USA > Minnesota > St Louis County > Duluth > Duluth and St. Louis County, Minnesota; their story and people; an authentic narrative of the past, with particular attention to the modern era in the commercial, industrial, educational, civic and social development, Volume II > Part 8
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Parks .- Conrad B. Wolf became superintendent of parks in 1913, the year in which Victor L. Power became mayor for the first time. Both made themselves evident by accomplishment of great things. Wolf has had all he has asked the village administration for, and has had the hearty co-operation of the mining companies in his plans of city betterment, and so has been able to establish a system of parks that must be an inspiration and a pleasure to the people of the place. The parks have been elsewhere referred to herein, but tribute must be paid to the planner. By his work in Hibbing, Mr. Wolf has come into good repute throughout the country among park superintendents, and landscape architects in general. His task was an exceptionally difficult one, owing to the severity of the climate, but he has brought
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color, fragrance and beauty to the village, and pleasure to the children. The people of Hibbing should get good return for all the money in- vested in the park system.
Commercial Club .- Hibbing is fortunate in having an unusually alert business body. The Commercial Club is making Hibbing very evident in other parts of the state, and neighboring states. Its ener- getic secretary, S. V. Saxby, has the hearty co-operation of almost all the business people of the place, and especially of the officials of the association. The officials of the Commercial Club are : R. W. Hitchcock, president; C. C. Alexander, E. A. Bergeron, E. W. Coons and John Curran, vice presidents: S. V. Saxby, secre- tary; A. L. Egge, treasurer; C. C. Alexander, E. C. Eckstrom, C. V. Chance, S. C. Scott, O. G. Lindberg, F A. Wildes and G. H. Alex- ander, directors.
BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF BENNETT PARK, HIBBING, 1915-AFTER FIRST YEAR OF WORK UPON IT
Newspapers .- The Hibbing "News" was established in 1899, as a Hibbing paper, although as a range newspaper its age can be in- creased five years, for it was in the spring of 1894 that C. A. Smith issued his first number of "The Ore," at Mountain Iron. It was intended to cover the whole of the range, and at that time Mountain Iron was, perhaps, the most important place. But with the great development of mines at Hibbing the center of activity changed, and in 1899 the owners of the "Ore" decided to move their office to Hibbing. There the paper became "The Mesabi Ore and Hibbing Daily News," and so it remained until 1920, when it became a daily, a successful morning paper. the only morning paper of the range. by-the-way, and in consequence enjoying a good circulation through- out the range. Claude M. Atkinson, a gifted and original writer, acquired the paper in May, 1899, and with his son, Marc M., has conducted it ever since.
Another early paper was the Hibbing "Sentinel," Will A. Thomas, editor and proprietor. The paper was in existence in 1899, the "Sen-
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tinel" plant having been "hauled overland from La Prairie by Wm. McGrath. Publication of the "Sentinel" was discontinued in the fall of 1899, but resumed in July, 1902.
The "Tribune," which of late years has been an evening journal, was founded in June, 1899, and in the early years was a weekly pub- lication. It was originally owned, it has been stated, "by a stock company, whose manager was J. Waldo Murphy." Another record is to the effect that in 1902 the plant was owned by H. C. Garrott, of Eveleth, and that the editor then was Theodore C. Surdson. Early identified with it as partners were T. C. Congdon, druggist of Hibbing, and F. G. Jewett, pioneer dentist of the village. A. E. Pfremmer was the sole owner of the paper in 1906, when R. W. Hitchcock, present editor-owner, acquired a part-interest in the journal. With the re- tirement of Pfremmer in 1910 Mr. Hitchcock became sole owner. The "Hibbing Daily Tribune" has a good circulation, and covers the after- noon field well.
Another local paper of merit established recently is the "Gopher Labor Journal," a weekly, founded by W. T. and C. J. Lauzon, at South Hibbing in 1919. W. T. Lauzon became sole owner in March, 1920, Sandford A. Howard, an experienced newspaper man, coming to Hibbing to assume editorial direction of the paper. Recently from the Gopher Printing House came a well-written and elaborately-illu- strated booklet on Hibbing, "The Old and the New."
