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 III > Part 24
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As you came west, at the foot of Rice's Point, on the rock west of Garfield avenue where the firehall stands, was the Ellis House. On the foot of the point was North Albert Posey's house. A short way from the end of the point just north of the Northern Pacific bridge was a two-story log house built by Sueiss Rice, after whom the point was named. He was a brother of Senator Rice of Minnesota.
When you left Rice's Point to the west there was one house at Coffey's creek, owned by L. B. Coffey, a brother of General Coffey, the Confed- erate. There was on the west side, up the stream, another claim shanty owned by R. P. Miller. To the north of Coffey's place John Rakowsky had a claim. A man by the name of Burk had a claim shanty just west of Miller's creek. There the rocks came out to the bay and made a lee on either side of this point of rocks, so that when the wind was from the northeast or southwest you could lay with your small boat or canoe in perfect safety. I am sure that this is the landmark chosen by Chief Buffalo at the Indian Treaty at La Point in the fall of 1854 as the starting point, the line to run one mile north, one mile east, one mile south, and one mile west back to the point of starting. This would have taken in the old burial ground at the foot of Rice's Point. They had this large burial ground there, as the Indians are more particular than the white people about these things. The Treaty was tampered with, unquestion- ably, by interested parties. In fact when this land was looked up, accord- ing to the Treaty papers. it was found to be located six miles out in Lake Superior. This, however, was rectified to some extent, and when Chief Buffalo died, his son-in-law, Ben Armstrong, fell heir to Chief Buffalo's interest, and he sold this in trust to W. L. Spalding, then of Ontonagon, Michigan, later of Duluth, and the Spalding House stands on some of this land now.
The next claim shanty was built by Patrick Conner, an old Hudson Bay Company employee, and it was built at a place just east of the Mesaba Ore Dock. We called it Conner's Slough. This man, Patrick Conner, came out to Hudson's Bay from the North of Ireland and entered the employment of the fur company when he was nineteen years old, as a clerk. I remember his telling my brother Leondias and myself in 1856 that he wintered on Rice's Point fifty-four years before that time. He was a well posted man. His wife was a Chippewa squaw and they had a family of two boys and one girl. One of his boys was named Patrick, the other Peter, and the daughter was named Elizabeth.
The next house belonged to Fred Lemargie, and was located west of where the ore docks are now, at about Thirty-eighth avenue, west and south of the Northern Pacific tracks. This piece of land was held by Michael S. Bright's father as a trading post.
We now come to the old townsite of Oneota, which was taken as a townsite under the old townsite law. This land was located right after the treaty of La Point, in the fall of 1854. Ryan H. Bacon had a squat- ter's right and McCracken another squatter's right to the west of Bacon's. Edmund F. Ely bought their rights and with some St. Paul men and eastern men, also, started the town. Mr. H. W. Wheeler was one of them. There were only twenty-four houses there in 1860.
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The first public school on the north shore of Lake Superior was held in the winter of 1856. The teacher was paid by the parents in proportion to the number of pupils sent. I was one of the scholars, and four of us boys went to the first school, five of Mr. Ely's, two of Mr. Wheeler's and also Christian Hoffenbacker, now of Eagle Harbor, Michigan. Only five are now alive in 1915. My brother Jerome was our teacher, and he was a very able teacher, as many of his pupils all over the States will testify.
As I have already stated, the number of houses on the old Oneota townsite was twenty-four, this including buildings of all kinds, the houses were almost all on Oneota street and between Thirty-ninth avenue, West, and Forty-seventh avenue, West. The old saw mill stood on the bay front between Forty-fourth and Forty-fifth avenue, West. During the year 1857 there was built at Forty-second avenue, West, a frame school house, and this was the first frame building built in northwestern Minnesota for a school house. At Fond-du-Lac, now western Duluth, there was a mis- sion school held for a while, but this was the first District school between Sunrise, Minnesota, and Grand Portage on the north shore of Lake Superior.
