The Cavalcade of America presented by DuPont. This evening the DuPont Cavalcade salutes the woman of spirit and courage, Hepsibus Merit, the matriarch of the famous Merit family which opened up the Northern Minnesota iron land. After you've heard the story of how the Merit family discovered iron, you'll want to know what happened in Northern Minnesota as a result of that original discovery. A description of the vast holes dug in the earth in developing the great open pit mines of the Massaba range and of the role that a modern chemical product, dynamite, plays in mining the valuable ore will be the subject of this evening's story of chemistry at the close of our broadcast. This story gives additional meaning to the DuPont pledge, better things for better living through chemistry. As an overture Don Voorhees and the DuPont Cavalcade Orchestra play a special setting of Someday I'll Find My Prince and High Hole from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The DuPont Cavalcade moves forward. Hepsibus Merit was the wife of Louis Merit, a sawmill man whose adventuresome spirit had taken him far up Lake Superior, which in 1857 was like going to the ends of the earth. But there Merit was and there Hepsibus and five of her seven boys followed him. A dilapidated side wheeled steamboat is making its perilous way up Lake Superior under the command of a man known as Big Mouth Charlie. One of the passengers is talking with him. Well Charlie, looks as though it might be going to blow up a little trouble. Never blows anything but trouble on Kitchigami, Mr. Hall. This blooming pond thinks it's an ocean. Try to act like one. I ain't brought this boat over in quiet water since the start of the run. Lucky we're in for a ditch too wild. Lucky's right. The sky looks bad. You never can tell what you'll get this time of year. I don't mind. I'm used to it. That woman and her kids are bored. I don't want to run into any rough going. Well Hepsibus Merit would be game all right. I know she'd be game. That woman's no bigger than a half pint. She's all nerve. Ain't many women go trailing up parsley kids up this wild country just to keep house for a wanderer like Lou Merit. Lou Merit believes in this country. I swear I don't know what he expects to find up here. Rock and fog, no spring and little enough summer. And what brings you back Mr. Hall? I don't know Big Mouth. I've sworn a half a dozen times to stay away. There's something about it that gets you. It's a grand wild new land. A man can think and do as he pleases. Down in Ohio they say this part of the country is uninhabitable. They think I'm crazy to come here but I don't feel comfortable if they don't. Well I bet they've missed you and your red sash Mr. Hall. You're the best dresser in the world. They need you to give a little style to the town. Oh come now Charlie. That's fact Mr. Hall. When you go walking along the street in your broad cloth pants and fine shirt, civilization don't seem too far away. Makes you feel a little fear that someday them log cabins will grow into a respectable community with more white men around than Indians. Well maybe Charlie. Probably not in our time. But those woods and rocks hold a lot of secrets. It'll be youngsters like these Merit kids that'll ferret them out. If there's anything in them hills or anywhere else young Lon will have it. He's a terror that one. I don't know how Miss Merit stands it. May have hauled him back over the side half a dozen times. Merit certainly went in for high sounding names for those boys. Leonidas, Cassius, Alfred, Napoleon. Got them out of books Merit says. Now else he's different from Lon. Not dumb mind you but slow spoken. He said they'll probably all grow up like Indians. Look at John, come here Lon. There's Miss Merit now. Even Charlie. Even Miss Merit. Even Mr. Hall. Even Miss Merit. We're nearly in Miss Merit. We get around this point we'll be right at the dock. I reckon Lou will be waiting for you there. I'll see you before you get off. I hope Lou knows our boys. They growed some since he went away. Especially Leonidas. Where are you planning to settle Miss Merit? Well Louis took up some land in St. Louis Bay and built us a log house. His letter didn't say much except that it had pines all around and the river right in front. Of course you know Lou ain't much for giving detail but I brought Mascillus and some furniture and Amanda. Amanda? Yes she's our black cow. Couldn't leave her behind. The boys need milk to drink. Well I hope you