Fifty Years In The Northwest / With An Introduction And Appendix Containing Reminiscences, Incidents And Notes

by William H. C. Folsom

The records show that a court was held in 1859, S. J. R. McMillan officiating as judge. Also that a road was made from Oneota to Buchanan and the mouth of Knife river, through Fremont, Portland and Endion, following a trail to Lester's river and across French river to Montezuma, and another from Oneota to Fond du Lac. The town of Milford is mentioned as accepting the report. The assessment for St. Louis county for 1859 amounted to $96,836.76. At a special meeting of the county commissioners held Jan. 10, 1866, a resolution was adopted asking the legislature to grant authority to St. Louis county to issue $150,000 to aid in building the Lake Superior & Mississippi railroad. The legislature granted the request and twenty year bonds were issued.

We append a list of county commissioners to the year 1863: E. C. Martin, Vose Palmer, Zach T. Brown, 1858; E. C. Martin, Vose Palmer, W. E. Wright, 1859; W. E. Wright, S. A. Forbes, Sidney Luce, 1860; E. F. Ely, Joseph B. Culver (first meeting), 1861; E. F. Ely, Harvey Fargo, Levi B. Coffrey (second meeting), 1861; E. F. Ely, R. B. Carlton, H. Fargo, 1862; H. Fargo, R. B. Carlton, E. G. Swanstrom, 1863.

Names of villages that appear in the old records of the board have entirely disappeared. Those villages nearest to Duluth have been absorbed by that vigorous young city. We find a record, bearing date 1859, authorizing an election to decide upon the question of the removal of the county seat from Duluth to Port Byron. There is no record of the result of the election, nor is Port Byron found in a recent map.

DULUTH.

The site of Duluth was visited as long ago as 1659, by two adventurous Frenchmen, Grosselier and Redission. This was twenty-one years prior to the coming of Greyson Duluth, in whose honor the city of Duluth was named two hundred years later. Capt. Duluth visited the western end of the lake in 1680. Three or four years later Jean Duluth, a brother of the captain, established two trading posts, one at the mouth of Pigeon river, the other on Minnesota Point. Le Sueur followed in 1683, accompanied by a French surveyor, Franquelin, who made a fairly correct map of the region. The attraction to the early voyageurs was the rich furs to be obtained in the wild regions adjacent. The great American Fur Company early established posts along the northern shore of Lake Superior, and later the Astor Fur Company made its northwestern headquarters at Fond du Lac, a few miles above the present site of Duluth. Nothing was done toward permanent settlement until about the year 1854, when the tide of immigration set in toward the head of the lake, and it became evident that here was to rise cities of no mean importance, one upon the western shore of the lake, rising from the base of Minnesota Point, and the other Superior City, across the gleaming waters of St. Louis bay.

For several years the growth of Duluth was slow, and sometimes its fortunes seemed on the wane, but the construction of a railroad to St. Paul, completed in 1870, and a sudden influx of capital consequent upon this new outlet of trade, and more than all this, the proposed construction of the great Northern Pacific railroad, gave a new impetus to the growth of the city. The three years succeeding were years of great activity and progress. The population increased from 3,000 to 5,000, and many of the finer older buildings of the city were constructed. The canal was cut through Minnesota Point, thus giving to Duluth the most magnificent harbor on the lake, if not in the world.

In 1873 the failure of Jay Cooke, who had largely contributed the means for the construction of the Northern Pacific railroad, caused a financial depression similar in its effects to that of 1857. Banks failed, merchants became bankrupt, and the population of the city was reduced to 1,300 souls. The "hard times" lasted until some time in 1878, when the opening up of the great wheat fields in the Red River valley, and the completion of the Northern Pacific railroad, again brought prosperity to the more than half deserted city. The population increased in 1878 from 1,300 to 2,200 souls. Two years later the census showed 3,470; and a year later, 7,800. In 1882 the population had increased to 12,000; in 1883 to 14,000; in 1884 to 16,690; in 1885 to 18,036, and in 1886 to 26,000 souls.

Duluth has now a well organized board of trade, produce exchange and chamber of commerce. It has four banks, the American Exchange, Duluth National, Merchants National, and Bell & Eyster's. These banks had, in 1886, an aggregate capital of $300,000, with deposits of $2,034,281, amounts greatly increased during the year 1887. The taxable valuation of property in Duluth for the year 1886 was $11,773,720. The taxes paid in 1887 amount to $261,376.

Duluth has one immense flour mill, with a capacity of 250 barrels per day. It is five stories in height, and favorably situated; having the lake upon one side and the railroads upon the other, so that loading and unloading can be carried on at once from vessels and cars.

Duluth has also two large flour warehouses with a capacity of 200,000 barrels each. Large warehouses are also being built by the Northern Pacific and Omaha Railroad companies. The annual shipment of flour from Duluth has ranged from 164,000 barrels in 1871 to 1,500,000 in 1886, making an aggregate of 8,285,000 barrels in that time.