History of Goodhue County, Minnesota, Part 66

Author: Curtiss-Wedge, Franklyn
Publication date: 1909
Publisher: Chicago, H.C. Cooper
Number of Pages: 1264

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The Minnesota Stoneware Company, organized in 1883. erected buildings in the immediate neighborhood of the older concern, and at the time of the consolidation was enjoying a prosperous business.

The product of the stoneware works consists of all varieties of ware, from tiny brown jugs to milk pans and great butter jars and water refrigerators. The clay, which is brought from

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Goodhue township, where it is found a few feet under the sur- face, underlying a rougher clay, is brought by cars over the line of the Great Western, and emptied into the clay pit. It is then ground and mixed with water to a proper consistency. The milk pans are made in moulds, while the majority of other arti- eles are turned on wheels and lathes and shaped by the hands and fingers of the workmen. The ware is then dried, and after- ward dipped in a solution of glazing chemically prepared, thus giving to the product a smooth, hard glaze. impervious to acids. The process is completed by the burning in the kilns. During the period of the greatest heat, rock salt is thrown onto the fire, glazing the outside of the ware. It is then ready for shipment. The ware has been widely introduced and has a reputation for sterling merit which speaks well for the honesty of its manu- facture.

The North Star Stoneware Company was organized in the early nineties and continued in operation several years. It was then absorbed by the Minnesota and Red Wing Stoneware Com- panies and the machinery removed to the older plants. After lying idle for some time, the plant was purchased by Henry W. Woolner, of Peoria, who started to remodel it for a malting plant. In 1900 the plant was purchased by the Minnesota Malting Company, who completed the alterations.

Red Wing Sewer Pipe Company. With the increase of the pottery business in Red Wing, the question of the disposal of the coarse clay overlying the finer potters' clay became a most important one. This coarse clay is of practically the same geo- logie formation as the potters' clay, but somewhat stained with iron rust and other foreign material, thus unfitting it for the finer ware. Originally this clay was cleared off, thrown to one side, and then shoveled back into the excavation after the finer clay was removed. This involved waste, expense and inconven- ience. As this problem increased, it occurred to several prudent minds that the coarser clay might be made into sewer pipe. To this end various experiments were made, and in 1890 the first sewer pipe in Red Wing being turned out by George Cook at the potteries, and placed on exhibition in the window of the Pierce, Simmons & Co. Bank, with the inscription, originated in the mind of John H. Rich, one of the officials at the potteries, "Red Wing Sewer Pipe, Why Not?" From this piece of pipe, three feet long, the present large industry has grown.

In October, 1891, the Red Wing Sewer Pipe Company was incorporated, with E. H. Blodgett, president; F. W. Hoyt, secre- tary; Frederick Busch, treasurer; C. E. Sheldon, superintendent. Mr. Sheldon was the moving spirit in this organization of the company and became manager of the new concern. The factory

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of the Red Wing Wagon Company was purchased, machinery was installed and work at turning out sewer pipe was at once commenced. a ready market being found from the start.

One year later. John H. Rich, to whom belongs the credit of originating the sewer pipe idea in this city, formed the John H. Rich Sewer Pipe Company. a close corporation, of which John 11. Rich was president ; W. H. Putnam, secretary, and Horace S. Rich. treasurer. This company, with a capital stock of $200,000, purchased a tract of land near the old fair grounds on the line of the Duluth. Red Wing & Southern, later bought by the Great Western railroad, and erected a spacious and substantial factory of cream colored brick. The opening of this factory was a gala day in the life of Red Wing. Invitations were sent to the lead- ing citizens of the city and state. as well as to many prominent workers of clay products throughout the United States. In response to this invitation. the multitudes gathered from near and far. February 13. 1893, and Judge W. C. Williston, in a neat speech, dedicated the factory to the cause of labor. Mrs. II. A. Willard pressed the button to the accompaniment of the martial strains of the Ft. Snelling First Regiment Band ; and as, in response. the wheels began to move, there began a new era of prosperity for the city and people of Red Wing.