like it up here. It's a pretty desolate country Miss Merit. Oh will make out. I just stayed in Ohio. My body gets kind of tired jumping around so much with a pack of youngsters but I'm glad you're here. I'm glad you're here. I'm glad you're here. I'm glad you're here. I'm glad you're here. I'm glad you're here. I'm glad you're here. I'm glad you're here. I'm glad you're here but well Lou's always for new places and well I just got to come along. As Lou believes in his country up here Mr. Hall like you do I guess I got to believe in it too. I hope it won't disappoint you Miss Merit. It's rough but... Mom, me and I just get down off that railing. We're getting in Mom, we're getting in. Mom look. Mom, look, engines! What? Yes, we're here, Miss Merritt. There's Minnesota Point. We'll be coming around here in a minute, ma'am. Right up the stump stock. The baseball engines and canoes. Look it! Are there many engines around here, Mr. Hall? Oh, quite a lot. Those are Ojibwe's. You can see their teepees there on the shore. Gee, we're gonna live right with them, Mom. Maybe they'll teach me to shoot with a bow and arrow. Maybe they'll show me how to paddle a canoe. Look, Mom, on the dock, there's Pa! There! There! Hello, Pa! Oh, yes! There he is! It's kind of funny here, ain't it, Mom? You suppose we like it living here? We gotta like it, Mom. It's gonna be home. Hepstibeth Merritt was right. It was home. For ten years, Hepstibeth kept house, cooked, fashioned candles, made clothes for seven boys, and served as nurse for the entire community. As the years passed and the North Country grew, the Merritt boys grew with it. Lon, our natural woodsman, was the leader. Then one day, the father, Lou, now a youthful patriarch, calls the family around him. Hepstibeth makes them welcome, as always. I made fresh donuts this morning, if any of you'd like them. I'm putting them here on the table. Thanks, Mom. I can always eat your cooking. They don't cook any better anyplace in Minnesota. They don't cook any better anyplace in the world, Mom. I try to keep my hand in. Say, put another log on the fire, will you, Cassie? Get the dark in here. How's that? That'll do. Your Pa's gonna talk. I want him to get set to my knitting before he got started. What's it about, Pa? It's the real family get-together. First one we've had since Lon got back from the war. Certainly good to have him back. Look at Mom smiling. He always was her favorite, Lon. Oh, now I guess you're all my favorite. Well, as long as Lon's back, I've called you all together. Maybe now you'll all attend to something I've had in mind this long time. What is it, Pa? Well, you know I ain't one to brag much, but you're a good lot of boys. I ain't ashamed of any of you. Ashamed? Well, there's no call to be. Look at him. Jerome's the first schoolteacher in Duluth. Lucian's the preacher and so's his boy. Lon went to the war. Napoleon, Lewis, and Al's were all... Going to the war wasn't much. Leave me out of it, Mom. I ain't done that. Oh, no. Al's the good wheelsman and you're good packers, a lot of you. Cold and mosquitoes and black flies and sun don't hold you back, Lon. Can't lose you in the woods, even up in the Mithaba where your compass goes crazy and turns every which way. It's clear the way it acts up there, ain't it? Yeah. When I was up there looking for gold, there's no gold there. Remember there's gold. Remember there isn't. But I wasn't one to find it. But I've got a sense there's something up there that's worth more than all the gold you'd ever find. What do you mean, Paul? I mean iron, a rich lot of it. Those Mithaba hills are iron mountains. To my mind, there's a range, and it goes all the way to Grand Rapids. Rich, that's what those hills are, rich in iron. Well, even if that's so, there is iron up there somewhere. Now, you're going to find it. How do you get out? That's what I want to know. Fiddlesticks. You ain't got enough spirit to fight a white fish. Well, you've got to figure out a way. If your pa says so, there is iron up there. All I want to say to you boys is, all I want to say is, look sharp when you're scouting around up there. Bring back any rock that looks interesting. Stuff like this, for instance. Creep macro. What's funny stuff? Look at it shine. Yeah. Hey, what is it, Paul? Dunno. I picked it up along the east end. I'm no scientist, there wouldn't no rich or if I would see it. But this has got me thinking. Look at all the colors. Look how it glitters. Might be something, you