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St. Louis County, MN |
This county, established by legislative acts of March 3, 1855, and March 1, 1856, is named from the St. Louis river, the largest entering Lake Superior, which flows through this county. The river was probably so named by Verendrye (born 1685, died 1749), who was a very active explorer, in the years 1731 and onward, of the vast country from Pigeon river and Rainy lake to the Saskatchewan and Missouri rivers, establishing trading posts and missions. The king of France, in 1749, shortly before the death of Verendrye, conferred on him the cross of St. Louis as a recognition of the importance of his discoveries, and thence the name of the St. Louis river appears to have come. On Franquelin's map (1688) and Buache's map (1754), it is called the Riviere du Fond du Lac; and the map by Vaugondy (1755) and Carver's map (1778) are the earliest to give the present name. St. Louis county has the distinction of being the largest county in this state, having an area of 6,611.75 square miles. Saint Louis was born at Poissy, France, near Paris, April 25, 1215, and died near Tunis, Africa, August 25, 1270. From 1226 he was King Louis IX of France, his mother Blanche being regent during his minority. He undertook a crusade to the Holy Land in 1248, from which, after a terrible war, he returned to France in 1254. His second crusade was undertaken in 1267, for which he finally sailed from France on July 1, 1270; but in this expedition he died by an illness, less than two months later. He is commemorated by the name of the city of St. Louis, but Louisiana was named for Louis XIV, who was king of France from 1643 to 1715.
TOWNSHIPS, VILLAGES, AND CITIES.
Information of names has been gathered from "History of the Upper Mississippi Valley," 1881, having pages 681-699 for this county; "History of Duluth, and of St. Louis County, to the Year 1870," by Hon. John R. Carey, in the M. H. S. Collections, vol. IX, 1901, pages 241-278; "History of Duluth and St. Louis County," edited by Dwight E. Woodbridge and John S. Pardee, 1910, two volumes, pages 1-412, 413-899; and from J. O. Walker, deputy county auditor, George H. Vivian, county treasurer, Edward K. Coe, county engineer of roads, J. W. Marvin, of the Land Department, Duluth, Missabe and Northern railway, Hon. Josiah D. Ensign, district judge, Hon. William E. Culkin, Jerome E. Cooley, Leonidas Mer-ritt, and John G. Williams, each of Duluth, the county seat, and James Bardon, of Superior, Wis., and J. D. Lamont, of the Cole-McDonald Exploration Company, Virginia, all being interviewed during visits in Duluth, Superior, and Virginia, in August, 1916.
ADOLPH, a railway village in Herman, twelve miles west of Duluth, has a personal name derived from the old German language, meaning "noble wolf, that is, noble hero."
ALANGO township received its name, probably from Finland, by choice of its settlers.
ALBORN township was similarly named by its settlers, the Norwegians being probably more numerous than those of any other nationality. Its railway station was at first named Albert, for Albert S. Chase, brother of Kelsey D. Chase, who was president of the Duluth, Missabe and Northern railway company in 1890-93.
ALDEN LAKE is the name of a hamlet on the Cloquet river, beside a lake through which the river flows.
ALICE, a Great Northern railway station one mile south of Hibbing, was named for a daughter of a proprietor of its site.
ALLEN township was named in honor of William Prescott Allen, lumberman, who was born in Thomaston, Me., September 1, 1843, and died in Portland, Me., in August, 1908. He served in the First Iowa Cavalry, and later in the 65th U. S. Infantry, attaining the rank of captain ; settled in Minnesota at the close of the war ; after 1881 resided at Cloquet, and was general manager and vice-president of the C. N. Nelson Lumber Company; was a member of the state senate, 1891-5.
ALLEN station and ALLEN JUNCTION are railway stations about seven miles east of Aurora, named, like the preceding township, which is 12 to 18 miles distant northward, for the late William P. Allen, of Cloquet.
ANGORA township and railway village bear the name of a town in Asiatic Turkey, celebrated for its long-haired goats, whose wool is largely exported.
ARBUTUS is the most northwestern station of the Duluth, Winnipeg and Pacific railway in this county, named for the fragrant spring flower, Epigaea repens, often called "trailing arbutus," commonly known in New England as the Mayflower. This locality is near the western limit of its geographic range.
ARTHUR is a station of the Duluth and Iron Range railroad about three miles east of French River.
ASH LAKE is a station of the Duluth, Winnipeg and Pacific railway, adjoining a small lake of this name, about eight miles north of Cusson and Pelican lake.
ATHENS, a railway station six miles south of Tower, was named for the capital city of Greece.
AULT township bears the n ame of a village on the coast of France near the mouth of Somme river, also of a village in Colorado.
BALKAN township was named for the Balkan mountains of Bulgaria.
BARTLETT is a station of the Duluth, Winnipeg and Pacific railway, three miles south of Cloquet river.
BASSETT township was named for William Bassett, a cruiser, who selected tracts valuable for their pine timber.
BEATTY township honors rive brothers, pioneers there in lumbering and farming.