Transportation .- Hibbing has two railroads, and a wonderfully efficient motor-bus service along the range. And in addition, an elec- tric trolley system that brings all the important places of the range within an hour of Hibbing. The motor-bus service, owned by the Mesabi Transportation Company, is an instance of how rapidly worth-while things are developed in that country. The Mesabi Trans- portation Company was organized on January 1. 1916, to operate a line of motor buses between Hibbing and Grand Rapids. At the out- set, the company had five busses, the officers of the company being the drivers. In 1920 they were building a $75,000 garage at South Hib- bing to house its twenty-three White and Studebaker buses; and they were averaging seven thousand passengers daily, and maintaining a service "as regular and reliable as a good clock." The officers of the company are : C. A. Heed, president ; C. E. Wickman, vice president and manager; E. C. Ekstrom, secretary ; A. G. Anderson, treasurer, and R. L. Bogan, director.
Court House .- The magnificent District Court House at Hibbing is one of the finest buildings, probably the finest, in old Hibbing; and it is far enough away from the point of mining to be sure of its present site for many years. It was built in 1911, so as to give to the western part of the Mesabi range within St. Louis county a service equal to that established in Virginia, for that part of the range, in 1910.
Hibbing ere long hopes to have a Federal building.
War Record .- Hibbing's war record was a meritorious one. Its young men went into the fighting forces, as has been recorded else- where ; its women formed a powerful Red Cross chapter : its miners put even more "steam" into their work ; and its people, rich and poor. combined to give to the limit of their means to the various war funds. If the Lake Superior district represents 8-10ths of America's ore sup- ply, and the Mesabi produces more than all the other ranges com- bined, then Hibbing's part in the providing of the raw material with which to make the shells and the ships was by no means insignificant,
1
UPPER LEFT-THIE NEW ROOD HOSPITAL AT NEW HIBBING ; UPPER RIGHT-MESABA TRANSPORTATION GARAGE AT NEW HIBBING, IN COURSE OF CONSTRUCTION ; LOWER LEFT-TIIE ANDROY HOTEL ( 162 ROOMS, 100 BATIIS ) AT NEW HIBBING. ( DWELLINGS SEEN IN FOREGROUND WERE ALL REMOVED FROM OLD IHIBBING) ; LOWER RIGIIT-TIIE $100,000 PUBLIC CONSERVATORY AT BENNETT PARK, HIBBING
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when one realizes that from one alone of Hibbing's open-pits, the Mahoning-Hull-Rust, came about 9,000,000 tons of the 40,0000,000 tons won for the world and the allies from the Mesabi Range in 1917.
Moving of the Village .- While it is erroneous to state that Hib- bing as a whole is being removed, it is proper to assert that all build- ings on the original townsite will have to be removed. The removal will be undertaken gradually, and even when completed, about two- thirds of what is known as the "old town" will remain undisturbed, the Pillsbury and another "forty" not being needed by the mining com- pany. The Minneapolis Daily Tribune, of May, 1920, stated :
For twenty years it has been common knowledge to the townspeople that the ore body in the east, west, and north sides of the original townsite of Hibbing extended under the principal business section. * *
For the last ten years the most densely populated district of Hibbing has been surrounded by open pits, making it impossible for the town to ex- pand. The northerly extremity extends out thumb-like and somewhat like a plateau, some of its buildings being perched on the edge of a wild gorge, hewn deep into the earth. Since the original townsite was laid out. the mines have steadily encroached on it, the Sellers' from the north and east, and the Rust from the west.
The Oliver Company had already acquired the right to the minerals under part of the town by lease, in 1899, and two years ago began to buy the surface rights. It paid $2,500,000 for them, and today owns the majority of the lots and buildings in an area of more than eight city blocks.
After these purchases were made, it became necessary to acquire a new location for that part of the town that had to .be transplanted. One mile away was the Central Addition, owned by the mining company, and here is to be the "New Hibbing."
The first buildings moved from the original townsite to the new addi- tion, in September, 1918. All frame buildings in good condition have been transferred. * * *
The moving of the buildings had to be done by steam log haulers and tanks (traction engines) of the caterpiller type.
The Central Addition is growing very rapidly. Since last September sixty-two buildings, dwellings, and three store buildings have been moved onto the site, and twenty-four new buildings have been built. * * * * * * Within another year, the mining company officials say, there will be little left of what was the original business section of Hibbing.
Recently fifteen persons residing in the southern end of the business and residential district, the Pillsbury and Southern Additions, and in the township of Stuntz, just outside the village, began an action against the Oliver Company, the Town of Hibbing, and the Mesaba Electric Railway Company, to enjoin the town from disposing of its property in the original townsite, enjoining the vacation of streets, enjoining the railways company from removing its tracks, and enjoining the Oliver Company from doing cer- tain things which would permit the mining of the northerly forty acres.