After you left Oneota going west you came to Hayes' clearing and then to Freeman Keene's clearing on Keene's creek. The next was Milford, where there was a saw mill and four houses. The next was Crosier's point, owned by Aron Crosuer and wife. Kingbury lived next, on land which is now a part of Fairmount Park. He built a saw mill on his land, but while the mill was fully completed it was never run. Next came Nolton's place, then Marshall's place, and adjoining this was Permonkey's place. The place now called Swenson's place at Spirit Lake was originally taken by John Little-john. Peter Carroll had a place at the entrance of Spirit Lake. A man by the name of John Langley had a claim west of Carroll. Tommy Hayes owned what we called Sebasta- pool, which is right where the Spirit Lake branch of the Boat Club and Morgan Park are now. Peter Gerno owned what is now the John Smith place, now a part of New Duluth and the steel plant. John La Gard lived just in front of John Smith's old place on an island.
The next place was Sargent's house, on what we called Sargent Lake, just west of Sargent's creek. Andrew Reefer had a claim to the east of Fond-du-Lac, about one mile.
At Fond-du-Lac there were fourteen buildings all told. A warehouse stood near the river which was built by John Jacob Astor of the North- west Fur Company. It was in good shape in 1856, and Captain Peterson used it for a barn for many years.
There lived at that time at Fond-du-Lac, R. B. Carlton and wife and one son, Webb Carlton. Carlton County and also Carlton Park on the north shore of Lake Superior were named after R. B. Carlton. He was called Colonel Carlton. Mr. Rausau and family, George Wheeler's family and Mr. Peterson and family were there then. This place was the head of navigation, and the traders going north and west took the Old Portage trail for Knife Falls, a nine-mile portage and a long one, I can assure you of that, for I have traveled it with a one hundred and twenty pound pack.
In the foregoing I have only named the residences of those who lived on the bay front or river front. All told, including Minnesota Point, and on the north shore from Lester river to Fond-du-Lac, there was a total of 101 buildings. My authority for this is the coast survey map made by George R. Meade in 1860 and 1861.
The claims taken back of the water front were practically all aban- doned in 1857 and 1858. These years were very hard for every settler,
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and as many as could got out and left for the east. I want to speak of the general honesty of the pioneers of this northwest by telling you what Captain Ben Sweet of the Steamer North Star said of them when times were so hard and no one had any money. The Captain took down over seven hundred passengers and took their notes in payment of their trans- portation. Of these all paid their notes with one exception, and the Cap- tain said this one man had the money in his pocket when he came aboard, but said he did not have any. When one considers that these seven hun- dred people scattered all over the New England States, and then in every case with that one exception paid their notes, it is a remarkable testi- monial to the rugged honesty of the early pioneers.
In those early days we were all neighbors, from Bezve Bay down the north shore to Fond-du-Lac, and over into Superior, Wisconsin. One cannot write about just one side of the State line, for in sickness and in joy there was no State line. Many times were father and mother called upon to help in times of sickness and suffering. In times of sickness she was called upon, for all recognized in her a natural born nurse. However, she never attended a case without a doctor, if one was to be had. Of all people I have nothing but the kindliest recollections.
All the old pioneers who came to the Head of the Lakes as men and women grown, were a splendid type of manhood and womanhood. We shall never see their like again, but few are now alive. Among them are Mrs. R. G. Coburn, R. N. McLean, Col. Hiram Hayes of Superior, and N. B. Merritt of Duluth. the only ones who were over twenty-one in 1856 who are now alive. As I am writing this I have just heard of the death of Ted Wakelin. He passed away last Monday. So they go, one by one, over the Great Divide.
Up to the time of the Civil War there was little excitement to disturb the monotony of the struggle for existence. Lumbering in the winter, working in the saw mill in the summer, and farming, fishing and sailing, were the occupations by which we made a livelihood. Quite a number of the young men went into the army. Among the number were Dorus Martin, Rufus Jefferson. F. A. Buckingham, Freeman Keene, Leondias Merritt, U. S. Bailey, Andrew Reefer, John Rakowsky, Samuel McQuade, George Shurbrooke, Cal Shurbrooke, John Falk. Julius Gorgon, Col. J. B. Culver and Robert Emmit Jefferson. John Falk was killed in the Battle of the Wilderness and George Shurbrooke was killed at Vicksburg.
Robert Emmit Jefferson built the first frame hotel at the Head of the Lake. It is now standing on Lake avenue, on the north side of the canal, and is at present called the Foster House.
It was an anxious time during the war. In the fall of 1862 the Indian outbreak took place, and for a time we were afraid the Chippewas, who were the Indians at the Head of the Lakes, would join the Sioux, but fortunately for us they refused to join.