BIRCH, a station of the Duluth, Missabe and Northern railway, four miles north of Alborn, was named in honor of Charles J. Birch, of Proctor, trainmaster of this railway.
BIWABIK township and its large mining village, founded in 1892, on the Mesabi Iron Range, have an Ojibway name, meaning iron.
BREDA, a station of the Duluth and Iron Range railroad, four miles southeast of Fairbanks, was named for one of its Norwegian settlers.
BREITUNG township was named in honor of Edward Breitung, of Negaunee, Mich., who opened the Minnesota mine, the first worked on the Vermilion Iron Range. He was born in Schalkau, Germany, November 10, 1831 ; was educated at the College of Meiningen, Germany ; was mayor of Negaunee, 1879-82; was a member of Congress in 1883-85.
BREVATOR is a station of the Great Northern railway, eleven miles northwest of Cloquet.
BRIMSON, a village of the Duluth and Iron Range railroad, near its crossing of the Cloquet river, was named in honor of W. H. Brirason, who was superintendent of this railroad in 1888-89.
BRITT is a station of the Duluth, Winnipeg and Pacific railway, eight miles north of Virginia.
BROOKLYN is a southeastern suburb of Ribbing, having a station on the Duluth, Missabe and Northern railway.
BROOKSTON is a village of the Great Northern railway in Culver township.
BUCHANAN, a townsite platted in October, 1856, "named after James Buchanan, then candidate for the presidency of the United States, . . was located on the shore of Lake Superior southwestward from the mouth of Knife river. Like many other paper towns on the north shore, it never amounted to anything." (Carey, p. 272.) It had the U. S. land office from 1857 until May, 1859, when the office was removed to Portland, later a part of Duluth.
BUHL, a mining village of the Mesabi range, incorporated in 1901, " was named in honor of Frank H. Buhl, of Sharon, Pa., president of the Sharon Ore Company, which corporation opened the first mines in this locality in the spring of 1900." (History of the county, 1910 p 727.)
BURNETT, a station of the Duluth, Missabe and Northern railway in Industrial township, was named for a roadmaster of this railway.
CANOSIA township was named for a lake crossed by its west line, now more commonly called Pike lake. This widely used Algonquian word for the pike fish, spelled kinoje in Baraga's Ojibway Dictionary, is the same with Kenoza, the name of a lake in Haverhill, Mass., theme of a short poem by Whittier, who translated it "Lake of the pickerel." It is spelled Kenosha as a city and county of Wisconsin.
CANYON is a hamlet in the north edge of New Independence township.
CEDAR VALLEY township is named for its abundant growth of the arbor vitae, more frequently called "white cedar," bordering the Flood-wood river.
CENTRAL LAKES is a village of the Duluth, Winnipeg and Pacific railway, about six miles south of the St. Louis river.
CHISHOLM, a very large mining village, which was incorporated July 23, 1901, was burned September 5, 1908, but was soon rebuilt, and has a population of about 10,000 people. Its great mine, first worked in 1889, and the village, are named in honor of Archibald Mark Chisholm, a principal explorer of the Mesabi range. He was born in Alexandria, Ontario, April 25, 1864; came to Minnesota, and in 1888-94 was paymaster of the Chandler and Ely mines on the Vermilion range; removed in 1894 to Hibbing, where he was a bank cashier, dealing also in real estate and mining properties; was discoverer and partner of several very productive Mesabi mines, including this one bearing his name; has large interests of copper mining in Arizona and New Mexico; removed in 1900 to Duluth.
CLIFTON was the first village site platted in this county, in October, 1855, "on the north shore of Lake Superior about nine or ten miles from Duluth. The plat of the townsite showed two long parallel piers or breakwaters extending for hundreds of feet into the lake, indicating a commodious harbor ; but it was all on paper ; the name was the only existence that Clifton ever had." (Carey, p. 253.) A railway station ' of this name is on the old village site.
CLINTON township was named in honor of Clinton Markell, who was one of the proprietors of Portland, removed from Superior to Duluth in 1869, was mayor of Duluth in 1871-2, and aided much in making this city a market for shipment of grain.
COLBY is a railway station three miles east of Aurora.
COLVIN township was named for Frank S. Colvin, a lumber dealer in Biwabik.
COOK, a village of the Duluth, Winnipeg and Pacific railway in Owens township, platted in 1903, was named in honor of Wirth H. Cook, a lumber dealer of Duluth, chief promoter of the construction of this railway, who became its president.
COTTON township was named in honor of Joseph Bell Cotton, a lawyer of Duluth. He was born in Albion, Ind., January 6, 1865 ; was graduated at the Michigan Agricultural and Mechanical College, Lansing, 1886 ; was admitted to the bar, and two years later settled in Duluth ; was a representative in the legislature in 1893.