They suggested that the Oliver Company purchase their property, but it has no interest in the ore underlying the Pillsbury or Southern Additions. The application for a temporary injunction was argued November 28 and 29, and was taken under advisement.
An issue of the "St. Paul Dispatch," that of September 8, 1920, stated that $20,000,000 was being expended in the removal of the town and the building of the new. Other estimates place it at $18,- 000,000. And the "Hibbing Daily News," of July 4, 1920, thus tabu- lated the cost incurred in removal and new construction :
New business buildings $3,000,000
New hotel and hospital. 1,000,000
New power and heating plant .. 1,000,000
New homes, already constructed or under construction 1,000,000 New school buildings 2,600,000
Water and sewer mains 650,000
Street grading 450,000
Recreational building 750,000
City hall
500,000
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Depot and railway improvements. $ 500,000
Warehouses
500.000
New homes and apartments to be built by the Oliver Company for its employes ... 1,800,000
Office buildings, Sargent Land Company, and Meridan Iron Company 500,000
Interurban line improvements
100,000
County Fair Grounds 250,000
Municipal Athletic Park 25,000
Additional boulevarding 50,000
Other civic improvements 2,500,000
$16,950,000
which is quite a "big construction bill for a little village of fifteen thousand." It would be "big" in other places than Hibbing, where dimensions, no matter how "big." bring no surprise to men who know Hibbing's history. Hibbing started "big," and always will be.
Schools .- The biggest, most astounding, feature of Hibbing is its schools. The new high school at South Hibbing, the cost of which is expected to pass $2,000,000 will, probably, be the finest high school in the state, indeed in many states, because not many public school districts have the means with which to provide such a costly school. There is no doubt that educators of eastern parts of the country would look with amazement at the range schools, if they paid a visit to this part of the country. And they would look with envious amazement at the salaries drawn by the teaching staff of a range school. The superintendent of Hibbing District receives a higher salary than any other public school superintendent in the state, it has been stated.
Hibbing's school history begins with the first school session, held in the pioneer village in 1893, when Miss Annie McCarthy had the use of the upper floor of J. H. Carlson's store building, on Pine street. In 1894, the first school building was built, and at the time it was thought that they were planning well ahead of requirements in build- ing a four-roomed schoolhouse. But the building problem has always been a serious one in Hibbing, where the enrollment outgrows the schools almost before they are ready for occupation. "A building that was thought to be ample for several years' growth would be filled to overflowing almost before it was fully completed." The fol- lowing grade buildings have been erected within the last nine years : A twenty-room building, costing, with equipment, $150,000; four four- room buildings, costing $20,000 each ; one eight-room brick building, costing $40,000: two four-room frame buildings, built on leased sites * at a cost of $18,000 each ; two two-room frame buildings, cost- ing $15,000 each, and five one-room buildings. In addition, there is the large Central high school building, the Lincoln, built in 1912, at a cost of $350,000. But notwithstanding this costly building program, there was serious overcrowding in some of the Hibbing schools in 1920. In South Hibbing fourteen classes were held in store buildings, and the kindergarten in the fire hall. In the main school it was found · necessary to take the enrollment in sections, and to use the basement rooms.
Relief will come with the completion of the present building program, which includes a large school and the $2,000.000, or $2,600,- 000 high school and junior college. Hibbing, by the way, has the third-largest junior college west of the Alleghenies and east of the Rockies. The high school growth has been from 73 to 650.
The enrollment for the Hibbing district in 1893, perhaps, reached the tens, but did not get far into it: the enrollment for the school- year 1919-20 was 4,080. The teaching staff grew from one, in 1893,
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DULUTH AND ST. LOUIS COUNTY
to 181, in 1919-20, ninety of the latter being graduates of college or university. Average salary to male teachers in that year was $244; to female teachers, $152. School property then included sixteen frame school houses, and six of brick, the whole valued, in county statistics, at $1,127,501. In addition there is an enrollment of more than 500 in the parochial schools. The school district has an assessed valua- tion of $135,000,000, and therefore can always command the funds needed for its proper administration. The school tax for the year 1919-20, in the Hibbing school district was $1,129,915.96, and for the year 1920-21 the tax will be more than $1,400,000.
