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

542 DULUTH AND ST. LOUIS COUNTY
date and lessor, to Hibbing and Alworth, section 14-58-20, and other
leases sections 14, 15, 22 of 58-20. Further leases from Hull to Trimble
were filed in 1893. In March, 1893, E. B. Bartlett, of Brooklyn,
and C. W. Wetmore, of New York, come into the record. These promoters,
in March, 1893, working with the Merritts, sought to effect
a consolidation of the more important Mesabi mining companies, and
an arrangement was made by them, on March 6, 1893, with the Lake
Superior Iron Company, by which a one-half interest in the Hibbing
group of mines was to be transferred to the new company, for $100,-
000 cash, and a further $150,000 in deferred payments over eighteen
months, the promoters to guarantee that the Duluth, Missabe and
Northern extension to Hibbing "would be in not later than September
1, 1893." The agreement was assigned by Bartlett and Wetmore
to the ill-fated New York and Missabe Iron Company—the new holding
company organized by these promoters, with the Merritts,—as
was also assigned the Hibbing-Trimble contract of April 11, 1893, to
them, covering seven forties in 31-58-20, leased by Lorenzo D. Day
and J. W. Day to Hibbing and Trimble. The intracacies of the financial
endeavors of Wetmore are referred to in the chapter that deals
with the general history of the Mesabi Range, and need not be restated
here. Suffice it therefore to state that the New York and Missabe
Iron Company's assets eventually (in August, 1893) passed to
John D. Rockefeller, and in November to the Rockefeller subsidiary
formed to operate the mines. The importance of the Hibbing group
is reflected in the name of the new company, the Lake Superior Consolidated
Iron Mines, by the forming of which and the eventual
merger into the subsidiary of the United States Steel Corporation
(in 1901), Hibbing and his associates became millionaires.
The Lake Superior (Burt-Poole) mine development was placed
under the superintendence of Capt. P. Mitchell, in 1893, when the
Rockefeller subsidiary, the Lake Superior Consolidated Iron Mines,
was formed, W. J. Olcott becoming general manager of all the mines.
In 1894 the Lake Superior, or Burt-Poole, mine was being developed
for underground mining, and Wlnchell stated that the basis of operations
by the Rockefeller Company was "a 30-cent lease, and the
profits * ''' * divided between the Consolidated and the Lake
Superior Companies.'' In other words, Hibbing's original company
still held a one-half interest in the property, or, to be exact, in the
mining lease.
The Duluth, Missabe and Northern Railway Company reached
Hibbing in the fall of 1893, but although there were several mines
then in process of development, no ore was shipped from the Hibbing
District until 1895, the Burt-Poole being the first to reach the
shipping stage. Only 201,938 tons were shipped to 1900, but up to the
end of 1919 the Burt is shown as having yielded 16,347,691 tons.
This total covers shipments from the Poole Mine. There are today
several Burt reserve mines, in Stuntz and Balkan townships, all controlled
by the Oliver Iron' Mining Company. They show available
deposits of approximately 24,000.000 tons of ore.
Sellers Mine.—The Sellers Aline was opened in the same year
as the Burt. The feeholder, M. B. Hull, in 1893, gave John M. Sellers
mining right to much of section 6 of 57-20, lease of January 17th
covering the n. half of nw. qr., on the basis of a 35-cent royalty,
with $7,000 cash advance ;
tion 6, on similar terms ;
lease, April 5, 1893, was for n. half of sec-
and another lease of that date and terms
referred to the sw. of ne. and nw. of se. of section 6. The first lease