CULVER township and its railway village commemorate Joshua B. Culver, one of the founders of Duluth. He was born in Delaware county, N. Y., September 12, 1829; came to Minnesota in 1848. and engaged in the Indian trade on the upper Mississippi until 1855, when he removed to Superior, Wis. ; but two years later he settled at Duluth as a proprietor of its site. He was in that year appointed the first postmaster, and was also the first clerk of the district court; was register of the U. S. land office in 1860, and till May, 1861. Soon after the civil war began, he removed to Michigan, helped to organize the Thirteenth Michigan regiment, went with it as adjutant, and succeeded to its command as colonel. He served with this regiment through the war, being in its later part brigade commander. In 1868 he returned to Duluth, and in 1869 was appointed the first county superintendent of schools ; was elected the first mayor of Duluth, in 1870 ; and "continued as one of its most honored and leading citizens until his death on July 17th. 1883." (Carey, p. 257.)
CUSSON is a village of the Duluth, Winnipeg and Pacific railway near Pelican lake, named by officers of this railway, which here has repair shops.
DEWEY LAKE, a station of the Great Northern railway about ten miles north of Hibbing, bears the name of its adjacent lake, perhaps given in honor of Admiral George Dewey, who was previously noticed for Dewey township in Roseau county.
DIN HAM LAKE, a station of the Duluth, Winnipeg and Pacific railway three miles north of White Face river, is beside a lake of this name.
DULUTH, the county seat, first settled in 1850-51, platted and named in 1856, was incorporated as a town May 19, 1857, as a city March 5, 1870, and received a new city charter March 2, 1887. "In 1868, Duluth, Portland, and Rice's Point, until then three separate organizations, were consolidated, and all assumed the name of Duluth." Later the city area was extended on the west to include Oneota and Fond du Lac, and east ward to Endion, Lakeside, and Lakewood. The choice of the name of this city is narrated by Hon. John R. Carey, as follows: "In February, 1856, . . . Rev. Joseph G. Wilson, of Logansport, Ind., then sojourning at Superior as a home missionary, under the home mission board of the New School Presbyterian Church, was appealed to, to suggest a name for the future city. Mr. Wilson, who that winter lived with the writer and his family, informed me that he was promised two lots by the proprietors in the new town, in c ase he would suggest an appropriate name which they would accept. He asked for any old books in my possession, which might mention the name of some early missionary or noted explorer in the Lake Superior country, but I had then but a few books and not of the kind required. Mr. Wilson set about his task to earn the reward of the deed of the two lots in the great city. He visited the homes of citizens that he expected mjght be possessed of a library, and in his search found among some old books belonging to George E. Nettleton, an old English translation of the writings of the French Jesuits, relating to themselves and the early explorers and fur traders of the Northwest. In this he ran across the name of Du Luth, along with others of those early traders and missionaries who visited the head of the lake in the remote past. With other names, that of Du Luth was presented by Mr. Wilson to the proprietors at their meeting one evening in the home of George E. Nettleton, and after discussion of the relative merits of the several names submitted, the name Du Luth was selected." (M. H. S. Collections, vol. IX, p. 254.) On the first plat of Duluth, surveyed by Richard Relf and recorded May 26, 1856, the name appeared in its present form. Daniel Greysolon Du Luth was born at St. Germain-en-Laye, a few miles west of Paris, in 1649; and died at his home in Montreal, February 25, 1710. His surname was otherwise variously spelled, as Du Lhut, Du Lhud, and Du Lud. It seems most suitable to adopt the spelling here first given, which, written as a single word, is borne in his honor by this great city, built on or near the site of his convocation of many Indian tribes in the early autumn of 1679. With seven Frenchmen, Du Luth made the canoe journey to Lake Superior, in 1678, for the purpose of exploring the country farther west, occupied by the Sioux and Assiniboines, among whom he spent the next two years, endeavoring to bring them into alliance with the French for fur trading. In the summer of the second year, 1680, Du Luth met Hennepin and his two French companions and secured their liberation from captivity with the Sioux of Mille Lacs. The sobriquet of Duluth, "the Zenith City of the Unsalted Seas," was originated by Dr. Thomas Foster (b. 1818, d. 1903), who established the first newspaper in Duluth in 1869. It was an expression in an enthusiastic speech by Foster at a celebration of July 4, 1868, by Duluth and Superior people, in a park on Minnesota Point. It has been sometimes erroneously attributed to a very famous speech in Congress, January 27, 1871, by James Proctor Knott (b. 1830, d. 1911), who was a member from Kentucky, ridiculing Duluth in connection with the bill for a land grant to the St. Croix and Superior railroad company. " Twin Ports" is a name frequently used for these adjoining great cities of Duluth and Superior, as the term "Twin Cities" is applied to Minneapolis and St. Paul.
DUNKA is a railway station for logging on the Dunka river about a mile south of Birch lake.
ELLSBURG township was named by its Swedish settlers for a place in Sweden.
ELLSMERE is a railway station in Ellsburg.
ELSDON is the railway station next north of Cusson.