know, right? What do you think, Mom? Nothing yet. She thinks I'm an old fool again hanging around this country dreaming about what a great place it's going to be one day. Here we've been since you all were little shavers. Snowed in half the time, fighting fog and cold and damp. I ain't complaining, Lou. No, you're never complaining half the time. That's just it. If you would holler once in a while, she won't. You'll never know from Mom what she's thinking, will we, Mom? Well, I'm thinking right now that it's time to quit knitting and put the skillet on. You'll all stay for supper, won't you? Yeah, I'm sure we'll stay, Mom. What's for supper? What's for supper? I thought I'd fix up a nice tasty mess of white fish and potatoes. Same old thing, huh? I reckon you're awful tired of them, ain't you, Mom? Well, I would relish a change, maybe. Tired of the cold and the fog and the long winters, too, ain't you? Oh, sometimes. Would you like to go away from them, Mom? Would you like to go back to Ohio where you could live regularly? Well, Ohio's pretty nice. We can manage that. We'll send you down by boat. We could do that, couldn't we, Cass? Why, I'll fix it. I'll see the maid. I'll go down tonight. Now, you stop it. I guess you won't see any maid about me tonight or any other time. What do you mean, Cassius Merit, trying to pack me off? Well, I only thought... Why, do you think I'd leave now just when things are getting exciting? But, Mom... I brought you boys up here. And I'm going to stay just as long as you do. Your father's right. There is iron up in that range, and the Merit men are going to find it someday. And I'm going to stay right here and fry the whitefish and knit their socks while they do it. But within a few years, Hepzibah's resolution had to be sacrificed. Her husband's health began to fail, and the couple retired to the sunshine of a small Missouri farm, leaving her stalwart sons to continue the search for iron in the Massaba country. Samples of ore proved worthless, promising basins turned out to be only surface deposits, and the Merit boys' search became a continual jest in the Northwood. But they toiled on, undaunted, and were still searching for the iron deposits of Minnesota when Hepzibah returned north after her husband's death. One day, as Hepzibah, now considerably older, sits with her knitting, a neighbor calls. Miss Merit! Miss Merit! Come in, Bessie. I don't want to put down my needles. For the land's sake, what's it so excited about? Anything wrong? I ran all the way over to tell you. Have you heard the news? What news? About your grandson. About Wilbur and Johnny. What have they done now? Nothing wrong, I know. These Merit men are honest. I promise not to tell. And I ain't telling a soul but you. But Miss Merit, the boys have got an outfit up in section three. They moved it from Mountain Iron Camp a week ago, and it looks like they found iron at last. Well, how'd you know all this? Blois, the camp foreman. It got out because Wilbur's taken all the men in with him, making them partners. What did Blois say? Well, Wilbur had come up to Mountain Iron one morning all excited. He'd walked most 30 miles, been walking all night. Before noon, they had everything moved to this new basin 20 miles away. But that land who belongs it in? Yeah, that just is. The land belongs to a man named McKinley. And the boys only got an option on it for 10 days, and today's the last day. Well, how'd they come to find this place, anyhow? Well, Wilbur and John was up there scouting around, and they spotted iron stains on the root of a fallen tree. So they march the spot and come back down and try to buy the land from McKinley, but he won't sell. First off, he won't even give them an option. Well, but finally they get it. They rushes off so fast they don't even tell their wives goodbye. They'd get it all right. They'd manage it somehow. Well, the story is that they've sunk 10 pits already, and they're at work on the 11th one now. If it proves out... Well, how does it look? Old Blois said it was great. They're going down 50 feet, and if the oar looks all right, they'll be sure this time. Iron, after all these years. Funny how I always thought it would happen so. You always believed in the iron, didn't you? Yes, in the iron and in the merit boards. We've been here a long while, and they've been through some pretty bad times. Miss Mad, can you remember back to when you first came? Oh, just as plain. Oh, they were reckless kids when I brought them up here. Guess