Mr. C. E. Everett, of the Hibbing school board, in his remarks before the graduating class of 1920, on June 17, 1920, gave an inter- esting and concise review of educational progress in the district. In part, he said :
The Hibbing School District, legally called Independent School Dis- trict No. 27, of St. Louis County, covers six townships and eight sections of another. It is twenty-four miles long at its extreme length, and twelve miles wide at its widest point. It consists of such locations as Stevenson, Carson
H(O)L AT HIBBING MINNESOTA
W.T. BRAV. . ARCHITYCE
# FFF
NEW HIGH SCHOOL AND JUNIOR COLLEGE AT NEW HIBBING, FINEST SCHOOL BUILDING IN NORTHERN MINNESOTA; COST MORE THAN $2,000,000
Lake, Kelly Lake, Kitzville, Mahoning, Pool, Webb, and Addition of Alice, and Brooklyn, besides the City of Hibbing. It was organized in 1898 as a common school district, and in 1908 as an independent district. It comprises 224 square miles.
There are seventeen location schools, having * from one to ten rooms. Two school buildings are under construction at the present time, the grade school, Cobb-Cook building, consisting of twelve rooms, and one High school and Junior college.
Buildings, however, do not make a school, and Hibbing is noted for its corps of instructors. Grade teachers with the same qualifications are paid the same salary as High school teachers. Many of our grade teachers are university, as well as normal, graduates. We believe in obtaining the best possible qualified teachers for every department of our schools.
Every student, beginning with the fourth grade, is taught some form of manual training, cooking and sewing, physiology, hygiene, and civil gov- ernment have been included in the curriculum for next year, beginning with the seventh grade.
Twelve hundred and fifty children are transported each day into the town schools. The location schools offer work through the third grade. Above the third grade, the pupils are transported to town schools, where they enter departmental work. Departmental work gives each pupil an oppor- tunity to have a special instructor to each subject. The sixty-minute, or hour plan is used. The first thirty minutes is used for recitation, the second thirty minutes for supervised study. Pupils are put in classes according to the mentality of the child, so that each child may get character and pace work which he is able to do.
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Pupils who are transported into the town schools have the privilege of using the soup kitchen, feeding 250 a day free of charge, or cafeteria for hot lunches at cost price of food materials.
The school has one teacher giving her entire time to working in the homes of the non-English-speaking people, doing Americanization work. The health of the school children is not neglected. Two nurses give their entire time working with school children, and one doctor has, in the past. The board recently hired a dentist to give his full time to school work.
The members of the Hibbing school board, the Independent School District No. 27 of St. Louis County, in 1920, were: C. E. Everett, Hibbing, clerk ; Frank Andley, treasurer : T. J. Godfrey, chair- man ; Dr. F. W. Bullen, W. F. Kohagan, R. Ray Kreis, directors ; C. C. Alexander, superintendent. The last named is recognized as
₱ L -POCKET
A CONCRETE-FLOORED BUILDING MOVED SUCCESSFULLY TO NEW HIBBING-THE OLD COLONIA HOUSE, ON ITS WAY TO NEW SITE, THERE TO BE RENOVATED AND RENTED TO SCHOOL BOARD AT $500 A MONTH, FOR USE AS TEACHERS' APART- MENT HOUSE
one of the most capable educators of the state, and the Hibbing sys- tem has been described as "Out-Garying (the famous) Gary."
And the certainty is a good field in the Hibbing district for the fullest and most capable work of the most able educators. In Hib- bing school last year thirty-nine nationalities were represented, Amer- icans predominated of course, but attending school were: 759 chil- dren of Swedish origin, 393 Clovanian, 257 Servian, 200 Norwegian, 933 Italian, 186 German, 320 French, 918 Finnish, 256 Croatian, 417 Austrian, and smaller numbers of other nationalities. In very many cases, the children acquire American ways and speech before their parents. In many cases, the children go to school by day, and the parents are just as enthusiastic students by night, and while the par- ents are in school the school administration sees that their children are cared for in the home. It is a very enlightened system, producing good results for the town and nation. There was an enrollment of
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more than 600 adults for the night-school sessions in the Hibbing dis- trict in 1920.
Population .- Hibbing, on June 6, 1893, had a population of 326; in 1900 the federal census figures for Hibbing were 2,481; in 1910, 8,832; in 1920, 15,089. It has passed all the communities of the range ter- ritory.
Mayoral Succession .- The presidents of the Village of Hibbing from the beginning have been: J. F. Twitchell, 1893; J. F. Twitchell, and James Gandsey, 1894; James Gandsey, 1895; R. L. Griffin, 1896; J. A. McIntyre, 1897; A. N. Sicard and E. J. Longyear, 1898; T. Waldo Murphy ; 1899; James Gandsey, 1900; John A. Redfern, 1901; W. J. Power, 1902; Frank H. Dear, 1903; W. J. Power, 1904; Peter McHardy, 1905; Frank Ansley, 1906; H. R. Weirick, 1907-12, and Victor L. Power, from 1913 to the present.