ELY, a city on the Vermilion range, platted as a village in 1887, incorporated as a city March 3, 1891, was named in honor of Arthur Ely, of Cleveland, Ohio, one of the financial promoters of the construction of the Duluth and Iron Range railroad, which was opened to traffic here in July, 1888. He also was prominent in the development of the iron mines at Tower. Another citizen distinguished in the history of the county, for whom this city has been thought to be named, was Rev. Edmund Franklin Ely, who was born in Wilbraham, Mass., August 3, 1809, and died in Santa Rosa, Cal., August 29, 1882. He came to Minnesota in 1832, as a missionary to the Ojibways, under appointment by the American Board for Foreign Missions, and located at Sandy lake. In 1834 his mission school was removed to Fond du Lac, where he labored until May, 1839, then removing to Pokegama. In 1854 he came as a homesteader to the site of Superior, Wis., and in the next year he settled at Oneota, now a part of Duluth. He platted the Oneota townsite, built a steam sawmill and docks, and was the postmaster six years, but removed in 1862 to St. Paul.
EMBARRASS township and its railway station received this name from the Embarrass river, referring to the driftwood formerly on some parts of this stream, which was a difficulty and hindrance to canoes.
ENDION. the name of a village site platted in 1856, now a part of Duluth, is an Ojibway word, meaning "my, your, or his home."
EVELETH, a mining city on the Mesabi range, founded in 1894, but mostly removed about one mile in 1900, was given this name "after a woodsman named Eveleth sent up here from Michigan about twenty years ago, in the interests of Robinson, Flinn and Fowler, to pick up pine lands." (History of the county, 1910, p. 705.)
FAIRBANKS, a village of the Duluth and Iron Range railway, formerly called Bassett Lake, eight miles south of the St. Louis river, was named in honor of Charles Warren Fairbanks, of Indiana. He was born in Union county, Ohio, May 11, 1852; was graduated at the Ohio Wesleyan University, 1872; was admitted to practice law, 1874, and settled in Indianapolis ; was U. S. senator, 1897-1905 ; and vice-president of the United States, 1905-09; died at his home in Indianapolis, June 4, 1918.
FERMOY is a station and junction of the Great Northern railway, four miles north of Kelsey.
FERN township received its name by vote of its people, who represent several nationalities.
FIELD township was named for a newspaper editor, one of the organizers of the township, who later removed to Canada.
FINE LAKES township was named by its Scandinavian people, for its numerous little lakes.
FLOODWOOD township and its railway village, at the mouth of Flood-wood river, received their name from the stream, which formerly was obstructed by natural rafts of driftwood. It was called Embarras river by Nicollet's map in 1843, which designated the present river of that name as Second Embarras river. Both these streams, like the Zumbro river in southeastern Minnesota, derived their old French name, Embarras, from their driftwood hindering canoe travel.
FOND DU LAC, bearing a French name that signifies "Farther end of the lake," or, as we should commonly say, "Head of the lake," was a trading post of the Northwest Fur Company in 1792, being then on the south or Wisconsin shore of the St. Louis river where it comes to the still water level of Lake Superior, twelve miles distant in a straight line from the Minnesota Point. Later the post of this name occupied by the American Fur Company was on the opposite or Minnesota side of the river on a part of the village site which was platted in 1856, now included in the Duluth city area.
FORBES is a railway village in the north edge of McDavitt township.
FREDENBERG township was named in honor of Jacob Fredenberg, one of its German pioneer settlers.
FRENCH township was named for William A. French, an early homesteader, who became an officer of this township.
FRENCH RIVER is a village of the Duluth and Iron Range railroad, at its crossing of this river in Duluth township.
GHEEN, a village of the Duluth, Winnipeg and Pacific railway, six miles southeast of Pelican lake, was named in honor of Rear Admiral Edward Hickman Gheen, of the United States Navy, who was born in Delaware county, Pa., December 11, 1845. His wife is a daughter of the late Delos A. Monfort, of St. Paul.
GILBERT, a mining village of the Mesabi range, platted in August, 1907, and incorporated in May, 1908, was named in honor of E. A. Gilbert, a prominent business man. of Duluth.
GLENDALE is a railway station about two miles south of Orr.
GNESEN township was named by Polish settlers for a city in the province of Posen, Prussia, reputed to be the oldest of Polish cities, where until 1320 the kings of Poland were crowned.
GREANEY, a hamlet ten miles west of Gheen, is named for Patrick Greaney, a merchant there.
GREAT SCOTT township was named by the board of county commissioners, this being a common expletive of one of the board members.
HALDEN township is named in honor of Odin Halden, of Duluth. He was born in Norway, May 6, 1862; came to the United States in 1881, and settled at Duluth in 1882; was a grocer, 1883-90; was deputy auditor of this county, 1890-94, and has since been the county auditor.
HALEY is a railway station five miles northwest of Cook.
HARRIS LAKE is a railway station about eight miles southwest of Fairbanks, adjoining a small lake of this name.
HERMAN township was named by German settlers, in honor of the early German hero, who was born in the year 17 B. C. and died in 21 A. D., renowned for his defeating the Roman troops in Germany.
