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

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588 DULUTH AND ST. LOUIS COUNTY
December 6, 1892. The following-named residents were elected to
constitute the first village administration: John Owens, president;
Howard Filegal, George Liebrock and John F. Towell, trustee ; John
F. Burke, recorder, and Neil Mclnnis, treasurer.
Virginia a Railway Station.—One day after the election took
place Virginia was, on December 7, 1892, given the facility of railway
connection, the spur of the Merritt railway, the Duluth, Missabe and
Northern, being completed from Wolf Junction to Virginia on that
day. Thereafter, the growth of the village was very rapid.
Growth had been almost impossible before, because those who
wished to reach the place "were compelled to travel to the west along
'tote roads' which were almost impassable" all the way from Mesaba
station, a stopping place on the Duluth and Iron Range railroad. It
was the only point on a railroad from which any of the Mesabi expeditions
could start, and there was such a tremendous rush of exploring
parties, and such a heavy traffic developed by their operations, that
in the early nineties the only corduroy road became almost impassable.
In the late summer of 1892 the Duluth, Missabe and Northern reached
Mountain Iron, which made the road much shorter for the people of
Virginia; still that road soon reached the state in which it was a
hardship to have to walk or ride along it, and much traffic was
impossible. So it is possible to "imagine the joy that abounded when
the first sixteen cars of miscellaneous freight reached Virginia on the
afternoon of December 7, 1892. Part of the freight brought in by the
first train was the machinery for the waterworks plant." A little later
the Duluth and Iron Range Railroad also reached the city.
First Frame Store Building.—Tradespeople began to flock in, and
temporary buildings gave place to "some of more substantial character."
"Every line of retail business was soon represented." "One
of the first frame buildings was put up by the Maas Hardware Company,
on the northwest corner of Chestnut street and Central avenue."
First Sawmill.-—One of the great inconveniences experienced by
the early settlers was the lack of lumber for building purposes. The
only means by which it was possible to get any lumber at all was by
"importing it from other places," at considerable trouble and expense.
However, this was soon partly remedied, John Owens bringing
in a small portable mill, which he placed "on the shore of Virginia
lake," near where the Primary school building later stood. John
Owens had many tasks to do at that time, and in the sawmilling business
he took into partnership a man named Robert McGruer, who
operated the mill, which was soon working at full capacity. Even
then, it could not cope with the demand for lumber, and when the
place really began its first spurt, in the fall of 1892, the little mill
could not hope to cope with the requirement. However, relief was
in sight, for it appears
The first of October, 1892, the news was heralded throughout Virginia
that Finlayson and Company, of St. Paul, had purchased 50,000,000 feet of
pine in the vicinity, and had decided to erect at once a large sawmill on a site
leased from the Virginia Townsite Company. This meant the employment of
at least 100 men in the sawmill itself.
It does not seem, however, that this larger mill was "at once"
erected, otherwise it probably would have met the same fate as Owens'
mill, which was destroyed in the fire which also destroyed the village
of Virginia, in June, 1893. The Finlayson mill was in existence and
operation in 1900, when it was also burned, at the time of the second
razing of the city. For some years prior to its destruction in 1900,