In the winter of 1865 and 1866 there was gold excitement at Ver- milion Lake. A road was cut out to the supposed gold fields, and a great number of men and teams went over the road. My father, Lewis H. Merritt, made the trip, and while going out eighty teams passed in one day on their way in. Father was not boomed on the gold fields, but while he was out there, North Albert Posey, who was the Indian blacksmith, showed father a chunk of iron ore, and father told us boys that some day there would be great mines there, worth more than all the gold of Cali- fornia. These words perhaps influenced us in later years to discover the Mesaba Range.
I remember one trip I made with Fred Lamagrie during the winter of 1866 and 1867. We had horse trains and hauled stuff for the Indian traders. Our load was for Peter Bradshaw & Co.
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During the winter of 1867 and 1868 the survey of the Lake Superior and Mississippi was being made from Carlton to Duluth. The line came along the Dalles to Fond-du-Lac, and then along the present line to Duluth. Leondias Merritt and myself were chainmen on this survey, a man by the name of McKensy was engineer and Matt Haug, Dan Watter- man and John Bertrand were axemen. One of Mr. Bertrand's sons was picket man. The snow was very deep and we were camped out for about two months. The road was finished in the summer of 1870. This was the first railroad to the Head of the Lakes.
The winter of 1867 and 1868 there was quite a lot of lumbering done getting ready for the railroad. People commenced to flock to the Head of the Lakes, and during that summer my brother and myself had a sail scow on the bay and carried lumber to Duluth, and railroad supplies up the bay for contractors.
The winter of 1869 and 1870 we built along with Henry S. Ely the first sailing vessel built at the Head of the Lakes. She measured 49 gross tons, and was schooner rigged. We sailed her that summer and lost her the next season at Ontonagon, Michigan, on the 27th of August, 1871. I often think of the help that Mr. Willard of Ontonagon gave me in trying to save the schooner, and when she proved a total loss he told me not to give up but do something and not let the loss discourage me. He said to me, "I have lost all two different times, and am now up the third time." - His advice gave me courage, and the next winter we got a logging contract and made enough to pay our debts.
I have forgotten to say that the first tug at the Head of the Lakes was the tug Agate. She was here the summer of 1868. I was pilot, and Capt. Martin Wheeler was engineer. We towed scows across to the Govern- ment piers at the Superior Entry, carrying stone. The piers were just being commenced then. In the fall we took her back to Ontonagon, as she belong to Willard and Merser.
We did anything to make a living during 1872 and 1873. During the summer of 1873 I built a road on Isle Royale from Siskiwit Bay to the Island Mine, a distance of three and one-half miles. I took men from Duluth on the Steamer Metropolis, of which Capt. Bart Atkins was pilot. We left there in the fall in a small boat with ten others just before Thanks- giving and rowed to Duluth. Among the party were Thomas Sandilands, Andrus R. Merritt, George Hill, and a Mr. Peterson. We had a very hard trip up the lake, and it is a hard trip in an open boat in the winter time.
In 1874 five of us went back to Isle Royale in the small boat. We finished up the road this time and then went to work for the North Amer- ican Exploration Company, of which Capt. Samuel Hill was the agent. We were cutting trails and digging pits on different parts of the Island. The failure of Jay Cooke & Co. and the panic that followed made very hard times and every one had to struggle to live. I cut wood and deliv- ered it on Stone's Dock at Duluth for $2.00 per cord. We also cut cedar poles and ties or anything else. Many of the people moved away from Duluth because of the hard times.
We built another boat, a scow schooner, of only 29 tons burden. We traded down the north shore, and went as far the Copper Country of Michigan. Times were very hard. We worked in the woods in the win- ter cutting cord wood and logs. During the summer of 1878 Thomas Sandilands and myself bought the tug John Martin. We kept her three years and then sold her to Tim Daugherty. We then took to exploring in the summer and logging in the winter.