HIBBING, a large mining city of the Mesabi range, yet continuing under a village government as incorporated August 15, 1893, was named in honor of Frank Hibbing, its founder. He was born in Germany in 1857; came to the United States with his parents when a boy; engaged in lumbering in Duluth, and also acquired large interests in the Mesabi iron mines ; discovered the Hibbing ore beds in the autumn of 1892 ; died in Duluth, July 30, 1897.
HINSDALE is a railway station two miles north of Mesaba village.
HORNBY, a railway station two miles south of Fairbanks, and HORNBY JUNCTION, a station eight miles southwest of the preceding, are named for Henry Cook Hornby, of Cloquet. He was born in Gilbert. Iowa, April 29, 1866; came to Minnesota in 1884, and since 1888 has been in employment of the Cloquet Lumber Company, being assistant manager, 1897-1904, and afterward manager and president.
HUTTER, a railway station in the west part of Biwabik township, was named for H. A. Hutter, of Duluth, an ore dock agent.
IDINGTON is a railway station in Angora township.
INDEPENDENCE is the name of a hamlet and post office in New Independence township.
INDUSTRIAL township received this name by choice of its settlers. It is also the name of a village in West Virginia.
IRON is the post office name of IRON JUNCTION, a village of the Duluth, Missabe and Northern railway in Clinton township.
IRONTON is a western district of the city of Duluth, containing the great manufacturing plant of the United States Steel Corporation.
ISLAND is a Great Northern railway station, six miles northwest of Floodwood village, named for its having a tract of dry farming land, surrounded by a very extensive swamp region.
KEENAN is a railway station in the south part of Clinton, named for C. J. Keenan, a station agent.
KELLY LAKE, a village of the Great Northern railway, four miles southwest of Hibbing, is beside a little lake so named.
KELSEY township and its railway village were rfamed in honor of Kelsey D. Chase, of Faribault. He was born in Little Valley, N. Y., December 1, 1841; came to Minnesota in 1860; served in the Second Minnesota regiment during the civil war ; engaged in mercantile business, real estate, and railway and mining development, residing successively in Rochester, Owatonna, Duluth, Crookston, and since 1887 in Faribault ; was president of the Duluth, Missabe and Northern Railway Co., 1890-3 ; president of the Chase State Bank in Faribault.
KINMOUNT is a station of the Duluth, Winnipeg and Pacific railway, five miles northwest of Ash Lake.
KINNEY, a mining village three miles northeast of Buhl, was named in honor of O. D. Kinney, a discoverer of the iron mines of Virginia and a founder of that city.
KITZVILLE is a mining village two miles southeast of Hibbing.
KUGLER township was named in honor of Fred Kugler, a former member of the board of county commissioners.
LAKESIDE is an eastern residential district in the city of Duluth.
LAKEWOOD township, beside Lake Superior, is an area of woodland.
LAVELL township is named in honor of a French homesteader, who has developed a good farm.
LEANDER is a railway station in the south edge of Owens.
LEIDING township was named for one of its families of Scandinavian settlers.
LESTER PARK, a residential district in the east part of Duluth, has a small public park, and a station so named on the Duluth and Iron Range railroad, at its crossing of Lester river.
LINDEN GROVE township is named for its timber of basswood, our American linden tree.
LUCKNOW is a railway station for freighting iron ore, about a mile east of Buhl. It is named after a city of India, where the British garrison made a heroic defence against the Sepoy mutineers in 1857.
LYNWOOD, formerly called Stuart, is a railway station twelve miles southwest of Hibbing.
McDAViTT township was named for J. A. McDavitt, of Duluth, who was a pioneer lumberman here.
McKiNLEY, a mining village of the Mesabi range, first settled in 1890, and incorporated in the autumn of 1892, is named from the mine developed by "the McKinley brothers, John, William, and Duncan."
MARKHAM post office, near a lake of this name, in Colvin township, was named for a pioneer.
MEADOWLANDS township has a tract of natural mowing and farming land, called meadows, adjoining the White Face river and giving the name of the railway village and the township ; but much of its area consists of extensive swamps, called muskegs.
MERRITT, a mining townsite one mile east of Biwabik, was named in honor of Alfred and Leonidas Merritt, of Duluth, widely known for the discovery and development of the iron ore of the Mesabi range, and for promoting the construction of the Duluth, Missabe and Northern railroad, and of the great ore docks in Duluth. Leonidas Merritt, the older of these brothers, commonly called "Lon," was born in New York state in 1845 ; served in Brackett's Battalion, Minnesota Cavalry, in the civil war; was a representative in the legislature in 1893; and is shown as one of the statues at the base of that of Governor Johnson in front of the state capitol, being the prospector carrying a pack on his back.
MESABA township and mining railway village were named from the Mesabi iron range. The diverse spellings of this Ojibway name, and its significance as "the Giant's range," are considered on a later page of this chapter.
MIDWAY township is named from Midway creek, halfway between Fond du lac and the head of the falls and rapids on the St. Louis river.
MIRBAT is a Great Northern railway station, five miles southeast of Floodwood village.