Now the historical review must close. Enough has been written to indicate that Hibbing has had a great past, and promises to have a great future. Its citizens have the spirit to keep it ever moving forward ; and they certainly have the money to help them.
Vol. II-5
CHAPTER XXIV HISTORY OF THE CITY OF VIRGINIA
"QUEEN CITY OF THE MESABI"
By reason of its geographical position fundamentally, but for other reasons also, the city of Virginia rightly is termed the "Queen City of the Mesabi Iron Range." She has since the 'nineties been the centre, the metropolis, of the range, one might say of the ranges, for she is recognized as the business metropolis of the Vermilion as well as the Mesabi range. Hibbing is becoming increasingly conspicuous, and is notably aggressive, but the general impression a stranger in Virginia gets of things municipal, social and civic is that Vir- ginia is, and long has been, the established leader among the com- munities of the range territory.
Mining .- As is the case of course with all communities of the Mesabi range, the history of Virginia begins with mining explora- tions, and it is therefore proper to review the history of mining in the Virginia district before writing about civic affairs.
Among the early explorers of the Mesabi, those that are known to have passed over and noted the Virginia "loop" and suspected its mineral value in the 'eighties, were members of the Merritt fam- ily, David T. Adams, and John McCaskill. It is hardly possible now to decide who was the first to begin actual explorations, in the way of test-pit sinking. One record indicates that "the first exploratory work (in the Virginia group) was done on the Ohio" by a com- pany in which Dr. Fred Barrett, of Tower, Thomas H. Pressnell, of Duluth, and others were interested. Winchell states that "the first pit in ore in this township, 58-17, was sunk on the southeast quarter, northeast quarter sec. 8, by Captain Cohoe, and discovered ore at a depth of thirteen feet. This was in March, 1892, and was the Missabe Mountain mine." It is generally supposed that the first ore discovered in the Virginia district was at the Missabe Mountain mine, but David T. Adams writes :
In the winter of 1890-91, I made a trip into township 58-17, in the in- terests of Humphreys and Atkins and myself, and camped for ten days on section 4 * * * north and east of the present city of Virginia. During my ten days' stay in that township I located every deposit of ore in the Virginia hills, from the Alpena and Sauntry, in section 5, down to the Auburn, in section 20. and I brought back the minutes with the deposits well marked, including the minutes of the lands where Virginia stands. All of the lands containing de- posits that could be acquired in some way were acquired by Humphreys, At- kins and myself, including the lands upon which stands the city of Virginia.
In the spring of 1891 I engaged the services of John Owens, then of Tower, to erect exploring camps on the nw, qr. of the nw. qr. of section 9, now the Commodore, which was the first exploring camp built in township 58, range 17. Explorations on this property ensued, with Mr. Owens in charge of the men, and in the second test-pit, of a series which I had located to be sunk, the first ore in this township was discovered. A little later, I discovered ore on the s. half of the sw. qr. of section 4, now the Lincoln mine, but the discovery was in the low lands, and, on account of the water, the work, was abandoned for the time being.
The next discovery in that township was made by the Merritt Brothers, on the ne. qr. of section 8, now the Missabe Mountain mine, and the next dis- covery was by me, on the sw. qr. of the nw. qr. of section 9, now the Lone Jack. Next following were the Norman mine, by Louis Rouchleau; the Min- newas, by the Merritts; the Rouchleau Ray, by Louis Rouchleau; the Moose, by John Weimer; the Shaw, by Gridley and Hale, and the Auburn, by Cap-
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DULUTH AND ST. LOUIS COUNTY
tain N. D. Moore. Meantime, Frank Hibbing reported a discovery of ore on the w. half of the sw. qr. of section 31, of 58-20. These discoveries were made in rapid succession and furnished undisputed evidence of the existence of vast deposits of iron ore in the taconite formation, and the great possibilities of the Mesabi range, and did more to establish the Range solidly in the minds of the people throughout our country than all that was said and done previous thereto. It then became everybody's game, and everyone for him- self, to do the best he, or they, could in acquiring options and raising money for developments, and explorations along the range became general. In the meantime Captain Edward Florada, who was left in charge of the explora- tions on the Cincinnati when I started work at Virginia, took an option on the Missabe Mountain from the Merritt brothers, and succeeded in interesting the late Harry Oliver in the option. The entry of Mr. Oliver on the range further stimulated explorations, and thereafter proved the nucleus of the Oliver Iron Mining Company.
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