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Bemidji,
the judicial seat of Beltrami County, is situated on Lake
Bemidji and Lake Irving, sister lakes fed by the Mississippi
River and is the first city on the Mississippi
geographically. Bemidji was incorporated May 20, 1896. Bemidji
covers an area
of 16 square miles at an elevation of 1,356 feet. The
2000 census gives a population of 11,917.
Prior to the 1880's, a band of
about fifty Leech Lake Natives lived along the south shore of
a lake with their elder, Shaynowishkung. They called the
Lake Bemidjigumaug, meaning 'river or route flowing
crosswise'. The name denotes the flow of the Mississippi
River through Lake Bemidji.
In 1888, brothers George Earl
and Merian Ellsworth Carson left their father's trading post
at Moose, a village on the Mississippi River. They cut a
wagon trail seventeen miles due east to Lake Bemidji and built
Carson's Trading Post, becoming Bemidji's first white
businessmen. In 1894, Carson applied for a permit for
Post Office. It took him four years to correct the
postal service's misspelling from 'Bermidji' to 'Bemidji.'
Shaynowishkung's (called Chief
Bemidji by the settlers) daughter, Bahgahmaushequay, married
Merian Carson.
Most white inhabitants were
either lumber company cruisers or homesteader, such as Freeman
and Betsy Doud, who staked their claim to 160 acres west of
and including what is now Diamond Point Park. The Doud's
were Bemidji's first homesteaders and were followed shortly
thereafter by the Porter Nye family, who settled on the east
end of Lake Irving (in what later became the village of Nymore).
In 1895, Tams Bixby, A.C.
Clausen, Harris A. Richardson and Dr. Harry Hutchinson of St.
Paul and W.J. Hilligoss, Albert Kaiser and Lewis Lohn of
Fosston purchased 93 acres of land on Lake Bemidji with the
idea of establishing a town site. In January, 1896, the
seven organized the Bemidji Townsite and Improvement
Company. In March, Bixby and Clausen filed the plat of
Village of Bemidji at the Ramsey County Courthouse.
The town site was surveyed,
platted and drawn by Charles A. Forbes of St. Paul. The
street grid work was named First through Eighth. Bixby and
Clausen named the avenues: Lake Boulevard for the lake;
Bemidji Ave for the village; Beltrami Ave for the County;
Minnesota Ave for the State; and America Ave for the
Country.
On May 20, 1896, the Village of
Bemidji was incorporated. Board Chairman Bixby was
Governor David Clough's secretary. Clausen was a St.
Paul attorney, Hutchinson a physician, Kaiser a newspaperman
and Lohn a Fosston bank president.
Bemidji's three newspapers had
ads to sell Townsite lots for $75 - $100 each. Pioneer
publisher, Albert Kaiser reported the Company had appointed
four local Bemidji businessmen to be Village Trustees.
The appointees were: George Carson of Carson's Trading
Post, Guy Remore, son of Bemidji's first hotel owner and his
new partner, George MacTaggert and Fred Malzahn, owner of the
newly completed Hardware, Dry Good and Grocery Store. At
their first meeting held on August 24, 12896, Malzahn was
elected president and Kaiser was the recorder.
The St. Paul stockholders, with
Kaiser as advisor, used all of their persuasive powers to sell
the village lots. Each time Bixby returned to Bemidji,
he visited Freeman and Betsy Doud. While there he
collected small quartz rocks from the sandy point of land on
they had homesteaded. St. Paul newspapers printed
articles about precious gems being found in Minnesota's
northernmost village. Thus, Doud's point of land was
called Diamond Point.
Businessmen came form St. Paul
and other people came from the Dakotas to purchase Townsite
lots. Most commercial lots were for hotels, restaurants,
saloons, gambling and gaming houses and other establishments
common to a growing logging town.