Vol. III-11
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M. B. Harrison and W. K. Rogers ran a survey for a railroad line from Duluth to Winnipeg. Manitoba. The line was located to the Lake of the Woods. My brother Cassius was head explorer. Mr. Banks was head engineer, and C. H. Martz and his brother were on the engineering corps. My brother ran the exploring line from the mouth of Sturgeon River around the south side of the lake, and then on to Winnipeg. In locating this line through Township 53, North of Range 18 West, in Section 5. just on the height of land, on the divide of the waters, my brother saw a boulder of iron ore and brought in a piece to Duluth. This was the first chunk of pure ore taken off the Mesaba Range. This was in the year of 1887. Explorations were not started on the Mesaba Range for some time after.
The State of Minnesota held in trust for the schools a lot of land which we believed to be mineral land. Having worked for the State as explorers estimating timber, we were well acquainted with State Auditor Braden, and my brother Leondias and myself told him what we believed to be true about the value of some of these lands to the school children of Minnesota. Auditor Braden thereupon had a bill prepared and the Legis- lature passed it. preserving these lands to the school fund. Auditor Braden appointed a committee of three to say what price should be paid as a royalty on ore on lands leased by the State. This committee consisted of Leondias Merritt. George C. Stone and myself. There was great pressure brought to bear to place a royalty of ten cents per ton. They wanted it placed at fifteen cents, then at twenty. However, we decided unani- mously that we would recommend twenty-five cents per gross ton, at which price it now stands. I believe that Auditor Braden was perfectly honest in his efforts to protect the school lands of the State of Minnesota, and also the other state auditors up to this time. What a splendid fund this will be for all time to the school children of this Great State. It has . always given me great satisfaction to think that I had a humble part in preserving to them this fund.
The year 1889 the first work was done on what is now the Mountain Iron Mine. I took a crew of six men in by the way of Tower on March 17th. Started from Tower with three dog trains, and we were the dogs. We went in by the way of Pike River and then to Rice Lake, then to Mountain Iron.
WVe dug test pits and finally drilled. All was done on S12 of SI/2 of Section 34. Township 59, north of Range 18 west. We found that we were too far north for ore, and on going south found the ore on Section 4, directly south of our first work, the summer of 1890.
No one who has not actually gone through the hardships and the dis- couragements of keeping a camp going out so far from the base of sup- plies can realize what one has to contend with. The raising of the money alone was no small job, and worst of all the task of endeavoring to keep up the courage of one's partners.
After the ore was found we had to look for transportation, we went to the Northern Pacific Railroad and also to the St. Paul and Duluth Railroad. they being separate at that time. Neither would do anything. their officials did not realize the value of the Mesaba Range and of the great traffic which was to originate from the many mines. We hardly knew what to do. We were almost discouraged, finally we got hold of the Duluth & Winnipeg Railroad, and they said if we would build down to Stony Brook they would make a traffic contract with us. We scratched around and built a line from Mountain Iron to Stony Brook, a distance of forty-five miles, with a branch off our line from the station called Iron Junction to Biwabik, a distance of sixteen miles. This line was com-
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pleted in 1892. The year of 1893 we built into Duluth, because the Duluth & Winnipeg Railroad did not furnish the number of ore cars they had agreed to when we made the traffic contract with them. Our road, the Duluth, Missabe & Northern, built in the winter of 1891 and 1892 a total of 750 cars. The next year we built 750 more ore cars. The Duluth and Winnipeg railroad did not build any. St. Louis County offered us $250,000 worth of bonds if we would build into Duluth. We accepted this offer and built into Duluth, and also built into Hibbing from our main line from Wolf Station. After the line was finished to Duluth and the ore docks completed, I, as president of the road, went and got the bonds from the county. I made at that time a verbal agreement with the County Commissioners and the County Auditor that if the county would let the Duluth, Missabe & Northern Railroad have the county bonds with- out giving up an equal amount of stock in the railroad, that the railroad would pay her taxes to the county the same as an individual. This would have paid back to the county the amount of the bonds and interest in less than twenty years. On the 4th of February, 1894, I had passed by the Board of Directors and stockholders of the Duluth, Missabe & Northern Railroad a resolution, ratifying and confirming all of my contracts, both written and oral, the intent of this was to cover this oral contract I had made with the County Commissioners of St. Louis County at the time the bonds were delivered to us, and also other oral contracts which I had made in my capacity as president of the road.
