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

DULUTH AND ST. LOUIS COUNTY 723
Name Changed.—The boundaries have since 1906 remained
unchanged and the territory is still in great part undeveloped. In
1919, twenty-five residents of the Township of Buyck, and representing
fifty-five per cent of the votes cast at the 1918 general election,
prayed the county commissioners to adopt the name of Portage
in place of Buyck. The commissioners thereupon posted notices in
public places throughout the territory stating that they would hear
objectors to the
October 6, 1919.
proposed change at the Court House, Duluth, on
No opposition developed and on that day the commissioners
ordered the change of name.
Taxes.— In 1906. when Township of Buyck first organized, the
assessed valuation was $267,315. Total taxes levied, $4,651.28. In
1919, the total valuation for the Town of Portage was $286,895, and
the total taxes levied for all purposes in that year $22,747.37.
Population.—The population was stated to have been fifteen in
1900. It was 287 in 1910, and the 1920 census shows 307 residents
in Buyck, which is now Portage Township.
School Statistics.—Part of the township has no school, but townships
65-18, 66-17 and one-half of 65-17 are embraced in school district
47. In that district there are four frame schoolhouses, valued
at $10,000. There was an enrollment of sixty-six scholars in 1919-20,
and the teaching staff consisted of one male and two female teachers,
the average salary being $96 a month.
The officers of school district forty-seven are: John G. Handberg,
Buyck, clerk; Ed Mankus, treasurer; Wm. Lippanen, director.
Present Township Officials.—The township officers in 1919-20
wxre: William Lipponen (chairman). Perry Fransk, Valentine
Sinsta, supervisors; Carl M. Harrison, clerk; Louis Gruska, assessor;
John H. Laine, treasurer.
Prairie Lake.—A petition, dated at Flopdwood, Minnesota, April
13, 1906, and signed by Andrew Korhanen and others, all legal voters
of townships fifty north of ranges twenty and twenty-one west, sought
the approval of the county commissioners of their wish to have those
congressional townships organized and named "Prairie Lake," under
the provisions of
1905.
section 451, and others, of the Laws of Minnesota,
The document was filed
and came before the board
with the county auditor on April 16th,
of commissioners on May 8, 1906, on
which day they granted the petition, ordering first town meeting to
be held at the schoolhouse on section 30, of township 50-20, on Saturday,
May 26, 1906, when officers were elected and the township
organization became effective.
Three years later, on November 27, 1909, a petition by residents
in the eastern congressional township (50-20) of Prairie Lake, prosecuted
an inclination on the part of voters therein to separate from
Prairie Lake Townshij), and organize another, to be known as "Fine
.Lakes." The division eventually was efl'ected. (See I'ine Lakes, this
chapter.)
In 1906, the assessed valuation of Prairie Lake Township was
$66,542, for the two congressional townshi])s; in
valuation of the one township (50-21) was $68,160,
1919. the assessed
Fine Lakes Township
being almost as valuable.
Prairie Lake at one time was in School District Xo. 19, but now
belongs to no district, (jr. to be more correct, is part of the immense
Unorganized School District directed by the county school administration,
that being apparently more economical.