Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1880-07-30

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Clay that will answer for making brick
4 think can be got in several places in
the county, but thus far only one kiln
has been burned in this county. That
was in 1857, near the Mississippi, on
Belle Prairie. Levi Wheeler was one Of
the parties interested in! it. I have for
gotten who his partner was. The brick
they made were ofexcellent quality, and.
several chimneys are now standing in
Little Falls that were made of them.
Brick makers are much needed in this
county at the present time. " j.: H..
I As to the numbering operations Of this
county, it has been quite extensive, AS
before stated the lands of Morrison coun-
ty are about one-third pine land; and on
following up the Mississippi the first
pine of any account reached by the lum-
bermen is in this county: Fort Smelling
was begun in 1919, and the first lumber
used was likely brought from below.
After three or four years squad of sol.
diers came up the. Mississippi as far as
the mouth Of Swan river where they cut
and RATED down pine timber and logs,
ofwhich they constructed a small sawmill
at the foot Of the St. Anthony falls, on
the east side. From that time on until
the winter of 1846-7 it is not known how
frequent the soldiers, or any parties, came,
up into this county to get pine logs, or
how many they took away. Probably
the amount was not very large. In that
winter Daniel Stanchfield put in lum-
bering crew, and cut the nice. piece of
pine that stood on the west bank of the
Mississippi river and north of the mouth
of Swan river. OF course he took it
away without paying anything to the
government for it, and in fact no pine
lands were entered in this county, and I
presume not in the State before about
1858. Previous to that time it was taken
without being paid for or entered at the
land offices The party wanting to cut
logs would go and look out the pine that
he wished to cut, and spot line around
and mark It, These lines were not al
ways respected, and parties getting into
the woods first with a good, strong crew,
would frequently go onto some poor fel-
lows claim, if it was an extra good
chance; so good deal of pickering and
strife was the consequence. Atone time,
on Little Elk river, quarrel occurred
between Little Falls and St. Anthony
crew as to where the dividing line should
be between them. They met on the line
in full force, and charged on each other
with their axes. The St. Anthony crew
backed down before any fatal results en-
sued, not, however, until several axes
were hurled at each other, which re-
quired some lively lodging. Disastrous
results followed the free pine plan.
Nearly every man who could possibly
get supplied went into hauling logs.
The result was that the lumber market
was glutted so that when the hard times
of 1878 came on, nearly everybody who
was i'll the lumber business failed, and
was buried with debts which in most in
stances were never paid. There was for
two or three years really no market for
lumber. / saw clear, seasoned pine lum-
ber offered in 1859 in this place for $3.50
per thousand. It probably could not
have been sold for 81 per thousand in
money at that time. About that time the
pine lands came into market, which
ended free logging and quarrelling over
pine claims; and numbering soon became
a legitimate business, and has remained
so ever since. Ihave no way of arriving
at very close calculation as to the
| amount of pine that has been cut in Nor
rison county. At the least calculation
the amount cut during the last twenty
years would average 25,O00,000 feet a
year That would make in that time
500,000,000. I am of the opinion that
counting what has been cut in the coun-
ty from the start, it would likely reach
800,000,000 feet. I judge that two-thirds
Of the pine that was in the county before
any was taken, has been cut. Of this
pine I think not over Aone.twentieth has
been sawed by mills in this county. The
most of it has been run down and sawed
at Minneapolis. As near as I can recol-
lect, the saw mills Of this county that now,
or have been, run, are as follows: First,
the one built at Little Falls in 1849 by
Capt. Todd, of Fort Ripley, job n R.
Irving, of st. Paul, and James Gre en-,
who lived here, which has been hereto
fore mentioned. This mill was much en-
larged afterwards by the Little Falls
company, and did good business until it
went out in 1853 with the freshet of that
year. Anson Northrop put up a steam
mill at Swan River in 1866, and run 1t
two years. VIM. Sturgis built mill at
the mouth of Little Elk river in 1857,
and it was swept out by the freshet Of
1853. He Immediately; erected new
mill on the same spot, which has been
maintained and did more or less saving
each year since. After about six years
Sturgis sold it out to Messrs Clark, Wait
& Mcclure, ofSt. Cloud. In 1870 E.. G..
Hill and his brother 81. S. Hill bought it
and are still runningit. 1n1876 Charles
Gravel, assisted by his brother Narcisse,
erected a saw and grist mill on section
IS, town Al, range 81, in Belle. Prairie,
on Platte river, which does good busi>
ness. Recently F. x. Goulet has been
taken in as a partner by Mr.. Gravel. In
1866 Hon. @. A. Gilman, Of St. Cloud,
built a steam saw mill on the south line
Of town 80, range %, which was near the
southeast corner Of the county, but after
having been run two or three years it
burned down. In 1876 Joseph Casper
built small saw and grist mill on the
Skunk brook, above the mouth of Hill
man brook, on section SO, town 81, range
s0.E1a The stream is small, SO that it is
hard to do the amount of saving and
grinding that the wants Of the country
e :