MISSABE MOUNTAIN township has a high portion of the Mesabi range, with the large mining cities of Virginia and Eveleth and the village of Gilbert.
MITCHELL, a mining railway station about two miles east of Hibbing, was named in honor of Pentecost Mitchell, vice-president of the Oliver Mining Company.
MORCOM township was named in honor of Elisha Morcom, of Tower, a Cornishman, one of the promoters of mining development on the Vermilion range, being the first superintendent of the Soudan mine, who was chairman of the board of county commissioners when the new Court House was built.
MORSE township, in which the mining city of Ely is situated, was named in honor of the late J. C. Morse, of Chicago, who was one of the members of the Minnesota Iron Company.
MOUNTAIN IRON, a mining village of the Mesabi range, in Nichols township, first settled in the spring of 1892, was incorporated in the fall of that year. Its name is from the Mountain Iron mine, the earliest to ship ore from this range, in August, 1892.
MUNGER - a railway station in Solway township, was named in honor of Roger S. Munger of Duluth. He was born in North Madison, Conn., February 25, 1830; came to Minnesota in 1857 and was partner with his brother, Russell C. Munger, in the pioneer music store of St. Paul ; removed to Duluth in 1869, engaging in lumber business ; in 1872 organized a firm, Munger, Markell and Co., who built grain elevators and made this city a great grain buying and shipping market; and was president of the Imperial Mill Company, organized in 1888, and of the Duluth Iron and Steel Company, organized in 1898.
MURRAY, a railway station five miles east of Tower, was named for a foreman or superintendent of the Tower Lumber Company.
NAGONAB, a station of the Great Northern railway in the south edge of this county, bears the name of an Ojibway, the head chief of Fond du Lac, who was born in 1795 and died at Fond du Lac in June, 1894. He was influential in persuading the Ojibways and Sioux to sign a treaty at Prairie du Chien in 1825, acknowledging the sovereignty of the United States; was a signer of a treaty at La Pointe, Wis., in 1854, in which the Ojibways ceded large tracts of land in northern Minnesota and Wisconsin, including the Vermilion and Mesabi iron ranges ; and in 1889, at the age of ninety-four years, he with his son signed further agreements for cessions of lands and rights in the Fond du Lac and Red Lake reservations. His name, spelled in five or six ways, with accent on the second syllable, is translated as "Sitting ahead." (Aborigines of Minnesota, 1911, pages 719, 720, 722.)
NEW DULUTH is an extreme western part of Duluth, between Spirit Lake Park and Fond du Lac.
NEW INDEPENDENCE township was named by choice of its settlers, who came mostly from Norway when that country and Sweden had the same sovereign.
NICHOLS township was named in honor of James A. Nichols, a foreman or captain of ore prospectors, who discovered for the Merritt brothers the first large bed of iron ore found on the Mesabi range.
NORMAN is the post office name for the railway village of Skibo, five miles southeast of Allen Junction, chosen in honor of Peter Norman, foreman of a railway section.
NORMANNA township was named in compliment for immigrants from Norway.
NORTHLAND township, like the two foregoing, has many Norwegian settlers.
ONEOTA, a village on the northwest shore of St. Louis bay, platted in 1856 and annexed to Duluth in 1889, received its name from a book published by Schoolcraft in 1845, entitled "Oneota, or Characteristics of the Red Race of America." In the preface he wrote: "The term Oneota is the name of one of these aboriginal tribes (the Oneidas). It signifies, in the Mohawk dialect, the people who are sprung from a rock." His larger work, "History, Condition, and Prospects of the Indian Tribes" (six volumes, 1851-57), has an article of Part I (pages 176-180) on "An Aboriginal Palladium, as exhibited in the Oneida stone," with a large colored picture of it. This stone, named Oneota, visited by Schoolcraft in the summer of 1845, was found to be a boulder of syenite on the top of one of the highest hills in the country of the Oneida Indians in western New York.
ORR, a village at the east end of Pelican lake, is the nearest railway station for the Bois Fort Indian Reservation. William Orr is the postmaster and owner of a general store.
OWENS township was named in honor of three brothers, John L., Samuel H., and Thomas Owens. The first, who owns a farm near Cook village in this township, was formerly a lumberman and owner of a sawmill at Tower, was one of the first to ship ore from the Vermilion range, and now lives at Lakeside, an eastern suburb of Duluth. The second came to Tower in 1883, was engineer at its first sawmill, and since 1902 has been yardmaster in Eveleth for the Fayal mine Thomas Owens, of Two Harbors, 'has been superintendent of the Duluth and Iron Range railroad since 1892.
PALMER'S is a post office and hamlet on the Duluth and Iron Range railroad about two miles east of French River. PALO, a Spanish word meaning a tree, is the name of a lumber-manufacturing hamlet about ten miles south of Biwabik.
PAUPORI, a Great Northern railway village eight miles west of Brookston, is diversely spelled Poupore (in three syllables) being the post office name. The postmaster, Phil Poupore, and the railway agent, W. 5. Poupore, are sons of an Ojibway farmer who is yet living here.
