Balsam Township History

From Pines, Mines and Lakes - The Story of Itasca County
© 1960 James E. Rottsolk and the Itasca Historical Society 

Quite some miles north of Blackberry, Balsam Township along the Prairie River, like many other areas in Itasca County, had once been covered with beautiful pines. Many furs must have been taken out of the area before the trees were cut. Loggers came cut the pine here very early; that gave later old-timers a few years to spin a few yarns about the good or days. 

Old-timers still remember the steamboat run by Tony De Wire on Lake Wabana. It was used to haul logs and to haul supplies. came and went, always leaked and never sank — but once. 

George N. Putnam, known as "Old Put," as a master boat builder who constructed tug boats and rowboats near Cohasset. Back the Adirondacks where he came from he was known as "the leaping panther." Most of his fame came from his tall stories rather than his unusual actions. 

Another famous character who roamed often through the Balsam Lake woods was Bunga Buck, half Negro and half Chippewa. Old Bunga lived among the Chippewa, was a fur trader and claimed he was one of the first to arrive in that area. The settlers who came after 1900 did not seem so quaint and mythological. 

It was in 1903 that Matt Shumaker with his wife and seven children moved into a homestead on Prairie River. Most of his life Matt spent in logging, but he did raise some potatoes and had a few dairy cattle.
 

The following year Matt's brother-in-law, Thomas Kannas, rode the Powers and Simpson logging railroad to Crooked Lake in search of a homestead. A 160-acre tract that John Wolfetter had lived on, but was not satisfied with, attracted Kannas. Kannas and Wolfetter walked down to Grand Rapids where Kannas paid $100 for improvements on the land. Wolfetter relinquished his claim and Kannas filed on it. Within a year or two Kannas' brother Henry came up. They boated from Crooked Lake up the Prairie River to their homestead. Kannas' brother John came a few years later and bought the John Pelto homestead. Still later Kannas' sister, Mrs. Erkkila, came up with her family and settled on the Isaac Isaacson homestead. 

Quite a number of Finns settled in this area, too. Isaac Makinen came in 1905, the Waisanens in 1907. They were famous for their saunas and coffee-bread. They organized a cow club and built up good dairy herds.
 

After working several years as a cook for Powers, Andrew Tanberg built his home on Lower Balsam Lake in 1904. He with his wife and seven children soon had a good farm going.
 

Charles V. Smith with his wife Nellie and six children came by covered wagon to Arrowhead Point on Wabana Lake in the spring of 1903. He worked for Lounsberry and Simons two years and then in 1905 moved up to the old Cap Hasty Ranch in Balsam. Although Mrs. Smith did see Andy Tanberg on his way home with provisions from Grand Rapids and perhaps a few other men working in the woods, she saw no other woman from November until August. The Tanberg's, their nearest neighbors, were only four or five miles away. In 1907 the Smiths built their famous three-story log house on a hill overlooking Balsam Brook. The home was 38 x 34 feet with a 16 x 18 foot kitchen added at the rear. It became a famous stopping place. One night a total of 84 men slept here on their way to logging camps. It later became a famous hunting lodge. Just recently, in the winter of 1957-58, the structure was destroyed by fire. 

The David C. Brandons moved into Itasca County in 1906. They bought a home in Grand Rapids and also built a log home on an 1100-acre tract which Brandon bought in Balsam. They lived up here much of the time, particularly during the warmer weather. Mrs. Brandon became the county's oldest living resident; she died the summer of 1958 at the age of 105.
 

Other early settlers in the Balsam area were J. C. Hendricks (1907), Harry B. Palmer (1908), John Casper, the Garners, Jack Hoyt, Irvin Martin, Fred Norman, Bert Pearson, the Forsmans and the Smiths.
 

To get supplies all of these settlers at first had to make a three-day trip to Grand Rapids. When Bovey was started they began trading there because it was much nearer. These settlers had to organize the area of four townships as one township in order to get enough valuation to build a road down to Bovey. The township of Balsam was organized June 1, 1907, and actually included Lawrence Lake, Wabana and East and West Balsam Townships. The whole area was bonded for $20,000 to construct the twenty-mile road. It took twenty years to get rid of the indebtedness. By that time it had cost the taxpayers $41,000. Now Lawrence and Wabana Townships have become separated from Balsam. 

Apparently, like all the Itasca County settlers, these people were brim full of vim, vigor and vitality. They had large families. Several of them had seven children each. They worked hard. But they often gathered by sleighs or by wagons at some neighbor's home to dance the night through. The children were probably bedded down in the barn and the furniture was moved outside for the dancing. Lunch was served between midnight and two. Everybody reasoned that it was much easier to travel the woods roads by daylight; there was no sense in stopping before dawn. Only one fiddler was available in the area and he could play only three pieces — "The Bluebird Waltz". "Old Country Polka", and a two-step, "Red Wing." No doubt the people got to know these pieces quite well. Later on Don Garner, now a minister in Oregon, played the violin. His repertoire was larger; he knew at least six or seven tunes. Then, too, Millie or Esther Tanberg could bang out a few chords on an organ or a piano. Old Dad Smith could play a few jig tunes on his mouth organ. Julius Koppola played the accordion. Square dances, polkas, waltzes, and round dances were the favorites. Basket socials, pie socials, and necktie and shadow socials were more fun for the settlers. Sleigh rides and ski and toboggan parties, skating parties, blueberry picking, picnic - all these afforded energetic amusement for the hard-working settlers. 

Pines, Mines and Lakes - The Story of Itasca County