Railroad map of the area,
1898, Click map to enlarge or zoom.
Wirt Township was named by O. E. Walley, its first settler,
probably for a township in New York or a county in West Virginia, where
the name was given in honor of William Wirt (1772-1834), who was the attorney
general of the United States, 1817-29. The village in sections 10 and 15
was established as a logging supply station on the Minneapolis and Rainy
River Railway; its post office began in 1874 and was changed to a community
post office in 1974. Elias O. Walley was the first settler, opening a store
and becoming the first postmaster. The first site was on the north side
of the Big Fork River with a store, a post office, and a hotel; the present
community is across the river on the site of a former logging town, called
Stanley by the railroad.
The little settlement of Wirt was first
important as a logging camp and supply center along the M & R Railroad.
A few settlers like Louis Phelps, Loren D. Lammon and Frank Herdegan
filed claims in Wirt Township in 1902. Elias O. Walley and John E.
Seeman had filed for homesteads in 1899 and Charlie Rife in 1895. No
claims were proved up until 1904. Until the railroad was taken up, Wirt
was an important little community.
Highway map of the Wirt area around 1932. Note that
present-day Wirt is called Stanley (Wirt was originally across the Big
Fork River from Stanley). Also note the alignment of State Highway 6
north of Deer River, which was re-routed to avoid the swampy area around
1934.
Walter Scott's Story
I came to what is now Wirt in the spring
of 1899. At that time there were only two settlers between Wirt and
Bena. They were Frank Vance, and a family named Rose. Rose lived up on
the Popple River from Vances. At the time I came here there were already
several settlers along the Big Fork. They were Noah Fletcher who lived
on Fletcher Creek where County Road 38 crosses the creek now, and from
him Fletcher Creek was named. E. O. Walley lived where Old Wirt
afterwards stood. Chas. Rife lived on the south side of the river from
Old Wirt, or where Stanley afterwards stood, and where Wirt now stands.
Frank Brusewitz lived ten or twelve miles farther down the river. In
those days Frank was known as Big Foot the Scout. My homestead was
located almost at the mouth of Fletcher Creek.
The earliest logging in here was on the school section, Sec. 16 of Wirt
Township. This was the Itasca Lumber Co, camp. The lumber companies used
to build all of their wanagans below the Hauck bridge, as the bridges
above were all too low for them to pass under. The old Wirt bridge was a
draw bridge, which was raised with block and tackle. The only time it
was ever used was for the Eveleth, a steamboat operated by Frank Miller
and wife.
Dr. Harrison had a summer place across the river and a short distance up
the steam from my place. This place he leased from the Walker and
Hinckley Lumber Co. He was attracted to this wild country by the
abundance of wild game and fish that were here at that time.
Harrison built a large cabin on the hill, which was a large knoll
overlooking the river, and covered with a heavy stand of Norway pine.
Here he used to entertain his eastern friends. He was very fond of
hunting, which at several times caused him some difficulty. I remember
at one time, there were reports reached Grand Rapids that the Dr. was
slaughtering deer on the river. There were no game wardens at that time,
so the sheriff was sent up to look into the matter. At that time it was
an eighty-five mile trip by later to Deer River, and as the sheriff was
not very well acquainted with the route he and a deputy went to Deer
River to see if some one could be found to guide them. At last they
found a man who said he would guide them for twenty-five dollars. The
sheriff thought the price was too high, but he finally made a deal with
the man to take them for five dollars a day. This turned out to be a
poor bargain for the sheriff. They reached Sand Lake in fine shape. Here
the guide took the wrong steam and they became lost, finally reaching
Chas. Rife's place after fifteen days. Rife's place was where Wirt now
is, and was only three or four miles from Harrison's. Their supplies had
given out, and they were nearly starved when they reached Rife's. This
was in the afternoon, but they decided to have something to eat and rest
up until morning before going on. Rife had a large pot of stew on the
stove when the sheriff's party arrived, so they sat down and ate, and
how they did eat. By night they were all so sick from over-eating, that
Harrison gave them some pills, then stayed and sat up with them all
night. The next morning when they told them what they were there for the
Doctor was fit to be tied.
The sheriff said he had been told Harrison was slaughtering the deer and
letting the meat waste. Dr. Harrison told him, "Sure, I kill what I
want, the blooming things are too thick anyway; but I never let any
spoil. If you think I do ask anyone on the river. If I kill a piece of
meat when the weather is warm I always divide it with the other
settlers, so none of it spoils. I'll tell you what I'll do. If you want
to send a man up here, he can stay at my place and I will pay him forty
dollars per month and his board, so he can report any law violations
that I commit." But the sheriff refused this offer. But he wanted
Harrison to pay the expense of the trip, which at five dollars per day
for fifteen days amounted to seventy-five dollars. But Dr. Harrison
flatly told him he would see his bloody soul in hell before he would pay
it. So the sheriff had to go home seventy-five dollars in the red.
He wouldn't trust the guide to take him
home. He and his deputy took the boat and started back, making the guide
walk the tote road to Deer River, a distance of seventy miles.
Dr. Harrison was an English doctor who was practicing in New York City.