At the first annual
stockholders' meeting, Bixby reported that Beltrami County
would soon split from Becker County and the county seat would
be moved from Detroit Lakes. The state legislature was
still debating which village would be selected: Bemidji,
Popple or Moose. Each had strong lobbyists vying for the
appointment. At Bixby's suggestion, the Townsite Company
voted to donate a lot at 401 Beltrami Avenue from the original
Townsite to be used for a courthouse. They also donated
a full block between Eighth and Ninth for a future elementary
and high school. They also reserved a full block between
Sixth and Seventh for a new larger courthouse, jail and
sheriff's house.
On August 8, 1897, Bemidji's
lobbyist, Beltrami County Commissioner Frank Dudley and
attorney W.F. Street announced Bemidji was Beltrami's new
county seat. The courthouse construction began and the
town began to explode in growth.
Great Northern Railroad's 1897
survey routed the rail bed from Fosston to Duluth due north of
Lake Plantagenet. In St. Paul, Bixby was trying to get a
new route. Great Northern's board chairman, James J.
Hill, was Bixby's personal friend and before the year was
over, Kaiser's newspaper announced Hill had assured Bixby he
would reroute through the south end of Bixby's
village.
In 1898, with the county seat
established and the Great Northern Railroad routed through the
south end of Bemidji, the Brainerd and Minnesota Railway, a
subsidiary of Northern Pacific extended into Bemidji from the
south. This addition occurred since John Pillsbury
owned major stands of white pine north of Lake Bemidji and
needed rail connections to his mills in Minneapolis..
In 1899, Lake Park Addition,
between Tenth and Twelfth Street and Lake Boulevard to Bemidji
Avenue was added and lots sold for fine lakefront homes.
A full block at 800 and lakefront was set aside for the
construction of the St. Anthony's Hospital.
The rail connections between
Bemidji, St. Paul and Grand Forks brought lumberjacks,
speculators and modern building supplies.
Bixby chose a summer home site
on the north side of the lake and referred to it as Oakwood
Beach. Like other lakeshore residents, he used a
steam-powered paddle wheeler for transportation.
When his year around home was
completed, Bixby invited Joseph M. Markham, a Minnesota
legislator from St. Hilaire, to build a fine new hotel in
Bemidji, like the one just built by Markham in
Crookston. During the 1899-1990 winter, Markham shipped
material from St. Paul and built a large, elegant hotel on
Second Street and Beltrami Avenue. When the Markham
Hotel was opened, the Townsite Company moved its offices from
the Hotel Remore to the Markham.
Main speaker at the Markham's
opening was Tams Bixby. Bixby spoke on his favorite
subject. He was quoted as saying, 'Bemidji will become
Minnesota's favorite summer and health resort and the summer
sojourner will find ready at hand, an infinite variety of ways
and means with which to wile away the long hours of a summer's
day. The devotee of rod and reel and the chase could scarcely
choose a more inviting point than that offered by
Bemidji.'
Bixby announced the Company was
proposing to construct $6,000 village town hall at Minnesota
Avenue and Fourth Street. It would house village
offices, a fire hall, jail and an Opera House for traveling Chautauqua's,
fine musicals and literary group programs.
That September, shortly after
the village hall dedication, a 45-man fire brigade was
organized and a Bemidji Boys' Band started practicing in the
Opera House.
In July, 1903, a large sawmill
was built at the south end of Lake Bemidji. It was
called Crookston Lumber Mill #1. Thomas Shevlin and his
partner, Elbert Carpenter were the owner's of this mill.
In 1903, Bixby recommended
Bemidji businessmen move to charter as a city. On
November 19, 1903, businessmen, E.A. Trask, William
McCuaig, G.E. Carson, F.W. Rhoda, Porter Nye, George McTaggert,
A. Gilmore, Wes Wright and Matt Thome were appointed by
District Judge H. W. Bailey to draft such a charter.
The draft was completed by 1904
and put to a community vote. It was defeated.
Again, in July 1905 it was defeated. By the September
26th election, the charter was finally approved by a vote of
321 for and 202 in opposition.
In November 14, 1905, with A.
A. Carter appointed Mayor, the Village of Bemidji held their
first meeting as a governmental entity.
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