The relations of the two companies from the first was of the friendliest nature, and there was an amicable understanding which prevented unfriendly competition. Toward the latter part of the existence of the two companies. the officials occupied offices together. This friendly agreement resulted. in November, 1901. in a consolidation of the two companies, the older com- pany bringing into the new corporation its longer-established market, while the newer company contributed its larger factory and greater room for expansion. The consolidation was one of the business moves that has had the greatest influence upon the commercial activity of the city. The capital of the new com-

pany, which took the name of one of the consolidating com- panies. the Red Wing Sewer Pipe Company. was placed at $500.000. with the following officers: President, John H. Rich; vice president. E. II. Blodgett ; treasurer. Horace S. Rich ; secre- tary. C. E. Sheldon; counsel, O. M. Hall; directors, John H. Rich. E. H. Blodgett. H. S. Rich, E. S. Hoyt, W. C. Williston, C. E. Sheldon. W. H. Putnam and Fred Busch.

On February 7. 1902. Factory B. the original factory. whose building was purchased from the Red Wing Wagon Works, was destroyed by fire. In remarkably short time it was rebuilt, and was in operation May 12 of the same year, less than ninety days from the time of the disaster.

The product of the Red Wing Sewer Pipe Company is used

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throughout the United States, and even in foreign countries, the annual output being about 3,500 carloads. While a specialty is made of sewer pipe from four to twenty-four inches in diameter, and even larger, there are also made culvert pipe, drain tiles, well curbing, water pipe, gas pipe, chimney hoods, well coping and other clay products in the pipe line. Tests have proven the advantages of the pipe shipped from Red Wing. Being a vitri- fied, salt glazed pipe, it is weather proof, rust proof, frost proof, and, so far as chemical tests can determine, time proof. It is not affected by electric currents, and having no pores can be made absolutely germ proof.

The process of making the pipe is most interesting. The clay is brought in train loads from the clay beds in Goodhue, and conveyed in buckets from the cars to the grinder. This grinder is a bowl about ten feet across, with a pair of circular knives that work back and forth and revolve at the same time, the bowl itself having a rapid rotation. To the ground clay is added a bit of ground potsherd, and enough water to reduce it to a consistency suited to the next process. This pasty or dough- like mass is then emptied with a scoop into buckets, which are carried to the head of the press. where the clay is forced through the casting by seventy tons steam pressure from a forty-four- inch cylinder that squeezes out every air bubble. The collar at the socket end is moulded at the same time. As the pipe comes from the press it is taken on hand trucks to the drying room, where a sponger trims off the rough edge. after which it is set on a board to set for twenty-four hours. The next day the other end is trimmed to exact length and true shape. It then stands in the drying room a week or ten days, the temperature being increased from 110 to 125 during this drying process. The pipe is then ready for the kiln. Within the kiln, the pipes are ar- ranged with the greatest skill. the object being to get in as many as possible without crowding, and yet to have them stand true so that they will not warp. After this is arranged satisfactorily, the openings in the dome are sealed up, the door is walled up with brick and clay. Fires are then started in a series of grates around the kilns, and gradually increased until a temperature of high degree is reached. an ingenious system being arranged to distribute the heat evenly among the pipe in the kiln. At the period of the most intense heat. salt is thrown in. giving the pipe the smooth glazed finish so much admired and desired .. After four days of this baking, the kiln is gradually allowed to cool for four days, the heat being released gradually to avoid combustion of nearby woodwork. The pipe is then tested with a hammer, and as a final process is sorted and piled up in rows in the yards ready for shipping.

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The process is largely one of temperature, and consequently economy consists in properly utilizing every ounce of fuel pos- sible. To this end, Mr. Rich has perfected a system which draws heat from the kilns for drying purposes. This drying is done by exhaust steam during the day time, and at night heat is drawn from the kilns after the burning or baking is finished, through hot-air tunnels by means of a sturtevant fan which distributes the air under the lower floor.

In recent years the output of sewer pipe has been so great that the coarse clay from the Goodhue beds has been used up faster than the finer clay underneath. If this were continued, the finer clay, thus uncovered, would deteriorate through action of the elements, and the supply of raw material for the pipe has thus been limited. Consequently it was necessary to seek other clay beds and suitable ones were located in Iowa. As Red Wing was off the direct shipping line from these beds, a new branch factory has been erected at Hopkins, near Minneapolis. The new factory there is built of brick, 80x300 feet, four stories with basement. It is equipped with twelve kilns, and aside from the main factory has a large building used as a boiler house, also drying sheds, coal sheds and shipping sheds.

The two factories in Red Wing are equipped with all the latest appliances and employ about 250 men.