it was just as well I didn't know all they was up to. Well, the first year the Ojibwes made them blood brothers, and they was always off in the woods, goodness knows where. But didn't you worry? What was the use? Couldn't do anything about it. They most got killed a dozen times, and the older they got, the worse they got. Then their own sons began to grow up, and the youngsters are all true merits, every last one of them. Yes, and they'll keep on searching like their fathers and their grandfather. But they think they've found it. Maybe so, maybe not. I ain't getting excited. You've been disappointed many times before, but someday... Grandma! Grandma Merritt, where are you? There's Wilbur now. Grandma, where's Uncle Lott? Now just calm down, Wilbur. What do you want to hear? I want him to come get his iron. We found it at last, Grandma. What, on that man McKinley's land? It's our land now, Grandma. We got a deed. The iron's ours, all right. We don't even have to mine it. All we have to do is shovel it up and build a railroad to carry it out. Grandma, for heaven's sake, will you put down your knitting? We found iron! Well, you didn't expect me to be surprised, did you? I knew all along it would be like that. After discovering the great Massaba Iron Range in Minnesota, the Merritts built the Duluth, Massaba, and Northern Railroad in order to bring the natural ore down to the freighters for shipment over the Great Lakes. In October 1892, 36 years after the Merritt family landed in Minnesota, Hepzibeth, now Grandma Merritt, is the guest of honor at the formal opening of the Mountain Iron Mine, which takes place on her 80th birthday. A special excursion train, one of the first to be run on the road, takes the merits and their friends to the ceremony. Dominy, have another sandwich? Not another thing, Lord. You've got to keep up your strength, you know. You're our principal speaker. I've had four already. It's a very festive occasion, Lord, this excursion up to Mountain Iron. I want it to be, Dominy. It's a big day for the Merritts. It's a big day for all of us. Looks like the beginning of real success for you and the boys who've worked with you for so long. Looks like it. It's going to mean a lot to the country, too. There'll be a changed place in nine to six months. Well, changed for the better, I hope. Once we begin shipping iron down the lakes, things will begin to boom. We'll be underway any day now. Your own mine, your own railroad. Well, the country's certainly justified the faith you always had in it. That faith has never wavered, has it, Lord? Well, no. Except there have been times when I thought that in spite of the iron I was sure was laying there waiting for us, it might just well not be. We couldn't figure out a way to mine it and mine it cheap. I've had my times of discouragement, I can tell you. But do you know who's kept us going all this time? Who was that, Lord? Mom. Grandma Merritt's a wonderful woman, Lord. She's been a remarkable wife and mother. And grandmother. She's kept the Merritts on their toes, Dominy. Look at her, sitting there smiling away with a sort of I-told-you-so expression. You'd never believe she was 80, would you? I certainly would not. Great Christopher, we're here, Dominy. Would you sort of lead the way while I get everybody herded off the train? Of course, Lord. I guess the crowd's had their fill of sandwiches and milk. We'll start the ceremonies right away. But first of all, I've got to go get Mom. I'll be waiting for you about the steps. All right, Dominy. Are we here, Lord? Yes, Mom, we're here. You're going to get your first glimpse of the mountain iron mine. Are you excited? Well, I don't get to see a Merritt's mine every day in the year. I've waited a long time for this one. I reckon I am a little light nervous. Ah, here you are, Mom. Well, everybody's getting off. We're waiting for you to start the ceremonies. Everything ready, Lord? I think so. Here now. Take care of Mom, Mom. Who are all those men? Those are the men from the mine. They're all dressed up in their Sunday soups to celebrate. It's a big day for them, too, you know. Now, let me help you down the steps, Mom. Take it easy now. There we go. Easy. There now. What do you think of that? Where's the mine? Well, right over there. That big pile of dirt? Oh, no. That's just the overburden. That's where we take off the top to get at the iron itself. But where's the iron? Want to see the iron, Mom? I'll take you. Hold tight. Oh, Alfred! Alfred Maris, you! It's