Text edited by Janet
Gillman, January, 2002; Content linked to updates by Jeanne Newstrom 1/28/2
The year 1893—Summer in the Northwoods, mysterious, beautiful. Quiet and undisturbed lay the seven mile length of TROUT LAKE except where a wild duck rippled its surface or a deer ran lightly down to drink at its cool, clean shores. HEAVY FORESTS of pine and cedar and hardwood reached from its shores miles back in every direction.
Who was there to foresee that in a
few short years the waters would be red with IRON ORE emptied into it from one
of the largest CONCENTRATION PLANTs in the world, that the TIMBER would be but
a memory and in its place would be modern homes, acres of clover, alfalfa,
potatoes, herds of well-bred cattle.
As early as 1891, B.E. Benson and Mons Nelson had filed on homesteads in what was later ORGANIZED as Trout Lake Township, but it was not until September 1893 that settlers actually came to this part of Itasca County. In that month and year, HERMAN GRAN, A. Larson and H. KULAVARA came with their families from Duluth, and in December of the same year Fred Christianson, also from Duluth, settled with his family on a homestead at the lower end of Trout Lake.
The next year came Swan Rydberg and family who also built his home on the lake but four miles farther north on its eastern shore. That year, 1894, saw the coming of many settlers; C. Benson, B.E. Benson, Chas. Point, Peter Ollila, A. Lake, John Laine, Alpi Autio, John Hendricks, Matt Saari, Oscar Heggman, L. Willman, Louis Carlson, J. Faulkinghor, Wm. Poppe, and others. Soon after came Fred Madsen, Martin Madsen, Ole Hanson, Chas. Maynard, B. Bergeson, Ole Cleveland and O.L. Sherman were among the early ones. Nearly all came from cities; Duluth, Superior, Minneapolis.
What brought these people, most of them families with small children into this wilderness? The answer was the same from each one questioned—the “hard times”, as the depression of 1893 was called. People were forced to leave the cities or starve and they came where land was new and cheap. Blackberry was the nearest railroad station, LaPrairie and Grand Rapids the nearest towns. There were no roads, only trails, later tote roads and they were poor ones. Jim Faulkinghor came with his family in a covered wagon by way of the young town of Hibbing, most of the others by train to Blackberry or Grand Rapids, and from there walked.
When SWAN RYDBERG arrived, Indian teepees were still standing where his farm buildings now stand. IN FACT, that particular part of the lakeshore had been an Indian burial ground and skeletons and Indian relics have often been unearthed there. Even as late as six years ago, when Olaf Rydberg excavated for his new grade A milk house, an Indian skeleton was found.
Fred Madsen often told how he was $60 in debt when he had bought lumber for floor and ceiling in his first log house. Just what the financial standing of the others were has not been learned, but those who are left of the early-comers say no one had more than the proverbial shoestring. No one went houseless, however, as logs of all kinds and sizes were so plentiful. It was necessary to get a clearing as soon as possible in order that a few vegetables and potatoes could be raised, then cows, one at least, to supply milk and butter.
The extra crock of butter was carried by packsack to La Prairie or Grand Rapids to be exchanged for flour, sugar, and coffee. It took close planning to make the butter cover the price of store groceries since it bought as little as ten or twelve cents a pound. Mr. Madsen used to tell how unpleasant it was carrying butter in the warm summer when it melted and ran down his back.
As kerosene could not be carried with other groceries in the packsack, a gallon can was carried in the hand or carried by one of the children old enough to make the long walk. It was usually necessary to carry a lantern as the trip could not be made between daylight and dark. Going by way of Blackberry one could walk the railroad track from there to Grand Rapids. Mr. Benson used to tell of crossing the railroad bridge one trip when he heard a train close behind him. Anyone who has walked the ties of a railroad bridge knows it is not a pleasant place to meet a train or be overtaken by one.
Mrs. T. Kingston (Bessie Faulkinghor) says she remembers when her father, Mr. Rydberg and Mr. Hanson would row a wanigan from the east side of the lake where they all lived, to the west side, walk to Grand Rapids for groceries, then return and row the wanigan back. It did save a few miles of walking.
Mrs. O. Hanson used to tell that for several years after settling on the homestead, her husband worked in Duluth at his trade as millwright while she and the three children stayed on the “farm”. When haying time came, she walked to Blackberry each day, carrying a scythe and a fork, the children trailing behind, to cut the hay needed for the cows in winter in the swamps. In winter she watered the cows at a hole cut in the ice of the lake. She found it impossible to keep the water hole open in freezing weather until a neighbor told her to lay several sacks over the opening and it would not freeze over nearly as fast.