The present officers of the Red Wing Sewer Pipe Company are as follows: President, John H. Rich; vice president, H. S. Rich ; secretary, C. E. Sheldon ; treasurer, C. A. Beteher ; directors, W. H. Putnam, S. T. Featherstone and H. A. Willard.

John Harrison Rich was born December 30, 1856, at Lake Geneva, Wis., to which place his father, Harrison Rich, and his mother, Martha Rich, had emigrated from Jamestown, N. Y. John was educated at the Geneva schools and later worked on his father's farm until 1876, when he came to Red Wing and obtained a position as bookkeeper in the hardware store of Baker & Rich. He remained in Red Wing about three years and later devoted himself to the banking business at St. Vincent, Minn., and Pembina, N. D. He returned to Red Wing in 1882 and in- terested himself in the clay establishments with the determina- tion to bring them to the front. After many years of hard work and wise financiering. his efforts were rewarded by more than usual success. Since then he has become associated with a great number of Red Wing's large successful enterprises, and some in other places. At the present time he is president of the Red Wing Sewer Pipe Company, the Red Wing Malting Company, the Goodhue County National Bank and the Forest Products Company. These institutions are considered separately, else- where in this volume. He is also largely interested in, and one

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of the directors of the Minneapolis Steel & Machinery Company and the Minneapolis Electric Elevator Company. In a number of other industries in Red Wing and elsewhere he has smaller interests where his business counsel is freely sought and gener- ously given. In politics Mr. Rich has been a Cleveland Democrat, and since the free silver campaign of 1895 he has been an inde- pendent voter, supporting the Republican national ticket. In religious matters he affiliates with the Episcopal Church, and the Shattnek School, at Faribault, which is controlled by that de- nomination, finds in Mr. Rich one of its most able and interested directors. Mr. Rich is a member of the Masonic order, the Red Wing Commercial Club, the Minneapolis Club and other organi- zations. Notwithstanding his exceedingly busy life, Mr. Rich has found time to devote much of his energy to the public welfare. In 1899 he was elected mayor of the city, and he made one of the best executives that any city ever had. HIis fairness, his abso- lute fearlessness and his insight into the future needs of the city was in many cases fully demonstrated. He declined a reëlection which would have been unanimously given him. He has also served as a member of the city council and on various boards in the city government. But whether in or out of office he has taken the same deep interest in the welfare of the community and can always be counted upon to give his time and means to the Desirable City. Broadway Park, with its landscape beauties, is an example of his generosity and love of civic improvement along artistic lines. In his exceedingly active life there is noth- ing to which he looks back with more satisfaction and pleasure than the organization of the Red Wing Civic League, which has done so much to make Red Wing beautiful, and which has set an example for eivie work and civie pride even in the great cities throughout the United States. Though very successful in his enterprises, he is unassuming, democratie and easily ap- proachable by any one who may need his assistance or advice. Mr. Rich was married May 26, 1880, to Julia Wilder Williston. daughter of the late Judge W. C. Williston. Three children have been born to them, Williston Canfield, Harrison Pierce and Mary Dorothea.

The malting business, comparatively a new industry in Red Wing, has outstripped in its amount of business its older com- panions, the lumber and milling enterprises, and stands second, in tonnage shipped, to the clay products factories.

The Red Wing Malting Company, situated in a conspicuous position overlooking the Mississippi river and the Milwaukee railroad, at the end of the Great Western line, is a landmark for all travelers who in recent years have passed through the city. The company was organized July. 5, 1901, with the follow-

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ing officers : President, John Rich; vice president, Tams Bixby ; treasurer, C. A. Betcher; secretary, W. C. Krise. These gentle- men, with L. S. Gillette, R. Jameson and W. C. Williston, con- stituted the board of directors. The first building was erected in 1901. In April, 1902, additions were made, and in 1904 the capacity and capital stock were doubled, the latter now being placed at $300,000. The plant has eight big tanks and three smaller ones, having a capacity of 1,000.000 bushels. The com- pany employs about twenty-five men, and does an annual busi- ness of about $80,000. The officers and directors remain the same as at the organization with the exception that B. Gerlach has taken the place of R. Jameson on the board of directors, and the vacaney caused by the death of W. C. Williston has not yet been filled.