There were any number of settlers who proved up on claims having good
stands of timber, for timber companies. One I remember. In fact there
were two of them. These two men took claims adjoining each other, on the
north and west of Clear Lake. They built a little shack on the line
between the claims. This shack was not over four or five feet high, and
had neither door nor windows. What time they spent on their claims they
lived in a tent. It was said the Itasca Lumber Co. paid them a hundred
dollars a month for the time it took them to prove up. They proved up in
fourteen months, so it cost the Itasca Lbr. Co. fourteen hundred dollars
a quarter for the claims.
For several years I carried mail from Deer River to Big Fork and points
between, also to Wirt. There were no mailclerks on the M. & R Railroad,
so permission was granted for star route carriers to ride the train. I
carried the mail out of Deer River in this way, going to Big Fork on
Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, and the Bass Lake and Wirt branch on
Monday, Wednesday & Friday each week. The first stop out of Deer River
was at County Road, about four and one-half miles from Deer River, and
about two miles south of the county road. This was sometimes called
Gravel Pit, as that is where the county road ran. The next stop was
McVey, or Clark's Siding; then Alder, or Jessie Lake Junction; Big Fork;
Effie; Craig.
On the Jessie Lake Branch the stops were
as follows: Mack, called the coal docks or Jessie Lake Hoist; Spring
Lake; Fox Lake Junction; Fox Lake; White Fish Junction; Bass Lake; Dora
Lake; Stanley; Ford; Burns; Pomroy.
Dr. Harrison was the first settler around
Wirt, although some would not call him a settler as he never owned any
land here. His place on the Big Fork river was known for miles up and
down the stream. It was not considered a summer trip up or down the
river was complete if we didn't stop at the large spring on Harrison
Hill for a drink of clear, cold water, and to write our names on the
wall of the log spring house which covered it. It was at Harrison Hill
that many of our picnics were held, also Fourth of July celebrations,
until the pine was cut off in 1917.
Some of the early settlers around Wirt were: E. 0. Walley, Noah
Fletcher, Chas. Rife, Geo. and Phil Hauck, Frank & Geo. Brusewitz, Frank
Bittner, Fred and John Ekman, Will Franke, Jim David, Henry Gagnon, Ole
and Paul Paulson, Henry Hinken (for whom Hinken Creek was named), James
Bart, Geo. Bart, Roy Phelps, Chas. Vetter, Wm. LaFever, Bert Brown, Andy
and Chas. Farrell, J. N. Babcock, L. Ableman, Archie Hiller, and L. D.
Lammon.
In the winter of 1899 I came to what is
now Wirt to keep house for my father E. O. Walley, and my youngest
brother, Ross. My father had been here for a year or so before I came.
He had been coming in here to hunt for seven or eight years before he
settled here.
I sure didn't know what I was getting into when I came. I was met at
Deer River by Walter Scott, whom I had known a long time. I had never
seen him except with good clothes on, as he had always clerked in a
store. When he met me he had on a pair of old wool pants, stagged almost
to the knees. He was driving a little pony not over four feet high,
which was hooked to a sled with a box on it just large enough for me to
sit in. We must have followed a chain of lakes coming up, as it seemed
to me there was a lot of hay meadows. After I reached Wirt I found they
were not meadows at all, but lakes. My father, knowing my fear of water,
had told Walter I was afraid of water so not to tell me when we crossed
a lake or river. So he told me they were all hay meadows.
At the time I came in Mrs. Vance and I were the only white women be--men
what is now Big Fork and Bena. My brother Ross Walley was old enough to
go to school, so right after I came we took him over to stay at Frank
Vance's, where there was a school. This was in the winter of 1899. There
were five or six children attending school. They were Virginia and Irene
Vance, two or three of the Rose children, and my brother, Ross Walley.
One of the Rose girls taught the school. The school was in Sec. 13, R.
27, T. 149.
Not long after I came here my father married again, and I went to live
with Vance's. After Walter and I were married, my brother Ross came to
live with us. We used to call him Busticogan, as he and Old Chief Busti
.used to be such friends. Busti would take him to the woods for hours at
a time. He would ask Ross the English work for everything they saw. He
could tell Ross the Chippewa name for it. Soon Ross could talk Chippewa
and Busti could talk English.
Chief Busti was very fond of music. We had a piano, and he would sit for
hours if someone would only play it. Sometimes he would walk around It
when someone was playing. He would look on top of it, behind it, and
underneath it, for he could never seem to understand what made it work.
I never see a butter maker testing cream at a creamery without thinking
of Chief Busticogan and the barrel of apples. Some friends from our old
home in Iowa sent them to us. Chief Busticogan and his squaw were at our
house when they arrived. He would take a bite of an apple, swallow it
around in his mouth, screw up his face, then sample another one. We had
a hard time explaining to him what kind of bush they grew on. He thought
they were the funniest thing he had ever eaten.
My father, E. O. Walley, ran the first store at Wirt. He was also the
first postmaster. Walter and I ran a stopping place at Wirt for a number
of years. I remember one hunting season, we had thirty-three hunters
come in on us before ten o'clock at night, and I had to feed them along
and find places for them to sleep, and most of them had their deer when
they left. Some of them had to sleep on the floor as we were- not fixed
for so many.