Our loyalty to Duluth was the main reason for our building into Duluth. It proved to be a poor move for us, because in order to get the money we got mixed up with John D. Rockefeller and his gang, and in the end we lost all our interest in the road and mines. I, myself, owned one-tenth of the Duluth, Missabe & Northern Railroad besides 120 one thousand dollar bonds of the railroad, and also all my interest in the mines. It was all stolen. My interest in the Lake Superior Con- solidated Iron Mines Company, which controlled the railroad and the different mining companies, was turned into the steel company when it was formed at $7,500,000. The dividends on my share of the railroad stock alone has been over $800,000 several different years. The courts said that it was a fraud, I say it was a plain steal.
Naturally one will ask how did he do it. It was simply a case of our having confidence in him. We were working away for the interests of the company, getting traffic contracts, fully trusting him, we woke up too late.
The loss of my interest in this great enterprise was not what stunned me, however, it was the loss of my brother Cassius Clay Merritt, worse than murdered in cold blood. He was treasurer of the Duluth, Missabe & Northern Railroad during the years of 1893, and the trouble and worry and disappointments due to the delays in getting money from the east that had been promised us by them broke his heart, and he died early in the spring of 1894, loved and respected by everyone at the Head of the Lakes, as well as over the entire state, where we were well known, I often think that the Mesaba was not worth the price.
After reading over what I have written a few things run through my mind which would show great changes as to the ease of getting around. In the fall of 1862 my father moved Mr. Edmund F. Ely's family from Oneota, now a part of Duluth, to St. Paul. He was gone four weeks on the round trip. In the summer of 1863 I drove a yoke of oxen from Superior, Wisconsin, to St. Paul. Mr. E. G. Swanstrom drove another yoke of oxen with me. We moved a family over from Oneota by the name of Gronowold. It took us thirty days for the round trip. From
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what is now 45th avenue west there was no road at all. We drove the oxen without their yoke singly, over a trail down to Rice's Point. It was then covered with Norway pine and white birch, and blueberry bushes were in abundance. At the end of the point we drove them into the water, and swam them in the water over to Conner's Point. We then had to walk them down the beach two miles before we could get a road. The household goods of the Gronowold family were taken over in an open SCOw.
On the end of Conner's Point there was a mound perfectly round, fully forty feet high, at least high enough so that from the top you would look over the tops of the trees. To the south it was covered with small Norway pine and hazel brush, I always thought that it was an Indian mound, as it was so perfect. It was standing in good shape in 1865. After that the wind and waves washed it . away. In summer and in winter the sands of which it was made blew off on the ice until it was all gone: There were two islands in the Duluth, Superior Bay about half way between the end of Rice's Point and the canal. They were marshy islands, and quite a number of tamarack trees were growing on them. After the canal was built the swells from the lake loosened them and they finally floated out into the lake. About half way from the end of Conner's Point to Quebec Pier was Vincent Roy's place, this was the old site of the trading post spoken of by General Cass in his first visit to Fond du Lac in 1820. The old stockade could be traced in 1856. On his visit he told about seeing the Bungo family. The father of the Bungo's was a West Indian slave, a full-blooded negro, brought out and owned by a Hudson Bay Company officer, and his wife was a Chippewa squaw. There was a large family of children. Stephen Bungo, one of the boys, was born in what is now Superior, about 1798. He often used to tell me that he and Mr. George Morrison were the two first white children born in Superior. Mr. George Morrison was a half breed. Bungo used to come up and visit my brother and myself, and he always came twice a year, staying four or five days each time. On one of his trips he seemed quite excited. He said that they had called Bungo a liar, because he had said that he had seen Robert Fulton's steamboat at Albany on the Hudson River in about the year 1815. He had seen that we had an encyclopedia. Now, he said, I want you to look it up, and give me the page, and I will show those gentlemen that Bungo is not a liar. A story is told about him living at the mouth of the Brule. Some Superior fellows came down on a fishing trip and while camping there some of the party stole all of Bungo's chickens. Bungo, who was noted for his politeness, went to their camp and said, "Excuse me, gentle- men, Chippeway is my language, but some of you gentlemen have stolen all my chickens." It is needless to say Bungo was well paid for his chickens. Bungo was a great hunter. He once told me about his exploits and went on to say how he had killed more bear than anybody else, but, said he, "Bungo's dog died and Bungo did not kill any more bear." He was over ninety years old when he died. He is buried over in old Super- ior, on the Left Hand River, near the same place where he was born nearly one hundred years before.
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