The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1926-05-14

as Lion" Merritt, past president of
the Vermilion Range Old Settlers
Association and whose picture has
been the trade mark of the Associa-
ton since its inception, died sud-
denly in Duluth Sunday of heart
attack at the ripe age of 80 years.
Lion" Merritt was by far the
most picturesque character of the
rich mining fields of st. Louis and
Itasca counties. To him is credited
the first discovery of iron ore on the
Mesaba range which has since de-
veloped as the largest iron ore pro-
ducing area in the world.
In tapping the worlds richest iron
deposits, Mr.. Merritt not only ma
terially revolutionized the iron min
ing industry in the United States,
but paved the way for a mammoth
Minnesota activity, rated second
only to agriculture. 1t was only a
twist of fate that prevented Mr..
Merritt from becoming one of the
richest men in the world, a reward
once Just beyond his grasp.
He was on the way to untold
WEALTH. WuSH tuC PoHfS VI Looo,
coming just three years after his
discovery, stripped him of his hold
ings. They went by mortgage to
Eastern capitalists. Mr.. Merritt,
who was associated with his eight
brothers, refused to despair at the
sharp reverse, which came near his
fiftieth year.
As member of the Minnesota
Legislature, an honor which followed
his successful explorations, he sac
rifced valuable time during the
period preceding the 1898 panic,
arguing in the lower house for APP
preparations to permit the state to
acquire ore lands. He was partly
successful and the property thus
purchased has enriched the state by
millions of dollars and bid fair to
continue producing indefinitely.
Born on a farm in Chautauqua
county, New York, Feb. 20, 1874,
Mr.. Merritt was educated in small
schools at Ashtabula, Ohio, and Du-
luth. Mrs. Merritt, mother of
Leonidas, and five of her sons, came
to the Head of the Lakes in 1856,
the father, Louis Howell Merritt,
with two sons, having come to Du-
luth the year before on the first up
bound steamer that locked through
the 500 canal. The land in Oneota,
now a part of Duluth, taken up by
the Merritt family, was surveyed in
the winter of 1856.
His early career, during which he
served as timber cruiser and pro-
spected for timber lands, was mark
ed by his services as a soldier DUR
ing the Civil war and during the
Indian campaigns which followed in
Minnesota, Montana and the Dako-
tas. With the outbreak of the Civil
war, Merritt, not yet out of his
teens, walked from Duluth to ST.
Paul to join Company B of the Min
nesota cavalry. Following the end
of the war he remained in the
cavalry and was with troops which
guarded hundreds of settlers from
Indians as they traversed the North
west prairie country between 1867
and 1870.
An active career as an Indian
fighter and a woodsman prepared
the prospector for the hardships in.
cident to the fve-year period of ex-
ploration in the wilds of Northern
Minnesota which preceded the ore
discovery. The Merritt brothers
sank test pits until on Nov. 16
1890, struck the first major ore
vein.
Work had only begun, for un-
solicited advice from experts" and
eminent" biologists confused pro-
spective investors, and the Merritts
themselves virtually penniless after
their long search, encountered a
long period of idleness before suffi-
cient funds to mine and ship the ore
were obtained. In the meantime they
utilized their genius as organizers
before the then infant>. industry
stated functioning.
Finally enlisting the necessary
financial support, railroads were
built, machinery was hauled into the
bleak, uninviting northland and
scores of skeptical miners finally
were induced to begin work. Once
under way the. industry thrived and
the Mesaba range became one OF
the best in the world.
out LIE KAUAI test was yet &c
come. The blow fell in 1898. Jay
Cooke, railroad builder and financiel
whose assistance had enabled the
Merritts to advance when Others
baked, was enveloped in the crash
Heavily mortgaged, the Merritt
brothers properties quickly passed
into the hands of the moneyed inter
ests. They salvaged nothing. Debt.