The Rydberg’s cut hay several years where Coleraine now stands, until their clearings were big enough for necessary hay crops. There were no game laws in those days, the woods and lakes were full of game and fish so there was no shortage of meat.
Words cannot describe the mosquitoes but they seemed as big and ferocious as swarming bees and lasted from early spring till freeze-up. Mrs. Benson made cuffs and anklets of paper for the children to protect them somewhat from the mosquitoes.
Winter was harvest time too, for then the men shouldered ax and saw and slashed down timber such as we shall never see again. Only very large and sound logs were saleable and these brought as low as $4 a thousand feet, but at least it was income. During the summer, stumps were grubbed where timber stood and clearings grew, acre by acre.
Where there are children there must be schools, and about 1895 the first log school was built. Fred Christianson had the contract for building at $250 with the understanding that he was to take timber where he could find it. A Miss Woodruff was the first teacher, then a Miss Brady, whose father was an attorney in Grand Rapids. An early teacher was Miss Cochran who later as Mrs. Bjorge was an early settler in Bigfork.
In 1906 and 1907 MOLLIE PUCKETT was the teacher with fourteen pupils enrolled. This school, one of two country schools left in Itasca County, now has three teachers and an enrollment of nearly a hundred. At the close of her teaching term in 1907, Mollie Pucket married one of her pupils, Frank Gran.
Mr. Faulkinghor was instrumental in getting the school opened that was known as the UPPER TROUT LAKE SCHOOL. This school was discontinued about 1927 but two of the teachers who taught there before it closed were daughters of Swan Rydberg, [SEE TEACHERS’ PHOTOS] Mrs. August Mathiesen (Carrie Rydberg) and Mrs. C. Clune (Clara Rydberg).
Another school was built some years later near the present Felix Wirta farm [ELMWOOD SCHOOL] and here one of the teachers was Mrs. Fay Ford (Marie Rydberg). This school has also been discontinued and the pupils from these two schools are transported to Coleraine.
Among former teachers at the LOWER TROUT LAKE SCHOOL who still live in the community are Mrs. John Rydberg (Edna Nelson), Mrs. Wayne Kangas (A. Nellmark), Mrs. T. Heikkila (Elma Wirta).
In the early days religious services were held in the homes. Then the Finnish people built a CHURCH near the Lower Trout Lake School, and later the Norwegians built one at the lower end of Trout Lake. This CHURCH was affiliated with the Zion Lutheran Church of Grand Rapids this year (1958). Mr. Benson, in order that his daughters might receive religious instruction and be confirmed, before the church was built, took his girls with horse and wagon to Grand Rapids each Sunday morning starting at 4:30 A.M. to be at services that began at 9:30 A.M.
B.E. Benson paid for his first subscription to the Herald Review with tomatoes. It took two bushels of tomatoes at fifty cents a bushel and as he could pack only one bushel at a time on his back, it took two days to carry the price of the subscription to Grand Rapids.
It was not all work though in the early days and many was the party that lasted almost till morning held at the different homes. Often it was necessary to walk and the younger children were carried in packsacks. When the get-togethers began, the babies were deposited in the beds, or if too many for the beds, slept on the floor until time to be packed back.
Year by year better roads were opened, often winding for sink holes, swamps and hills had to be avoided, but it was not till after the advent of cars and when county and Federal roads were constructed that they were passable at all times of the year. As late as 1917 there were two ox teams in the township, one owned by J.E. Erickson and the other by O.L. Sherman.
Ole Hanson and Mons Nelson owned and operated sawmills for many years and gradually frame buildings replaced the logs ones. As the clearings grew and market demands increased, barns grew bigger, often flanked by silos. Land values increased. Farm lands no longer sold for $2.50 an acre which was the price per acre Martin Mattson paid for three forties in the early days.
When, in 1906, the mines opened near what then became Coleraine and Bovey, Mr. Hartley of Duluth, with interests in the new mines, bought property on the east shore of Trout Lake. He built substantial attractive log buildings and started a maple syrup camp, where maple syrup is still made each spring, but not on as large a scale as in the old days. The HARTLEY FAMILY spent many summers here enjoying boating on the lake and hiking and horseback riding along the trails on their property.
