The Virginia enterprise., 1907-10-11

5 COUNTY. MINNESOTA, FRlDA
a right-ofwa through the White
Earth Indian reservation. About
this time the Merritt brothers, asso.
lciated to some extent with Henry
w. Oliver of Pittsburg and aided
in a financial way yby: John D. Rock
efeller, were building the Duluth,
Missabe & Northern railway to
carry the ore from the mines they
were then opening on the Mesaba
range to Lake Superior. The first
ore shipped was alot of 1000 tons
from the Mountain Iron mine, locat.
ed seventy. six miles north of Du.
Iuth in the fall of 1892. During the
winter and spring Of 1898 the Mer-
ritts completed their road to Du-
luth and built their own docks.
During the. summer of 1893 they
shipped about 100000 tons. In the
meantime the Wright and Davis
Lumber company of Saginaw had
given an option on 1900 acres of
land from which it had cleared the
pine timber, to party of Youngs-
town, Ohio, people, who proceeded
to explore it and, while sinking
drill holes and digging test pits,
uncovered what is now known as
the Mahoning mine. The ore from
this mine was shipped over a logg.
ing road which had been built by
the Wright & Davis Lumber com.
pany from a point called Swan
river, thirty miles south of the
mine and thence via the Duluth &
Winnipeg to their ore docks on
Lake Superior.
"In 1897 the Great Northern Rail-
way company, in order to secure a
short and direct route from the Red
River valley grain belt to the head
of the lakes, bought the Duluth and
Winnipeg line, running from Deer
river to Duluth, and extended it
from Deer river to connect with the
Red River valley division of the
Great Northern at Fosston, MINI.
II had been working on the Mar
quette range for many years." said
Mr.. Philbin, "until 1893, when I
came to Minnesota to take charge
of the Duluth, Missabe & Northern
railroad. 1 remained with it until
1895, when I accepted an offer from
the Duluth & Winnipeg railway to
take charge of all it's operations, in.
cluding it's mining interests. l
saw the possibilities of the situa-
ton, but was powerless to take ad
vantage of it on my own account,
and began to look around for some
means of developing the vast wealth
which l knew was lying beneath
those old stumpsx from which the
timber had been snt. I soon learned
that Wright & navis had offered
their lands to John D. Rockefeller
for So, 100000, but he had declined to
buy them at such high figure. I
went to Saginaw, saw Amasa Wright,
c. H. Davis and their associates,
and secured three months option
upon the properties at that price,
which / proposed to offer to James
J. Hill. went to st. Paul with the
option in my pocket, only to find
that Mr.. Hill was in Europe, and
there was nobody at the Great Nor
thern Offices with whom I could
negotiate. Mr.. Hills subordinates
advised me to cable him, but told
them it would require message as
long as the Great Northern railway
to tell Mr.. Hill what 1 wanted him
to know. Then they advised me to
follow him to Europe. but I was
afraid the option was too short.
Finally got into touch with Mr..
Hill by cable and learned that he
was about starting for home, hav-
ing received news that his son and
namesake. Jim, was dangerously i'll
at hospital in New York. I went
down to meet him on the arrival of
bis steamer, and when he saw me
on the dock he asked anxiously:
"'1s Jim deadf'"
"No,'1 replied, 'Jim's all right,
| but am not. and I want tn suhvnit
to you the biggest business pro-
position that ever came this way, as
can have your attention.
"Mr. Hill gave me chance to go
over the matter with him, and kept
the papers to study on his way to
st. Paul, where he asked me to meet
him the following week. When
arrived there, however, he told me
that he had had no time to look in:
to the matter any further, and was
about to start for the Pabitic coast
where he expected to be detained
tor several weeks. l warned him
that the option would expire before
he got back and suggested that he
invite the Saginaw people to make
the trip with him. He saw the ad.
vantage of the suggestion and
wired them that he would send hie
(private car to Saginaw if they would
Join him for the journey as hie
guests. They wired back that thev