Page:History of Goodhue County, Minnesota.djvu/712

 624 HISTORY OF GOODHUE COUNTY 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 II. Rich; vice president, H. S. Rieli ; secretary, ( '. E. Sheldon ; t reasurer, C. A. Betcher ; 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. V. 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 w r ere 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