Follow the River.......

Historical Recollections by Lula Mae Stewart

Contributed by the Greenwood Public Library, Transcribed by Janet Schwarze

The Clark Store

First Roads

One of the things the community needed most was roads. In l907 one of the first roads was cut and built from the settlement to County Trunk T. The families worked to build the roads and bridges. Without roads and bridges these families suffered many hardships in trying to travel from their homes to town. Think of how easy we have it now compared to what it was like back then. In 1905 a resident of the community passed away on the west side of the river, the ice broke up early that year so there was not only no road but no ice to take the coffin across the river. A Mr. Venet put the coffin in a boat and poled his way across the swollen river where it was laid to rest. How brave this man must have been as Black River can be very treacherous in the spring. My father told me this story many times.

With railroads now providing transportation for wood and timber the little settlement began to consider building a mill. Charles Very and Ed Smith two of the boosters of the community started to build a mill. I believe this was in 1912. Also that same year the men petitioned the Soo Line to put in a spur track to the mill. The Soo Line approved their petition and the men cut down a hill and filled a ditch for the right of way. The work was done free of charge by the men in the community. After the right of way was cleared the Soo Line laid the necessary track.

Ed Smith moved and built bunk houses and a cook shack for the mill crew. He also built barns for the horses needed in the mill and woods. The new mill opened up new jobs and brought in more settlers. The little community grew to about seventeen families. Most of the men worked in the mills in summer and in winter they worked in the woods to supplement their income. The growing community already had a store and a tavern which Ed Smith had built for James Shannon in 1911.

Pictures of Clark many years ago

(Click on the pictures to enlarge them)

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