school and eligible for county funding in eight hundred fifty three like that in a school district six was organized and lessons began in english by eight hundred fifty eight minnesota became a state and the township of white bear families french was missing only in the home of the austrian koehler's even koehler's austrian brother in law burger spoke french because as wife elmira whose burger was french canadian virtually all the efforts of the lake vadis area farmers went into survival carving out homesteads and croplands from the forest hunting and trapping supplemented their meagre incomes badness area population continued to grow but hard work poor food and sanitation took their toll many residents died of disease children fell to diptheria scarlet fever and diarrhea the belen family lost three children to death here ia eventually the wilderness gave way to the axe and plough and venice area farmers began to prosper new settlers roads a general store blacksmith and a stagecoach stop brought civilization to the once primitive settlement in eight hundred seventy five a new school was built to replace the old log structure a second generation of students were taught by mary lasalle one of the new district first teachers lessons were in english although french was still the most common language the stagecoach gave way to the railroad line and at eight hundred eighty seven a depot was built north of present day rice street and a wasso boulevard immigration and population growth continued population may have been three hundred fifty in the eighteen eighties after the eighteen eighties the french were joined by a few germans scandinavians and italians like that as a school district six help maintain the separate identity of the community irvine will sell was six b s first teacher her mother mary had taught the area students a generation earlier or mines family shared her vivid memories of the years  phadnis school she lived at home and her pupils were exclusively french canadians with the exception of four families christianson max and a family of germans stand out in memory were lily and raymond beland cousins and rivals who finished the grades in four years laura christiansen who was trying to keep polls for her widowed father and her three little brothers irvin max with his brown curls bleached to gold by the summer sun a bunch of marsh lilies in his grimy fest breathless and late for school also jenny the german whose mother put the bread mixture in the bed with them when it was too cold in the house that same journey was beautifully embroidered convent mean clothes were always filthy one morning kind hearted guy the little bar they threw at school with eugene beland and his mother full of wigan's buggies farm implements dove chickens and guinea him george's yard as a maculata as his wife's apron vincents where the latch string was always out in the heartiest of welcomes from jeannette  leonard elise regard who has since realized her dream of being a teacher to his farmers grew little more crops and their families needed in the very earliest years of the community so in addition to language and their own school district the area remain distinct because their economy had little in common with the resort culture of white bear lake or the large stock farms of gilfillan or hill to the north eventually the lake wagner's population began to grow the anderson were gullah families pioneer truck farming after eighty ninety truck farming allowed smaller farms to be profitable cars made it possible for vadis men to take jobs in st paul after world war one farms could be even smaller truck farming remains an important part of the local economy vegetables like asparagus and tomatoes brought much needed cash to local families hard work and an entrepreneurial spirit were required in the mid one nine hundred thirty s ethel anderson wrote a journal of her work and life on the farm tuesday may twelfth first  market brought twenty seven dozen bunches asparagus to market sold from thirty five to fifty five cents a bunch but pair of overalls cut some more bustle asparagus painted on house rained a little planted castor beans fix flower bed on west side of house seeded melons cut more asparagus may twentieth planted over two hundred tomato plants may twenty third to market asparagus sold at thirty cents a dozen eggs at twenty two cents home at nine o'clock planted out sixteen hundred proceedings after world war two the communities only large land owner watson davidson turned his twelve hundred acres into the area's first subdivision more than eleven hundred non farm residents filled davidson's in expensive new homes along clover avenue elmwood and stockdale road every wiper township home had its own well and cesspool and the dangers of well contamination grew has subdivisions sprouted on farmland by the one nine hundred fifty six health officials found polluted wells in the densely settled eastern half of the township east township communities began voting to be an x to y peril lake to gain access to it city water and sewer wiper township fear that it would be eaten up neighborhood by neighborhood so they proposed first a township water system had been one nine hundred fifty six and then annexation of the whole township in january one nine hundred fifty seven residents that like venice were wildly alarmed at the thought of an extension to the city of white bear lake because city taxes were high because they wanted to stay small scaled and semi rural and because they feared loss of identity after other seven al janssen was the first mayor their tasks were to bring order to the area getting rid of the junk yards dog kennels the basement homes and the smells of blight of the area that made the area attractive enough that four hundred fifty new homes were added to the village between one nine hundred fifty eight and one nine hundred sixty five with about half the new homes being in the new five star mobile home state the one nine hundred sixty population was two thousand four hundred fifty nine the success of the village had consequences with no city water or sewer the village began to run into the same pollution that the township faced in the one nine hundred fifty s reluctantly the village decided to install started a couple of years later a fire department formed in one nine hundred seventy when the population was three thousand four hundred eleven by the one nine hundred seventy s venice heights sat at the intersection of two freeways with the downtowns of st paul and minneapolis just minutes away land values went up and the commute time fell village farmers facing costly sewer insulation and good prices for their land began to sell that incites days as a sleep village were numbered luckily mayor hank tessier had the vision and the determination to prepare the community for development despite opposition city water insulation began in one thousand nine hundred seventy seven just in time to allow the city's largest housing project green haven to go up the village illegally became a city in one nine hundred seventy five heritage days was born out of the bicentennial celebration helping cement our identity as a community in hundred eighty the population was five thousand and eighty seven population exploded between one hundred seventy nine and one hundred ninety with the construction of apartments and one thousand one hundred twenty new homes sewer and water insulation pushed taxes sky high prompting city leaders to search out new companies to settle about a site's the first large corporation h b fuller paid enough property taxes to cover forty percent of the city tax base really two communities living side by side the old farmers and villagers next to the newest suburbanites a new wal mart built on the site of the one hundred year old anderson truck farm followed in one thousand nine hundred four by a proposed target store ignited new protest from one thousand nine hundred five to two thousand and one city leadership worked at healing the differences between old badness and new between those who wanted more city services and more urban development and those who wanted the city to freeze in time focus groups visioning workshops broader recreation programs representation on city commissions or the council and time to adjust to the new venues downtown all help the city resolve its differences by the new city survey of two thousand and one venice heights emerged again as a community with a strong cohesive identity with population above fourteen thousand in two thousand and six little vacant land remains and the communities focus is shifting