PAYNE, a station of the Duluth, Missabe and Northern railway nine miles north of Alborn, was named in honor of a former secretary of this railway company.
PEARY is a station of the Duluth, Winnipeg and Pacific railway, at its crossing of the St. Louis river, named in honor of Robert Edwin Peary, the noted Arctic explorer. He was born at Cresson, Pa., May 6, 1856; traversed the inland ice of northwestern Greenland in 1891; traced the northern limit of the Greenland archipelago in 1900; and on April 6, 1909, he reached the north pole.
PEYLA is a hamlet in Vermilion Lake township, of which Peter Peyla is the postmaster.
PIKE township has Pike river flowing through it, tributary to Vermilion lake. This stream, called Vermilion river on the map of Owen's geological survey, published in 1852, is named from the fish.
PORTLAND, a townsite platted in 1855 on the north shore of Lake Superior, adjoined the original plat of Duluth, to which it was annexed in 1868.
PRAIRIE LAKE township is named from the Prairie lake and river, flowing through it, tributary to Sandy lake in Aitkin county. Mush-kodensiwi, meaning little prairie, is the Ojibway name, noted by Gilfillan, for the lake and river.
Knott, of Kentucky, before mentioned for his humorous speech in Congress in 1871, ridiculing Duluth, but really aiding the young city much by its advertisement. He was born near Lebanon, Ky., August 29, 1830; was a representative in Congress, 1867-71 and 1877-83; governor of Kentucky, 1883-87; professor of civics and law in Center College, Danville, Ky., 1892-1901 ; and died at Lebanon, Ky., June 18, 1911. RENO is a railway station three miles north of Fairbanks.
RICE LAKE township is named for the Wild Rice lake, crossed by its west line. The Ojibway name of this lake means, according to Gilfillan, "the place of wild rice amidst the hills."
RICE'S POINT, a district of Duluth, between the harbor and St. Louis bay, was named in honor of its pioneer landowner, Orrin Wheeler Rice, of Superior, Wis., who was a younger brother of Henry M. and Edmund Rice, very prominent citizens of St. Paul. He was born in Waitsfield, Vt., October 6, 1829, and died in Minneapolis, March 9, 1859. He filed a land claim for this point in 1854, and was a member of the first town council of Duluth in 1857. The first election in St. Louis county was held at his house on this point in September, 1855.
RIVERS is a railway station about two miles south of Tower, named from its location near the crossing of the West Two rivers. The eastern one of these rivers flows through Tower.
ROBINSON, a railway station nine miles west of Ely, was named for a lumberman whose logging camp was beside a small lake there.
ROLLINS, a railway station two miles southeast of Brimson, was likewise named for an adjacent lumberman.
RUSH LAKE, a railway station for logging on the Duluth and Northeastern railroad, is beside a lake of this name.
SAGINAW is a railway village eight miles east of Brookston, named probably by lumbermen from the city and county of Saginaw in Michigan. ST. Louis township is named like this county, for the St. Louis river, crossed in its south part by the Duluth and Iron Range railroad.
SANDY township is named for Sandy lake and an adjacent Sand lake, each tributary by Pike river to Vermilion lake.
SAXE, a railway station about nine miles southeast of Buhl, was named for Solomon Saxe, of Eveleth, who was a landowner there.
SHAW is a station of the Duluth. Winnipeg and Pacific railway, four miles south of White Face river.
SHENANGO, a mining railway station two miles southeast of Chisholm, was named for the Shenango Furnace Company of Pennsylvania. SKIBO, a station of the Duluth and Iron Range railway at its crossing of the St. Louis river, was named for Skibo Castle, the summer home of Andrew Carnegie, on the north shore of Dornoch Firth in the northern part of Scotland.
SOLWAY township was named for the Solway Firth, an arm or inlet of the Irish sea between Scotland and England.
SOUDAN, a large mining village near Tower, and its mine, which was the first in this state to ship iron ore, in 1884, were so named by D. H. Bacon, general manager of this mine, because the severe winter cold here is very strongly contrasted with the tropical heat of the Soudan ( or Sudan) region in Africa.
SPARTA is a mining village in Missabe Mountain township, incorporated in 1897, named from ancient Greece, like Athens station near Tower, but probably by pioneers coming from Sparta in Wisconsin.
SPAULDING is a townsite at the east end of Long lake, between Ely and Winton.
STEVENSON is a mining village of the Mesabi range in the west edge of this county.
STROUD is a logging station of the Duluth and Northeastern railway, six miles southwest of Rush Lake.
STUNTZ township, which includes Hibbing, was named in honor of George R. Stuntz, of Duluth. He was born in Albion, Erie county, Pa., December 11, 1820; came to the site of Duluth in 1852; was a land surveyor and civil engineer, and made extensive surveys in northern Wisconsin and northeastern Minnesota, including the iron ore lands along the Mesabi range; died in Duluth, October 23, 1902.
