into building some of the first brick buildings in the area, especially in Belle Plaine itself. Beginning in the 1860s, the Blakeley region and Belle Plaine were churning out bricks at blinding speed, but the 1890s would see a fast decline to the once booming industry.

In 1893, the country would experience a sudden and deep depression, the Panic of 1893. The economy would recover within a few short years, and it would be nothing compared to the depression which would come forty years later. Still, the Panic had driven many businessmen to halt construction of building and the demand for brick quickly began to fade. In 1894, Peter Becker’s yard for example had a surplus of over 2 million bricks due to canceled orders. The other brickyards in the area experienced similar hardships. Daugs and Wiest cut the cost of their bricks in half from $6 per brick to $3, but the writing was on the wall. Mierbachtol Brickyard was the first to close its doors from the decline in 1894, followed by Ed Ward’s and Daugs and Wiest the following year. The Becker yard continued for a few more years, with Jacob Krenz having closed in the late 1880s. The yard owned by A. Wiese, the first brickyard built in the area of Blakeley, did not close until 1914.

The late 19th Century was the height of brick making in Blakeley, and the area had a host of dedicated and quality yards. Producing between 60,000-70,000 bricks per day at the peak of production, the region helped built the state and the country at large. Unfortunately, like many industries at the time, the Panic of 1893 saw the end of the boom of construction and with it the decline of our local brickyards. While the yards closed in the late 1890s and some a little later, the bricks they produced can still be found in some old buildings today. What better testament to their quality and the hard work that produced them than to still be standing over a century later.

Creameries Around Every Corner

Scott County has a long agricultural history, as does much of the Minnesota River Valley area. When most people think agriculture, the first idea they have is of farming but agriculture as an industry is more than crops and cattle. When farmers harvest their yields, the next step of the process begins, turning that raw good into a finished product. A major industries that sprang up on the late 19th and early 20th century in Scott County was creameries which did just that.

Creameries could be found in every township, and nearly every major town had one. Most of these creameries started as Co-Ops, businesses that were founded and owned by the local farmers that made use of the business. While the list of creameries in the county is long, a look at three will help illustrate their impact on agriculture in the county: Joel, Blakeley, and Marystown.

Joel Creamery Building in 2006

The Joel Creamery was a small one man operation, and produced primarily butter. This creamery served the local farmers in Joel, but also had buyers in Belle Plaine Township. Butter is a staple of creamery production, and most every creamery produced it in some quantity. The Joel Creamery opened its doors in 1893 and remained in operation for 24 years, owned and operated by A.C. Schmit. Upon its closing, Schmit thanked his patrons for their support. For many in the early 20th century, local creameries were the primary way that people acquired dairy products.

 Marystown Creamery was opened in the early 1900s and, like Joel, produced mainly butter. However Marystown specialized in sweet cream products. The creamery turned out several thousand pounds of butter.

Marystown Co-Operative Creamery Stock

By 1924, the Marystown Co-Operative Creamery had been leased out to the Redman Ice Cream Company, producing the cream that would go into their Ice Cream though not actually producing the desert itself. In 1925, the creamery became a depository for local farmers to drop off their milk and cream. In 1927, however, the creamery closed and the building was torn down not long after.

Lydia Co-Operative Creamery Calendar

 Perhaps the longest running of the small town creameries was that of Blakeley. Beginning operations in 1917, the creamery quickly boomed in business as local farmer bought in. On its first day in operation it is reported that it churned 1000lbs. of butter. In 1928 it produced 399,170 pounds of butter. By 1933, the Blakeley community was receiving $160833, or over $3 million dollars today, in revenue from the creamery. The average patron received about $22, or $426 today, annually. Rather a substantial profit considering they were in the height of the great depression. Blakeley creamery continued to operate until 1970.

Creameries were a means of production in the agriculture industry, but more than that they provide for their community. Goods coming out of the churns were bought by locals who couldn’t easily travel to larger towns, and farmers received dividends on the cream and milk they brought into the businesses. For many farmers, the creameries became a nucleus of farming in their area along with the feed mills, and grain mills. Creameries today are not as abundant as they once were, and few Co-Op creameries still exist at all. These business remind us of the larger impact agriculture has on our communities and ways in which people survived and prospered in decades past.

Written by Dave Nichols, Curator

A Schoolhouse in Blakley

The following are the memories of Clara Simcox, who attended Salsbury School in Blakley in 1904. Her story was transcribed for the book “Blakley Township’s Walk Through History, published in 1976

One room schoolhouse outside Shakopee, early 1900s. Photo from the SCHS Collections.

The schoolhouse I remember was much like the others in the township. Some of the “seats” were double- a row of these along the east wall, and single seats otherwise. The teacher’s desk was at the south end of the room. On either side in the front there were book cases for the library books, of which there were quite a few. Also, a large dictionary had a special stand. The black boards were behind the teacher’s desk and one on each side wall. the room was lined with tin. A large stove with a tin jacket stood on the northwest corner. We carried the drinking water form the August Kahle well. There was no pump on the well, but the water was drawn with buckets. We had a pail and one dipper, which we all drank from. Later a crock fountain was installed where the water was emptied into. After recess or at noon when we all came in from playing, usually everyone had to have a drink, so one pail of water did not hold out for a day. I started school in October 1904. We only had 8 months of school in those days

My first teacher was Ms. Helen Theissen. At the time I thought she came as near to an ange as any human being could. She made my early recollections of school never to be forgotten. Ms Theissen taught all subjects in all eight grades. We always had a very large and good library and many books were read to us for our opening exercises. She also taught us songs which we sang during opening exercises when she did not read to us.

So many nice things happened in country school. Our holiday program was always a mountain-top experience. Several weeks before Christmas we were allowed to go along when the older pupils cut juniper branches in the coulee. We helped carry them to the schoolhouse and the teacher and older students decorated the schoolhouse with them. We also gathered “bittersweet” and “wahoo” to give the effect of the red and green Christmas colors.

Practicing for programs was always so much fun. Who dressing rooms were made with sheets for the boys and girls (Later we had curtains and did not have to bring the sheets from home). Members of the school board put up a stage at the front of the room. The teacher always trimmed the tree after we were excused for the day when the program was to be held in the evening. The first Christmas I was at school, Santa was late getting there after the program. He brought his wife along. He explained that he was late because one of the deer had fallen and broken its leg and they had to put splints on it. Of course, there was no doubt in our mind that this was the case.

In later years we drew names and Santa would distribute the gifts as well as the bags of nuts and candy. At that time we appreciated all we got and no one criticized the kind or amount. Out programs consisted of songs, recitations and dialogues.

In the spring of that year we always observed Arbor Day. Some of he older boys were dispatched to the nearby coulee to get a tree and we planted it with proper ceremony. Then, too, our annual trip to Salisbury’s hill to pick up Mayflowers or hepaticas which was another exciting experience. We gladly sacrificed our opening exercise and recess so we could have a longer noon hour for the trip.

We always played games during recess and the noon hour after we had our lunch. “Ball” was the most popular, but we also played “ante ante over”, “run sheep run”, “grey duck”, “stealing sticks”, and others. In winter we always had a “fox and goose” ring. We had an enrollment of at east 30 pupils.