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

DULUTH AND ST. LOUIS COUNTY 591
to the range, with good connections, in December, 1892, and soon
had as much ore analyses to make as they could handle. But work
did not bring them money. The Oliver Mining Company owed them
about five hundred dollars for chemical analyses made, and had to
confess itself unable to pay until "new blood was injected into the
company." "Times were so hard in the winter of 1893-94" that George
Lerch "accepted a position in St. Paul, making brick for the St. Paul
and Duluth Railroad Company." But even that did not bring the
money he thought he might be able to send to his brother in Virginia,
who had remained there to "hold onto" the business. Indeed,
the railroad company could not pay him at all "until the following
spring." However, through the winter Fred Lerch went on with the
making of analyses, but when he had reached the realization that he
"owed for ten weeks board, and saw no way of paying it," he became
ashamed, took an ax, and "went batching" in the woods, staying
there until he had chopped enough to barter for a bushel of potatoes.
Other men had experiences similarly precarious. Common labor
brought only $1.10 at the mines—the few that were being then operated—and
payment oftener than not was in kind.
However, as with all things, time brought a change. The national
and local state purse improved, and there was soon a very visible improvement
in the village of V^irginia.
First Telephone Company.—Virginia soon had advanced so far
in metropolitan conveniences as to have telephone service. In 1S94,
Messrs. Talboys and Campbell, of Eveleth, strung a wire from their
general store to the home of one of the partners. Soon afterwards,
they opened a branch store in Virginia, and they wanted it connected
with Eveleth, so a private wire was run between the two villages.
So many people wanted to use the wire that it occurred to
some alert residents of Virginia that the franchise was w^orth acquiring.
So Kinney and Griggs finally organized a telephone company,
which grew and grew, until it was quite a valuable business when sold
to the present company. The city of Virginia now has about sixteen
hundred telephones.
Leading Hotel.— It was probably in 1894. that the McGarry Hotel
was built. Fred Lerch, writing about the hotel, states:
This was a three-story frame building, located on the site of the present
Lyric Theatre. P. H. McGarry, who is now a state senator, was the proprietor.
He was a jolly landlord, and he specified, in placing an order for
the main heating stove, that he wanted one that would heat a forty-acre lot,
when the thermometer was forty below zero. The stove took pieces of cordwood
four feet long.
Community Building.— Mr. Lerch also makes reference to "a
community building," which perhaps was the same building as that
hereinbefore referred to as Hayes' Hall. The Lerch brothers arrived
in Virginia on December 10, 1892, and Mr. Lerch writes
We began business as analytical chemists on the second floor of what
may be called today a community building, located in the center of the town,
on the site now occupied by the First State Bank. On the first floor, which
consisted of two rooms, one for office purposes and the other for sleeping
quarters, were located the real estate firm of Kennedy and Gleason, the village
president, and the village marshal. This room was also used on Sundays
liy Reverend Raymond. Presbyterian minister, who came from Tower.
These were the first church services held in Virginia.
Virginia Becomes a City.—An attempt was made in January,
1894, to annex to the village about four hundred acres of land in sections
7 and 8, and election was ordered to be held "at the office of the
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