The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1929-09-27

ment Of ruStling pages Of notebooks
of respectful students-but only the
crackle of the blazing squaw-wood and
birch, and sometimes the sudden crash
through the bush of q moose, and the
occasional far-off cry of a wolf, and
always the Groom of the northern night
wind in the boughs of the white pines
above them"
In 1889 Alfred set out from Tower
with six men and three dog trains
land we were the dogs" he interpolat-
ed-and the digging began. Over the
crest Of the Missabe they dug. dug,
dug for iron-and found none. Twen-
ty thousands dollars they spent and
still they couldn't find any. Came the
spring of 1890.
Now strange things began to hap
pen; the wheels of their lumber wagons
sank through the carpet of pine
needles, got begged in deep ruts of
peculiara powdery red soilheavy.
Alfred picked up handfuls Of it, heft-
ed it, handed it to his men, to Lon.
That's iron,' he said"
But still 1t didn't suit them That
red ground wasn't vein Of iron ore.
They kept on drilling until finally one
day Lon shouted, Here, now, we've
worked long enough on this this rim,
let's go down in the basin and sink
a pit"
And that's Just what they did, over
the earnest opposition of Captain j.
A. Nichols of Duluth, who was at the
head of the Merritt test-pit crew. And
there in the basin at the southern
foot of the hills. Nov. 16, 1890, they
found the iron they had sought for 20
years, rich iron ore, ore that had lain
there just beneath the pine needles
waiting for them to find it.
Lewis Merritt's prophecy was vindi-
Gated, the husky seven had found their
iron and the Merritts and their men
began to dig toward wonders they
themselves nor their dead father had
ever dreamed Of"
That was the beginning of drama,
drama that packed into the succeed
ing years. The Merritts weren't con-
tent to sit down after they had found
the iron Experts still condemned their
discovery and said that while it was
iron it couldn't be mined, that it must
be just slop over. Lon Merritt went
down and lobbied law through the
Minnesota state legislature making it
possible for ordinary people to lease
these rich lands. The MerrittS formed
the Biwabik Mountain Iron Company
and tried to sell their stock-its par
value being 500 a share-for SO
share They sought more iron on
their leased lands and couldn't find
it. Finally they thought they had
found some on another mans lease.
He agreed to sell it to them Tor $780,
600 on To-day option.
In those ten days the Merritts had
to find out if there was iron there.
The feats they performed were Her
achievements of Paul Bunyan. But
they found acres of iron, sank the
first pit of the Biwabik mine, sank
some dozen more pits, took up their
option and when men without faith
still refused to finance them, borrowed
the $4,000 on their own responsibility
and put the rich land into the cem-
pany's possession. There was still no
faith in the brothers. This iron could
not be mined, men said. But the Mer-
ritts decided it was simple contract
job, that it could be scooped out with
a steam shovel-and thus they devel-
oped open pit mines.
They couldn't interest eastern capt.
tai in building them railroad, so
they formed the Duluth, Messabe and
Northern railroad themselves and
built their own line to Lake Superior.
In 1892 they found the greatest of the
Messaba mines. Wilbur and Cassius
blazed the trail for the new railroad.
Roscoe Merritt, Wilbur's brother, built
the first store in Mountain Iron and
Lon started bank there. The Mer-
ritts were at their height. They had
triumphed.
Then came TRAGEDY. The Merritts
were innocent lambs led to the
slaughter. They let Rockefeller and
his associates take the wealth they had
found themselves away from them In
1893 Leonidas went down to New York.
He was wealthy, his family was veal
thy. There the Lake Superior Con-
solidated Iron Mining Company was
formed with Leonidas as president and
Merritts as directors, with 10 to 20
millions Of dollars worth of stock in
the Merritts' hands-and first mort
gage covering the entire property in
the hands of Rockefeller. In not, so
many months Lon was back in the
woods, broke his family's fortune
wiped out, Cassius dead of grief-but
the seven iron men even in death and
sorrow were still loyal and true.
There aren't so many pictures to be
drawn after that. We have Leonidas
before the congressman trying to tell
the story Of the financial transactions
with nothing to prove his words, blam-
ing himself for the loss Of the money
and for Cassius' death We have AL
fred suing Rockefeller for fraud and
winning ss40, 1000, only to have the ver-
dict reversed and a new trial ordered.
And we have Allied too poor to go
through another trial We have Rookie
Teller paying the Merritts 100000 for
a retraction Of the fraud charges and
the money going to pay the debts that
hung heavily over the iron family.
And we have men agreeing that but
for the Messaba iron mines, found by
the Merritts, the United States Steel
Corporation could never have been
formed
These are sad pictures and sad, too.
is the story Of the seven iron mems
last years, of their never ending efforts
to find more iron that would give them
back the wealth that had been taken