STURGEON township was named from the Sturgeon river, which flows through it northwestward, being tributary to the Little fork of Rainy river. The rock sturgeon of northern Minnesota attains a length of six feet and weight of a hundred pounds. "On portions of the Lake of the Woods sturgeon fishing is the chief occupation, thousands of large fish being taken annually." (Cox, Fishes. of Minnesota, 1897, p. 13.)
TABER is a railway station six miles southeast of Angora.
TAFT is a station of the Duluth, Winnipeg and Pacific railway three miles north of the Cloquet river, named in honor of William H. Taft. He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, September I5, 1857; was graduated at Yale University, 1878; was United States circuit judge, 1892-1900: was president of the U. S. Philippine Commission, 1900-01 ; first civil governor of the Philippine Islands, 1901-04; U. S. secretary of war, 1904-08; and president of the United States, 1909-13.
TOIVOLA township bears a Finnish name, equivalent to "Hopeville" or "Land of Promise," given by Thomas Arkkola, a pioneer immigrant from Finland. Toijala is a village in the southwest part of that country.
TOWER, first occupied by white men and platted as a townsite in 1882, reached by the Duluth and Iron Range railroad in 1884, and incorporated as a city March 13, 1889, was named in honor of Charlemagne Tower, Sr., of Philadelphia, Pa. He was born in Paris, N. Y., April 18, 1809; was graduated at Harvard College, 1830; studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1836; practiced law in Pennsylvania twenty-five years ; was captain in the Sixth Pennsylvania regiment in the civil war ; was connected with the Minnesota Iron Company and the Duluth and Iron Range railroad company, and was thus instrumental in opening in 1884 the great iron industry of Minnesota. The name also honors Charlemagne Tower, Jr., who was born in Philadelphia, April 17, 1848; was graduated at Harvard University, 1872; was admitted to the bar in 1878; resided in Duluth, 1882-87, where he was president of the Duluth and Iron Range railroad company, and managing director of the Minnesota Iron Company; was U. S. ambassador to Austria-Hungary, 1897-9, to Russia, 1899-1902, and to Germany, 1902-08; resides in Philadelphia.
TWIG is a railway village in Grand Lake township.
VAN BUREN township was named in honor of Martin Van Buren, who was born at Kinderhook, N. Y., December 5, 1782, and died there, July 24, 1862. He was United States senator from New York, 1821-28; governor of New York, 1828-9; secretary of state under President Jackson, 1829-31; vice-president of the United States, 1833-7; and president, 1837-41.
VERMILION GROVE is a proposed village site for summer homes, on the south side of Frazer bay (formerly called Birch bay) of Vermilion lake.
VERMILION LAKE township, adjoining the most southern arm of this lake, thence derived its name, a translation of Onamuni, the Ojibway name of the lake. George H. Vivian, the county treasurer, who formerly lived in Tower, states that the aboriginal name refers to the red and golden reflection from the sky to the smooth lake surface near sunset, being thus of the same significance as the Ojibway name of Red lake.
VIRGINIA, a mining and lumber manufacturing city, the largest of the Mesabi range and after Duluth the largest in this county, having a court house as the seat of the judicial district for the north part of the county, was founded in September, 1892, and was incorporated as a city in 1894, after having been almost entirely destroyed by a fire in June, 1893. It was again almost wholly burned in the summer of 1900, from a forest fire. This name was proposed by a lumberman from the state of Virginia, living in Duluth, who was a cruiser for selecting valuable tracts of pine timber. The site of the city was originally heavily wooded.
WAASA township was named for the province of Vasa (or Waasa) in western Finland.
WAGONER is the post office in Alango township.
WAHLSTEN, a railway station in Kugler township, was named for August Wahlsten, a Swedish lumberman and homesteader in this township.
WALLACE, a railway station four miles north of Kelsey, was named for a lumberman there, who later lived in Duluth.
WHITE township was named in honor of a mining captain on the Mesabi range, in the employ of the Kimberly Mining Company.
WILLOW VALLEY township, recently organized, needs no explanation of its name.
WILPEN is a railway village five miles east of Hibbing.
WINTON, a large mining village in the east edge of this county four miles northeast of Ely, was named in honor of William C. Winton, a member of the Knox Lumber Company of Duluth, which did much logging around Ely and Winton. He was superintendent for building the first sawmill at Winton in 1898.
WOLF is a railway station and junction, two miles north of Iron Junction.
WUORI township has a Finnish name, meaning a mountain. The southwest part of this township has an exceptionally high and massive hill of the Mesabi range, culminating in section 28, with its top about 2,150 feet above the sea, being the highest land in this county, 700 feet above the mining city of Virginia, three miles distant to the southwest.
WYMAN, a railway junction three miles south of Mesaba village, was named in honor of an old sea captain, George Wyman, who lived at Two Harbors.
ZIM, a railway village in McDavitt township, is near the former site of the logging camp of a lumberman named Zimmerman.
Many other townships in this county yet await agricultural settlements and organization, requiring citation therefore by the township number and range number.