A frequent guest at the Hartley’s was JOHN c. GREENWAY, the first Superintendent of the new Mining district, and a great horseman. Under Mr. Greenway’s supervision, the Trout Lake ore concentrating plant and the power plant were built. To accommodate workers at these plants, Bogalusa location and the power plant location came into existence. Many families made their homes here for years, but the power plant and the locations are now only MEMORIES. After Coleraine and Bovey were built, the Trout Lakers had a closer market for farm products. For many years, the Rydberg’s sold milk and cream to the Arcana Hotel and other eating places in Coleraine. Until creameries were built, butter found a ready market in the surrounding towns.
With the coming of the auto, power machinery and electricity, early hardships were eliminated. Logging is a thing of the past and many of the one time big farms are no longer in operation. The eight-hour workdays and high wages have lured many from farms to the mines, and sons, daughters and grandchildren of the early settlers have found employment and careers in far-a-way places. There are not many left of the original settlers, but Mr. and Mrs. Oscar Heikkila are still on their farm; grandma Heikkila (Mrs. Hilda Heikkila) lives on their old farm in the summertime, and Mrs. Kangas, Mrs. Mattson and Mrs. Julius Arola are still in the community.
At the death of Ole Sherman in 1957, Mrs. Sherman moved to Phoenix, Arizona to live with her son Karlot. The original Rydberg farm is farmed by Olaf Rydberg, the Point farm by John Point, the Ollila farm by Carl Ollila, the Wirta farm by Felix Wirta, the Kangas farm by Wm. Kangas, and John Rydberg has a farm close to his original home.
Mr. and Mrs. Einer Johnson (Bertha Benson) and their son Ervin and his family are on the C. Benson farm, and until very recently Desmond Walsh farmed the B.E. Benson farm. John Norgard is on a farm close to his father’s farm where Oscar Norgard now lives. Mrs. John Norgard is the former Hilda Kangas. Their son Raymond lives on the original A. Autio farm, while Mr. and Mrs. Wm. Tahtinen (Sylvia Autio) have a farm close by.
Joseph Streetar, Sr. and his son Tony still operate the farm where they came some fort-five years ago, while close by lives their son Joe, Jr. and family, and Mr. and Mrs. Tom Carlson (Josephine Streetar). The John Hendricks are on the original Hendricks farm of his father. Harold Madsen and family are on the original Fred Madsen homestead, while on farms close by are Einer Madsen and family, Mr. and Mrs. Elmer Reed (Aagot Madsen) and Mr. and Mrs. Art Anderson (Signa Madsen), and Mr. and Mrs. J. Palkki live on the old Chas. Maynard farm.
Mr. and Mrs. Ed Jokinen live on the old Jokinen farm. On the former farm of J.E. Erickson lives Mrs. and Mrs. Sanford Nix, and on what was once part of the O.L. Sherman farm, Mrs. and Mrs. Talonen and the Walter Nix's have homes.
The Ed Demings family live on the old Ole Hanson homestead. Mrs. and Mrs. Oscar Benson (Siiri Point) live close to the old B.E. Benson home. The original Bergeson farm, after the death of Mr. and Mrs. Bergeson, was farmed for many years by the Wm. Walburn’s. The Oliver Mining Company bought the farm and other pieces of property some years ago and built a tailings pond when the tailings from the washed ore could no longer be dumped into Trout Lake.
All members of the Frank Gran family have long been gone from the community. Among those who farmed and lived on the J. Faulkinghor place in years past were C.O. Hanson’s, Ole Cleveland and Nels Larson’s. Some fourteen years ago it was sold to Olaf Rydberg.
Others who have lived in Trout Lake for forty years are the Andrew Rudd’s, David Niemi’s, Prentice Robinson’s (Evelyn Niemi), E. Mottonen’s (Tina Ollila), J.C. Martin’s, Mrs. Wm. Salo and sons, the Reuben Mischke’s, the S. Rukovina’s, the Dasovich’s, the Erick Erickson’s (Mamie Ollila), E. Partanen’s, W. Willadson’s, Mrs. Ed Johnson’s.
[SEE PIONEER FAMILIES UPDATE]
[SEE DEATH RECORDS 1896-1927]
From here have gone out into the world ministers of the Gospel, missionaries, nurses, doctors, teachers, engineers, accountants and those in many other professions and careers. But from the same oak that makes the pulpit and the DESK are fashioned the tools of the field and those who remain on the farms to carry on the work begun by the pioneers are doing as important a work as those who have gone out to other endeavors.
The former Frank Gran home, several years ago took second prize in a contest for “BEST FARM HOMES”. Frank Gran was at one time County Commissioner, and another local son, Alf Madsen, now has that honor. A former congressman from Minnesota, O.J. Larson, made his boyhood home in Trout Lake, the son of one of the pioneer families.
(Transcribed and edited by Janet Gillman 1-2002)