1921 Duluth & St Louis County MN, Van Brunt.pdf - Garon.us

664 DULUTH AND ST. LOUIS COUNTY
annual town meeting held on the 15th of that month the question
of granting a license for the sale of intoxicating liquors within the
township was put to the public vote, and, of twenty-one votes cast,
nineteen were against and two in
license.
favor of the granting of the said
The assessed valuation of real and personal property in the
township in 1905 was $63,375. Taxes levied in that year, $1,438.61.
In 1919 the total valuation was $54,819; and the taxes levied $4,511.60
in that year.
The township officers in 1920 were : L. M. Burghardt, chairman
; John Metser and Henry Rombeck, supervisors; C. H. Sherman,
clerk; James Sherman, assessor; Walter Olson, treasurer.
Angora Township had a population of 255 persons in 1910; in
1920 its population had become 392.
Argo.—The Township of Argo was organized on December 7,
1920, and consists mainly of congressional townships 60-12, 59-13 and
60-13, the northern boundary of the organized township extending a
little into township 61-12—to the southern border of Birch Lake.
The men primarily and chiefly active in the developments which
led to the organization of the Township of Argo were D. C. Jackling,
of San Francisco, a mining engineer and executive of international
reputation, and his associates of the banking firm of Hayden, Stone
& Co., of New York and Boston ; and Messrs. W. G. Swart and
Dwight E. Woodbridge, mining engineers of Duluth. Mr. Jackling's
force, far-sightedness, enthusiasm and high standing carried the new
and questioned enterprise past the many obstacles that it naturally
encountered, and the whole souled support of his eastern associates
solved the financial problems upon which so many untried and costly
experiments are wrecked.
The first township election was held, on December 22, 1920, and
the original administration is constituted as follows: W. G. Swart,
chairman ; Wm. Mudge and O. C. Burrell, supervisors ; Mrs. Jas. R.
Mitten, clerk; Clyde M. Pearce, assessor; Dr. P. D. McCarty, treasurer;
T. B. Counselman and Wm. J. Baumgrass, justices; Oscar
Birkness and Al Johnson, constables.
The township organization is the natural outcome of the growth
of the population of that region, which, prior to the forming of Argo
was unorganized territory. The important mining enterprise begun
at Babbitt in the spring of 1920 made it certain that organized
municipal and town administration would soon follow.
Treating the Low-Grade Ore of Eastern Mesabi.—On the eastern
part of the Mesabi range lies an immense deposit of magnetic iron
ore, or taconite. Early explorers were well aware of it, but had to
pass it by because of the low grade of the ore, which seemed to have
no commercial value. Dwight E. Woodbridge, however, gave the
matter of treating the ore considerable thought, study, and experimentation,
carrying his research even to Europe. In 1909, he visited
northern Europe where there were somewhat similar deposits, and
where plants for the magnetic separation of ore had been established.
He visited Sweden, Norway, and Lapland, and spent much time at
the Actieselskabet Sydvaranger plant, at Sydvaranger, Lapland. And
he pursued the matter until he had succeeded in interesting the men
—perhaps the only men in America—likely to carry the experiment
through to success, that is Mr. Jackling and Hayden, Stone & Co.
When organized for an intensive trial of the project, W. G. Swart,
an accomplished metallurgist and skillful executive was made general