all right. Put me down this minute. What are you trying to do? Don't wiggle, Mom. Hold still. Oh, let me. Now, I'm going to carry you right up to where you can look down in my pit. Alfred. Put your arms around my neck. Here we go. Oh, you're going to hurt yourself. It's all right. All right, we'll go right up over this pile of gravel. Why, it's too steep for you, Alfred. I know. On up. Right on up to the very top. It's a lot. Here we are. Now, I'll put you down so you can look, Mom. Oh. There. Well, there it is. Why, it looks like a rainbow. That's iron, Mom. Iron, waiting to be shoveled out. The iron paw said it was up here. Well, Lou Merritt was right. Was here all the time, just like he said. Wouldn't he be proud of you all today? Well, maybe he knows, Mom. I'm sure he does. But this is the happiest day in my life. I've been spared to see all the way. The iron which the Merritt boys made available ushered in an age of steel which far surpassed the most ambitious dreams of that sturdy tribe. In the name of modern industry, we are proud to salute the name of Hepzibah Merritt, mother of the Merritt men, and add her name to the scroll of pioneers in the cavalcade of America. The luckiest find of iron ore in the history of the world probably was the discovery of the great deposits on the Massaba Range in Minnesota. Here the ore is so close to the surface it's mined by open pit method, in the same way you might remove earth in digging a cellar. But what a cellar they've dug there in Minnesota. Several mines combined to form the world's largest open pit mine and the greatest man-made hole in the earth's crust, two and one-half miles long, a mile wide in some places, and up to 350 feet deep. The color and vast size of this hole in the ground suggests the Grand Canyon of the Colorado. The digging done in it so far is about equal to the total excavation done for the Panama Canal and even includes the ground once occupied by the town of Hibbing, which was moved lock, stock, and barrel to a new site a mile and a half away. Chemistry plays an important part in making this large-scale mining efficient and economical. Fordupont dynamite is used to break up the banks of ore so it may be easily scooped up by the great electric shovels that take 16 tons of ore in one bite. The packaged power of industrial explosives plus modern machinery helps Minnesota produce twice as much iron ore as all the rest of the United States. Last year that state provided about 48 million gross tons of ore with a value of about $141 million. When you sat down to breakfast this morning it never occurred to you that dynamite was partly responsible for your enjoyment of a cup of hot, fragrant coffee. Yet the coffee traveled from Brazil in an iron ship and then was sent by railroad over steel rails to the coffee roasting plant where it was ground by machinery made of iron and steel. The water used to make the coffee very likely came into your house through iron pipes and it was cooked on an iron stove. Wherever you find iron or steel, the most useful metal of civilization, you can say to yourself dynamite helped get the iron ore out of Mother Earth and thereby helped make iron and steel plentiful and cheap. But that is only one of many useful roles played by dynamite in a modern world that demands extraordinary feats of engineering. Because dynamite has time and time again made the impossible come true, it often is called the modern Aladdin. Tunnels under rivers, great aqueducts that bore through a hundred miles or more of solid rock, swamps turned into fertile pastures, forests saved from raging forest fires, frightful floods conquered by damming mighty rivers. All these amazing things and many more were dreamed of, planned and carried through because chemists have harnessed the miraculous power of dynamite and made it safe and economical to use. In supplying dynamite for such constructive projects, DuPont chemists continue to live up to their pledge, better things for better living through chemistry. A little known story of Thomas Jefferson's work for American education with an interesting episode of the help given him by the first Pierre Samuel DuPont will be the subject of our next broadcast. Also we will hear from the present Pierre Samuel DuPont who will speak about American education today as compared with that of his great-great grandfather's time when next week at the same hour DuPont again presents the Cavalcade of America. This is the Columbia Broadcasting System.