The Minnesota Malting Company was organized in 1900 and purchased from Henry W. Woolner, of Peoria, Ill., the old plant of the North Star Stoneware Company, which has been partially remodeled into a malting plant. The Minnesota company com- pleted the alterations and started business at once, the present capacity being about 500,000 bushels annually. The original capital stock of $125.000 has been increased to $150,000. The original officers. president, F. F. Bullen; vice president, A. R. Mensing; secretary and treasurer, A. F. Bullen, have been suc- cessively re-elected to the present date. The plant employs about ten men and is situated on the line of the Great Western railroad.

S. B. Foot & Co. is the oldest manufacturing institution of its kind in the entire northwest, having been in business here since the early fifties. The company operates a large shoe factory and a tannery, employing about seventy-five people. The factory is located on Plumb street in a three-story brick building, where is manufactured a complete line of shoe paes, canvas leggings and sheepskin foot apparel. The tannery is a large new brick building at Trout Brook. The present officers of the concern are: President, Edwin II. Foot; vice president and treasurer, Peter A. Nelson ; secretary, James E. Teelc. The history of this company is embodied in the biography of its founder.

Silas Buck Foot, now deceased, was one of those sturdy pio- neers of business who helped to lay the foundation for the pres- ent commercial and industrial solidity of the state of Minnesota. He was widely known and universally esteemed. While Red Wing is honored by having him as a resident since the early days, his record is nevertheless one that belongs to the whole state, and in the leather and shoe trade he was known and respected from the Atlantic to the Pacific. He was born in New Milford, Pa', November 7, 1834, the son of a native Vermonter, who in Pennsylvania cultivated his farm and also engaged in the shoe-

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maker's trade. Left an orphan at the age of seven years, he was cared for by an elder brother and sisters and received his education in a log cabin school. After a short experience as clerk in a retail general store at Prompton, Pa., he went, in 1853, with a brother, to engage in a similar business at San An- tonio, Texas. After a year or so there, his brother falling vietim to a southern fever. he returned to Pennsylvania. but soon deter- mined to become a pioneer and seek his fortune westward, where the opportunities for pioneer endeavor were larger and broader than in his native state.

Traveling through the middle west in the primitive fashion of those days, and at the same time paying his way by the sale of patent rights, he finally, in the summer of 1857, reached Red Wing by steamboat on the Mississippi, and. believing that here were the opportunities for advancing his fortune and establish- ing his home, he remained and opened a small store. He later traded this for real estate. which, in turn, was exchanged for a shoe store, with which he entered into the shoe business, taking Dr. W. W. Sweney as partner, under the firm name of Foot & Sweney. In 1858 he returned to Pennsylvania, to be married, and there was espoused to Lydia Lorana Park, of Montrose, Pa., July 6, 1858. He at once returned with his wife to his western home. In 1860 ill-health and the advice of physicians forced him to take a trip westward. during which he traveled over the plains and mountains as far as Walla Walla, Wash. He returned to Red Wing eighteen months later. restored to good health. After his return, he purchased the Sweney interests and the firm of Foot & Sterling was organized. In 1872 this firm started a tannery in the outskirts of the city. They soon added to their retail business, manufacturing and jobbing of shoes and shoe paes. In 1881 it was found advisable to move the shoe factory to St. Paul, and there this business grew and developed into the large and prosperous industry now carried on under the corporate name of Foot, Schulze & Co. Mr. Foot continued at the head of the business until the time of his death, May 22, 1908. While he retained his residence in Red Wing, he traveled almost daily to and from St. Paul. to attend to his business there. The shoe pae business and tannery were continued at Red Wing under his direction and control, and have grown to large proportions. A large, new, modern tannery was in course of erection when he was called from earth's activities. Of his marriage were born five sons and two daughters, the survivors of whom are Ezra P., Frederick W., Edwin H., and Bessie Park Foot. He lost his wife January 30, 1903, after a long and happy married and family life. While it was to business affairs, in which his indefatigable industry and sagacity made him pre-

