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The township that the homestead was located in was originally un-named, and was eventually

named Macville Township, named after two early settlers, the McAninch’s and the McPheeter’s.

After moving into the larger log house, the first house that they had built became the first post office

in the area. The contract was granted after they passed a six-month trial period that first summer on

the land. Ira walked a day’s walk to the Waldeck’s Ranch on the Mississippi River, north of Aitkin,

where he picked up the mail at a post office there and stayed over night (the Waldeck ranch was

located about straight south of Haypoint, roughly at the present-day junction of U.S. Highway 169

and State road 69, the Old River Road). He returned home on the 2nd day. The first trip took place

in 1900, and by 1906 or 1907, when the railroad had reached Swatara, they only had to go 4 miles

to Swatara to get the mail. Sometime after that the mail was brought south from Hill City. This same

structure was also used as the first store for the area, which they ran.

On the first floor of the large log house was one bedroom, and the McAninch’s used this to board

travelers in the area, who paid for their room and meals. The loggers and scalers were not the

cleanest of boarders, and Leone McAninch Schack passed on the story from her mother [Estella]

about the mattress and bedding in the boarders’ room needing to be burned to rid the house of the

bed bugs that had infested it. Leslie McAninch made reference in Herman Nelson’s narrative

about logging scalers staying with them for up to a week at a time while they surveyed timber in

the surrounding country. The logging apparently took place during the years of 1906-1909.

During the last three of these years Oliver was able to make a great deal of hay on his meadows

and sell it to the logging companies, which needed it during their winter operations to feed their stock.

The logging was primarily a winter operation, needing the swamps and ground to be frozen in order

to move the logs by sleigh to the closest rivers. Then in the spring as the ice went out the logs were

floated down river to the Mississippi, and from there south to where the saw mills were located.

The homestead had the Willow River running through it, and Leslie mentioned how the family was

able to salvage thousands of feet of lumber from deadheads that had sunk along their property during

the days of the great log drives down the river. He also mentioned an abundance of wild game in the

area, which they were able to survive on most of the year. Apparently the main employment away

from the farm must have been logging in the winter, for Leslie indicates that Oliver would take their

winter earnings and use it to buy staples to get them through the year. Leslie indicated that they

would travel to Aitkin, a 2 ½ to 3 day round trip by wagon, and buy two hundred pounds of sugar,

a half ton of flour, and about the same amount of feed, to get through the year. Aitkin County

records show Oliver as receiving the first hunting license in the county, on September 20, 1899.

For a fee of $0.25 Oliver was entitled to hunt, catch, and kill Deer, Elk, Caribou, and Moose for a

period of one year in the State of Minnesota. Doris McAninch Johnson, granddaughter of Oliver,

supplied the writer of this document with a copy of the license. The license has a physical description

of Oliver: 46 years old, 5 ft. 10 in. tall, 175 lbs. in weight, fair complexion, light hair color, blue eyes.

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McAninch Family History NL, v.XIII.n.2 / April 2005 / Frank McAninch, Editor / page 2005-13