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eminent among the manufacturers of the country, that he most largely applied his energies, he always took an active interest in public affairs, national, state and local. In 1882-83 he was mayor of Red Wing, and his term was marked by strict enforce- ment of the liquor laws, and the installation of a municipal water plant, in place of giving a franchise to private enterprise. He was a thirty-second degree Mason, a Knight Templar and a Shriner. He was directly interested in the business develop- ment of Red Wing and was one of the chief promoters of the Red Wing, Duluth and Southern Railway, an undertaking that made possible the success of the clay industries and which was . afterward sold to the Chicago, Great Western Railway Com- pany. For many years he was a director in the First National Bank of Red Wing. He was a member of the St. Paul Jobbers' Association, the National Shoe and Leather Association, and of other important commercial bodies. He took a deep interest in the Foot Family Association of America, and attended the first annual meeting at Wetherfield, Conn., June 5, 1907, where over one hundred descendants of Nathaniel Foot, the first settler, gathered in the first Connecticut town, where he lived in 1637. For many years Mr. Foot was a useful and earnest member of and generous contributor to Christ Episcopal church, in which he long served as vestryman, and of which he was, at the time of his death, junior warden. In 1903 he erected, as an addition to Christ church, a beautiful and costly chapel, in memory of his deceased wife.

The Forest Products Company, still in its infaney, promises to be one of the most important of Red Wing's industries. An evolution from the originally simple proposition of utilizing the timber on the overflow bottom lands up and down the Mississippi, it now represents an industry absolutely unique and constitutes an experiment which will be watched with interest not only be- cause it represents what is likely to be a financial success, but because it also has a sentimental side-that of preserving the rapidly diminishing forest areas of this state and vicinity. The "bottoms," a maze of winding sloughs, swamp and tangled woods, frequented only by hunters, wood choppers and campers, are the wide bed of the swollen river when melting snows or heavy rains crowd it over its low banks. Receiving the flood deposits of finest silt from upland farms, these lands are both the richest and least valuable in the county. Here and there are found the rotting houses of settlers who have wasted their best years in striving with ax and fire to elear meadows and tillable fields and who have at length given up the struggle against flood and vigorous timber growth and have left the land stripped of its big timber. the only value it can ever possess.

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Through the bottoms passed the procession of rafts which ren- dered possible the conversion of the vast forests of the North into cheap lumber for the incredibly swift up-building of the Northwestern states. The lumbermen who swarmed upon the river merely considered the bottom lands a difficult place in which to seek the 8 to 20 per cent of their sunken, strayed and stolen logs, and a source of fuel supply for the steamboats which consumed all the most valuable and accessible timber. With the gradual depletion of the pine supply and dismantling of the river mills the timbermen moved on to devastate more distant virgin forests.

Alone among all the men who had operated mills along the river. C. A. Betcher conceived the idea of utilizing the remnants of this despised bottom timber. Proposing the scheme to J. H. Rich (interested in finding a healthful out-of-door enterprise of some promise for his son. H. P. Rich) and W. T. Farrell. ex- perienced in all practical lumber operations, he met with in- credulity and suppressed derision. However, upon cruising the bottom lands all were surprised at the extent of land and timber and decided to saw all the valuable timber in the vicinity with a portable mill. Not content with the contemplated devastation of the banks of one of the most beautiful rivers in the world, and impressed with the wonderful productive capacity of this land. adapted to no purpose but raising timber. the plan was evolved of purchasing the land instead of the stumpage. Prof. Detweiler of the Minnesota Forestry School was consulted and upon in- vestigation showed his confidence in the ultimate success of the venture by identifying his future with that of the company and undertaking the enormous task of re-stocking (re-foresting) these abused lands and bringing them up to their normal yield. As soon as sufficient acreage was acquired to insure, when brought into a proper state of cultivation, a continuous out for the mill. the company was incorporated in October, 1908, with the fol- lowing officers: President. John H. Rich; vice president, C. A. Betcher: treasurer. Nels Tufvesson; secretary. S. B. Detweiler. The directors were: S. H. Rich, C. A. Betcher, S. B. Detweiler. W. T. Farrell and H. P. Rich. The officers remain the same at the present time. with the exception that H. P. Rich is now seere- tary and general manager. On Carlson's channel. at the eastern end of Barn Bluff, was begun the construction of a modern saw- mill fitted to turn out high grade lumber and with a reserve of power and space to install machinery to work all the waste from logs and tree tops into the most economical by-products, which may suggest themselves as the business develops. In August the mill started on its first short season's run and is expected to produce from five to ten million feet of lumber in every succeeding year.

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History of Goodhue County, Minnesota, Part 66

Author: Curtiss-Wedge, Franklyn Publication date: 1909 Publisher: Chicago, H.C. Cooper Number of Pages: 1264

Author: Curtiss-Wedge, Franklyn
Publication date: 1909
Publisher: Chicago, H.C. Cooper
Number of Pages: 1264